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Lise Melhorn-Boe
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For description, click on title


Linked titles below lead to a photo on the Books page

Anything Can Happen: A Love Story
Anything Can Happen is a shuffle book, in which the reader can arrange and rearrange the pages to create any number of stories about male/female relationships in the late twentieth century. The images and text are appropriated from men's and women's fashion magazines, collaged and photo-copied (b&w) on cardstock. The unbound pages are held together by black elastic.
1989, Toronto. 52 cards. (8 1/2 x 5 1/2″) Edition of 100. $25

Bad Girls Good
Reading the mixed-up stories abut being bad or good, and seeing mixed-up story-book illustrations of good and bad girls, blurs the distinctions between the two states. This corps exquise book, with the pages trisected, is photo-copied on Rolland New Life Opaque, pre-printed pale pink. The covers are clear vinyl; it's bound with brass fasteners.
1995, North Bay. 19 pages.(8 1/2 x 5 1/2″) Edition of 90. $30

Beauty and the Beast
An enigmatic Beauty (we see only parts of her, such as legs, eyes or buttocks) meets her Beast and eventually falls in love. This accordion-fold pop-up book with nine pops, is collaged from images and texts from women's magazines, and colour-copied on 55lb. hemp cover-stock. The same paper is used for the cover.
2000, North Bay. 9 spreads. (11 x 14″) Edition of 8. $550

Big Black Bag
A machine-sewn black felt bag holds loose pages of varying sizes. Each bright pink page has a list of the contents of one woman's purse on one side; a photo-copied image of one of the objects is on the other side. These range from pens and pencils to a zucchini!
1988, Toronto. 28 pages. (5 1/2 x 8″) Edition of 28. $30

Body Map
A large image (opens to 40") of the artist's body is superimposed with hand-printed text about her environmental life history. Background text relates her personal experience with more general info.
2009, North Bay. 7 pages. (81/2″ x 8 1/4″ x 1/2″) Edition of 50. $200

The Boy Who Liked to Eat
Tall tales and (possibly) true stories told to the artist as a child are combined to create a fairy-tale version of her father's immigration to Canada, presented as a quest for food. The accordion book has handmade paper pages and hard covers. The pages get more colourful and dimensional as the story progresses. The text is rubber-stamped and the images colour-copied. There are five very simple pop-ups.
2002, North Bay. 8 spreads. (10 x 7 1/2″) Edition of 10. $500

Cinderella (How to Make a Statement Without Saying a Word)
This ‘90s version of the Grimms’ fairy-tale is told in words and pictures appropriated from fashion magazines. See Cinderella chained to a fence or roaring away on her motorcycle. The book is colour-copied on 55lb. hemp paper, with 7 pop-ups. (See also Fairy Tales and Family Fables on the Essays page.)
1997, North Bay. 7 spreads. (14 x 11″) Edition of 10. $500

Come Into My Parlour
Here is a humorous look at beauty parlours, told through the stories of twenty-eight women—the perm that turned green, the haircut that bombed. David Melhorn-Boe computer typeset the triangular pages of text, which was offset printed on Byronic Text, in pink. The book has been fan-folded into a triangular, handmade paper wrapper, with a perm-rod closure.
1986, Toronto. 16 pages. (9 x 3 1/2″) Edition of 500. $20

Dirty Windows
With a design based on a traditional quilt pattern, Dirty Windows gives us both women's and men's true confessions about housework—who does what, and how, and why. Hand-printed text is photo-copied on Domtar Plainfield Offset. The pages are bound in the Japanese fashion, using cotton thread, into handmade paper covers with an acetate overlay at the front.
1992, North Bay. 17 pages. (8 1/2 x 8 1/2″) Edition of 100. $15

does anyone have any idea what's going on?
Statements and questions lead to answers which lead to more questions about women's sexual relationships as presented in women's fashion magazines. This accordion-fold book with collaged text and images was colour-copied on hemp-cotton-flax cardstock.
2001, North Bay. 14 pages. (5 1/4 x 4″) Unlimited edition. $25

Double Wedding Ring (Can You Hear Me?)
Underneath their Double Wedding Ring quilt, Barbie and Ken lie in bed and talk—but are they really listening to each other? Do they speak the same language? Photocopied in black and white on Domtar Plainfield Offset, Double Wedding Ring is bound on both sides, in the Japanese style, with a centre opening. Opening first one side and then the other, the reader follows the conversation.
1992, North Bay. 16 pages. (8 1/2 x 5 1/2″) Edition of 100. $15

Family Album
Photos of four generations of good little girls from my own family are paired with other women's stories about being good, or their parents’ expectations of goodness. Handmade paper covers enclose Kutatani end-papers and hemp-cereal straw text pages, which have been photocopied in black and white. There is a plastic comb binding.
1994, North Bay. 12 pages. (8 1/2 x 5 1/2″) Edition of 100. $30

The Family That Liked to Eat
A funny story about the artist's family's love of food, this elaborate pop-up book centres on the rooms in which they ate in their home. Constructed of Ecohemp 89-lb. Cover, with colour-copied and watercolour images, each room has a floor with chairs and a table.
1998, North Bay. 4 rooms. (11 1/2 x 9″) Edition of 3. $850

Garbage
Each mesh bag/page contains one day’s garbage; each book has a week’s worth. The text deals with the effect of garbage on our health.
2007, North Bay. 7 pages. (12 1/2″ x 10 1/4″ (diameter)) Edition of 3. $850

Ghost Costumes: Pauline and Kurt
Sixteen life-sized replicas of clothing which the artist's mother and father wore during their lives. Pauline's sheer nylon dresses range from a six-year-old's party dress to her air-force uniform to a two-piece dress she had in her wardrobe when she died. Each garment has a sheer panel inside it with rubber-stamped text from her journals. Kurt was a lot older than Pauline, so his first garment is the lineman's outfit he wore on his first job. All his garments are work clothes, as that was the centre of his life. Each garment has a work-related photo on the chest. (See “Home/bodies” on the Essays page for a photo.) Her poignant text about her frustrations at not being able to create are juxtaposed with the mute but powerful photos of what he accomplished.
1996-7, North Bay. 16 “pages.” Unique. $5000

Good Girls Don’t …
Sunbonnet Sue pop-ups, with the Virgin Mary superimposed on them, are surrounded by rules for good girls, such as “Good girls don’t fight back” and “Good girls don’t whine.” Rubber-stamped text and colour-copy transfers on handmade linen paper, which is accordion-folded with a self-cover.
1994, North Bay. 4 spreads. (5 1/2 x 3″) Edition of 30. $75

Gypsy Moth
Carol was accidentally aerially sprayed with a pesticide designed to kill Gypsy Moths. This Star Caroussel book describes her difficult recovery.
2007, North Bay. 5 pages. (8 3/4 x 6 3/8 x 1 1/2″) Edition of 10. $600

Happy Memories
Happy memories uses the artist's family photos to illustrate Dr. Heather Jamieson's story of the relationship between growing up in a mining community and her current work studying environmental degradation caused by mining.
2009, North Bay. 10 pages. (11 1/4 x 15 x 1″) Edition of 10. $250

History Repeats Itself
Sarah relates a couple of stories about being embarassed by her parents and then realizes that she and her husband aren’t perfect either. History Repeats Itself is a magic wallet book, photocopied on Ecosource Prof-21 55lb. hemp-flax-cotton Cover, with pink handmade paper inserts.
2003, North Bay. 8 pages. (5 1/2 x 3″) Edition of 100. $30

Home Sweet Home
Each of the 12 rooms in this quilted pop-up dollhouse-like book has toxins indicated by large red numbers. These correspond to information in pamphlets hidden in pockets on each page.
2009, North Bay. 4 spreads. (38″ x 12″ x 3″ ) Unique. NFS

Homeless
Images of the houses on the artist's block are sewn onto handmade paper in the form of a traditional quilt patter named "Happy House." The text deals with the artist's experience when her house was making her sick, and she had to move out.
2008, North Bay. 15 pages. (7″ x 7″ x 1 1/4″ ) Edition of 7. $400

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Kindly Allow Me…
Funny stories reveal the importance of the bathroom to members of the artist's family. This star-caroussel book is illustrated with silhouettes of relevant bathrooms as well as family photos colour-copied onto Domtar Plainfield Offset. The text is black and white photo-copied on Strathmore Bright White Squares cover-stock.
2001, North Bay. 5 spreads. (7 X 4 3/4″) Edition of 10. $125

A Lady Always Has Beautiful Shoes and a Pretty Hanky
Women define being a lady and tell us whether or not they, themselves, feel lady-like, or wish they were a lady… or not. The delicate Japanese paper hankies with colour Xerox transfer borders are letter-press printed in a pale pink Japanese paper-coverd box.
1984, Detroit. 5 pages. (5 1/2 x 5 1/2″) Edition of 20. $150
ONLY TWO COPIES LEFT!

Library Book
Wendy Cain tells an amusing story about how she came to read all of Andrew Lang's Colour Fairy Books in this hard-cover pop-up book.
2004, North Bay. 4 pages. (8 1/2 x 5 1/2″) Edition of 30. $160

Light and Flaky: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother: A Cookbook
An hilarious account of Pauline Melhorn’s adventures in the kitchen, from first attempts through learning the cooking of another culture, after marriage, this pamphlet includes recipes. It was letter-press printed on Rising Parchment using a Vandercook proof press. The handmade paper covers were made from tea-towels, aprons, tablecloths and dish cloths.
1982, Detroit. 32 pages. (8 3/4 x 6 1/2″) Edition of 190. $40

Little House: Happy House
Each page is like a quilt square, pieced with the “Little House” traditional quilt pattern. Women's stories, about being abused by their husbands, are printed on acetate which overlays the handmade paper.
2004, North Bay. 6 pages. (8 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1″) unique. $400

Many-Fur
This is my re-telling of a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, one which is not so well-known, perhaps because it involves incest. The illutrations of this pop-up book are from fashion magazines.
2005, North Bay. 6 pages. (10 1/2 x 8 1/4″) Edition of 6. $600

Misleading Advice
Women’s magazines are chock-full of advice—this handy volume wastes no space on articles but gives you nothing but advice on everything from “Eight things never to say to the man you love” to “Ten ways to make yourself miserable.” The pamphlet was photocopied both in colour and black and white, on Domtar Plainfield Offset paper, and stapled like a magazine.
1997, North Bay. 22 pages. (11 x 8 1/2″) Edition of 25. $45

No Safe Levels
Northern Ontario highways are lined with rock cuts, sometimes covered with graffiti. This pop-up rock cut morphs into the artist's scarred body, and has names of heavy metals which I harbour.
2006, North Bay. 1 page. (9 7/8 x 6 7/8 x 1″) Unique. NFS

Northern Tapestry #7
A four-colour drawing, cut and folded to make an accordion pop-up book. Lithograph printed on BFK Rives paper. No text.
2003-4, North Bay. 8 pages. 7 pops. (5 x 7 x .75″) Edition of 5. $200

Once Upon a Time
Flip the pages of Once Upon a Time to create your own fairy tale—at each intersection you'll have seven choices. After studying the structure of traditional fairy tales, the artist has substituted contemporary characters and situations. The text is hand-printed in a playful mélange of colours and fabrics, and the pages are quilted.
2006, North Bay. 48 pages. (approx. 6 x 6″ when closed) Edition of 8. $1200

PAIN
The text by poet Diane Dawber in this abstract pop-up book describes four kinds of pain.
2007, North Bay. 6 pop-up spreads. (10 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 2″) Edition of 10. $750

Penelope’s Apron
This is a poignant story of thwarted creativity and conforming to parental expectations of how a good little girl should behave. It’s made of sickly yellow handmade flax-linen paper with red rubber-stamped text and flowers augmenting the four simple pop-up aprons.
1994, North Bay. 4 spreads. (7 x 5″) Edition of 60. $85

Recipes
Instead of Breads, Desserts, and Soups, these “recipes” are filed by categories such as Atmosphere, Force-Feeding, Obsessions and Prohibitions. The metal recipe box holds family photos and stories from twelve women about food/family relationships, on hemp paper cards.
2001, North Bay. 129 cards. (3 x 5 x 3″) Edition of 5: each a different box. $400

Rough Girls
Christine Charette’s story about beating up boys in Grade Two is rubber-stamped on miniature blue jeans, which tumble across the accordion spine with tiny running shoes kicking here and there. This is a handmade paper flag book with a hard cover.
1996, North Bay. 5 pages. (11 x 7 3/4 x 1 1/2″) Edition of 10. $500

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Sex Lives of Vegetables: A Seed Catalogue
Poems about the sex lives of vegetables are mingled with seed catalogue descriptions. The text is superimposed on colour-copies of these vegetables. The handmade paper pages are accordion-folded, cut in the shape of vegetables and enclosed in a handmade paper folding case with a garden-twine closure.
1990, Toronto. 17 pages. (10 3/4 x 6 1/2″) Edition of 15. $400
ONLY ONE COPY LEFT!

Sex rules: Dos and Don’ts
Illustrations from fashion magazines are paired with strange commands to create a bizarre little rule book for sex in the new millenium. The book is accordion folded with collaged text and images, colour-copied on hemp-cotton-flax cardstock.
2001, North Bay. 14 pages. (5 1/4 x 4″) Open edition. $25

Sleeping Beauty
No spinning wheels in this up-dated version of the well-known story—it's a stiletto heel that puts this Beauty to sleep. Images and text are collaged from fashion magazines. The book is an accodion-fold pop-up with seven pops, colour-copied on 55lb. hemp cover-stock. The same paper is used for the cover.
2000, North Bay. 5 spreads. (10 1/2 x 8″) Edition of 8. $400

Slurping
This stainless steel dogfood dish holds red acetate pages printed with Norma Homer's funny story about eating jello, and a lesson learned about proper eating etiquette.
2004, North Bay. 6 text pages. (8 1/2″ diameter and 2″ high) Open edition. $50

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Today's version of the tale involves toxic lipstick instead of the traditional apple, but the kinky ending is still the same. Why does that prince fall in love with a dead body? The book is an accodion-fold pop-up with seven pops, colour-copied on 55lb. hemp cover-stock. The same paper is used for the cover.
2000, North Bay. 7 spreads. (10 1/2 x 8″) Edition of 8. $450

Someday
A quilted brocade “dress-up” box holds prince and princess clothes. Marilyn Zimmerman’s story is rubberstamped on the five text pages, which are made of handmade paper. The “illustrations” are quilted satins and damask dresses and doublets, along with leather boots and shoes. Thanks to Brenda Belanger for the brocade and to Kim Boaro for introducing me to TIMTEX.
2004, North Bay. Title page plus 11 others and assorted boots and shoes. (Box: 8 x 11″ and 5″ high) Edition of 4. $750

Suitable for Success
What should women wear to work? The texts include rules from a dress-for-success book and stories from professional women humourously juxtaposed with fashion editors’ suggestions (images from fashion magazines). The pamphlet is photocopied in black and white on Rolland Alkaline/Acid-free Offset, and is hand-sewn into a handmade paper cover. (See Creative Meaning-Making on the ESSAYS page for an image of page one.)
1993, North Bay. 24 pages. (8 1/2 x 3 1/2″) Edition of 100. $15

The Tale of the Teabags
This is a funny tale about the philosophy of the cost of teabags relative to the price of cold beer and hard work according to the father of the writer, Lori Gilbert. The handmade paper pages are rubber-stamped with photo-transfer teabags on a “clothesline,” and are shaped at the top to represent elements of the story.
2001, North Bay. 10 pages. (8 x 5 3/4″) Edition of 12. $250

Three Sisters
Flex the tri-hexa-flexagon to reveal three views of the same set of parents. The drawings are by the artist's two sisters, Margaret Melhorn and Marie Cooper, and the artist herself. The tri-hexa-flexagon was made of Arches cotton print paper with colour photocopies on Tree-free Eco-21 paper.
1999, North Bay. 3 faces. (10 x 8 1/2″) Edition of 10. $80

Too Shy!
This tiny accordion with one pop-up tells the artist's story of almost drowning when a child. It was photocopied in black and white and colour on Canson Mi-Teintes acid-free paper.
2004, North Bay. 3 spreads. (4 x 2 1/2″) Edition of 30. $30

Toxic Face Book
The cast-paper face/cover lifts off to reveal 12 pages of text about the toxicity of some ingredients of shampoo and cosmetics.
2008, North Bay. 12 pages. (6 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 3″) Unique. NFS.

Toxic Kids
This paper doll book contains photocopies of lovely hand-drawn doll clothes found at a flea market, with text about toxins in the environment that adversely affect children.
2009, North Bay. 9 pages. (11″ x 8 1/2″) Edition of 50. $50

TV Blues
A collaged tunnel book tells Robyn Mooney’s story of a sleep-over. Canson Mi-Teintes acid-free paper with photo-copied acetate and vellum.
2004, North Bay. 5 pages. (7 x 9 x 3/4″) Edition of 30. $50

What Are Little Girls/Boys Made Of?
Here is a nursery rhyme book with a difference! This accordion compares nursery rhymes about girls to those about boys, drawing attention to how sexist they are. The die-cut pages, which are shaped like dresses and shirts-with-shorts, are offset-printed in pink and blue on Exeter pH-neutral paper.
1989, Toronto, 14 pages. (5 x 4″) Edition of 750. $10

WRONG!
Melanie Egan’s memory of an elementary-school Health class, when the teacher asked “How do you tell a girl baby from a boy baby?” is a funny story now, but was traumatic at the time. The text is rubber-stamped on pink and blue handmade flax paper, folded to represent baby blankets.
1996, North Bay. 4 pages. (12 x 6″) Edition of 5. $200
ONLY ONE COPY LEFT!

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