LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 28, No. 4 - Winter 1982 Editor of this issue: Jonas Zdanys, Yale University ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1982 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

EX LIBRIS / BOOKPLATES BY HENRIETTA VEPŠTAS

Henrietta Vepštas was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and also studied photography and print making at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her more than fifty bookplates, made using color-toned photo-collage technique, have been exhibited at Čiurlionis Art Gallery, Chicago; 2nd Street Gallery, Charlottsville, VA and Galerija, Chicago. Her work appears in "Lithuanian Bookplates", Lithuanian Library Press, 1980.

John Alderson,Chicago Sun-Times photography critic writes of her work:

"For Henrietta Vepštas the camera image is only a point of departure in making her unique, highly individual and practical works of art: bookplates. . . .She usually begins her bookplate by taking informal 35-mm portrait of the subject. When she looks over the contact sheets, one or more pictures will seem appropriate. Sometimes she works with pictures supplied by the subject, but more often uses her own. . .

"The next step is to make a creative collage that combines her photo(s) of the book collector with other images — photocopy derivations, newspaper or magazine clippings, photograms or pictures of shells, stamps, feathers or any other object she associates with her subject. She rearranges these images until the composition seems right, then combines the image with type (Prestype, newspaper cutouts or type set by photo compositor) and re-photographs the collage to make the final bookplate negative.

"After the image has been printed and processed, Vepštas may use retoucher's photo pencils or toners to make several versions of the bookplate in different colors. When she has finished, the collector has a unique and personal way to identify his books."

Marty Robinson, 1982, actual size

Algis Mickūnas, 1982, actual size

Vitolis Vengris, 1982, actual size

Doreen Stelton, 1982, actual size

Sandy Roberts, 1982, actual size

Gintautas Vėžys, 1982, actual size

Janina Kinkienė, 1975, actual size

Danguolė Variakojytė, 1982, actual size

Zina, 1981, actual size