John Risseeuw

John L. Risseeuw received BS, MA, and MFA degrees in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968, 1972, and 1973, respectively. He taught at the University of South Dakota before coming to Arizona State University in 1980 to establish book arts classes within the Printmaking Area and to direct a book arts press for publication and creative research purposes. The Pyracantha Press was founded in 1982. His own private press, the Cabbagehead Press, was founded in 1972. He currently teaches courses in Fine Printing & Bookmaking, Papermaking, Artists’ Books, and Printmaking.



His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in more than 400 competitive, solo, and invitational exhibitions. His prints, books, and collaborative works, many on handmade paper, have traveled in recent years in Africa, Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Germany, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, South Korea and South America as well as being exhibited in many locations in the United States.



Risseeuw’s artwork has been reproduced and referenced in "The Complete Printmaker," revised edition by Ross, Romano and Ross, "A Century of American Printmaking" by James Watrous, Thelma Newman's "Innovative Printmaking," Elspeth Lamb’s "Papermaking for Printmakers," Sarah Bodman’s "Creating Artist’s Books," and "No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America 1960-1980" by Betty Bright, as well as professional journals like Fine Print, Hand Papermaking, and Contemporary Impressions. His work has been included in two of Hand Papermaking’s biennial portfolios, Opacity & Translucency: Letterpress Printing On Handmade Paper and Innovative Printmaking on Handmade Paper, and he wrote the introductory essay for a third, Old Ways, New Views: Photographic Processes on Handmade Paper.  He has spoken at conferences and symposia in the U.S. as well as in Australia, Canada, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, and the Philippines.



Collections holding his work include the Library of Congress; American Medical Association; IBM; American Museum of Papermaking; American Craft Museum; Minneapolis Institute of Art; New York Public Library; Los Angeles Public Library; Phoenix Public Library; Newberry Library in Chicago; the Getty Center in Santa Monica; Folger Shakespeare Library; Bodleian Library in Oxford, England; The British Library, London; Royal Library in the Hague, Netherlands; Klingspor-Museum der Stadt Offenbach, Offenbach am Main, Germany; Artpool, Budapest, Hungary; Fudan University in Shanghai; Southwestern Jiaotong University, Chengdu;  the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry in Miami Beach; numerous university libraries (Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Wisconsin, Washington, Arizona, etc.); and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.



Recent exhibitions include Handmade Paper Art, Ozu Washi/Oji Paper Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2009; Visual Urgency: Visible Perspectives of Societal Crisis, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, CA, 2009; Lasting Impressions: 25 Years of Pyracantha Press The Cabbagehead Press, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 2009; Landmine Prints, Russell Hill Rogers Gallery, Southwest School of Art & Craft, San Antonio, TX, 2009; World art War, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, 2009; The Embedded Image, Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO, 2008; Effects of War: Altered Lives, Altered Books, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, 2007;  John Risseeuw: Landmine Prints, Open Studio, Toronto, Ontario, 2006; Expensiveness of Paper — Preciousness of Paper, Hanji Festival, Jeonju City, South Korea, 2006; Art of the Book ’03, CBBAG Triennial Exhibition, York Quay Gallery, Toronto, ON. Traveling 2003-05; Collaborative Printmaking: Process and Meaning, IMPACT 3 International Printmaking Conference, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2003; Holland Paper Biennial 2002, Rijswijk Museum, Rijswijk, The Netherlands; Lasting Impressions: 25 Years of Pyracantha Press, Hayden Library, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 2007; Effects of War: Altered Lives, Altered Books, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, 2007; Politics on Paper — Global Tragedies/Personal Perils, Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper, Chicago, IL, 2006; Boston Printmakers 2005 North American Print Biennial, 808 Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA, 2005; Pressing Issues, artist books of political and social persuasion, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2005; The Center for Book Arts 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Center for Book Arts, New York NY, 2005; Plane and Form, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN, 2005.