Bio
Hello! I am Hannah Batsel, a book artist, writer, and illustrator based in Chicago, IL. Originally from Marietta, GA, I received my BFA in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Georgia in 2011 and my MFA in the same from Columbia College Chicago in 2016. My handmade artist book work can be found in library and museum collections around the country, and my mass-market picture books, A is for Another Rabbit and The Knight of Little Import, can be found wherever books are sold. I live with my friends and partner in a spooky old house filled with books, taxidermy, and hundreds of houseplants.
Artist Statement
My work explores, often through fictional narrative, the human desire for mastery over the natural world and, as an extension, the worlds of other peoples and cultures. I draw from historical texts, illustrations, and scientific thought as aesthetically enrapturing, but often deeply flawed, records of this impulse. By appropriating the illustrative styles and writing conventions of eras past, my work connects fairytale colonial adventures in far-off lands, medieval fascinations with power over nature, and complex systems of magical belief to modern real-world social systems and power structures.
Because storytelling is so intrinsic to how people contextualize, experience, and even lay claim to the world, my work takes the form of narrative structures like artist books, puzzles, and interactive installations. I favor printmaking techniques such as linocut relief and letterpress printing, which allow me to edition my handmade books and prints and maintain a handmade illustration sensibility even for work that will go on to be mass-produced.
