The Boys & Bubs "Series"
(2015–2025)
This series will have 13 original narratives that each have unique pop-up or movable components. All of the books are 9" x 9" with variable widths. Twelve books from the series have been completed so far, with the final book currently in production.
Collaborations
(2021 & 2025)
"Pat & Judy" created by Benjamin D. Rinehart and Rachel Simmons is a chronological array of photographs of our mothers from the 1940’s onward, we created a sequence of five flexagons that explore how women of the baby boomer generation dealt with upheaval and change in their lives. Both our mothers grew up in the Midwest, raised large families, experienced divorce and loss, and can be very secretive about their personal histories. In many ways, they’re archetypes of a generation that has lived through some of the most radical social and cultural changes in American history.
We asked our mothers to respond to the following prompts which were used as inspiration for each flexagon:
• Identity • Obstacles
• Routines & Rituals • Revealing & Hiding
• Civil (Dis)Obedience
"Fractured Fathers" is a collaborative artists book created by Benjamin D. Rinehart from Appleton, Wisconsin and Rachel Simmons from Orlando, Florida. The process began with a conversation between close friends about their complex relationships with their fathers, Jim and Terry. In the summer of 2020, during the first pandemic lockdown, they interviewed one another over video conferencing and transcribed the conversations.
Their discoveries lead to the creation of two flextangles and a third collaborative book based on the transcripts. For the flextangles, they used photos of their fathers augmented through digital manipulation and pressure printing. Everything was finalized during an in-person studio session in Appleton a year later. Through this process they found kinship between their common experiences & parallels between their family relationships and themselves.
Artist Books (2006–present)
The narratives typically involve photo shoots, visual collage, and design elements. Book forms satiate my interest in graphic design. I am currently working on several projects that utilize traditional and contemporary printing and book binding methods.
Artist Books (1999–2005)
Here is a small sampling of some of the larger projects that I worked on while living on the East Coast. My time at the Center for Book Arts helped to hone my craft, concept, and physical engagement with the medium.
