Yeh’s “Paper Paper Film” sculptural facsimile joins a showcase celebrating Women’s Studio Workshop’s 50-year legacy of feminist-led, sustainable artmaking. The exhibition is on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. through September 28, 2025.
Professor Imin Yeh’s Paper Paper Film is featured in “A Radical Alteration,” a major retrospective celebrating the 50-year history of Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW), one of the country’s most influential feminist arts organizations. The exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. explores WSW’s innovative and sustainable model for supporting book artists from underrepresented communities and highlights the impact of its long-running Artist’s Book Grant program.
Paper Paper Film reimagines a 1983 educational film box set on printing and paper as a meticulously crafted paper sculpture. Originally found in a Carnegie Mellon storage closet in 2016, the box set was transformed in 2019 during Yeh’s residency at WSW into a multilayered artwork that pays homage to obsolete technologies, analog media, and the material histories of print. Each element — film canisters, cassette tapes, receipts, and foam inserts — is reconstructed using hand-dyed papers, silkscreen prints, and letterpress techniques, blending craft and conceptual rigor.
Organized by curator Maymanah Farhat, “A Radical Alteration” includes more than 40 works that trace WSW’s evolution since its founding in 1974, presenting artists’ books, zines, and archival materials that have helped redefine what sustainable, community-centered art practice can look like. The exhibition situates WSW not just as a historical institution, but as an ongoing force for radical support and experimentation in the arts.