Some Pages for a Book of Hours

Form+Content Gallery presents Some Pages for A Book of Hours, an exhibition of image and text, artist’s books and photographs that explores and honors the final years of four women in her life: her mother, cousin and two friends.
 
In the sixteen months between her father’s death and that of her mother, Joyce Lyon was privileged to spend more time with her mother than she had during her previous adult life.  Their time together was full of challenge as well as sweetness and Lyon has no hesitation in naming it blessed.
 
Drawing upon journal entries, memory and photographs, she has created twenty 22”x17” broadsides displayed on the wall that chronicle the experiences of their time together.  The work is bittersweet—they both knew where the path led— but ultimately joyful, an affirmation of bravery and the possibilities of human connection. The development of Some Pages for a Book of Hours was influenced by an exhibition at the Morgan Library in New York on the medieval Book of Hours: visually rich prayer books whose radically democratic structure, including perpetual calendar, prayers for each time of day and the Office for the Dead, allowed the owner to worship independently.  In a secular manner, Lyon applies the rhythms of attention and praise to the time she spent with her mother.
 
The works in this exhibition are created from a personal perspective but the hope is that the experiences chronicled will allow others to consider their own stories, to find points of connection and difference, and to be moved to celebrate our human potential.
 
Artist’s Statement
Place has always provided the metaphor through which I understand and communicate experience.  I am interested in the fragile and essential ways by which meaning is conveyed and in the resonant relationship between silence and what can be understood.