Cara Barer is an internationally-recognized established American photographer known for her abstract compositions of books and print material.In her experimentation with curling irons, clothes pins and water, Barer transforms volumes of irrelevant and outdated information into coiled, crumpled objects of beauty. By photographing each object as the last step in her creative intervention, Barer affords a second life to the cast-off books and paper she re-reinterprets. Fanciful and symbolic, Barer’s photographs allude to the status of the book in the contemporary digital age, while offering an open narrative for each viewer to contemplate through her abstract compositions. In Barer’s latest work, the artist’s own creations – books bound with sheet music, wallpaper, and pictures from her travels – are captured after being transformed into magnificent abstract compositions.Cara Barer has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the US and Canada since 1994. Her work has been featured extensively in such publications as New York Magazine, The Washington Post, Harper’s Magazine, The Boston Globe and The New Yorker; and can be found in the collections of Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Lehigh University, Nordstrom, United States Embassy, Kyiv, Ukraine, VISA and Wells Fargo Bank and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Cara received a Silver Award in the 2021 Tokyo International Foto Awards.Barer lives and works out of Houston, Texas. Artist Statement for the Books Project:"My process is an attempt to blur the line between object, sculpture, and photography. I would also like to raise awareness about the obsolescence of books and the relevance of libraries in this century.My photographs and sculptures are a lament for the passing of eras when books were considered much more valuable, and a path to knowledge. Today, they are disposable, and have largely been replaced by the internet as a primary source of information. I hope to raise questions about these changes, the transient and fragile nature in which we now choose to obtain knowledge, and the future of books." Artist statement for "When the Ice Melts":"The effects of climate change and melting polar ice are behind the images of a dystopian world I have imagined for this series titled, 'When the Ice Melts.' Scientists believe that the oceans will rise three to four feet in this century. The clash of our consumer culture and industrial greenhouse gases with nature are most likely one of the primary reasons for this drastic change. I believe our weather will become harsher, and that cycles of flooding and drought will become our 'new normal.' I have decontextualized photos from my travels, common objects, and the detritus of our increasingly destructive and wasteful way of life in order compel the viewer to engage and consider the real possibility that a changing landscape is in their near future."