Rachel E. Church
@rachel_e_church
In 2021, the Women’s Group of the North Vienna United Methodist Church, located on a windy ridge at the highest point of a small, rural Maine town, created Cooped Up Cooking. The introduction reads: “It has been ten years since the Wednesday Morning Women’s Group published a cookbook. 2020–21 has been a challenging time for everyone… This new cookbook contains comfort food recipes that nourished us during the pandemic; new finds discovered during cooking adventures; as well as our thoughts, prayers, and scripture that sustained us.” Community cookbooks are valuable because they document not only the foods eaten in a specific place and time, but also the values, history, and social networks of a community, particularly (but not exclusively) of women. I was drawn to this cookbook because it reflects a time of extreme challenge, when food and cooking gained even greater importance as nourishment for both body and spirit. I wanted to partner with the women who created this book to highlight them and the stories within their recipes, and personally, because I grew up in this small, rural community and these women were part of my own upbringing. I am grateful they have been open with their stories, photos, and recipe boxes to create this collaborative artwork, through which I hope to bring attention and honor to the foods that sustain us, the stories they contain, and the people who make them.
Women of Windy Hill: a set of 8 luncheon plates
artist’s book with clamshell box, paper, cotton fabric, thread, cyanotype, letterpress, and inkjet prints
9.25"W x 9"D x 2.5"H (box closed)
2022
Rachel E. Church is an intermedial artist, book artist, and printmaker working in Maine. She has a BA in Art with a concentration in Printmaking and Entrepreneurial Studies, a BFA in Studio Art with a minor in Book Arts, both from the University of Southern Maine, and an MFA in Intermedia and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from
Rachel E. Church
@rachel_e_church
In 2021, the Women’s Group of the North Vienna United Methodist Church, located on a windy ridge at the highest point of a small, rural Maine town, created Cooped Up Cooking. The introduction reads: “It has been ten years since the Wednesday Morning Women’s Group published a cookbook. 2020–21 has been a challenging time for everyone… This new cookbook contains comfort food recipes that nourished us during the pandemic; new finds discovered during cooking adventures; as well as our thoughts, prayers, and scripture that sustained us.” Community cookbooks are valuable because they document not only the foods eaten in a specific place and time, but also the values, history, and social networks of a community, particularly (but not exclusively) of women. I was drawn to this cookbook because it reflects a time of extreme challenge, when food and cooking gained even greater importance as nourishment for both body and spirit. I wanted to partner with the women who created this book to highlight them and the stories within their recipes, and personally, because I grew up in this small, rural community and these women were part of my own upbringing. I am grateful they have been open with their stories, photos, and recipe boxes to create this collaborative artwork, through which I hope to bring attention and honor to the foods that sustain us, the stories they contain, and the people who make them.
Women of Windy Hill: a set of 8 luncheon plates
artist’s book with clamshell box, paper, cotton fabric, thread, cyanotype, letterpress, and inkjet prints
9.25"W x 9"D x 2.5"H (box closed)
2022
Rachel E. Church is an intermedial artist, book artist, and printmaker working in Maine. She has a BA in Art with a concentration in Printmaking and Entrepreneurial Studies, a BFA in Studio Art with a minor in Book Arts, both from the University of Southern Maine, and an MFA in Intermedia and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from
