LEWISTON – The Atrium Art Gallery at Lewiston-Auburn College will exhibit “Threatened and Endangered: Artist’s Books Created by Rebecca Goodale.”

The exhibition will open Thursday, May 26, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Goodale will give a gallery talk at the reception, which is free and open to the public.

The exhibition of handmade books by Rebecca Goodale focuses on her long-term project of making books about Maine’s plant and animal endangered and threatened species.

“I want to inspire sensitivity for these rare species by using my background in book arts and textile design to interpret what I see with color, pattern, rhythm and transition,” she says in the exhibition catalog.

Among the 30 books in the exhibition are: “Four Maine Turtles,” “Vernal Pool,” “Fifteen Maine Birds,” “Six Maine Trees,” “Maine Mussels in Freshwater” and “Twenty One Maine Wildflowers.” The exhibition has been touring the state for more than a year.

The exhibition shows the range of techniques that Goodale uses to create her books: collage, printing, folding and painting, and many styles of book construction, both traditional and innovative. Goodale began the project in January 2000, creating what Linda Docherty in an exhibition catalog essay refers to as “artistic interpretations of diverse species’ appearance, behavior and habitat, informed by scientific knowledge.” “She aims not to illustrate but to ‘illuminate’ her subjects and make them live in the viewer’s eyes and imagination.”

Writer Annie Seikonia comments, “Goodale’s show provides an artistic portrait of plant and animal life that transcends scientific texts and field guides in its ability to instill a sense of the extraordinary beauty and complexity we are on the verge of losing forever.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, Susan Hayward, naturalist and steward for Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary in Lewiston, will present a slide lecture “Discovering the Common, Conserving the Rare,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 9.

The exhibition continues through July 1. The Atrium Art Gallery is in Lewiston-Auburn College, 551 Westminster St. Gallery hours are: Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The exhibition, reception and lecture are free and open to the public.

FMI: contact Robyn Holman, Atrium Art Gallery, 753-6554 or [email protected].