A collaboration between the artist and poet Melinda Kennedy, this book as theater, incorporates a “stage”, and a set of six paper puppets (in folio pockets) who personify goddesses and strong female archetypes. The reader is invited to participate in the creation of her/his own story and to assume the role of a Javanese “Dalang,” the puppeteer who brings the characters to life by telling tales through the movement and verse. Each puppet has movable parts which allow them to be transformed into different personas. A source of light placed behind them projects their shadows into the translucent pages of the book, which are printed with patterns, text and images that portray the earth, the sea, the sky and the cosmos. The pages create pathways into the book’s unfolding landscape. Shadow Play suggests such stories as creation myths, wisdom tales, stories of tricksters, tales of good versus evil, and the myths of cosmic destruction and renewal.

Out of print.