In 1980, artist Alexandra Grant, then 7 years old, and her mother set out in a red Chrysler LeBaron headed from Washington, D.C., to Mexico City. Her mother, formerly a professor at Oberlin College, was relocating the two of them so she could take a post as a foreign service officer.
The Beatles album "Revolver" — one of two cassette tapes they'd brought along on the trip — played on repeat. To this day, the song "For No One" holds special significance for Grant. A lyric from that song inspired a papier-mâché sculpture, "A Love That Should Have Lasted," that Grant created for a 2008 solo show at L.A.'s Honor Fraser Gallery. A photograph of the sculpture, in turn, inspired Grant to trademark what she calls her "LOVE" symbol — a rendering of the word "love," featured in the sculpture — the next year. Those two images, the sculpture and the LOVE symbol, serve as "the visual point of origin" of Grant's now-14-year-old grantLOVE project, an initiative that partners with nonprofits to create editioned, love-themed artworks to generate funds for those nonprofits.
The latest iteration in this "sourdough methodology" progression, as Grant calls it — in which each new project or body of work begins with a "starter" from the last — is Grant's new art book, "LOVE: A Visual History of the grantLOVE Project," which came out Dec. 6. The oversized coffee table book, published by Abrams' Cameron Books, is, at its core, about love, but it's also about art-making, community and giving back. It features photographs of grantLOVE artworks and collaborative projects, along with essays by Grant and curator Alma Ruiz. Writer-artist Eman Alami contributed poems, curator Cassandra Coblentz an interview with Grant. There are also portraits of collectors and nonprofit partners, who offer commentary about the project and its influence.
