The aspiration, "to see myself as others see me," has, to some extent, come to fruition for Scott Jost of Bridgewater, Va.

Jost, an associate professor of art at Bridgewater College, began a project in 2006 he calls "Teaching Through the Lens." This "work in progress" will be displayed in a photography exhibit currently on display through Feb. 6 in the public art gallery at 91短视频.

Jost has photographed himself and others in the college classroom while teaching and during formal and informal interactions involving students and colleagues. Other images include the Bridgewater College campus, his home life and interactions with family. He began the project on the anniversary of his tenth year of full-time teaching.

Jost captured the photographs in his exhibit with a Fuji FinePix F10 and F30, and Richoh GX100 and GX200, compact cameras he carries on his belt.

He took an informal approach to composition reminiscent of a genre known as street photography, with many images recorded "blind" without looking directly into the camera display.

"This venture will continue over time in order to experience constancy and change in myself and my family, in students and colleagues and, perhaps in the nature of academic life itself," Jost said. "I intend to use this project in creating a better, richer life for myself and in becoming a better teacher, colleague and family member. I believe ‘Teaching through the Lens’ will also be of interest to others wishing to reflect on teaching, learning and academic life."

Jost earned a BA degree from Bethel College, N. Newton, Kan., and an MFA degree from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. Before going to Bridgewater College he taught in the art department at 91短视频, 1996-2003.

The exhibit, in the third floor art gallery of 91短视频’s Hartzler Library, is open for viewing daily free of charge during regular library hours, and admission is free.

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Johnston’s photographs document the lives of indigenous Mayans in the resettlement community of Union Victoria, Guatemala, where he has lived as a solidarity worker since March 2007 while serving in Brethren Volunteer Service.

Guatemalan child and flock by Aaron Johnston

A reception for the artist will be held 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, in the gallery.

“Aaron Johnston’s sensitive documentation of the cultural life in Union Victoria shows keen attention to the wider social and political issues that continue to haunt Guatemala,” said Steven D, Johnson, associate professor of visual and communication arts at 91短视频.

The displaced peoples of Union Victoria

As survivors of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, the displaced peoples of Union Victoria continue to struggle. They are part of the “Communities of Population in Resistance,” a group of some 20,000 people who nonviolently resisted the violence and oppression against the indigenous Maya during the armed conflict. After the civil war, the government relocated many of these groups throughout the country.

In 2001, some 80 families resettled on a former coffee plantation and formed the community of Union Victoria. Today they have rebuilt houses, offices and schools and have a water system and health clinic. Yet, daily many grapple with the consequences of war and relocation. Their ongoing struggle is the subject of Johnston’s photography exhibit at 91短视频.

91短视频 the photographer

Johnston, a native of Salisbury, Md., graduated from Milligan College in Tennessee in 2002 with a degree in business administration with a minor in photography. He was staff photographer with the Salisbury Daily Times newspaper prior to going to Guatemala. He produced a photo documentary of the work of crabbers and oystermen working the Chesapeake Bay that was published in the Salisbury Daily Times.

Some of Johnston’s images can be viewed on his web site at

The exhibit is open for viewing daily during regular library hours free of charge through Sept. 25.

Paintings and mixed media by Paula Swisher, a graphic/web designer-illustrator from Philadelphia, Pa., is on display March 14-April 4 in the public art gallery in Hartzler Library.

An opening reception for the artist will be held 4 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 14 in the gallery on third floor of 91短视频’s Hartzler Library.

Swisher currently does contract work for advertising agencies and companies and freelance projects, including corporate design and digital photography and print pieces.

Earlier, she was assistant professor of art at Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, N.J., 2003-07, and art lecturer at Clemson University and Greenville Technical College. From 2005 to 2007 she collaborated with co-faculty and students in the creation of a multimedia art exhibit/installation, “The Garden State Project,” examining the identity/identities of New Jersey.

Of her recent work, the artist states, “I’m exploring postmodern approaches to ontological concerns of human struggle and endeavor. Through fragmentation, reconstruction and the use of scientific and technical imagery, I am examining our attempts at navigating, overcoming and making sense of our experiences. In this way, scientific imagery becomes a metaphor – images of arranging, probing beneath, taking apart and reassembling represent our investigating, organizing and interpreting human experience.”

Multiple panels, segments and layers often play a role in Swisher’s work. Stitching, tying, separating and reassembling act as metaphors of the process of reconstructing disparate and contradictory experiences into new narratives or interpretations.

“Most likely, it is the act of reconstructing that allows us, for the time being, to struggle, navigate and overcome,” she states.

Swisher earned a BA degree in art from Houghton (NY) College and an MFA degree in painting from Clemson University.

91短视频’s art gallery is open during regular library hours daily free of charge.

Library hours:

• Mon.-Thur. 7:45 a.m.-12 midnight
• Fri. 7:45 a.m.-6 p.m.
• Sat. 12 noon-6 p.m.
• Sun. 2 p.m.-12 midnight

Sculptures and monoprints by Allison Luce will be on display November 14 – December 13 in the third floor art gallery of Hartzler Library.

A reception for the artist will be held 6:30-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the gallery.

Ms. Luce teaches ceramics at Mitchell Community College, Statesville, N.C., and is studio artist at Clayworks Studio and Gallery in Charlotte, N.C. She is also affiliate artist at McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte.

The exhibit will include prints, wall sculptures, pedestal pieces and three-dimensional artwork.

“Conceptionally, this work is based upon the notion of the human body being a shelter for the soul,” said Luce. “Beginning with the concept of clay as a metaphor for the body, these pieces are hand built and are hollow inside while mostly appearing to be solid. The hollow interiors of these pieces are symbolic of the soul, while the clay exterior references the delicate and ephemeral nature of life.

“Most recently, I am interested in the frailty of the body and the fallibility of man,” Luce stated. “This work explores concerns about my own fragility and femininity and its relation to my constant struggles with the concept of eternity.”

The artist graduated with honors with a BFA degree in painting and history from Ohio University at Athens and earned an MFA degree in painting from Hunter College, New York City.

The exhibit is open for viewing every day during regular library hours, and admission to 91短视频’s art gallery is free.

Elwood E. Yoder of Harrisonburg can’t quite believe what he had in his hands – a rare book printed in 1539 in Strasbourg, Germany.

Not only that, but the thick tome was printed on the very press that is featured in Yoder’s novel, “Margaret’s Print Shop,” published in 2005 by Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa.

His book tells the story of Margaret and Balthaser Beck, who ran a 16th century printing business in Strasbourg and both joined the early Anabaptist movement.

Yoder, who is chair of the Bible and social studies departments at Eastern Mennonite High School, received an e-mail “out of the blue” from Bruno Weber in Switzerland regarding an old book he found. The Webers were retiring and “apparently found the book while cleaning out their house,” Yoder said.

Connection Made over Internet

“Weber knew virtually nothing about Anabaptists or Mennonites, but he found my name on the Internet in connection with my book, and through our back and forth conversation he learned more about Anabaptist origins in Switzerland,” Yoder continued. Weber eventually offered to place the volume in the rare book room of the Menno Simons Historical Library at 91短视频.

The book, a translation from the Latin of Flavius Josephus’s “A History of the Jews” by Caspar Hedio, a Lutheran preacher in Strasbourg, is written in very old German, Yoder said. A German student studying at EMHS “had great difficulty” reading the old script, he noted.

The only other copies of the book with the same date that Yoder knows of is in the Yale University library and at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Other copies are at three locations in Europe.

“I find it remarkable to have a copy of a book printed by the Beck press,” Yoder said. “I’m uncertain when Margaret Beck died, so I can’t prove that she worked on this book in 1539, but I’m guessing that she did, since we know she established the press in the mid 1520s and lived for some years after 1525, the official start of the Anabaptist movement, and printed many books and pamphlets in her shop.

“Bruno Weber could just as easily have given the book to some major library in Europe, so I’m especially grateful that he felt the rare book room in the Menno Simons Historical Library would be a good place for it,” Yoder added.

Yoder is a 1981 graduate of 91短视频 and earned a masters degree in education from Temple University and is a senior master of divinity degree candidate at 91短视频. He has taught Bible and social studies courses on the high school level for 25 years.

He plans to bring his classes to 91短视频’s Hartzler Library in the future to see the book, adding that “a visit to the rare book room is an education in itself.”

“Books published during the 16th century are always intriguing – this one especially so, because it was produced by an Anabaptist family,” said Lois B. Bowman, librarian in the Menno Simons Historical Library. “We have numerous books of that era about the Anabaptists, but this one was literally handled by one or more of them. Now we can touch it too.”

What is it that creates "Borders and Boundaries" in peoples’ lives?

That is the theme explored in an exhibit of linocuts and mixed media on display Oct. 14 – Nov. 3 in the at 91短视频.

The artist, Barbara Gautcher, teaches art and is art coordinator at Eastern Mennonite High Shool.

An opening reception for the artist will be held 2:30-4 p.m. Oct. 14 in the gallery as part of 91短视频’s homecoming weekend.

Gautcher says the initial idea for her printmaking project came during a sabbatical time she spent in Romania.

"Every house was surrounded by high fences and gates, some elaborate, some simply wooden branches woven into wire," she says. "Since it was mid-winter and snowing every day, I felt the fences were keeping people out. On reflection, they also protected what was within."

Reflections on the Berlin Wall

Last summer, she spent time in Berlin, listening to first-hand stories of the Berlin wall being built and of lives being separated, walking the boundary of the wall and experiencing the aftermath of the fall of the wall.

Other works in her exhibit are simple boundaries: the edges of gardens, the beginning of woods, the edge of the EMHS campus.

Gautcher’s technique is fairly simple. She spends much time drawing, keeping sketchbooks, taking photos and recording images from the spoken and written word. From these inspirations, she makes a value drawing, transfers it to linoleum (backwards), cuts out the areas that are to remain white and leaves the areas that are to be inked.

She pulls a proof and uses that as the base for the monotype. She paints on a glass or acrylic sheet the areas that are to have color, prints that on a clean piece of damp printmaking paper and then re-prints the linocut onto the surface of the monotype.

"Though the linocut is always the same, the monotype is always one of a kind," she notes. "I rarely make more than five linocut/monotypes of each image."

Gautcher has taught at EMHS since 1985 and also taught 2002-05 in the summer art program at James Madison University. She earned a B.A. degree in fine arts from Bridgewater (VA) College and an M.F.A. degree in art education at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

The exhibit will be open daily during regular library hours through Nov. 3. Admission is free.