Julie Chen (book artist)

Chen's books reflect her current interests, current events, and her own personal experiences. In 2002, she released The Veil, a work created in the time leading up to the Iraq War; Chen explains that the book "presents personal reflections inspired by the current political situation in the Middle East and the world" and is in a carousel format.

Bon Bon Mots (1998), a meditation on the fleeting sweetness of life, takes the form of a box of chocolates, each of which, on being unwrapped, reveals itself as a tiny book. Each of the five 'chocolate box' books is folded differently and illustrate the range of approaches Chen brings to each project. "Social Graces" is a lotus-fold type, "Life Cycle" is a tetra-tetra flexagon, "Elegy" is a concertina with leaf-shaped pages in a clay cover, "Labyrinth" is ball-in-a-maze type of puzzle in a paper slipcase, and "Either/Or" is a "magic wallet". Chen has also worked with the volvelle or wheel chart, which is a set of stacked paper disks of varying sizes, sometimes with windows.

In 1994, Chen collaborated with fellow book artist, Ed Hutchins, on River of Stars, a small book, only three by three inches that was released in an edition of 100.

Chen's 1992 book, Octopus, features a tunnel-like, pop-up element known in the book trade as a "peep show" and includes text written by poet Elizabeth McDevitt. It offers a three-dimensional underwater scene with the tentacles of an octopus extending behind the words, creating a physical analogue of the poem, which speaks of concealment, disguise, and distance.

Julie Chen began Flying Fish Press in 1987 as a graduate student in Book Art at Mills College in Oakland, California. Though mostly a personal press for books by Julie Chen, she has also collaborated on artist’s book projects with other artists including Lois Morrison, Barbara Tetenbaum and Clifton Meador.

Chen was born in 1963 in Inglewood, California. She completed an undergraduate degree in printmaking at the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. She subsequently became interested in book arts and got a degree in book arts from Mills College in 1989. She began teaching book arts at Mills College as an adjunct in 1996 and became an associate professor in 2010.