Pat & Judy

 Pat & Judy, 2025, edition of 20. Collaborative limited edition artists’ book with Ben Rinehart. Letterpress and digital prints on paper and vellum, with typewriter text enclosed in two engraved acrylic box houses, each house contains five flexagon structures: cross, square, single-sheet, tetra tetra, and magic wallet. Dimensions: Boxes are 9” tall x 6” wide x 6” deep. Flexagons are is 5” tall x 5” x .125” deep 

 Pat & Judy is a collaborative artist's book by Benjamin D. Rinehart and Rachel Simmons that examines the lives of their mothers within the broader social context of mid-20th century Midwestern American women. Building upon their previous collaboration Fractured Fathers, this project documents the experiences of Pat (Ben’s mom) and Judy (Rachel’s mom) by exploiting the dynamic nature of flexagons to explore personal transformation over time.

The artists developed their work through a carefully structured process. They began by crafting a set of questions, then conducted in-depth interviews with their mothers, and collected and digitized a comprehensive array of family photographs. These materials would provide the rich imagery and text for their complex movable paper structures. Each flexagon corresponds to a specific thematic inquiry about Pat and Judy's experiences, creating a multidimensional narrative that transcends traditional biographical documentation.

As viewers manipulate each flexagon, they dynamically reveal different aspects of the women's personalities—uncovering layers of beliefs, regrets, and victories. The work contextualizes individual lives against significant historical developments of the 1940s-1960s: the economic recovery following the Great Depression, post-war suburban expansion, evolving gender roles, social movements, and cultural transformations. By focusing on their mothers' personal histories, Rinehart and Simmons create a nuanced examination of how broader societal shifts intersect with individual experiences.

With pages printed during an artist residency at In Cahoots, the project involved an intensive printing process, with nearly 2,000 print runs in less than a week to build up layers of text and image. The flexagons function not merely as physical objects, but as conceptual tools that physically demonstrate the non-linear nature of personal history, each fold revealing different layers of human experience. One the structural design and theme for each flexagon were agreed upon, Ben and Rachel individually worked developed the imagery, backgrounds, and text. Their design choices reflect their moms’ individual personalities and as well as their own. The semi-transparency of vellum section dividers and acrylic boxes further reflects the project's hide-and-reveal theme.