about the artist

Maro Vandorou is a visual artist and writer of Hellenic origin who lives and works between California and Athens.

Her work now centers on artist's books: intimate, sequential, material objects built from rare handmade papers, letterpress and screen printing, calligraphy, and platinum and palladium printing. Materials are chosen to enact her concepts rather than illustrate them: vellum becomes a membrane, handmade flax carries light within its fibers, ink is pushed to the threshold of legibility. Her earlier installation work, presented in six solo shows in Europe and the United States, explored transformation through platinotypes suspended on silk threads, free of frames.

Across both bodies of work, the setting and visual vocabulary reference symbols and archetypes from her Hellenic roots: grief, surrender, purity of intent, and transformation. Her practice has moved from personal beginnings toward increasing abstraction and historical depth, most recently arriving at LIMEN, an artist's book built from threshold, silence, and a single sustained line.

Her work is held in private and public collections across the United States and Europe, including:

Library of Congress
The Getty Research Institute
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (François Mitterrand Library)
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
Onassis Library, Onassis Foundation, Athens, Greece
Harvard University (Houghton Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts)
Princeton University (Harvey S. Firestone Library, Graphic Arts Collection)
Smith College (William Allan Neilson Library, Rare Books & Special Collections)
Stanford University (Cecil H. Green Library, Special Collections)
UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles (William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts)
University of Washington in Seattle (Suzzalo & Allen Libraries, Special Collections Rare Books)
Yale University (Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, Special Collections)