Diane Fine is a distinguished book artist, printmaker, and educator. Under her imprint Moonkosh Press, the artist has produced over twenty-five limited edition books that explore the search for meaning, and speak to the need for beauty in our lives. Her rich and imaginative books combine letterpress printing with a variety of print media such as lithography, relief printing, and etching. Employing color, pattern, symbols, and inventive structures, Fine’s books address topics such as feminism, breast cancer, ritual, nature, solitude, and memory.
Fine began the Moonkosh Press in 1985 while studying printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She took classes in book arts from Walter Hamady and worked as an assistant printer at the Silver Buckle Press. She received her M.F.A. in Graphics in 1988.
Words, stories, and humor play a central role in her art. The name Moonkosh is a phonetic spelling of the Hungarian town from which her maternal grandfather, a talented storyteller, emigrated. Her books include original writing, Yiddish and African proverbs, Buddhist texts, archival material, and the work of contemporary poets such as Thomas J. Braga, Dan Giancola, and Eli Goldblatt.
Her keen power of observation and rich imagination informs her eloquent visual language. Fine’s work speaks to life’s dichotomies: male and female, good and evil, grief and healing, serenity and anxiety, growth and decay, ambiguity and clarity.
For thirty years, she has been a faculty member at the State University of New York-Plattsburgh where she teaches printmaking and book arts. She exhibits her work regularly, has taught workshops around the country, and was artist-in-residence at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.
Fine’s books are held by many institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Newberry Library, and Yale University. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the largest institutional repository of her book art.
