"As I was researching Jesse James, I came across T. J. Stiles book,  Jesse James — Last Rebel of the Civil War. Although there are many books about the James brothers’ exploits, T. J. Stiles’ book is considered the definitive biography of Jesse James. Stiles contextualizes the era in which Jesse James grew up and his role as a Confederate guerilla, which served as the training ground for his career as an outlaw.

I knew I wanted to incorporate Stiles’ words into my project. The chine collé process allowed me to print Jesse James’ iconic image onto the pages of Stiles’ book. I aged the pages in black tea and then printed using the solar plate method. Some of the prints have hand applied gold-leaf, with rubbings of a mixture of gunpowder and my blood. The gold-leaf references the cultural fascination with mythologizing criminals. The gunpowder is an obvious reference to James’ outlawry and my blood is a literal representation of my ancestral connection to James, as well as an intentional decision to embed my DNA into the print surface."

- Colette Copeland