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Paper is a contradictory material. At once transient and enduring, delicate and strong, it can act as a filter or as a barrier. There is virtually no limit to what paper can do and how it can be manipulated. Because it is generally inexpensive and easy to find, it invites exploration and experimentation and is therefore an ideal medium for artistic expression.

Papermaking and paper-based art have experienced a resurgence in popularity over the past 20 years. Artists use paper in innovative and exciting ways, sometimes combining traditional techniques with nontraditional materials and processes to create everything from utilitarian objects, such as handmade stationery, to fine-art sculptures.

Paper Cuts: The Art of Contemporary Paper consists of 40 objects made with paper by approximately 25 American artists. Although all the artists incorporate paper into their artwork, they employ a wide range of techniques and styles. Nancy Loo Bjorge's mixed-media assemblages are an intriguing blend of geometric and organic lines. Mary Merkel Hess is enamoured of paper's potential to be molded into forms; she employs three-dimensional collage and papier-mâché techniques. Other artists explore paper's ability to be transformed from the flat to the voluminous, the range of texture that paper offers, and the organic nature of paper.

Paper Cuts is curated by Robert Cugno and Robert Logan of the Media Gallery in Garnett, Kansas. Media Gallery has organized many successful exhibitions for ExhibitsUSA, primarily of contemporary crafts. Programming opportunities related to this exhibition include the history of papermaking and its impact on communication and literature, origami, quilling, papier-mâché, and collage.