Stop. Look. Listen.

Dede Reed’s photographs of books hover just past the limits of legibility, resting on surfaces and in space that seem unbounded. In “Dede Reed: of Books and Memory” at the Gallery dePaul, fruit joins the books in soft-edge still lifes set against fields of intense, almost pastel-like colors. (Recipients of the exhibit’s postcard might be pardoned for thinking the works were in pastel.) Flowers in vases or on tables are shown in the same “quiet light,” an effect the photographer discovered by chance that uses reflected light, according to the gallery. The New York-based Reed, who is a bookmaker and author as well as a fine-art photographer, has a number of small, handbound works in the exhibit: accordion books showing books and fruit in a subtle progression of colors — wordless poetry, in a way. Also on view are a number of her black-and-white prints: windows, doors, landscapes and a pair of park chairs whose cloth sling seats, one concave and one blown convex by the wind, form a circle. It’s a contemplative, peaceful show.
The show runs through March 1 at the Gallery dePaul, 226 N. Arch St., Lancaster. Hours are 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, or by appointment.