September 2006 - February 2007
Since May 2004,the Bookmarks series of free, international artwork distribution have been at 46 venues in Italy, The Netherlands, UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Cyprus, Australia, and the USA. Over 150 artists have contributed more than 15,000 bookmarks to the four projects so far. Bookmarks: Infiltrating the Library System's aim is to get more people to appreciate work in the format of the artist's book. Participating artists who work in this format, have each generously produced an edition of 100 bookmarks to swap and give away.
Bookmarks IV has been the largest set to date, with 58 artists contributing 6100 bookmarks! For this series Kristin Mountjoy (Australia) made an Armchair Traveller's bookmark, asking that each person who takes her bookmark emails her information about where they live, the culture, architecture etc. for the armchair traveller, so if you pick up one of these, then please contact her. The information she receives will become part of an armchair traveller's exhibition and the best story will win a handmade book.
For the last project Colleen Tully (USA) made Pieces of Work, a jigsaw puzzle painting bookmark. Each bookmark in the edition of 100 included a tiny section of a painting; in order for the artwork to be completed, each bookmark taker needed to visit Colleen’s web address and log in the details The virtual canvas for Pieces of Work, © 2004-2005 was completed in May 2005, and you can view the complete piece at http://bookmarks.erasures.net scroll down to explore a grid view where you can click on bookmarks with dark blue borders to see where it came from and view any comments submitted by the bookmark holders. Alice Melvin's beautiful screenprinted Bookmarks can also be viewed on her new website at www.alicemelvin.com/design/Book_Marks/page1.htm
The bookmarks are collated into sets, with one full set sent to each artist, and the rest divided and sent in these boxes to participating galleries, bookstores and libraries for free distribution. All of the bookmarks are archived in the gallery sections of the bookmarks websites, with contact details of the contributors.
The bookmarks have been made from various media, from paintings, photography, embroidery, digital print, rubber stamps, hand drawn, photocopied, folded, cut, sewn, or knitted. You will find a huge variety of artworks, so when you visit the venues to see them it may be difficult to select only one!
The venues where they will be available from 20th September 2006 until 20th February 2007 are:
Narrow Quay
Bristol
UK
www.arnolfini.org.uk/about/bookshop.php
721 Washington Street
Oakland
California
USA
www.fopl.org/products.htm
17 Pitfield Street
London
UK
www.bookartbookshop.com
Kennel Lodge Road
Bristol
UK
www.uwe.ac.uk/library/info/bower_ashton/bower.htm
20 Bedford Place
Brighton
UK
www.permanentbookshop.com
South Brisbane
Q 4101
Australia
www.slq.qld.gov.au
2 College Street
Rhode Island
USA
www.risd.edu/risd_library.cfm
Tate Britain
Millbank
London
UK
www.tate.org.uk/research/researchservices/library
1080 Chapel Street
Connecticut
USA
ycba.yale.edu/index.asp
234 St Kilda Road
Southbank 3006
Australia
www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/library
There will also be some bookmarks distributed at two special events:
22nd September - 22nd October
To coincide with the Books06 exhibition programme and Interaction 2006, an annual seminar exploring the artist's book, at Noosa Regional Gallery. Bookmarks IV will coincide with 'staying connected + bookmark swap' where people will bring their own bookmarks to swap with others.
Noosa Regional Gallery.
Riverside
Pelican St
Tewantin
Queensland
Australia
13th-24th November
Alongside New Pages: Artists' Books from the Collection at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol. An exhibition of artists' books at the Atski gallery and the Art Library at:
University of Art and Design Helsinki
Hämeentie 135 C
Helsinki
Finland
www.uiah.fi
You can view all the bookmarks and contact the artists who made them, or find out more about their work via the Bookmarks IV website here.
Laine Farley, a bookmark collector in the USA, has followed our project for the last two years. Laine writes a regular column for the Biblio Buffet website at www.bibliobuffet.com
See On Marking Books: Lauren Roberts and Laine Farley (alternate weeks) Bookmarks - bits of book-related ephemera with fascinating histories of their own. You can also read archived columns.
Thanks to all the artists and venues for making this such a great set.
For more information, or to participate in future Bookmarks projects, please contact Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk