Sarah is Senior Research Fellow for Artists' Books at the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR), where she runs projects investigating and promoting contemporary book arts. She is currently working with Tom Sowden on a two-year, Arts and Humanities Research Council (www.ahrc.ac.uk) funded project until February 2010: In an arena including digital and traditional artists' publishing formats - what will be the canon for the artist's book in the 21st Century?
The research project intends to open a responsive exploration with a collaborative, international audience of artists, academics, presses, publishers, curators, dealers, collectors and students involved in the field. The aim is to extend and sustain critical debate of what constitutes an artist’s book in the 21st Century - to publish a manifesto for a canon which will include both ‘old’ and ‘new’ formats of artists’ books publishing - in order to propose an inclusive structure for the academic study, artistic practice and historical appreciation of the artist's book.
Sarah is the editor of the Artist's Book Yearbook a bi-annual publication on contemporary book arts, published here by Impact Press. (2010-2011 issue was published in September 2009).. She is also the editor of The Blue Notebook journal for artists’ books, and writes a regular news column on artists’ books for the ARLIS UK and Ireland news-sheet, and for the journal Printmaking Today.
Sarah is the author of Creating Artists’ Books (a handbook for A&C Black, UK and Watson-Guptill, New York, USA, 2nd edition published December 2007 (ISBN 978-0-7136-6509-3).
Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadsides
The al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition which has been organising readings and other events since April 2007 to fundraise for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The first round broadsides may be viewed at the Florida Atlantic University/Jaffe Center for Book Arts site, which is adding all the broadsides to the online gallery.
Traditional and emerging formats of artists’ books: Where do we go from here?
(09/07/09-10/07/09).
A two-day conference, held at the School of Creative Arts, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Thursday 9th and Friday 10th July 2009
O Pão Nosso - Livros de Artista / Our daily bread
A touring exhibition from July 2009 - September 2010
A Collaborative Artists' Book Project curated by Mara Caruso, Secretaria Municipal da Cultura - Coordenação de Artes Plásticas, Atelier Livre da Prefeitura de Porto Alegre / RS / Brazil.
Reading Around…
To celebrate the National Year of Reading and World Book in 2008 we invited artists to make contributions to Reading Around… on World Book Day (06/03/08) and send them to us for online viewing and distribution.
Artists responded to the call with pages of artwork, audio recordings and video files which have been collated into the Reading Around website archive. The works submitted range from pieces inspired by or referencing novels to thoughts about reading, acts of reading, and mail art reading pieces.
The site includes 60 artists’ pages for viewing or download, some short movies and audio pieces about reading / books and a free download PDF e-book, which you can print out and make up into your own book.
50 copies of each of the 60 artworks were laser-jet printed from the artwork files as they were received. The resulting 3,000 pages were made up into library and bookstore packs which were sent out to slip into random books at 50 venues in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico and new Zealand.
Bookmarks - Infiltrating the Library System
An annual project which aims to encourage appreciation of work in the format of the artist's book. Participating artists each hand-produce an edition of 100 signed and numbered bookmarks to give away through distribution boxes at venues around the world. Since May 2004, the Bookmarks series of free artwork distribution has visited 50 venues in Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Cyprus, Australia and the USA. Over 250 artists have contributed more than 25,000 bookmarks to the projects to date.
Regenerator - Altered Books Project
An altered book exhibition and exchange, using books that had been boxed up for withdrawal from the School's art library at Bower Ashton. Regenerator turned discarded library books into artists’ books by sending them out to artists to work on and swap with each other. 76 artists took part, selecting a book and returning it after they had created a new piece of work with it. The regenerated bookworks were exhibited at the Off-Centre Gallery, Bristol in 2007, and each of the books are permanently archived on the bookarts website, with working notes from the artists and images of the books. Regenerator II launches in 2010 and will be slightly different this time - the books will come back into the library.
The Blue Notebook: journal for artists' books
Launched in October 2006 as a peer-reviewed journal of essays and artworks on contemporary artists publishing. Two issues a year are published by Impact Press (October and April). The journal provides a platform for the discussion of worldwide, contemporary book arts practice. For more information see: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bnotebk.htm
BABE - Bristol Artist's Book Event at Arnolfini
The Centre for Fine Print Research in collaboration with Arnolfini, holds the bi-annual Bristol Artist's Book Event at Arnolfini Bristol. Each event has c. 50 stands of national and international exhibitors and around 6,500 visitors come to Arnolfini for the event. The next BABE will be held at Arnolfini in April 2011.
Sarah also co-ordinates the exhibition programme and edits the Book Arts Newsletter for the artist's book study area at the School’s Bower Ashton library, which has monthly exhibitions of artists' books. Please see the artists' books events section for more details on the current exhibition. Sarah has worked with American and European institutions over the last four years, to set up the ABPP Artists’ Books Partnership-exhibition Programme with universities, collections, schools, societies, libraries and bookshops in North America, UK, The Netherlands and Finland to date. This programme runs on a rolling basis, using books from her own archive collection on free loan to set up exhibitions that promote the subject to a wider community.
Sarah’s recent artists’ books include Flowers in Hotel Rooms Volumes I-IV, an ongoing series of books inspired by Richard Brautigan’s novel The Abortion; Viola, the story of a serial killer baker; After Fallout; The Romantic Tradition Unleashed; Against Nature; Closure - a short story of the end of a love affair between a plane spotter and flower arranger (2009), How Do I Love Thee, a collaboration with JP Willis which explores the lengths people will go to, to keep their loved ones close by (2009), and 2.43 made specially for Abigail Thomas’ Micro Pages project (2009).
Sarah's artists' books are included in many international collections such as Tate Britain, the British Library and the V & A Museum, All Saints Library and Winchester School of Art, UK; Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, Yale Centre for British Art, MOMA, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Mills College and Rhode Island School of Design USA; Museum van het Boek and AKI (ArtEz) The Netherlands; Biblioteca Casanatense, Italy; Southern Cross University, Lismore and Institute of the Arts, Canberra, Australia.
A
Selected Gallery of Sarah's works More
information about Sarah... Read an interview with
Sarah on the V&A's Book Artists website: www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints_books/artists_books/
book_artists/bodman/index.html
The quiet democracy of the contemporary artist’s book
(or why do artists make books?) presentation at
Books That Fly Conference, University of Brighton, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, 5th July 2008 : download PDF
The
artist’s book market, and the relationship between the artist and
purchaser Beyond the Book Symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
UK. 18/04/08 Artists’
Talks on Artists’ Books One-Day Symposium at Winchester School
of Art, co-hosted by the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE, Bristol &
Winchester Schoolof Art Library, University of Southampton. Friday 13th July 2007
Click on the images below to view samples of Sarah's work...
