UWE Bristol, School of Creative Arts,
Department of Art and Design
Cunning Chapters
curated by Susan Johanknecht and Katharine Meynell
20th November 2007- 26th January 2008
Cunning Chapters is a collaborative artist’s book curated by Susan Johanknecht and Katharine Meynell.
Thirteen chapters are thematically linked by ideological concerns of ‘well madeness’, loss and conservation in the production of artwork, using a combination of technologies.
Stephen Bury has written a manifesto for the artist’s book as an introduction. William Cobbing works in ‘posthumous collaboration’ with Bob Cobbing using faulty photocopying techniques, burial and excavation.
Georgios Boudalis writes about repair of bookbindings in his archaeological work on St. Catherine’s Library in the Sinai. Stability of information is played with by Clippety Clop and deaf lead singer Aaron Williamson, this chapter accounts for acoustic information passed between the hearing and the non-hearing, and consequent interpretations or reinvention of material. Redell Olson and Drew Milne (Electric Crinolines) release their first single as (non functioning) pianola roll. Retention, reproduction and modification of information is developed through technological practices; digital facsimile or approximate reproduction. The work of Finlay Taylor uses ‘snail technology’, where ‘text’ is that which is eaten away in treated areas of paper, consumed by snails. Sigrid Holmwood works with pigments, combining unearthly colours dating from Tudor recipes to modern Day-Glo. Susan Johanknecht reworks diagrams from science text books on Bible paper and lists descriptions of armour on archival Arches pages, using staples that will rust with time. Katharine Meynell’s chapter is based on the life of Santa Chiara, performance artist and patron saint of television, using a combination of accurate facsimile and variable, hand made marks. Kate Scrivener began with the desire for the wild within the urban. Her prints of two painted London twigs are surrounded by a haze of digital dots, suggesting an activity or interference. Louisa Minkin handset the narrative of a clockmaker to explore experiences of time, craft and craftlessness.
In putting these chapters together their relationship to each other produces a range of concerns played out through the ‘thingness’ of the book. The artists’ choices of technologies used here are ancient and modern, each decision made for the particular chapter.
Cunning Chapters is a collaborative artist’s book curated by Susan Johanknecht and Katharine Meynell. Published by the Gefn Press 2007, ISBN 902596-30-7.
It is a hand made edition of 60, of which 20 copies are for sale at £250.
142 pages, coptic binding with mill boards by Kelly Wellman, and a linen slip case.
For enquiries email: gefnbooks@ntlworld.com
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