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Book Arts |
Organised by Linda Parr: Artists from twenty-two countries responded to the call to create the Two Hundred and Forty-three Postcards in Real Colour. A slideshow video was presented at BABE for The Lost Weekend and a catalogue will be forthcoming.
‘The exhibition is on display for students and staff at Bower Ashton Library before touring, read more about the exhibition here.
Georges Perec parodied these postcard messages in ‘Two Hundred and Forty-three Postcards in Real Colour’, dedicated to his fellow writer and friend Italo Calvino. These imaginary missives are now becoming a reality, postal postmodernists on a Grand Tour via Perec’s Postcards.’ See them on Instagram. Image here by Valeska Hykel Mears: Weather sublime, high-quality food, delightful people. We’re at the Hôtel de Gascogne. Thinking of you a lot.
Our Summer Institute this year includes: MOT’ing your art practice with the wonderful Emma Gregory; Photogravure: an early photographic printing process with a modern twist with Dr Peter Moseley; Poetic Artists’ Books with Jeremy Dixon and Tetra Pak Printmaking with Stephen Fowler, and two sold out classes with Lucy May Schofield.
View all our courses and book online here. we hope to see you here at Bower Ashton this summer.
Image here: Tetra Pak Printmaking by Stephen Fowler
As the pandemic has caused so many delays we have pushed back publication of the Artist’s Book Yearbook 2022-2023 to give artists and organisations time to send in their free listings. Please download the free listings form to fill in and return by 10th September 2021 here.
The ABYB is a biennial reference publication focusing on international activity in the field of book arts. It serves as a resource for artists, academics, students, collectors, librarians, dealers, publishers and researchers, in fact anyone interested in artists’ books!
The 2022-2023 issue will have essays, articles, and lots of useful information on: Artist’s Book Publishers & Presses; Bookshops for artists’ books; Artist’s Book Dealers; Artist’s Book Galleries & Centres; Collections, Libraries & Archives; Artist’s Book Fairs and Events; Book Arts Courses and Workshops; Design, Print & Bind; Print Studios; Journals and Magazines; New Reference Publications; Organisations, People, Projects and Societies.
Artists are invited to list up to 3 of their recent book works. You can also list your bookshop, print studio, bindery, artist’s book fair, supplier services, gallery, institution, library, reference book, journal, society, organisation, workshops or courses etc.
Publication date: January 2022. All listings are free of charge. If you would like to support the publication of the ABYB by pre-ordering a copy or taking out an advert please visit our online store here.
Our class of 2021 is graduating, you can see some work on their online showcase and on the MAMDP Instagram.
We are pleased to announce that the 2021 Agassi Book Arts Prize is shared between the MA Multidisciplinary Printmaking students Csilla Bíro and Ben Jenner for their artists’ publications. Read more about their work and the prize here.
The 2021 Clifford Moss Prize goes to Emma Brown and the Rebecca Smith Award to Stephen Fowler.
Image shown here is a detail from Spite House pamphlet by Csilla Bíro, printed offset litho and letterpress.
Vol 15 No. 2, Spring – Summer 2021 is the first of two issues dedicated to The Arts Libraries Society Australia and New Zealand (Arlis/ANZ) & abbe 2020 conference presentations on artists’ books practices. In this issue: Dr Tim Mosely introduces the Arlis/ANZ abbe 2020 collaboration: reimagining the material: artists’ books, printed matter, digital transformation, engagement
Marian Crawford explores the slipperiness of the character of certain artists’ books as case studies, and considers whether the form and content of these hand-printed artworks present an opportunity to test conventions of both the book and the portrait. Crawford’s book Picturing the Island (2016) presents a portrait of Central Pacific islands, while Alison Alder’s Sleep of Doubt (2015) is populated by screenprinted portraits of contemporary Australian politicians. Both artists have discovered that when a book is hand-made, the signifying power of this familiar form changes.
Paul Uhlmann posits that select artists’ books are material objects existing as unique vehicles of literature, simultaneously occupying visible and invisible realms. The books are embodied creations. The pages are the stuff of matter—of oil, pigment and paper—but are also always objects of the body; their purpose is to effect change, to convey sensations and feelings to others.
Caren Florance – The field of Australian artists’ books is a broad and active one, and its development and various histories have been both helped and hindered by the rise of digital culture. The internet has fed and sustained cross-pollination and connection between our regional communities; however, it has also failed us by proving to be unstable, quick to overwrite itself, and expensive in terms of archiving for the future. In the short term, it allows us to find creative solutions for quick-turn needs, as we are discovering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ana Paula Estrada responds to Ulises Carrión’s ‘The New Art of Making Books’. She aims to contribute to a better understanding of ‘the new art’ by presenting two examples – an artist’ book which investigates how papermaking and the book’s materiality can be used to draw the reader closer to the subject matter. The second is a digital artwork that aims to translate oral speech into a form that explores technology as a means of connectedness between aged care residents and the rest of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Angie Butler – By setting phenomenology within the context of art-making it is possible to investigate how we use our minds and bodies through the experience of practice. This discussion considers that contemporary artist-publishing activities that employ the letterpress process, are embedded in how practitioners articulate their bodies and senses to engage with materials, equipment, and presses to develop their work.
Cover design: Tom Sowden
Artist’s page: Robert Good
Subscribe to Vol 15 for £10 including postage here.
The Artist’s Book Yearbook 2020-2021 has essays, articles, and lots of useful information on: Artist’s Book Publishers & Presses; Bookshops for artists’ books; Artist’s Book Dealers; Artist’s Book Galleries & Centres; Collections, Libraries & Archives; Artist’s Book Fairs and Events; Book Arts Courses and Workshops; Design, Print & Bind; Print Studios; Journals and Magazines; New Reference Publications; Organisations, People, Projects and Societies.
In the Artists’ Books Listings section, you can also discover hundreds of examples of new books made by artists in: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Cover design: Tom Sowden.
Order your copy with UK postage here, or international postage here.
Image shown is a detail from an artist’s page in the ABYB: Gatehouse artists’ books guerrilla exhibition before and after, Eiji Watanabe, Japan.
We are delighted to announce that UWE bookarts has received an award from the Nordic Culture Point to run a new project until 2022. This is in collaboration with Megan Adie (Aviary Press, Denmark), Sarah Bodman (CFPR, UWE Bristol) Angie Butler, (CFPR, UWE Bristol) Imi Maufe (Codex Polaris, Norway), Lina Nordenström (Grafikverkstan Godsmagasinet, Sweden) Joakim Norling (Timglaset Editions, Malmö Sweden), Morwenna Peters (Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol), Tom Sowden (School of Art & Design, UWE, Bristol) and Maria White (Independent curator, UK).
Our project will facilitate knowledge exchange between librarians, artists and the public that will expand understanding of arts practice, and work towards a more sustainable, innovative and culturally successful discipline. It will change attitudes towards and the perception of artists’ books. You can read a little more info about our plans here. The featured image here is of Imi Maufe’s, Norway in a Bookshelf, collection of artists’ books.
Please send your 1, 2 or 3-word poems or visual poems to pps3wordpoems@gmail.com by 21 July 2021. Our panel will select 6 poems to make x 1000 38mm badges for our Printed Poetry Symposium at Arnolfini Bristol on 14th October 2021. The 6 selected poets will receive a badge set + free symposium ticket (which includes an amazing goody bag on the day). If you are not in the UK we can post the badges and bag to you
Your 1, 2 or 3 word poem can be in any language. We will make a video of all submissions to show as part of the Printed Poetry event to play on the CFPR Printed Poetry Youtube playlist in October, so make sure you include your name in the email if you want it credited.
This exhibition is on tour as part of the ongoing al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition projects. The online Inventory gallery was launched to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street on 5th March 2012, for which project partners around the world held commemorative readings and events. Since then the Inventory has grown as artists’ books created for the project have arrived. The gallery pages show images and information for each of the 260 books completed for the project.
Exhibitions held since the launch of the tour include:
The Westminster Reference Library, Westminster, UK; The Powell Library Rotunda, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA; Salt & Cedar Letterpress Studio, Detroit, Michigan, USA; The Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; The Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; The John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK; The San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, California, USA; Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, California USA; the Center for Book Arts, New York in association with Alwan for the Arts, Columbia University Libraries Butler Library, International Print Center New, Poets House, New York, USA; Literary & Philosophical Society Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, USA; Curry College, Milton, Massachusetts, USA; American University in Cairo, Egypt; Arab – British Centre, London, UK; The Mosaic Rooms, London, UK; Kate Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts at the University Of Southern Maine, USA; The Hague Public Library, The Netherlands; Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada; Jaffe Center for Books Arts, Florida Atlantic University, USA; Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, Rochester, New York, USA; Goddard College, Vermont, USA; Arab American National Museum, Dearborn/Detroit, Michigan, USA; Idaho Center for the Book in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Institute at Boise State University, USA; George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA; Herron School of Art and Design, The Herron Art Library of IUPUI University library, USA; Keats House and the Iraqi Cultural Centre, London; the Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, USA; Idaho Center for the Book in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Institute at Boise State University; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016 a partnership between George Mason University’s School of Art and George Mason University Libraries, Split This Rock, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, McLean Project for the Arts, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University, Busboys and Poets, Georgetown University, Cultural DC, Smithsonian Libraries, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Northern Virginia Community College, George Mason University Student Media and Fourth Estate Newspaper; Rosenberg Library at the City College of San Francisco, USA; Konstlitografiska museet, Helliden, Sweden.
Selections from the related Shadow and Light project are currently on show online at UC Santa Barbara Library, California, USA. View them online here.
The image shown here is a detail from Enghelab Avenue I, II, III by Azadeh Fatehrad, Tehran, Iran. You can read more about the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project at the LAAF Festival website.
