rich and strange: altered books project
This project was inspired by Regenerator, organised by Sarah Bodman from the Centre for Fine Print Research at Bristol School of Art, Media and Design, UWE, Bristol. Regenerator, in turn, had its roots in a collaborative project called Long Overdue: Book Renewal, between the Portland Public Library and Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, USA. Here, in late 2005, artists were encouraged to create bookworks in any way they liked from books that were on the ‘discards’ list of the town library, then return them to library stock, from where they can now be borrowed by members of the public.
Almost 200 artists took part and their books have attracted widespread public interest (details at www.portlandlibrary.com/programs/Altered.htm). The risk of having the books kept by borrowers rather than being returned was one that artists were willing to take, in order to bring their work to a far wider audience than might normally be the case.
In the Regenerator project books were also selected from library discards, then altered by participating artists before being exhibited and archived online. Finally they were exchanged so that each contributing artist receives a bookwork from another artist in return. I had just submitted my own altered book for Regenerator when an old friend gave me 3 large boxes of books that he no longer wanted - over 100 books in total. Publication dates range from 1949 to 2003 and most are art-related in subject (we both teach at an art school in Wales). However, they cover a wide spectrum, from The Agony and the Ecstasy to ‘lit crit’, taking in Marx, Pound, Schopenhauer and kitsch along the way (and providing, incidentally, a revealing snapshot of my friend’s eclectic interests over the past 40 years or so). The gift of all these discarded, yet potentially precious, objects just seems like too good an opportunity to miss!
rich and strange will, I hope, operate in a similar way to Long Overdue: Book Renewal, as I have a personal interest in taking art to places not habitually used by artists, and to audiences who might not encounter ‘art’ in their everyday lives. Our local public library in Newport, South Wales has expressed interest in taking part and discussions are ongoing: more news to follow. (If successful, this means that books will be made available for public borrowing and not returned to their ‘makers’, a factor that participants will need to consider.) In any case, all books will be exhibited first at flock, the new gallery space at Newport School of Art Media and Design, University of Wales, Newport, from 4th October 2007.
To take part, email : celia.jackson@newport.ac.uk for a book list, then let me know which one you’d like (first come first served) and I will post it to you.
The deadline for receipt of your altered books will be 31st August 2007.
Celia Jackson
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Regenerator : altered
books project exhibition Off-Centre Gallery, Bristol Weds 25th April - Friday 11th May 2007 |
An online article from the New York Times in April 2006, about an altered books project inspired us to do something similar. Long Overdue: Book Renewal was a collaboration between Maine College of Art and the Portland Public Library. Books that had been retired from the library's collection were given to 200 artists who then turned them into works of art. These works of art were then re-entered into their library system and became available for check out to anyone in the country, thanks to the Inter Library Loan system. The books from that project can be viewed online at : www.meca.edu/GalleriesExhibitions/Longoverdue.aspx
This instigated something similar with the books that had been boxed up for withdrawal from our School's art library at Bower Ashton. Due to space, the library didn’t want them back, so this became an artists’ exchange project. We had a selection of books from hardback to paperback, novels, old exhibition catalogues and manuals, some in good condition, some very worn with missing covers or pages.
82 artists took part, selecting a book from the list and returning it after they had created a new piece of work with it. The books were sent out to artists in the United Kingdom, EIRE, Australia, Germany, USA, Denmark, Norway and South Africa to work with and return by March for archiving and photographing before the exhibition and swap.
We had a brilliant response, with some absolutely beautiful creations made from old and ragged books. From altered books - which still resemble the original - to sculptures, paper cuts and objects made from the books’ pages, and poster series and a sound piece based on the site of the original book; there is a huge variety of wonderfully regenerated bookworks to see.
Regenerator has reanimated the discarded library books into artists’ books and related artworks through sending them out to artists to work on and swap back with each other. Library staff from Bower Ashton will make a draw from a hat during the exhibition, to swap the books back artist by artist.
After the exhibition, the project, and each of the books will be permanently archived here on our bookarts website, with working notes from the artists and images of the books.
One of the books in the exhibition will be returning to the library by special request from the artist Steve McPherson. McPherson is meticulous artist, his artists’ books often take years to complete, with him spending up to three months per page. These are all hand worked in a variety of processes, with hand stitching, photographs, found objects, hand lettering and drawings. McPherson is reworking Elias Canetti’s Auto Da Fe at his own pace, which will be kindly donated to our library’s artist book collection by him on completion.
The books and works will be on display at Off-Centre Gallery, Bristol
from Weds 25th April – Friday 11th May 2007.
Off-Centre Gallery
13 Cotswold Road
Windmill Hill
Bedminster
Bristol
BS3 4NX
UK
Open: Weds-Sun 10-5.
Tel: 0117 987 2647
email: offcentre@lineone.net
| BABE: First
ever Bristol Artists Book Event at Arnolfini, Bristol, UK Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd April 10am - 6pm Free Admission |
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The first event of its kind in Bristol, over fifty artist bookmakers, publishers and dealers from across the globe will come to together to display and sell their work to the public.
The notion of making art in an affordable, non-wall based format has led to the growth of what we now recognise as the 'artist's book'. A way of bypassing the constraints of the gallery, artists' books have brought art to a wider public through artists self-publishing their work.
Many of the stalls will be run by the artists themselves, so visitors will get the chance to meet and chat to them about their art and to buy bookworks directly from the artists. With prices starting from just a few pounds, this is a wonderful chance to buy unusual limited edition works of art.
BABE has been organised by Arnolfini in conjunction with the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England. Since re-opening in 2005, Arnolfini has been exhibiting bookworks in the bookshop: BABE continues Arnolfini's ongoing commitment to the production and display of artists' bookworks.
Says co-organiser Julian Warren 'We're very excited about the event. Artists from Bristol will be showing at Arnolfini alongside work from much further afield such as Poland, South Korea and the USA. BABE is a first for the region and I think that people will find exploring this unusual form of art really interesting.'
Bookworks from Arnolfini's own archived collection will also be on display on the second floor and there will be tours on both days led by experts Tanya Peixoto, founder of bookartbookshop Ltd and Linda Newington, Librarian at the Winchester School of Art Library. Both tours take place at 2pm and are free.
The event isn't just an opportunity for visitors- artists themselves will be offered 45 minute surgeries held during the weekend where they can discuss book production and other issues, and receive critical feedback on their work from experts.
Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA.
web : www.arnolfini.org.uk
Tel : +44(0) 117 917 2300/ 01
The Blue Notebook: a new journal for artists' books
The Blue Notebook launched with Vol.1 No.1 in October 2006 as a peer reviewed journal, published twice a year.
Vol.1 No.2 will be published next month in April, with essays by; Lynn Sures (USA) VARIATIONS: on the Dialectic between Mingus and Pithecanthropus Erectus; Iain Biggs (UK) Place, Enchantment, and ‘Visual Refrain’: A context for recent book works by Helen Douglas; Frans Baake (The Netherlands): Kirjahduksia Affairs: Artists’ Books in Finland; Kyoko Tachibana (Japan): artists’ books news from Japan; Joanne Lee (UK) on the published works of Sharon Kivland; Nancy Campbell (UK) Creating Co-incidences; The Possibility of Poetry: from Migrant Magazine to Artists’ Books and Magnus Irvin: Our Man in Paraguay.
Artists’ pages by: Matt Lumby; Sue Platt; Christian Brett and Alice Smith; Anwen Williams and Nick Pearson.
The journal is published in two formats: an electronic colour version to be accessed at any time online, and a paper, black and white version.
(Print) ISSN 1751-1712
(Online) ISSN 1751-1720
Subscription covers both formats at £10 GBP per annum - UK and international.
We welcome submissions of writing on contemporary artists’ books for The Blue Notebook. Deadline for submissions to issue 4 will be: 19th January 2008.
For more information please contact Sarah Bodman.
For subscriptions, please download the form on our publications page at or at www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bnotebk.htm
Arcadia id est : Touring Exhibition 2005-2007
artists’ books, nature and the landscape
An exhibition examining the use of nature and the landscape within the format of the artist's book. The Arcadia exhibition tour launched at TRACE Gallery Dorset, in March 2005 (with a talk by Dr Stephen Bury, British Library), and has since visited: UWE, Bristol; Centre for the Artist's Book, Australia; Moufflon Bookshop, Nicosia, Cyprus; Eagle Gallery, London; Hartley Library, University of Southampton; AKI, Enschede, The Netherlands, Rikhardinkatu Library, Helsinki, Finland and the John M Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Arcadia id Est is on show from March 19th – May 13th, 2007 at:
The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and Washington University Libraries,
One Brookings Drive.
St. Louis,
MO 63130-4899,
USA.
It will be on display in the Ginkgo Reading Room & the Grand Staircase Lobby, John M. Olin Library.
The tour continues:
19 March -13 May 2007 at Washington University Libraries, St. Louis, USA
1 June – 31 July 2007 at Rhode Island School of Art and Design, Providence, USA
20 August – 2 October 2007 at Noosa Regional Gallery, Australia
Continuing Professional Development courses for book arts:
Bookbinding for artists
Led by Guy Begbie
The book is a viable, visual medium that can provide links and meeting points between many art disciplines such as print, painting and sculpture.
It is perhaps the most intimate, easily accessible and portable of all the art forms. In this intensive five-day course both traditional and unorthodox bookbinding structures will be taught. The course is designed to be appropriate for people with or without previous experience.
10 places available
Date : 16 - 20 July, 9.30am - 4.30pm
Price: £225
Lunch will be provided
Laser Cutting and Book structures for artists’ books
Led by Guy Begbie and Claire Humphries
The course covers laser-cutting / engraving paper structures with binding designs for book artists. Laser-cutting can produce delicate imagery or text cut outs through most paper / material surfaces, for altered books, paper structures and overlaying pages of text and image. The course is designed to be appropriate for people with or without previous experience.
10 places available
Date : 23 - 27 July, 9.30am - 4.30pm
Price : £300
Lunch will be provided
Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE
Bristol, School of Art, Media and Design
Kennel Lodge Road
Bristol
BS3 2JT
UK
email : amd.cpd@uwe.ac.uk
Tel : 0117 3284810
A call for information to include in the new updated version of:
Artists’ Books Creative Production and Marketing: a free guidebook for book artists - 2007
The current issue can be downloaded as a free PDF from www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/survres.htm (ISBN 0 9547025 1 4, Impact Press)
This guide was compiled after a one-year, AHRC supported survey in 2005, for the book artist in their role of creative maker, publisher and distributor of their own artwork; to discuss and hopefully resolve some of the practical issues of marketing work.
The survey looked at methods used by book artists for producing and distributing their work, and the importance of artist’s book fairs and events for building relationships with purchasers and with other artists. We also interviewed 24 book artists as a series of case studies of their experiences in the UK, EIRE, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the USA.
We have had some great responses and some more information emailed in as a result of the first publication, so we will make an new updated version for free PDF publication in 2007.
If you have any information or experiences you would like to share to help other book artists promote their work, then please email the info to us by the end of June 2007. Any top-tips, new websites, shops, book fairs, marketing, collections etc. that you think would be of interest to others. Your name will be credited.
Thank you.
Email, post or fax items for inclusion to:
e-mail: Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk
Sarah Bodman
Impact Press
Centre for Fine Print Research
UWE Bristol School of Art, Media and Design
Kennel Lodge Road
Bristol
BS3 2JT
UK
Fax: +44 (0)117 32 84824
Tel: +44 (0)117 32 84747
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