Bookarts Projects
Many of our projects are ongoing: Artist’s
Book Yearbook, The Blue Notebook,
Book Arts Newsletter, Bookmarks
and What’s in the Box? for example.
Some of the new things we are working on will be added to the
page as they develop over 2012, from new collaborations with
universities in France and Brazil, to new research into artists’
books and letterpress.
Artist's
Book Yearbook 2012 - 2013
Published September 2011 by Impact
Press
ISBN 978-1-906501-06-8
Over 600 artist’s book listings from 207 national
and international artists. Reference listings of: collections,
libraries, archives, bookshops, galleries, centres, design
print & bind, publishers, dealers, presses, studios,
competitions, fairs, festivals and exhibitions, journals,
reference books, organisations, societies, websites, academic
projects, touring programmes and courses.
Essays include:
John Bently
on books and community; Earle
D. Swope’s extraordinary
account of how he came to be a book artist; an update
on the work of the collaborative artists’ group
AMBruno;
a study by Eileen O’Keefe
of Sarah Jacobs’
thoroughly absorbing - Drawn from
the Inventory: the Notebooks of Elisabeth Faulhaber;
Jackie Batey
celebrates the 10th issue of Future
Fantasteek!; Lawrence
Upton has written on his extensive
art collaboration with Guy Begbie;
Davy & Kristin McGuire
explain their beautiful performance piece The
Icebook; Nicola
Dale looks at the artistic potential
of book destruction, and Radoslaw
Nowakowski asks: Is
a hypertext (artist’s) book possible?
Linda Newington
explores the book works of SALT
+ SHAW; Paulo
Silveira reflects on the start
of his recent academic project: The
University and the Artist’s Book,
and Reinhard Grüner
shows us some of the very special presentation copies
of artists’ books in his collection.
Artists’ pages by:
Amir Brito Cadôr,
Eric Doeringer,
Lara Durback, the Idaho
Book Artist’s Guild, Susan
Johanknecht, Paul
Laidler, SALT
+ SHAW, Clare
Thornton and Maria
White. Cover design by Tom
Sowden.
254pp, 21 x 29.7 cm, paperback.
£15
per copy (P&P inclusive in the price) UK
£16
per copy (P&P inclusive in the price) Worldwide
The ABYB
was founded in 1994 by Tanya
Peixoto, John
Bently,
Stephanie Brown and
Stefan Szczelkun, and arose
from their collective passion to offer book artists an
opportunity to read critical essays by writers and artists,
to gain an overview of artist’s book production
and most importantly to encourage greater discussion and
awareness of book arts. Tanya Peixoto published the ABYB
under her Magpie Press imprint until 1999 when she went
on to set up bookartbookshop
in London, a fantastic place to peruse and buy artists’
books.
The ABYB serves
as a resource for artists, academics, students, collectors,
librarians, dealers, publishers and researchers. Each
book includes essays and information on many aspects of
the book arts, artists' listings, information on book
arts galleries, archives and collections, book arts courses,
events, journals, bibliographies and reference publications,
studios and websites, with book arts contributors from
around the world.
The ABYB is available at selected
bookshops and galleries in Europe and the USA or can be
ordered directly from us here at Impact Press.
Please see the publications
pages for issues 2001-2, 2003-5, 2006-7, 2008-9 and
2010-2011.
In
the UK
International
orders
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Follow-ed
(After Hokusai) curated by Tom Sowden and Michalis Pichler
Tom has been collecting and curating books by artists
who - like himself - produce work in the style of, and
in tribute to the American artist Ed
Ruscha, for some years. In December 2010 he joined
forces with Berlin-based poet and conceptual artist Michalis
Pichler. After exchanging books with each other,
they decided to co-curate collaborative shows under Follow-Ed
(after Hokusai). The first Follow-Ed
(After Hokusai) exhibition was at Winchester School
of Art Gallery, February - 10th March 2011, followed by
Arnolfini in March - April 2011, where the show was installed
as part of Cover-ed.
Cover-ed was a series of curatorial
and creative interventions into and around Ed
Ruscha and Mason Williams'
iconic 1969 photo bookwork Crackers,
by the Performance Re-enactment Society
(PRS), Tom Sowden & Michalis
Pichler and Arnolfini Archive. Over March and April
2011, the bookwork became the script, score, instruction,
and inspiration for a three-day performance of photography,
a participatory performance event, an installation, and
a new artist's book called Salad Dressing.
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| Michalis
Pichler, Tom's collaborator in Follow-Ed
(after Hokusai) exhibited his collection of books,
which: "for the most part use photography, the book
form, and are somewhat ruschaish", simultaneously
at P74 Gallery, Ljubljana (March - April 2011). This also
saw the launch of Michalis Pichler's book SIX
HANDS AND A CHEESE SANDWICH (featuring an excessive
after-Ruscha bibliography). You can see some images of
the installation on Michalis'
website. |
The Blue Notebook: journal for artists' books
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Our journal is published twice a year in October and April,
as a peer-reviewed journal of essays, articles and artworks
on contemporary artists publishing. The journal provides
a platform for the discussion of worldwide, contemporary
book arts practice.
Subscription is £10GBP per annum (anywhere in the
world) and includes a printed black and white version,
access to a colour version online, stickers and a badge
designed for each volume by a guest artist. Vol
5 No 1 published October 2010 has a cover, badge
and stickers by Angela Callanan.
Our referee panel reviews written contributions: Dr
Anne Béchard-Léauté, France;
Maria Fusco, UK; Susan Johanknecht,
UK; Jeff Rathermel, USA; Dr
Paulo Silveira, Brazil and Ulrike
Stoltz, Germany. Artists' contributions are at
the invitation of the Art Editor: Tom
Sowden.
We welcome submissions of writing on contemporary artists’
books for The Blue Notebook. Please
see the submission
guidelines or contact 
Sarah Bodman
For subscriptions, please download the form on The
Blue Notebook page. |
Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadsides Exhibition Tour
2011 - 2014
The al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition has been organising readings
and other events since April 2007 to fundraise for Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF). All 130 broadsides created
for the project can be viewed at the Florida
Atlantic University/Jaffe Center for Book Arts site.
      
Sarah is coordinating the 2012 - 2014 programme for the European
section of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadsides Tour of Readings,
Exhibitions and Events.
Recent and upcoming exhibitions and events
with auctions of the broadsides:
Some of the European exhibitions and events for Al-Mutanabbi
Street broadsides have included: The Market House, Market Street,
Monaghan, Republic of Ireland in February and Ilac Centre Library,
Henry St., Dublin 1, Republic of Ireland. Organised by Evelyn
Conlon in February-March 2011; Frans Baake and Joop Visser organised
an exhibition at Museum Joure, in The Netherlands from February
– March; Katie Donlon organised an exhibition at the John
Rylands University Library, Manchester from April - June 2011.
Salli Yule Tsingas curated a selection of al-Mutanabbi Street
broadsides and organised readings and talks over August 2011
at Westminster Reference Library, London. Recent USA shows included
An Inventory Of Al-Mutanabbi Street at the UNO Gallery at the
University Of Nebraska, Omaha in October 2011.
There will be readings in March 2012 to mark the fifth anniversary
of the bombing of al-Mutanabbi street, confirmed events will
take place in San Francisco, and at UCLA in Los Angeles, in
Miami, in the UK, and the Republic of Ireland. If anyone wants
to organise such a reading in their area please let Beau Beausoleil
know. He can help you shape the reading, perhaps it can involve
your local writing community and you can reach out to Arab-American
writers and scholars in your area. You don't have to draw a
huge numbers of people, just people who want to know what we
are doing, who want to hear some Iraqi voices put into the air.
And maybe one of them will extend a hand to help the project
in some way.
We are also looking for more European and Australian host venues
over 2012 - 2014, please help us spread the word. If you are
interested in hosting an exhibition or display of a selection
of broadsides, please contact:
Sarah Bodman we
would love to hear from you.
If you would like to donate to MSF
via the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition's events page, please
visit: www.justgiving.com/al-mutanabbistreet
An Inventory Of Al-Mutanabbi Street
The al-Mutanabbi street coalition is pleased to announce that
we are at the end of our call to book artists for An Inventory
Of Al-Mutanabbi Street and that we have more than met our initial
goal of 130 books artists. Our total, on the last day of the
call was 261. The many participating
book artists reflect a global understanding of what books mean
within every culture.
On behalf of Sarah Bodman and myself, Beau Beausoleil, I want
to thank all of you who have stepped forward and joined the
project. This is the first leg in our journey with this work,
and it means much to us that we have encountered so many book
artists who not only want to create three books in memory of
al-Mutanabbi street, but also want to advance the ideas of the
project by helping us find venues to exhibit this work to people
around the world.
Beau Beausoleil
The first complete UK show of all the artists’ books from
"An Inventory Of Al-Mutanabbi Street" is now programmed.
The last of the artist books should be completed in the autumn
of 2012. The exhibition, and many associated book arts events,
will run from mid January 2013, to mid May 2013, at the John
Rylands Library, Manchester, UK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rylands_Library
Artists’ Books Partnership, exhibition
Programme (ABPP)
The artists’
books partnership exhibition programme (ABPP) has been
running for 5 years, and has loaned works for over 45
exhibitions, workshops and events to universities, collections,
schools, libraries, galleries, clubs and bookshops in
Europe and the USA so far. The programme loans artists’
books from Sarah’s own collection at CFPR, on a
no fee basis - to set up projects, workshops, clubs, exhibitions
and events promoting artists' book to a wider community.
Some of the loans made during this time include: The
Art of the Book: Collaboration exhibition at the
University of Missouri, USA curated by Marian
Amies, Associate Professor in the Department of
Art and Art History at the University of Missouri; Book
Arts Center at Limfjordscenter Doverodde, Denmark;
Cowles Library, Drake University
Des Moines, USA; AKI (ArtEz),
Enschede, The Netherlands; Stroud College;
Quay Arts Centre, Isle of Wight;
The Greenhouse, Guernsey;
University of Leicester; londonprintstudio,
London; The New Art Gallery Walsall;
Swindon College; Bristol Reference
Library, Yateley Library;
University of Chester; Internationales
Bentlager Druckgraphik, Germany; Galleri
VOX, Bergen, Norway: Public Space
With A Roof, Amsterdam; The Richard
Attenborough Centre, University of Leicester;
Stroud College; Isle of Wight
Book Arts Group; the Society of
Bookbinders; The Art of the Book:
Journals Then and Now, UK and USA tour;
Solihull Gallery: Lit & Phil,
Newcastle upon Tyne, Wood Green School, Witney; Spacex
Gallery, Exeter; Birkbeck College; Spike Print Studio;
The Sunderland Book project curated by Theresa Easton
at Arts Centre Washington; Simon Goode Book Arts Workshops.
If you would like to borrow some books for a project or
exhibition, download the artists'
books list or zines and
multiples list and contact
Sarah Bodman.
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Artist’s Book Study Area:
Collection and Exhibition Programme
The Bower Ashton library collection
of artists’ books is a working study collection
for students and staff, including public access. Alongside
a collection of c. 750 books, there is a regular artist’s
book exhibition programme curated by Sarah
Bodman and documented through this website and
the regular Book Arts Newsletter, which can be downloaded
as a free, colour PDF.
The exhibitions programme has seen over 130 national and
international artists' books exhibitions since the launch
of the area in May 2002. The exhibitions range from individuals:
Ian Tyson, Tony
Kemplen, Liz Workman,
John Bently, John
Dilnot, Carrie Galbraith,
Karen Hanmer, Salt & Shaw
and Les Coleman to touring shows
such as Black/White [and Read]
curated by Gloria Helfgott;
Little Treasures: an exhibition
of collaborative works by Stephen Spurrier
and other artists from Australia; the Wexford
Artist’s Book Exhibition curated by Andi
McGarry and Denis Collins;
FACTION, and works from UIAH
Helsinki, and the Scuola Graphica,
Venice.
Recent exhibitions include, amongst others: Artists’
Books As Document Curated by Natalie
McGrorty; Sons
of the Sea: An international artist's book project
between Russia and the UK; Claire
Kennedy; Stephen Fowler‘s
Obscure Small Press
Publications and Unfinished Books and Guy
Begbie and Lawrence Upton.
For full details of all these exhibitions with archived
images, please see the Archived
Exhibitions pages. |
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Bookmarks IX Infiltrating the Library System
2011-2012 is live now!
Over the last six years the Bookmarks
series of free artwork distribution has visited 60 venues
in Italy, The Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark,
Germany, Poland, Singapore, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil,
South Korea, Cyprus, Croatia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia
and the USA. Over 280 artists have contributed more than 28,000
bookmarks to the nine projects to date.
         
Bookmarks IX Infiltrating
the Library System 2011-2012 is live now!
What’s
in the Box?
This project was founded and curated by Tom
Sowden in 2003, to publish collections
of artists’ books produced at UWE, supported and
sponsored by: CFPR, UWE Bristol and Hewlett Packard.
Alice Drake
- Print and Artists’ Books Projects Intern at CFPR
has recently taken over What’s in
the Box? and is curating the project to launch
a new collection in Summer 2012. Each project involves
MA Printmaking students, staff and invited artists; and
has so far produced five boxed volumes of books by 50
artists.
Each book is digitally printed from a single, A3 folded
sheet, printed and bound in uniform covers, with contents
supplied by the artists. See our publications
pages for more information.
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Letterpress
Etiquette Network
LEN:
A Research And Development Group for MA Multi-Disciplinary
Printmaking Students based at The University of The
West of England (UWE), founded by Angie
Butler. LEN is a practical
strand of a research project Angie is developing, in liaison
with Institutions, Printmakers, Printers and Book Artists,
both in the UK and overseas.
LEN meets on a Thursday evening to print together, swap
tips, discuss our research, developing practice both individually
and collectively.
On the first week of each month we have an 'indulgence
session’ when we spend the evening, tidying up,
sorting type and finding 'new' discoveries through our
explorations of 'the store.'
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Some previous projects
All of our projects remain archived
online:
BABE
- Bristol Artists Book Event 2011
Arnolfini and the Centre for Fine
Print Research presented BABE 2011 at Arnolfini
Sat 30 Apr and Sun 1 May 2011
Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE)
was bigger than ever for 2011. Spread over three floors,
this free event attracted thousands of visitors who came
to see and buy artists' books from over 100 artists, publishers
and presses from the UK, France, Belgium, Russia, USA,
Canada, South Korea and Spain.
UWE's student artist's book club ran their own stand at
the event alongside CFPR's Impact Press stand.
Lucy May Schofield ran bibliotherapy
sessions in her beautifully restored 1950s Citroen van
on the waterfront, and Nancy
Campell, Sarah
Bodman and Tom
Sowden ran free book surgeries
over the weekend.
Special treats included free pop-up bookmaking workshops
and rubber stamp workshops, and Imi Maufe's World Atlas,
where the public completed a huge hand drawn map of the
world from memory. The launch of the new book 'Salad
Dressing' by Tom
Sowden and the Performance
Re-enactment Society on Saturday
night included a champagne and lettuce performance event
with a new video ending to the book being launched this
month on Arnolfini's
website.
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A
Manifesto for the Book
Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden
recently published a free download 187pp reference publication:
A Manifesto for the Book, one of
the results of a two-year, Arts
and Humanities Research Council March 2008 - 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 was a responsive exploration with
a collaborative, international audience of artists, academics,
presses, publishers, curators, dealers, collectors and
students involved in the field, in order to propose an
inclusive structure for the academic study, artistic practice
and historical appreciation of the artist's book.
You can read all of the published outcomes online including,
interviews, essays, conference papers, case studies and
their Manifesto for the Book on
the project’s
home page. |
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Regenerator
- Altered Books Project 2010
Online archive and permanent displays
The Regenerator II project launched in February 2010,
with artists choosing their books from a list of withdrawn
books, to return by July 2010. 57 altered books were returned
from artists in Australia, the UK, Belgium, Germany and
Norway, to be documented and photographed for the online
archive.
The books are now on permanent display as part of Bower
Ashton Library’s artists’ books collection,
where they can be viewed and handled. Many thanks to illustration
student Alice Potter for displaying
the books in the library this summer.
A big 'thank you' to all the artists who took part in
this project and generously donated their altered books
to the library’s collection. We know these books
will be enjoyed by students, staff and visitors for many
years to come. The book here is Colony
collapse disorder by Kristine
Steele, UK. You can now
view all of the books online or visit the library
to see them in situ. |
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Paper
Models: Investigating laser cutting
technology to develop new artists’ books and paper-based
creative practice for arts, crafts and design
An Arts
and Humanities Research Council project awarded to
Tom Sowden (01/03/2010-31/10/2010)
Artists often adapt industrial and digital technologies
to work with creatively, as evidenced by the use of digital
printing, to create artists' books and prints. This project
explored new methodologies for artists' creative production
methods. As the technology becomes more affordable, laser
cutters are a regular feature within secondary, further
and higher education.
The project examined the potential of the laser cutter
as a tool for artists working with the book form and paper-based
work, and how it can replace the need for labour intensive
manipulation of paper and card by hand.
The project aimed to change attitudes to creative making
and increase awareness of the advantage of new technologies
for artists/craftspeople.
For the full project outcomes, see Paper
Models.
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This project investigated and discussed issues concerning the
context and future of the artist’s book, in an attempt
to extend and sustain critical debate of what constitutes an
artist’s book in the 21st Century.
This project investigated and discussed issues concerning the
context and future of the artist’s book, in an attempt
to extend and sustain critical debate of what constitutes an
artist’s book in the 21st Century. We have now published
all the research outcomes, interviews, essays, conference papers,
case studies and our manifesto for the book as free downloads
on the project’s home page.
Reading Around…
   
We love books, and these are a few others
who do too: Guy Begbie,
Shevone Bliss
and Liam
and Carly Kok.
46 other artists joined them for this project.
To celebrate the National Year of Reading
2008 and World
Book Day, we invited contributions
to Reading around…
asking artists to make an artwork page/movie clip/audio clip
about reading.
The project is archived in three parts:
• An
online website archive, launching at the end of April, of artworks
about reading.
• A
free download, self-assembly PDF book of images from the artwork
“page” files.
• 50
library/bookstore packs of copied “pages”, to slip
into random library books.
We hope this will encourage more people to find out about books
by artists through the website link we have added to the back
of each page in the library book packs: www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/reading.htm
View the online gallery.
Regenerator - Altered Books Project
Veronica Morgan
and Robert Heather
both emailed in April 2006 to give a link to an online article
from the New York Times
about an altered books project exhibition involving Portland
library and the Maine College of Art in Portland, USA; Long
Overdue: Book Renewal, where nearly
200 artists recycled books that were withdrawn from use, into
artists' books. The books from that project can be viewed
online.
This inspired us to do something similar with the books that
had been boxed up for withdrawal from our School's art library
at Bower Ashton.
The project ran as an exchange, with 72 artists selecting
a book to work on and return. The books were exhibited, and
swapped. The project archive
can be viewed online.
Arcadia
id est: artists’ books,
nature and the landscape
The Arcadia
exhibition, symposium and accompanying small publication
examined how nature and landscape are interpreted and
utilised in a narrative format: through the use of image,
text, structural and site-specific works in relation to
the artist’s book.
The books in the exhibition ranged from traditional landscape
works to social, ecological and political works.
The exhibition launched at TRACE
Gallery Dorset, in March 2005 and toured over the following
34 months to: 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 The
Yard Gallery at Wollaton Hall;
the John M Flaxman Library
at the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago, the Ginkgo
Reading Room at the John M. Olin
Library, Washington University,
USA; The Fleet Library
at Rhode Island School of Design,
USA; Noosa Regional Gallery,
Tewantin, Australia and The National
Print Museum of Ireland.
The Arcadia
project included special events at many venues. Online
gallery and archive. |
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