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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



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.

 

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

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.
 

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.
 


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.


 
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.'


 
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.


BABE Event


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.
 

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.
 

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.
 

What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the 21st Century?
This project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) from March 2008 - February 2010.

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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