5 February 2010
Bower Ashton library staff launched the new artists' book study area on 5th February, which makes it easier for students, staff and visitors to access the collection here. As part of the celebrations we launched Regenerator II in the Special Collections Room, alongside the opening of the Tom Trusky Artist's Book Memorial Exhibition Cases.
82 artists took part in the first Regenerator in 2007, 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, Ireland, Australia, Germany, USA, Denmark, Norway and South Africa to work with and return by March for archiving and photographing before the exhibition and swap. You can view all of the books online.
Regenerator II follows more in line with Long Overdue, 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.
As our students have been asking to see altered books in the library, we have selected 50 books from the library's discards, and from our haul from the closure of Book Barn in Bristol last year. We have asked other artists, staff and students to choose a book from the list, make a new reconfigured/altered book from it and bring it back to the library by the summer. The books will go into the Special collections area for students to handle, study and be inspired by.
Guy Begbie demonstrated ideas for working with altered/reconfigured books, with some examples of his reconfigured books in the Special Collections room on Friday 5th February, and people chose their books from our selection.
The deadline for receipt of the book works will be Friday 16th July 2010. We will document all of the books for an online gallery, and they will be on permanent display in the Special Collections room from September 2010.