Archived Book Arts News: April 2015

World Book Night 2015

On 23/04/15, we, the WBN United Artists made our annual World Book Night tribute. This year we chose Stephen King’s magnificent horror novel The Shining. We had some great entries from Europe and the USA for our collaborative artist’s book and video that we filmed on the night of 23rd April.

The archive page with all contributions will go up next month, in the meantime, you can watch the film here.

The image here is of a tiny notepad made by Jeremy Dixon of Hazard Press.

• back to top

Artist’s Book Yearbook 2016 – 2017

Listings are now open, for the next issue of the Artist’s Book Yearbook (ABYB)
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 2016-2017 issue will have essays, interviews, and lots of 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.

National and international artists are invited to list up to 3 of their recent book works. Organisations please also send us information for the sections above.

Download the free listings form at Artist’s Book Yearbook
Deadline 30th April 2015 – don’t be late!

• back to top

Bristol Artist’s Book Event at Arnolfini

Saturday 11th April and Sunday 12th April 2015
11am – 6pm Saturday and 11am – 5pm Sunday

Arnolfini and The Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol, are very pleased to announce the fifth Bristol Artist’s Book Event at Arnolfini. BABE will take place on Saturday 11th April (11am – 6pm) and Sunday 12th April 2015 (11am – 5pm) with stands showcasing the work of 113 artist publishers over the galleries and auditorium spaces of Arnolfini.

Events over the weekend include: an exhibition Book Acts by AMBruno; book screenings in the café bar from reassemble; offload with Rant magazine on Saturday or listen to the day-long reading from Yes Sir I Can Boogie. The Bristol Art Library will be in the foyer on Sunday. There will also be: workshops with Stephen Fowler and Guy Begbie; tours of the event with Angie Butler, Linda Newington and Tanya Peixoto; book surgeries with Nancy Campbell and Simon Goode.

Short talks and performances from: Guy Bigland with Tom Sowden; Egidija Ciricaite and George Cullen (Collective Investigations); Jo Reed Turner reading from Soho Sequencepamphlets; Otto and Chris Scully – Flat Holm; seekers of lice – A new performance with notecards and projections; Antlers Gallery presents Tim Lane’s Anima Mundi; Judy Kravis of Road Books; Graeme Hobbs of Colva Books – Hill Pond. A winter of regular visits in all weathers, day and night, to a small pool on a hill; David Dellafiora / Field Study present a short Emanation action; Nancy Campbell and Donna Williams – Poems in BSL and English about language learning and extinction; Pete Kennedy presents GBATCH. We really hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you! Sarah, Tom, Phil and Holly.

Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA. http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/babe-2015-bristol-artists-book-event
#BABE2015

• back to top

The Blue Notebook journal for artists’ books Vol 9 No 1 and 2

Volume 9, No 2 Articles include: Paul Soulellis on Performing publishing. Infrathin tales from the printed web; Jude Lau, on John Bently, Artists’ Books and The Printhaus: looking for community in books; Angie Butler investigates the draw of letterpress printing and practice by reporting on findings from an online survey in Running My Fingers Across The Surface: Letterpress printing and artists’ books; Logan Sisley outlines the project, Scientia Civitatis: Missing Titles, an imaginary library of knowledge about cities realised by Vagabond Reviews for the exhibition, Phoenix Rising: Art and Civic Imagination, at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. In The E-dge of the Book, Anna Cooper offers elements that help determine ‘bookness’, as a means of considering digital ‘book’ forms and keeping an open dialogue regarding these forms in relation to book arts practice.

Artists’ pages by: Ros Blackmore, Noëlle Griffiths, Rachel Marsh, Richard Roberts and Elizabeth Shorrock. Cover design by Tom Sowden

Volume 9, No 1 Articles include: A Place Where Things Meet: Creative and Conceptual Blending by Emma Robertson (Australia), After midnight – The workings of the Two a.m. Press by Lisa Wigham (UK), Books about nothing by Amir Brito Cadôr (Brazil), Futura Has Always Been The Future by Antonio Claudio Carvalho (UK), Reading Cabinet by Amador Perez (Brazil), Research Residency in Artists’ Books at the Edinburgh College of Art Library by Julie Johnstone (UK).

Artists’ pages by: Craig Atkinson, Emily McVarish, Pineapple Falls, Nathan Walker. Cover, badge and sticker design by Molly Lemon.

Subscribe to both issues in Volume 9 today! £10 GBP including UK or international postage, for Vol 9 No 1 and 2. Current issues and back issues information at: blue-notebook or, order directly from the online store.

• back to top

ABYB back issues half price!

We are having a bit of a shelf clear out, and are offering all back issues of the Artist’s Book Yearbook that are still in print at half price. Each edition is now £7 or £8, including national or international delivery. Each edition, from 2001 – 2013 is packed with essays and articles, artists’ interventions and features, and listings of places to see, buy, sell, study and make artists’ books. Grab yourself a bargain and help us make some space!

All available on our online store.

• back to top

An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street online gallery

The online 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 it has grown as artists’ books created for the project have arrived, and the gallery pages show images and information for each of the 260 books completed for the project.
The project is touring internationally until 2018.

Exhibitions 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, and Herron School of Art and Design, The Herron Art Library of IUPUI University library, USA.

The image shown here is Shadows of Loss by Kristine Bouyoucos, 2012

Detroit To Baghdad: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here is currently on show at the
Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, USA until June 2015.

• back to top