Artists Books

Transcript

1. SPRING 2020 ONLINE CLASS SHEILA GOLOBOROTKO | ANDREW KOZLOWSKI Week Three: Artist’s Books
2. Week 3 Homework: Artist’s Books Dead Poets Society, 1989 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/ Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama set in 1959 at the fictional elite conservative boarding school. Robin Williams stars as an English teacher (John Keating) who doesn't fit into the conservative prep school. On the first day of classes, students are surprised by the unorthodox teaching methods of the new English teacher, a Welton alumnus who encourages his students to "make your lives extraordinary", a sentiment he summarizes with the Latin expression carpe diem, meaning "seize the day.” The teacher inspires students to revive a secret society with a bohemian bent. Dead Poets Society shows us that there is a war going on. Not a war of bombs and bullets, but a war that’s just as deadly. It’s a war for the hearts of men. It’s a war for our humanity. Throughout the film, Mr. Keating teaches his students how to fight this war. He teaches them not to conform, he teaches them to think for themselves, he teaches them to dream, and he teaches them to truly live— and in so doing, he teaches us, the audience, how to fight this war alongside them. The passionate teacher constantly challenges the students to look at life in a different way: “You must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.' Don't be resigned to that. Break out!"
3. Week 3 Homework: Artist’s Books Week Three: Break Out! Post: Artist’s Books Process: 
 1. Watch the videos posted on this module on how to make books.
 2. Practice making books with blank paper. Explore forms and structures from our videos. 3. Once you have several blank books, choose your favorite mock up (or as we say in book arts “dummy.”) 3. Choose the materials for your book—pages and cover. You can use old prints, drawings or copy and digital printouts. Expand your imagination. Be inventive! Anything goes! 4. Based on your sketchbook exercise, add imagery, text, and collage. Develop the flow and narrative of your book. Goal: Post! • One photo of your blank dummy books. • Two photos (or more) of your final Artist Book. • Reflection
 What did you learn in the process of editing, redacting, obliterating the text you chose? That is the Break Out! method. To create, we deconstruct: stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
4. Title-page of William Blake's Songs of Innocence. This can be considered one of the first artist's books having been authored, illustrated, and produced by Blake. "Illuminated printing," a relief etching method Blake developed allowed him to not only simplify production by directly drawing on the plate, but also keep all facets of creation and production together. The acid would then eat away the unpainted surface, leaving the design in relief and ready for inking and printing. As Blake did not use type for the text of this work, this meant that he needed to write his text backwards, a skill essential for engravers and printers. After printing, the illustrations were hand-painted by Blake and his wife, Catherine. 
 Syracuse University's copy, created in 1789, is one of 33 known to exist. Artists have been associated with the written word since illuminated manuscripts were developed in the medieval period. Many have been concerned with books as an artistic enterprise, notably William Blake at the end of the 18th century and William Morris at the Kelmscott Press from the 1890s. Artists’ Books Brief History William Morris
 Kelmscott Press
 Syr Perecyvelle of Gales
 Published: The Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith, 1895
 Edition: 1st.
5. The Book of Nails, by Floating Concrete Octopus, 1992 This one-of-a-kind book object was produced by Floating Concrete Octopus, an intermedia/performance group which changes its name every year. The work comprises a copy of a book entitled 'Vincent Van Gogh' which has been overpainted in black and sealed at the edges with two nuts and bolts. The covers of this unopenable book have been driven through with nails, the points of which face out threateningly, and then 'decorated' with splashes of red paint, resembling blood. A facsimile of Van Gogh's signature painted in gold is visible on the front cover, with a torn, collaged portrait of the artist on the lower cover, possibly portraying the pain of the famous artist's life. Artists’ Books Brief History Contemporary artists' books are noteworthy for their many different forms and perhaps because of this they have an equally large number of precursors and influences. Avant-garde artists throughout the 20th century also produced many books as part of their artistic endeavours.
6. Lizanne van Essen
 Osteoporosis
 2008 Artists' books are books made or conceived by artists. There are fine artists who make books and book artists who produce work exclusively in that medium, as well as illustrators, typographers, writers, poets, book binders, printers and many others who work collaboratively or alone to produce artists' books. Many artists' books are self- published, or are produced by small presses or by artists' groups or collectives, usually in limited editions. Artists’ Books Brief History
7. Suze Woolf 
 Alabaster Book Artists' books that maintain the traditional structure of a book are often known as book art or bookworks, while those that reference the shape of a book are known as book objects. Other types of work produced by artists in book format include concrete poetry, where meaning is derived from the spatial, pictorial and typographic characteristics of the work, as well as from the sense of the words. Artists’ Books Brief History
8. Tatana Kellner Transatlantic Balderdash 2010 Publisher: Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY Subjects: Vocabulary, Word games 16 x 31 cm. Number in edition: 25 Paging: [25] cards Letterpress, digital, screen print. Binding: Portfolio Signature: Signed by artists Printer: Ann E. Kalmbach. Binder: Tatana Kellner Transatlantic Balderdash is a series of cards, not unlike flash cards, that feature the ‘big words’ used in Errors of the Amanuensis. The 25 words, from admonish to ultracrepidarian, are printed using a random selection from the over 3,000 type fonts available for KaKe Art to use during their residency at the Hessisches Landesmuseum fur Industriekultur in Darmstadt, Germany. The cards were shown to a group of Germans and Americans asking each group to define the word. On the back of each card are their responses and the correct definitions. Letterpress and digitally printed, housed in a handmade portfolio. Artists’ Books Brief History Other types of work produced by artists in book format include concrete poetry, where meaning is derived from the spatial, pictorial and typographic characteristics of the work, as well as from the sense of the words.
9. Parallèlement
 Verlaine's poems
 Illustrated by Pierre Bonnard 
 1900 It is however the livre d'artiste, also known as the livre de peintre, that is generally considered to be a key precursor to the contemporary artists' book. Originating in France around the turn of the 20th century, the livre d'artisteis a form of illustrated book. They are distinguished by the fact that the pages have been printed directly from a source created by the artist themselves rather than from a source that has been created by a technician from the artist's design. An early exponent of the livre d'artiste was the dealer Ambroise Vollard who commissioned Pierre Bonnard to illustrate with lithographs a collection of poems by Paul Verlaine, Parallèlement, published in Paris in 1900. Artists’ Books Brief History
10. The works produced were essentially deluxe, limited editions, produced on high quality paper using specialized printmakers. They were generally left unbound so that they could be dismantled for display and so that bespoke bindings could be commissioned if desired. Vollard produced numerous works in association with a number of artists, matching them up with texts to illustrate. Various other publishers followed suit, collaborating with artists of their own association. Artists’ Books Brief History Parallèlement
 Verlaine's poems
 Illustrated by Pierre Bonnard 
 1900
11. In the 1950s and 1960s Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth (1930–98) and American artist Ed Ruscha (1937–) created conceptual works which are considered the foundation of the artists' book genre. In 1962 Ruscha published the first edition of Twenty-six gasoline stations (NAL pressmark: SA.91.0042) which comprised 26 deadpan photographs of gasoline stations along Route 66 from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City. The book was not intended as a means for the reproduction of pre-existing photographs, but rather as an artwork in its own right. As the piece retains the essential characteristics of a book, such as the idea of seriality and sequence provided by the turning of pages, it is considered central to the development of the genre. Edward Ruscha
 Royal Road Test
 Artist Book
 Los Angeles, California, USA
 1967 Dieter Roth
 Little Tentative Recipe
 Artists' book published by Watford School of Art, England, UK ca.1969 Artists’ Books Brief History
12. Roth's distinctive contribution to the genre was his examination, through his bookworks, of the formal qualities of books themselves. These formal qualities, such as flat pages bound into fixed sequences, were deconstructed and investigated, this investigation becoming the subject matter of the book itself. For example 2 Bilderbücher (1957) Artists’ Books Brief History Dieter Roth (Swiss (born in Germany), 1930–1998)
 2 Bilderbücher (Collected Works Volume 1)
 Publisher: Edition Hansjörg Mayer (German, 20th century)
 Stuttgart, Germany 
 1976
13. 2 Bilderbücher (1957) consists of two picture books of geometric shapes with four die-cut holes, screenprints ("children's book”), and diecut color acetates ("picture book") cut into each page to allow glimpses of patterns from the pages beneath. Dieter Roth (Swiss (born in Germany), 1930–1998)
 2 Bilderbücher (Collected Works Volume 1)
 Publisher: Edition Hansjörg Mayer (German, 20th century)
 Stuttgart, Germany 
 1976 Artists’ Books Brief History
14. Dieter Roth
 Daily Mirror Book
 1961 Artists’ Books Brief History In 1961 Roth made a number of miniature books, including the Daily Mirror Book, from trimmed-down pages of various daily newspapers and magazines. These books cannot be read in any traditional sense as they contain only snippets of images, articles, and advertisements. Words are divorced from their meanings, turned into visual noise. Dieter Roth
 bok 2b
 50 pages, letterpress on double sheets, monotype setting, spiral binding
 32 x 32 cm
 1961
15. Ed Ruscha’s set of sixteen books mark a significant change in bookmaking by artists as the premise is not to enhance or respond to a text. They are antithetical to the history of livre d’artistes—the books do not contain fine prints (etchings, lithographs, etc.) but are simply printed by the more common offset process. Ruscha’s use of banal subject matter further accentuates his departure from the realm of h i s t o r i c a l b o o k - m a k i n g processes. Made mostly in small editions, these captivating books have received a great deal of critical acclaim, especially in recent years as his prominence as a major contemporary artist has increased. Ed Ruscha Complete Set of Artist Books Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Various Small Fires and Milk, Some Los Angeles Apartments, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles, Royal Road Test, Nine Swimming Pools and Broken Glass, Crackers, Babycakes with Weights, Real Estate Opportunities, A Few Palm Trees, Dutch Details, Records, Colored People, and Hard Light
 
 Various publishers, 1963–1978 Artists’ Books Brief History
16. Ed Ruscha 
 OH / NO 
 Cloth-covered hardbound book with two color 
 fore-edge printing and silver leaf edges.
 5.25 x 7.50 x 2.07 in
 Edition of 230
 This work is signed, dated, and numbered 
 on the colophon inside the book. In 2008, Ed Rusha uses language to sly and subversive effect in his work; in OH / NO he employs traditional art-making methods to riff on our modern lexicon. OH / NO is a fore-edge book, with printing that appears when the gilt edge is fanned one way or another. Fore-edge painting was popular in the 18th century but rarely used today. Graphicstudio research encompasses the recapture and revitalization of such technology, enabling the development of fore-edge printing. The pages of the book are blank, perhaps a commentary on the meanings we would ascribe, or fail to ascribe, to such seemingly simple words. When the book pages are fanned in one direction the text OH appears. When the book pages are fanned in the opposite direction the text NO appears.
17. Robert The
 This 
 Artist Book
 1992 Artists' books became popular throughout the 1960s and early 1970s and the genre has continued to expand. During the 1980s and 1990s many more artists began to use the book as a medium for self-expression and they continue to do so. Techniques remain varied and range from the traditional to the experimental. Small presses and individuals have continued to promote the art of letterpress printing and the hand-crafted book. Some artists have chosen to use computer-generated images while others have used the photocopier to reproduce their work. Many artists have taken up the challenge to experiment with the content and physical structure of the traditional book form. Artist’s Books and book objects have continued to step outside conventional boundaries to encompass concepts associated with the fine arts. Works range from the minuscule to the gargantuan. Artist’s Books are not restricted to the use of paper and ink but can incorporate all kinds of materials and appended objects. While such works are usually unique or limited editions, some are produced in multiple copies. Artists’ Books Brief History Robert The
 The Art Crisis 
 Artist Book
 1992
18. 1) Single Sheet Books: 8 Page folded and Maze Book Variations https://youtu.be/6TIlviIcJ5E
19. Martin La Roche Contreras KCH (Kings County Hospital) Publisher: Good Neighbour
 Brooklyn, New York
 2018
 Pages: [8] p.
 11 x 7 cm
 Paperback
 Folded
 Risograph
 Black-and-White
 Edition Size: 96 KCH is a paper model of the T building at the Behavioral Department of the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It was produced by Martin La Roche Contreras during a 4-month artist residence at the hospital. Invited by Beautiful Distress, an organization that wants to break stigma around mental health issues, the artist lived and worked in the hospital. He initiated a weekly creative workshop with patients and therapists at PHP (Partial Hospitalization Program also known as People Help People). As part of his stay, Martin met Toshiko Kobayashi, who introduced herself as an origami therapist. Without a concrete understanding of what an origami therapy could be the artist tried to rebuild it from his imagination. The result is this small zine-publication. - Good Neighbour
20. Esther K Smith Purgatory Press
21. Infinity Remove Susan Happersett Drawings & Research: Esther K Smith Design: Dikko Faust Hand Typography and letterpress printmaking 2004
22. Martha Hall We Have To... Monoprint pages, cotton thread 2016 The artist book attempts to depict illness as a non-linear process. This is expressed through the folded monoprint pages, which have been put together to open out and cascade. Each page/section of the book is unique and the overlapping images and stitched marks create a layer of complexity that invites the viewer to take time to engage. The process encourages the viewer to look and sense beyond what they can physically see, metaphorically aligning them to the patient whose internal vision has been sharpened through the experience of the illness.
23. Carol Dubosch Small Tasks Accomplished This paper was dyed with walnut ink and watercolor before folding into this triangular meander book with pop-up tags for the small amount of text. It fits into the origami box with the folded crane on top.
24. Sheila Goloborotko Everything That I Know 5.75 x 5.25 inches Edition: 9 2011
25. Natalie Draz The City Within The City Within is a kinetic bookwork exploring cartography and fantastical anatomy. Juxtaposing bird’s eye maps and hand- drawn street-level maps with a rib cage of text centered around Montreal’s downtown core, The City Within overlays the heart of a city with the interior body of a city dweller. Both a bookwork and a sculptural object, this multi-layered book is able to be read and explored through many pathways. Using metaphoric imagery and a transforming book structure as an open-ended narrative, Natalie Draz combines traditional print media of intaglio and screenprinting with flag, tunnel book and pop-up structures. Housed in a wooden box.
26. 2) Pamphlet Stitch and Staple Bound https://youtu.be/a5HnK5qcj9A
27. I. Nichols, Emma Kohlmann Gabinetto Segreto Publisher: Emma Kohlmann
 Florence, MA Pages: [16] p.
 19 x 14 cm
 Paperback
 Staple Bound
 Monochrome on Colored Paper In the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy, there’s a room filled with erotic art excavated from Pompeii during the Enlightenment. For a hundred years, the “secret cabinet” was closed and re-opened and closed again in accordance with shifting views on obscenity and sex. This short, staple-bound zine is an account of the artists’ visit to the “secret cabinet,” combining handwritten text and sketches with photographs and a screenshot from Wikipedia. The zine, finally, is a meditation on love across history: “I wonder what they were dreaming about 2,500 years ago? Did they keep the same promises? Were they attracted to the same things that turn me on? Would I have been able to find you?”
28. Joe Roberts I am a Blue Whale Publisher: Innen
 Zürich, Switzerland
 2019
 Pages: [28] p.
 13 x 19 cm
 Paperback
 Staple Bound
 Offset Printed
 Monochrome on Colored Paper
 Edition Size: 500 A playful optimism and a sense of limitlessness radiates from the mixed media works of Joe Roberts. The hyper accumulative collage works, effusive paintings, and candid illustrations in I am a Blue Whale abound with smiley motifs, skating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and positive messages of self- acceptance. Joe Roberts is a San Francisco-based artist whose work is inspired by childhood comic books, imbued with humor, and influenced by psychedelic trips.
29. Brian Cotnoir On The Mystic, Magick, Talismanic, Alchemical Practice of Zine Making Khepri Press
 New York, NY
 2019 Pages:12 p.
 21.8 x 14 cm
 Paperback
 Staple Bound Process
 Photocopy, Risograph Color Edition Size: 200 On the Mystic, Magick, Talismanic, Alchemical Practice of Zine Making is a description of alchemical practice through the making of zines. Alchemy is the art and science of bringing something to its final perfection or completion. And, being perfected, can in turn perfect. It is about making change in the world for the betterment of the world and the soul. You know, like Marx said, “the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” - Khepri Press
30. Paper Paper Film is a paper sculpture facsimile of a box set of educational films on Paper and Gravure Printing, published by Meridian Educational Films in 1983. The original box set was found in a storage closet within Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art Print Studios. Through the creation of this laboriously handmade physical copy, the artist transforms an outdated tool for education into an art object in direct conversation with the power structures of how, why, and what is archived. Paper Paper Film Other Contributors: Assembly: Perri Murray, Savannah Bustillo, Courtney Parbs, Ashleigh Pillay Assembly: Perri Murray, Savannah Bustillo, Courtney Parbs, Ashleigh Pillay 2019 Place of publication: Rosendale, NY Publisher: Women's Studio Workshop Subjects: Artists' books--History and criticism, Archival Studies, Paper, education 16.5cm X 24cm X 5cm Number in edition: 52 Paging: 59 Paper: Handmade cotton paper, Colorplan (bright red and leather embossed) acetate, Rives BFK, Awagami Murakumo Kozo Select Natural Digital Inkjet Washi Printing method: Silkscreen, laser print, Silver foil stamp, die cut Typeface: Twentieth Century Binding: Perfect Bound (adhesive) Structure: Book Object Signature: Signed by the artist Printer: Imin Yeh, Chris Petrone, Courtney Parbs Binder: Imin Yeh, Chris Petrone
31. Becky Slemmons They did not know that the books were already in our head, Kiln-fired and cold-worked glass, etched cover, hand-dyed linen coptic-bound artist’s book. CD containing sound piece is pocketed inside lid. Container: foam, wool-blend felt, thread, 11 x 9 x 6 inches, Book unpacked: 7.75 x 6 x 3 inches, Edition of 5. 2015
32. Sheila Goloborotko While We Do As Lovers Do Title: As Lovers Do I, II Found Objects Assemblage 8.9" h x 7.5" w x 1.3" d Date: circa 1980’s
33. 3) Accordion Fold https://youtu.be/kqaT-9ol5KY
34. Katie Baldwin Treasure 2008 Rosendale, NY Publisher: Women's Studio Workshop 20 x 429 cm. folded to 20 x 20 cm. Number in edition: 35 Paging:1 folded strip ([22] leaves) Handmade abaca Letterpress, woodcut (moku hanga), screen print Typeface: Optima Throw out accordion, hard covers Accordion Fold Book Signature: Signed by the artist Printer: Katie (Katie Amelia) Baldwin Binder: Katie (Katie Amelia) Baldwin Other notes: Images and Japanese text taken from a Jiffy Pop popcorn label Treasure, a narrative poem about personal change, uses the images of Jiffy Pop popcorn (instructions in Japanese) as a metaphor for a turning point in a woman’s life and suggests an imminent need for change everywhere.
35. Karen Kunc Extension Intaglio with handcoloring, sumi ink and gold enamel paint, accordion folded into decorated patterned papers 6.25 x 5.5 inches folded; 6.25 x 46 inches open 2005-2014 Karen Kunc Combinations Relief printed etchings, with watercolor on Lana Cover paper, 13 pages, accordion folded, with wooden box container 3.25 x 5 inches folded; 3.25 x 70 inches unfolded 1997 Karen Kunc Charting Screen print, watercolor and acrylic on carved poplar wood pages, accordion sewn binding, handmade box 7 x5 x2 inches folded, 7 x 20.5 inches unfolded. 2000
36. Eszter Sziksz In Her Silence Eszter Sziksz Pop Up Book Eszter Sziksz te.jpg Eszter Sziksz Turkish Fold Book
 Mokulito Print
37. Nick Satinover Conventional Wisdom Digital prints in drumleaf book form hardcover with relief printing on masa paper 2010, 10″x15″, 20 pages
38. Nick Satinover Four-track recordings:
 june 2018 – june 2019 Edition of 10 with 2 artist proofs music recorded to cassette tape on tascam four-track machine and transferred digitally. audio recordings primarily improvised and unrehearsed. images in approximate chronological order. Hand printed / hand made case + photo zine + two cd-rs.
 Case is made from monotype and screenprint on masa paper, wrapped around backboard.
 Cd sleeves are screen printed. 1:45 minutes of music across 24 tracks. 24 color laserjet images corresponding to titles/tracks. For purchase and audio samples follow link.
39. Nick Satinover Artist Talk https://youtu.be/-bTP9uSJeJM