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The artists’ book
It’s also known as the Artists’ Book – that is, the physical book as crafted object, as a work of art. Books Arts is the larger field it is a part of n - here the author is called a book artist. Put simply: An artists’ book is a book made by an artist. A book designed and produced by an artist. The artist executes each step of a book’s production. It could be handmade or from a hand press. A modern example: Claire Van Vliet’s The Tower of Babel (1974): a set of unbound folios of haunting lithographs accompanied by letter press printed texts by Franz Kafka about the imagery and myths of Babel. “As artwork, the artist-book belongs in galleries, as books in libraries and bookstores, as collectibles in collector’s homes.” Book Arts has become the quintessential art form of the 21st century. Though steeped in book history and book culture, I have to confess that I became aware of the discipline of books arts only recently – a subject that is vast and complex and interdisciplinary. It takes in all aspects of the physical book: bookbinding, typography, papermaking, letterpress and offset printing, illustration, book design, paper decoration, calligraphy, conceptual or sculptural books. The sculpted book is avant garde, used as installation or performance piece. There are Fine Presses devoted to just bookwork; some of the best known are Janus Press, Granary Books, Brighton Press, Lapis Press, Arion Press and Crooked Letter Press. My familiarity with collecting beautiful books has been with limited or special editions brought out by Fine Presses. The paper used is special, the binding is very fine, and the jacket is usually illustrated by an artist. But this isn’t the artists’ book. The artists’ book takes this expression further: the entire book as crafted by an artist. Early instances of book arts is William Blake illustrating and binding his own poems, and perhaps most famously William Morris and the books from his Kelmscott Press (1860s), especially the renowned Kelmscott Chaucer with its fine illustrations of vines twisting and spilling around the text.
When someone remarked that Morris’ Kelmscott was overdressed, he said: “if the modern book that gives you words and pictures is enough I say that your interest in books in that case is literary only, not artistic, and that implies I think a partial crippling of the faculties; a misfortune which no one should be proud of”. I was struck by this- that one’s interest in a book can or should be beyond merely literary! But of course if you care for the book as an object of art, the artists’ book is the ultimate in the poetics of books, no?
Take the book form that preceded the artists’ book: the deluxe edition. The 1935 deluxe edition of Joyce’s Ulysses, illustrated by Henri Matisse in a craft binding by James Brockman. Only 250 copies printed, with each book signed by Joyce and Matisse. Even if couldn’t afford to own it, you’d want to see it and touch it, wouldn’t you? The book artist makes the entire book her material. It goes beyond illustrating a writer’s work – the traditional book itself is reconfigured, altered. An offshoot of book arts is the altered book: old books recycled by rebinding, cutting or folding them into shapes. One that stunned me was an Ian Fleming book cut and altered in the shape of a James Bond pistol. Great contemporary artists like Brian Dettmer and Ed Ruscha have been passionately involved in the book arts environment. The artists’ book can be political as in Richard Minsky’s The Crisis of Democracy, where Minksy bound the book in leather and wrapped it in barbed wire. Minsky is the founder of the Centre for Book Arts in New York. Book Arts is practised largely within a community of non-profit arts organisations. Many contemporary book artists make use of technology to make their work available to a larger public –offset printing, photocopy machines, computer-assisted images, and flatbed lithography. One book artist commented: “We take the means of production in our hands; it gives us the power and freedom to communicate our ideas. We are not dependent on approval by a publisher. It doesn’t require a lot of capital. . Our medium doesn’t need batteries. It produces no radiation and is portable.”
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Appreciating a book means more than an interest in its literary content and illustrations.
Brian Dettmer and Noriko Ambe : Book Autopsy; Cutting Book with Ed Ruscha
