Some Great Sites for Book Artists

Readers, this has been a wonderful week or so for serendipity in my life. I have stumbled upon a lot of great resources (some recent, some that I've rediscovered while transferring my Delicio.us tags to Google) that made me realize my blog posts have been a bit neglectful of the book arts side of my work (and of my book arts friends around the world!) In an attempt to remedy this, let me share with you some of what I've been getting excited about in book arts land recently:

Graphic novels: I love them (who doesn't?) and there are some exciting folks both who are creating art and exploiting digital content (there's a whole section of them in the Kindle bookstore, for example, including V for Vendetta, one of my all time favorites. Fair warning: if you search graphic novels in the Kindle store some adults-only Manga comes up). I've been thinking about jumping into the graphic novel world after feeling inspired making conference zines, but haven't made definitive plans yet. I was excited though when a friend directed me to this site because she thought I would like the art. The art (and the name) are reminiscent of a *hugely* inspiring high school teacher I had (small world, eh?), and if you click on the goodies under 'graphic novel concepts' you will find some really fun concepts that make my artist self dance with excitement. I'm excited to see where these go in the future, especially as developers create both content and programs tailored to reading on digital platforms.

Book Artists: Some folks I'm excited about right now: I got to meet Alycia at Library History Seminar XII this year, but the reason I am directing book arts friends in her direction is because she makes an *awesome* zine (about her experiences as an NYC library worker!) and blogs about issues relevant to book lovers and creators. Other people to keep an eye on: the Center for the Book (we just added a new MA program, plus the website has gotten a major facelift making it all the more pleasurable to browse), and the Miniature Book Society (the tiny books I wish I could make!).

Digital content: I've mentioned before how excited digital forms make me because of their potential for artists (see my post on circular texts for more), and one artist I've run across who's really embracing the medium can be found at Ocotillo Arts. This site inspires me because the artist creates tangible versions of the works before posting images of his work online (which he allows you to copy, although not for commercial purposes--a way of approaching licensing that is very similar to my own!) I also am curious to know if any of my book arts friends are using Prezi as a platform for creating art--I think there's a lot of potential there, but I haven't had a flash of inspiration yet on how to harness it.

Ok, and I need to put this in here too: I know you have probably read my Modernizing Markham project blog, and I wouldn't think to include it in this list except that some exciting changes are taking place--I'm almost done with the recipe recreation portion of the project, and am moving toward fleshing out the 17th century cookery/book history portion before moving on to calligraphy and binding. So for those looking to learn more about the context surrounding Markham, get excited, because more historical posts are coming your way!
Artist/historian friends: what sites are you recommending right now? I have many more great sites for calligraphy, etc that I want to post, but I'll save them to keep this post from reaching epic proportions. I want to start compiling some great lists both for library research and for book arts (and research), so definitely feel free to post any suggestions in the comments!

What Makes an Artist's Book?

I recently had a discussion with a friend (the wonderful Amanda Langdon) about artists' books when she was trying to describe them for a paper. Talking with her gave me the opportunity to think about how I define an artist's book (especially since the published literature and the content of library collections gives such broad, and sometimes conflicting, definitions.)


The big thing that I think separates an artist's book from a commercially-produced book is the interplay between form and content. Broadly defined they're books created primarily to be 'art' rather than to be a book in the traditional sense. They are still functional (ie you should be able to interact with them as books) but they were not created by a publishing house with the sole purpose of showcasing an author's content-they were created by an artist to showcase both their binding work and the interaction between content and form.

For those who aren't familiar with the book arts, the content of a book is just what's written in it (i.e. the text of a novel) while the form is its physical structure (is it paperback? What kind of binding does it have? How many pages? etc.) Most books focus on providing the text, with less emphasis on showcasing the book's form--the form is structured around the text, and around other considerations (i.e. marketing an inexpensive paperback versus a higher-quality hardcover). This is not to say that they don't take a great deal of effort and consideration when choosing and creating cover art (and even things you might not think about, like the font), but mass-produced book is not an artist's book simply because the creation of the book is solely to share text, and is not to see that text as art placed within another piece of art in a way that strengthens both.

Amanda and I also talked a bit about 'gray areas:' i.e. where does an artist's book cross the line to become something else? She talked about printed books, which I argue can be considered artist's books: A small press (like the UICB presses--look on their website, but I think one is called Arion Press. There have been others over the years) creates small runs of 'artists' books' that are considered such because they are created on a letterpress and then bound by book artists. Usually, the printers create special plates of images to go along with the letters, but even if they don't the fact that they are hand-placing those letters, inking the rollers, etc. in a specific way is considered an art form.

So that's probably what she means by publication--they aren't going to be mass-produced (like paperback mysteries or even any other fiction).

I think that small press books (especially letterpress, which is an art in itself) can be considered artist's books as long as the crucial element of interplay between text, images, and form is present. Other books that have text and images use the images only to illustrate the text, whereas the artists' book uses them for that purpose and for both image and text to interact with the way it's bound (and they way it's meant to be held and experienced). When that interplay is lost is when I think the book crosses the line to being a more commercial work.


For other book artists, curators, historians, and librarians, I would be interested to hear your thoughts too: what do you think of my definitions? How would you define an artist's book?

Circular Texts, both Digital and Tangible

If you remember my post on readers and new media from a couple weeks ago, I mentioned this article on an author (Jurgen Neffe) who took advantage of the e-reader format to create circular texts, or ones without a beginning or end. A quick internet search on the author revealed this article entitled "The disembodied book," which is a pretty thorough discussion of the author's views on the future of the book and authorship, and the future of reading. He is optimistic about the possibility of more authors being recognized and readers interacting with texts in new ways, although he frames this within the downfall of the print book. I'm one of those folks that feels like we don't have to choose: I have a Kindle e-reader but still read paper texts as well. However, he doesn't associate the reduction of print books to their complete elimination, which is an argument I feel has been made far too many times (insert frantic 'print is dying! We will never read printed books again!' comments here).
The book is not going anywhere, and I think Jurgen has a valid point by reminding us of that, but also reminding us that game changing technologies do indeed have far-reaching effects. People will read more e-books, and multimedia books will allow people to interact with texts in far more ways than before (you can even publish your own multimedia books). My friends who are bookstore owners can attest to the fact that their shops are struggling (which is why I will use this moment to remind you to buy your books from locally owned bookshops--they really are so much better than the big sellers both in terms of unique selection and service), but I just can't imagine that their shops are all going to disappear under a tidal wave of digital books. People still like print books, but also see the opportunities extant in the digital format (I, for example, plan on self-publishing my library research to the Kindle store, for e-readers, and to Lulu, for tangible books).
With this books/no books argument swirling in my head, I decided to take my assignment from my calligraphy instructor for last week (which was to create and calligraph a book) and play around with Jurgen's notions of a circular text in book format. I found a blog with a number of circular poems, although most of them weren't suitable to my book because I didn't feel they were 'circular' enough for my needs. The idea behind such a poem is, like a circular book, that you can begin from anywhere within the poem because it lacks a clear beginning and end.
For this first book I used 'Where are the Extravagant Spectacles of Yesterday?' because I could not resist the name, but also because it seems very circular. I folded some thick watercolor paper for pages, using only one folio (or piece of paper, for non-binders) per signature (set of page(s), usually a book with have multiple signatures bound together). Using three jewelry findings (in this case little silver loops), I created a series of chain stitched pamphlet bindings, and move them through the loops as I progressed. I'm pleased my little experiment worked, and resulted in a book that can lay flat, but that can stand up and turn into a 'circular text' by distributing the pages around the loops in such a way that it's actually a bit hard to figure out where the book starts and ends.

I'm making another circular book for class this week, using the poem 'Upon the Winds of Time' from that same site. I'll post photos after it's finished!

Multiple Projects, Multiple Blogs

While some readers are aware of my other blog (and accompanying project), I have not given it the discussion on this blog that it deserves! The blog can be found at this link, and is a part of a larger project called "Modernizing Markham." Gervase Markham was a 17th century English writer, who published books about cookery, horse care, orchards, and sport. I ran across his book, The English Housewife, in the University of Iowa's Szathmary Collection--an awesome collection of cookbooks, manuscripts, and even kitchen appliance manuals. I wrote a paper about it for a class, but I wanted to do more. I decided to focus on Markham for my Center for the Book final project.
Basically, I am taking recipes from the book and using modern equipment and ingredients to recreate them. I am going through his 'banquetting stuffs' menu, so that I'll have a historically-accurate meal by the end of it. On the blog, I talk about the experience of recreating the recipes, but I also place those recipes in their historical context by talking about culinary history and book history. The project is still in its early stages, but there are two posts for recipes up already (one worked great, the other failed miserably but made a great pie filling). In the Spring, I plan to make a calligraphed, pamphlet-bound book with the modern recipes and with my own illustrations. This book will be combined with the contextual information from the blog and with some extracts from Markham's text, and sold as a print-on-demand book. All the information is available for free on the blog, of course, but that is a good option for people who like tangible recipe books. I'm also hoping to prepare some of the food for my friends at the Center for the Book, depending on how much time I have!
I'm really excited about this project because it lets me combine my interests in a really fun way--I get to cook (which I love!), but I also get to pair my interests in history and book arts with my interests in new media and digital humanities. Talking about the historical aspects of the project on a blog allows me to share my ideas with a larger number of people (and hopefully get some good comments and discussion going too!) It's a great way to make these recipes relevant again as well, 400 years after they were written.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the project, and if you have a Twitter account, stay updated on my progress by following @ModernMarkham (or following my own username, @BookishJulia). You can also subscribe to both my blogs on Kindle.