Artists’ Books News, October 2016
Exhibitions
Angela Thames – “IT” (is all about the) Books, Chawton House Library, Hampshire. Until 28th October 2016
An exhibition of artists’ books by Angela Thames at Chawton House Library, where she has been Artist-in-Residence since August 2015.
The library holds rare and first-edition books, mainly by English women writers from 1600-183, in the home of Edward Knight, brother to Jane Austen, and has been the inspiration for this new body of work. Angela has created contemporary artists’ books from reading some of books held in the library’s extensive collection of over 15,000 books. She has concentrated on the “IT” books, where the book has been written from an object’s perspective, “As related by Itself”. She has found some real treasures, including The Adventures of a Pin Cushion, The Adventures of a Black Coat, The Adventures of a 7s piece and The Adventures of a Rupee, dating from a book written by Aphra Behn in 1686, to Ann Mary Hamilton in 1811.
Thames’s exhibition will also have a series of her Chawton House Chapbooks. Chapbooks were originally produced as penny witticisms and small books of godliness in the 17th & 18th centuries to educate the masses cheaply and were illustrated with woodcuts which were not necessarily anything to do with the text. Angela has played with this idea for her books.
The original books used for her research will be on display alongside Angela’s books and there will be a chance to purchase some of the limited edition books Angela has produced.
Chawton House Library, Chawton, Nr. Alton, Hampshire GU34 1SJ. Mon – Fri 1.30 – 4.30pm, Sun 11am – 5pm. See: www.chawtonhouselibrary.org for more details.
Art Language Location 2016
Throughout Cambridge, 13th – 29th October 2016
Join us in Cambridge this October for Art Language Location 2016. The ALL2016 wagons will once again roll into town to bring you the very best in studio-fresh text-based art from across the UK and beyond.
This year we welcome over 40 artists, creating between them a potent mix of installations, interventions, and explorations at Anglia Ruskin University and locations across the city. Amongst many highlights, don’t miss Daniel Cockburn’s multi-channel video installation at the Ruskin Gallery, Philip Cornett and Paul Kindersley’s alternative estate agency at the ELAN project space, and the interactive, internet-streamed live performance by the Female Laptop Orchestra.
Alongside the playful and the carefree we also have several thoughtful and thought-provoking explorations of topical and contemporary issues. Les Monaghan shows portrait photographs from his local Syrian community and Sally Stenton investigates the disappearance of artefacts from the Aleppo National Museum, whilst Ana Mendes deals with digital identity and Rosy Greaves tackles digital currency.
On Saturday 15th October we hold our all-day Symposium and Day of Performances, featuring talks, guided tours and performance work with lunch and refreshments. This is a ticketed event, so book now via our website to avoid disappointment!
All of this has been made possible by the support and enthusiasm of our project friends, the hard work and commitment of our lovely committee members, and the generosity of our sponsors and location holders. We would like to extend particular thanks to our primary sponsor Anglia Ruskin University, our major award sponsor Cambridge Assessment, to Cambridge Festival of Ideas, and to Arts Council England. So we hope you enjoy our annual offering of artfulness, we would love to see you at one of our events. Robert Good
ALL runs from 13th – 29th October 2016 at Anglia Ruskin University and locations around Cambridge. Showtime! Symposium and day of performances on Saturday 15th October 2016, booking required. Visit: www.artlanguagelocation.org for full details.
Beyond the Page
Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset.
24th September – 15th October 2016
To coincide with Open Book Week and the Bridport Prize Ceremony – Bridport Art Centre’s annual, highly regarded writing competition – we bring you ‘Beyond the Page’, an exhibition that features regional, national and international artists who use the book as the starting point for inspiration, both physically and metaphorically, within their practice. Alongside this there will be a selection of unique workshops with practitioners who use words, recreate pages and manipulate books in fascinating and unusual ways. The exhibition will feature a special selection of borrowed books from UWE Bristol; British-Library-acquired artist, Christine Tacq and Sketchlook, a travelling exhibition of handmade sketchbooks from Austin, Texas.
Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR.
https://www.bridport-arts.com
Sketchlook: book by Emily Lucas, Beyond the Page
Noëlle Griffiths (Hafod Press): artists’ books and paintings in RE-TAKE/RE-INVENT at Royal Cambrian Academy and Oriel Ynys Mon, North Wales, until October – November 2016
From Noëlle Griffiths: RE-TAKE/RE-INVENT is a group exhibition working on the methodology of making new art from old. Each of the sixteen artists involved with this project chose a piece of art from the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, to use as a starting point to make new work.
I chose the large abstract acrylic painting Ligeia 1978 by John Hoyland (1934-2011) and the BBC Arena film made in 1979: ‘Six Days in September’. This film explores the creative process of making a painting. Hoyland talks in a direct and honest way, making observations that will resonate with artists who work in the isolation of their studio.
For each painting I have made a book which records the colours used in the act of making each painting. I have made twelve artists’ books and nineteen paintings (including two now destroyed). For each book I have tried to incorporate different aspects of the creative process: studio notes, sketches and a selected transcript of Hoyland’s film. I kept a blog which records the work as it unfolds and you can see a film made in my studio about the project.
RE-TAKE/RE-INVENT exhibitions:
Until 15th October 2016 at Royal Cambrian Academy, Crown Lane, Conwy, LL32 8AN. Open: 11-5 Tues-Saturday. www.rcaconwy.org
Until 6th November 2016 at Oriel Ynys Mon, Rhosmeirch, Llangefni, Anglesey LL77 7TQ. Open: 11-5 daily. www.kyffinwilliams.info
Fragile – Enclosed (studio) bookwork by Noëlle Griffiths
Bookmarks XIV: Infiltrating the Library System
Online and at ten venues. Until 28th February 2017
This annual series grew out of an aim to encourage an appreciation and awareness of artists working in the book format. Participating artists each produce an edition of 100 signed and numbered bookmarks which are divided into 100 sets, one full set being sent to each of the contributing artists and the rest divided and sent in distribution boxes to participating host venues around the world for visitors to enjoy.
Over the last fourteen outings, the Bookmarks series of free artwork distribution has visited 148 galleries, bookstores, workshops, centres, schools, museums and libraries in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and USA.
544 artists have contributed 54,700 bookmarks to the fourteen projects to date. Each bookmark is stamped with the current project’s website address, which directs the taker of the bookmark to the gallery section of the website. Visitors can view works by the artists and contact contributors via their website and email links on our site. As interest in the artist’s book has grown internationally over these years, the bookmarks projects have reached a natural conclusion. Next year will see the final iteration of the project; we will send bookmarks out to the final ten venues and also do something special to celebrate the total of fifteen projects!
Bookmarks XIV has contributions by thirty-one artists from: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the UK, and USA. Many thanks to all the artists and venues participating in our penultimate year of Bookmarks XIV. We have bookmarks commemorating 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare in Heather Chou’s hand-typed ‘Venus and Adonis’; Penny Maltby’s historical celebrations of the linguistic impact of wool; 100 individually hand-cut bookmarks by Janine Partington; a welcome to refugees from Ahlrich van Ohlen (image above); photographs of end-of-summer cicadas in the American South from Todd Zimmer, and much more…
If you would like to join in as an artist or as a host venue for Bookmarks XV, please email Sarah at Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk
‘Bookmarks XV: Infiltrating the Library System 2017-2018’ will be the fifteenth and final outing, do feel free to join us in our celebrations! General project info can be found here: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/projects/bookmarks.html
Venues for Bookmarks XIV: until 28th February 2017:
Bedford Central Library, UK
http://www.bedford.gov.uk/libraries
City Library Kringlunni branch, Reykjavík, Iceland
On tour to c. 40 locations with the Höfðingi Book Mobile.
http://borgarbokasafn.is/is
Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño Havana, Cuba
http://www.artesplasticas.sancristobal.cult.cu
Chawton House Library, UK
Liverpool Central Library, UK
http://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/find-a-library/central-library/
Melfort Public Library, Saskatchewan, Canada
http://www.wapitilibrary.ca/content/melfort-public-library
Merced Community College Library, California, USA
http://www.mccd.edu
NN Contemporary Art, Northampton, UK
Scuppernong Books, Greensboro, USA
http://www.scuppernongbooks.com
Sion Hill Library, Bath, UK
http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/library/contact-us
Please visit the bookmarks website for full venue addresses and information:
http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bkmks14
Artists’ Book Fairs and Events
Bookface chapter 7, Reading, UK
Saturday 8th October, 11am – 4pm and Sunday 9th October, 11am – 5pm
Free entry. Browse stalls of handmade books, small press, experimental and altered books, illustrators, sculptures and exhibition pieces. Poetry readings, story telling, workshops and more. Relax in our cafe bar with homemade snacks and organic beers. Rising Sun Arts Centre, 30 Silver Street, Reading, Berkshire RG1 2ST, UK. http://www.risingsunartscentre.org
Manchester Artists’ Book Fair, UK
15th-16th October 2016
Hot Bed Press announces the Manchester Artists’ Book Fair, which will take place as part of this year’s Design Manchester festival. MABF 2016 will be happening at a new venue – the old Fire Station building on London Road, right by Manchester Piccadilly station. Working hand-in-hand with Design Manchester this year means we’re part of a much bigger event – a city-wide project that includes the Women In Print exhibition and a chance to watch letterpress guru Alan Kitching at work.
We’re on twitter at: https://twitter.com/mcrartbookfair
http://www.manchesterartistsbookfair.com
Nancy Campbell’s Polar Tombola will visit two venues in October:
16th October, The Polar Tombola at the Poetry Library Open Day, Southbank Centre, London, and 29th October, The Polar Tombola at the Polar Museum, Cambridge, UK
Look out for more Polar Tombola appearances at: http://nancycampbell.co.uk/calendar/
Marisa J. Futernick – 13 Presidents
Arnolfini, Bristol, Saturday 22nd October 2016, 4-5pm
Free event: Launching a new artist’s bookwork based on a 10,000-mile road trip and the history of the US Presidency.
In 2014, Marisa J. Futernick drove nearly 10,000 miles across America, visiting all thirteen of the nation’s Presidential libraries along the way. 13 Presidents is the result: an artist’s book that combines photographs from the journey with a suite of short stories. Mixing fact and fiction, each President from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush is a protagonist in this collection of unexpected portraits.
To coincide with this year’s Presidential election and with the publication of 13 Presidents, Futernick will give a live reading at Arnolfini accompanied by a 35mm slide show, followed by an informal discussion with Arnolfini’s Phil Owen.
There will also be a selection of photographs from the project available to view in our Reading Room (until 13th November). Shot on analogue film, they depict the everyday details of the towns that these men are from, including the homes where they were born, and their final resting places.
13 Presidents weaves together personal narrative with wider cultural observation, forming a vision of America that is both invented and true.
Marisa J. Futernick is an artist and writer based in London. She was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1980 and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Futernick attended Yale University; Goldsmiths College; and the Royal Academy Schools, London. She has published several books, including How I Taught Umberto Eco to Love the Bomb (RA Editions and California Fever Press, 2015) and The Watergate Complex (Rice + Toye, 2015). She has exhibited widely, at venues including the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Jerwood Space, London; Outpost, Norwich; Morton House, Mexico City; Yale University, New Haven; and BolteLange, Zurich. 13 Presidents was published by Slimvolume in September 2016. http://slimvolume.org
Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA, UK
http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/marisa-j-futernick-13-presidents
Oxford Guild of Printers Wayzgoose, 22nd October 2016, 10am-5pm.
Dora Cohen Hall, Wheatley Campus of Oxford Brookes University. http://www.oxfordguildofprinters.com
Counter 2016: Plymouth Art Book Fair
The Great Hall, Davy Building, Plymouth University
Saturday 29th October 2016 12-6pm
Launch night party: Friday 28th October 7-10pm
Following on from last year’s ambitious book fair, Counter 2016 draws together artists, collectives and book works to make friends, sell books, buy books, share work, share knowledge, learn something new, start conversations, ask questions, try to find answers and exchange ideas.
Guest Speakers and Performance:
Friday – DJ Set by Drift Records (Totnes)
Saturday – Kaleid Editions; Yellow Back Books (Cardiff), Jean McEwan (WUR Bradford), Fox Irving.
Plus – Book Surgeries with Sarah Bodman.
Exhibitors: &, Antler Press, As Yet Untitled, Atlantic Press, BBB Books, Behind the X, Bernard Fairhurst & Anwyl Cooper-Willis, BLNT Collective, Bram Thomas Arnold, Clare Rogers, Drift Records, EAK Press, Emma Cocker & Clare Thornton, Foreground, Fox Irving, G.F Smith, HG makes, Impact Press, Jean McEwan, Jessica Wright, Kaleid Editions, Keiken Collective, Lalala Pompom, Laura Edmunds, London Centre for Book Arts, MIEL, Office for Art Design and Technology, PAGe7 Collective, Plymouth College of Art BA (Hons) Graphic Design, Plymouth University BA Illustration, Prynne Chapel / Double Elephant Print Workshop, Pylon Press, Rope Press, Semple Press, Simon Reid, Spacex, Studio 40: Fox Irving, Saemi Jeon, Katarina Kelsey, The Shipping Press, Uniformbooks, Walden Press, Wotadot, Yellow Back Books.
Counter is brought to you by an independent band of Plymouth-based artists. We are keeners, fans and DIY enthusiasts. Counter 2016 is supported by Arts Council England, Plymouth University and G.F Smith.
Main Hall, Davy Building, Plymouth University, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA.
www.counterplymouth.com
#Counter2016
Small Publishers Fair. Conway Hall, London, 4th & 5th November 2016
Annual celebration of books by contemporary artists, poets, writers and book designers. Meet and talk with writers and artists in the iconic setting of Bloomsbury’s Conway Hall. Browse and buy original and beautiful publications – prices to suit all pockets.
Over 65 publishers from across the UK and from Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Sweden and USA. Longstanding and iconic presses alongside new and emerging ones. Plus readings, book launches and a special exhibition on the stage at Conway Hall.
Alongside the fair – an exhibition, Avant-folk – Publishing in the Vernacular, curated by Ross Hair will be displayed. Avant-folk looks at small press publishers in Britain and America from the 1960s to the present day who have been influenced by both folk traditions and the avant-garde. It features work by leading British and American poets, publishers and artists including Lorine Niedecker, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Jonathan Williams. Related to this there is a special seminar on the Friday:
Avant-folk, Seminar, Friday 4 November, midday to 1pm
A chance to look in more detail at the 2016 Small Publishers Fair exhibition Avant Folk, Publishing in the Vernacular. Led by exhibition curator, Ross Hair from University of East Anglia, and with artist, poet, editor and publisher Simon Cutts of Coracle. Free, but booking advisable: contact@smallpublishersfair.co.uk
11am – 7pm each day. Free entry to the Fair and all activities and thousands of original works to buy. Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. http://smallpublishersfair.co.uk
The End of the Book. A one-day, interdisciplinary conference at the University of Bristol, Friday 18th November 2016.
How do we know when we have reached the end of a book? What do we, as readers, expect to find at the end? With the last word(s) of the ‘text proper’ typically followed by author notes, afterwords, commentaries, indices, blank pages, and adverts for other texts, what do we, in fact, consider to be the ‘end’ of the book? How are our expectations forestalled or fulfilled by this paratextual (and epitextual) material, and how do the framing structures that end a book affect the reading, or rereading, of a text? Further, how does the end affect the beginning of a book, and what dialogue emerges between authors and readers in this liminal zone?
‘The End of the Book’, a one-day, interdisciplinary conference at the University of Bristol on Friday 18th November 2016, aims to consider how answers to these questions have evolved over time, from the classical era through to the present day. Its purpose is to reflect upon such answers, and how they might be reframed by advances in technology where closure itself becomes increasingly problematic in an ever-expanding virtual world of potentially infinite text, rendering the end of the book obsolete and the reader trapped, almost indefinitely, in the realms of interpretation.
Confirmed keynote speakers: Professor Kate Pullinger, Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media at Bath Spa University, and Dr Laura Jansen, Lecturer in Latin Language and Literature at the University of Bristol. For booking and information visit: https://booksatbristol.wordpress.com
Interesting links
From Cover to Cover – Kate Holland:
Fine bookbinder Kate Holland talks to the Crafts Council Directory about her recent Man Booker commission, her creative process and the future of bookbinding. http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/kate-holland-man-booker/
Wonderful Grotto is a small, online & real-life shop selling books made by artists.
We’re into hand-made, messy, colourful, offhand, collaged, cut-and-paste, drawn, typed, painted, silly, fun & serious artwork. Forever evolving, the shop travels to unusual events and places.
We work with galleries, artist-run spaces and music venues to sell and share books.
http://www.wonderfulgrotto.com
Save the Date
Dates have been announced for the next Artists’ Book Market at BALTIC, UK – 13th & 14th May 2017. Artist’s Book Market BALTIC is an annual event and has been running since 2013. It provides the opportunity for those new to the world of small press publishing and hand made books to exhibit and sell work alongside established makers. The event is an excellent way to engage visitors, collectors, students and all bibliophiles into creating their very own artists book collection as well as learning about the creative process through talks, workshops, screenings and performances.
With many book-related events taking place throughout the year in the North East, Artist’s Book Market organiser Theresa Easton has created a blog to capture those events in one place and share with the wider community: https://artistsbookmarketbaltic.wordpress.com
Call for participation
BOOK ISH NESS – World Book Night 2017. Will you join us?
Wherever you are, World Book Night United Artists invite you to contribute to our World Book Night project for 2017: BOOK ISH NESS. To do so, please read a book about the Loch Ness Monster (it can be of any title your choosing) and then follow the instructions at: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/news.html#bookishness-wbn
Deadline: 8th March 2017
World Book Night United Artists will be heading to Scotland on an expedition in early March 2017. Our search party – led by artist Stephen Fowler will conduct a survey of Loch Ness and record our findings in order to publish a small pamphlet book on our return. Alongside our published ‘research’ we will illustrate the book with photographs of actual sightings sent in by contributors, and compile a visual bibliography of books about the Loch Ness Monster from the fictional book covers.
Our previous ventures for World Book Night have included themed project tributes to Margaret Atwood (Serena Joy), Charles Bukowski (Post Office), Raymond Carver (Some Small, Good Things), Douglas Coupland (Toast: A Night on Weevil Lake), Patricia Highsmith (Dinner and A Rose), Stephen King (Shine On) and Donna Tartt (The Secrets of Metahemeralism). All of these are archived on the exhibitions and events page of our website: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/exhibitions.html
For 2017, out tribute is to all the weird and wonderful, scientific and practical, believing and sceptical endeavours recorded in publications about the Loch Ness Monster – hence the apt title of BOOK ISH NESS created by Linda Williams. For some background reading, Stephen Fowler will be compiling a list of his recommended titles, in the meantime, some links of interest containing booklists:
http://www.si.edu/encyclopedia_si/nmnh/lochness.htm
http://lochnessmystery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/books-on-loch-ness-monster_13.html
All contributors will receive a copy of the artist’s book and a BOOK ISH NESS badge.
New Artists’ Publications
The Blue Notebook journal for artists’ books. Volume 11 No.1 Autumn – Winter 2016. Published October, 2016. Articles in this volume:
In ‘Translating Travels’, Bergen-based, British artist Imi Maufe reflects on some of the inspirations for her artists’ books produced in response to travelling. From their early roots in her journals made on childhood trips, to recent works as artist-in-residence; from a year in tiny village in Northumberland, for Visual Arts in Rural Communities (VARC), to the Tall Ships Race, sailing from Ireland to Sweden via Greenock and Shetland, Scotland and Stavanger, Norway.
Carried on from a presentation at ‘The Artist’s Book in Theory and Practice’ conference held at Cardiff University in December 2015, Jeremy Dixon’s ‘A sense of humour, a sense of Cardiff, like – Geoautomusicalbiography in the books of Hazard Press’ explores the personal history of his artist’s book practice. The article looks at the links between Cardiff (and Wales Cymru) in his books and how they have rather unexpectedly formed an on-going project of autobiography based on poetry, memory, queerness, music, images, and a delight in the accidental forms and diversions that the journey of planning and making an artist’s book can take.
In ‘The Gardens | Edinburgh and La Géométrie Pratique’, Jane Hyslop provides a brief introduction to the ethos within her work, the themes repeatedly explored and its context and then goes on to describe The Gardens | Edinburgh and La Géométrie Pratique. These are two major artist’s book projects that were made for exhibitions in Scotland in 2015.
In ‘Making the Book to Discover the Subject’, Ken Botnick explains his meticulous project inspired by Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Botnick’s project began in 2009 as a visual investigation of the eleven plate volumes of the Encyclopédie during multiple trips made to the Washington University library’s special collections to photograph the engravings. Six years on, Diderot Project was completed, and deservedly awarded the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Biennial Prize in 2015.
Emma Bolland’s ‘Category Error / Category Terror’ questions the validity of attempting to define the category of ‘artist’s book’ through materiality and form, proposing instead, that the artist’s book is not an object (whether analogue or digital), but a dialogic – trialogic – relationship between artist/writer, object/text, and holder/reader, that results in highly subjective and individuated desire-based categorisation. Drawing on ideas of aura as external construct, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and frame analysis, the article reframes the artist’s book as a mutable experience.
Artists’ pages by: Elizabeth Lebon (Switzerland) and Alex Simopoulos (Greece/UK).
Cover, badge and sticker designs BOOK ISH NESS by Linda Williams. Published by Impact Press, UWE Bristol, UK. £10 for Volume 11 No.s 1 & 2. Price includes worldwide postage, badge and stickers. Please order online at: www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/publications/blue-notebook.html
Lapwing & Fox by John Berger & John Christie. ‘Lapwing & Fox’ is a series of conversations in the form of letters and small books sent between two friends, writer and critic John Berger and artist and film-maker John Christie. Complementing their award-winning correspondence on the subject of colour, I Send You This Cadmium Red, published in 2000, Lapwing and Fox covers a wide range of ideas surrounding art and artists, drawing and painting, nature and place.
As well as the close scrutiny of works by Giacometti, Modigliani, Frank Auerbach and others, and recollections of working with fellow artists and writers, the correspondence also explores a whole range of unexpectedly connected subjects, from making drawings of the dead and dying to encounters with barn owls and hares, and discussions of the mythologies surrounding them; from journeys on the Silk Road and observations of the night sky in Tajikistan to memories of the carved stone churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia and meditations on angels in literature, art and film…
ISBN: 978-1-5262-0473-8. Published: 15th September 2016. Hardback, full colour throughout 270 x 190 mm, 288 pages. The book can be ordered directly from Objectif at: http://www.objectifpress.co.uk
An exhibition is on at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, UK which features the letters and artworks from the collection related to ‘Lapwing & Fox’ – Looking Beyond: Conversations Between John Berger and John Christie. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich. Until 27th November 2016. This exhibition brings together previously un-exhibited letters and handmade booklets of renowned writer John Berger and artist John Christie with photographs, video and works of art from the Centre and Christie’s own collection. Looking Beyond is curated by UEA postgraduate Museum Studies students and aims to encourage visitors to reflect on their own responses to the Sainsbury Centre collection. Free. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ. https://lookingbeyond2016.wordpress.com
Artists’ Book Yearbook and Blue Notebook bargain bundles.
Help us clear our bookshelves by filling yours!
Next summer Impact Press will be moving to a new room. Help us clear our shelves by filling yours up! We have made two bundles available: Two randomly selected back issues of the Artist’s Book Yearbook for a bargain £10 and five randomly selected back issues of The Blue Notebook journal for artists’ books for a bargain £10! Both available on our online store.
Temporarily Accessioned by Paul Coldwell. Temporarily Accessioned is a new bookwork by Paul Coldwell made for his forthcoming exhibitions – Setting Memory (6/10/16 – 7/1/17) at the Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna and Temporarily Accessioned – Freud’s Coat Revisited at the Freud Museum London (22/2/17 to 7/5/17).
On 23rd February 2016, Paul Coldwell arranged for the coat that Professor Sigmund Freud wore for his emigration from Vienna to London to be x-rayed at the National Gallery, London. The book records the performance which involved escorting the coat from 20 Maresfield Gardens (Freud Museum London) to the National Gallery where it was temporarily accessioned and then x-rayed in the photography and imaging department before then being returned. The photographer, Peter Abrahams recorded the day’s events and from these photographs, Coldwell developed the narrative through layering and multi exposure photographic images leading to the production of a life size composite image of the x-rayed coat.
The book measures 23 x 31 cm, is composed of 72 pages printed black and white on 200g Magno Satin paper, with 170g wood free endpapers. It is case bound, with square backed spine with a paper printed cover on 150g gloss art plus gloss lamination over foam inserts front and back. A pocket attached to inside back cover board contains a folded print of the composite x-ray of Freud’s coat, 62 mm x 52 mm printed on 90g Amber Graphic. Temporarily Accessioned is in a limited edition of 150 copies + 20 A/Ps, each signed and numbered by the artist. Launch Price £42 + p&p (£3 UK / £10 Overseas). http://paulcoldwell.bigcartel.com
New from Café Royal Books: Spanish Serviettes by Craig Atkinson
30.06.16. 20 pages. 14 x 20 cm, b/w digital. Second edition of 100. First printed as an edition of 50 in 2007. £6 UK / £7 International including p&p.
Rubber Stamping: Get Creative with Stamps, Rollers and Other Printmaking Techniques by Stephen Fowler. Published October 2016 by Laurence King Publishing Ltd. A short review by Jeff Rathermel of MCBA: Stephen Fowler’s book, Rubber Stamping: Get Creative with Stamps, Rollers and Other Printmaking Techniques, provides a wonderful overview of the amazing things that can happen when artists meet vulcanised rubber.
After an inspiring foreword by Rob Ryan, Fowler writes of his own introduction to rubber stamps and his attraction to their basic democratic nature. Throughout the book, historical references are made to artists using rubber stamps in their creative practices. From Aleksei Kruchenykh’s Russian Futurist poetry to Ray Johnson’s correspondence art, Fowler provides a strong foundation for appreciating and understanding the work of contemporary artists.
Illustrations and full colour reproductions are presented throughout the book to support the text and inspire readers. The majority of the book is devoted to practical information about equipment, technical approaches, and a wide-range of projects that illustrate the flexibility of the medium. In an easy-to-read manner, Fowler presents not only techniques for basic stamp making but also more complex methods relating to reductive carving, multi-colour printing and registration. Of particular note are his examples and projects relating to the creative possibilities arising from collaborative work.
Fowler, an established rubber stamper, book artist and primitive printmaker (his work can be found in the collections of various institutions including Tate Britain and the Victoria & Albert Museum) concludes the book with examples and instructions for a variety of non-rubber alternative print processes. While rudimentary in their everyday applications, Fowler raises the unassuming practices of vegetable, clay, and plaster printing to new inventive levels. Whether demonstrating the use of found “official” stamps to create visual poetry or presenting performance-based interventions using human bodies as substrates, Fowler reveals countless possibilities through unique works, clear instructions and his compelling documentation of the artists who defied the conventions of a humble medium.
Jeff Rathermel is Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA).
Rubber Stamping: Get Creative with Stamps, Rollers and Other Printmaking Techniques. Stephen Fowler. Hardback, 300 colour illustrations, 160 pages, 284 x 220 mm, ISBN 9781780678658. Published October 2016 by Laurence King Publishing Ltd. £17.95
A Downland Index by Angus Carlyle. Published by Uniformbooks
A hundred successive slow runs on the chalk downs above Brighton, each written up in a hundred words.
“Much of what felt central to this project was captured in its working title, ‘A Slow Runner’ – the sense of self-deprecation, the unhurried pace, a literal accounting for physical action. And yet this provisional title, with its emphasis on diarising the moving, breathing body as it runs, eclipsed the significance of the South Downs themselves, location for the eighteen-month exploration of ridges, slopes and clefts, clouds condensing above, winds as force and breath, sun and rain, dawns, dusks and nights that fall, streets and bridges, roads and traffic, cows, bulls, squirrels, bees and birds, crowds outside pubs, walkers, anglers.”
ISBN 978 1 910010 10 5. 72pp, 234 x 142 mm paperback with flaps, July 2016, £9.00.
For more information and to buy online visit:
http://www.colinsackett.co.uk/adownlandindex.php
The Right & Freedom to a home by Theresa Easton
A new publication for Freedom Festival Hull 2016 & Beyond Words Exhibition.
Theresa Easton’s concern with homelessness, the housing crisis and the right to a home is reflected in a hand bound zine detailing displacement, eviction and gentrification with solutions offered by campaigners & social activists. This cheaply, photocopied, pamphlet style publication, with screenprinted cover, integrates traditional typesetting techniques into a contemporary publication.
Easton connects with activist campaigns using social media, twitter & blogs, to capture and record the reaction and effects to social cleansing. The zine aims to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Europe and states the freedom to have a home is a human right. Stephen Pritchard, a PhD researcher at Northumbria University provides political clarity in his introduction, challenging the role of artists.
The publication for Beyond Words, was commissioned by the Freedom Festival Arts Trust and Hull Culture and Leisure Library Services, in association with Book Works. Funded by James Reckitt Library Trust. 15.5 x 21.5 cm, screenprinted cover, photocopied pages and pull out typeset broadside. £7 (+p&p). http://theresaeaston.wordpress.com
