Exhibitions
Amy Sterly: The Sound of Reading at Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan, Wales. 30th January – 19th March 2016. Amy Sterly is currently exploring the world of books and reading: what it means to move away from those beautiful and physical objects, from the visual beauty to the sounds, the smells and the textures that are lost: ‘The tactile nature of books creates a sensual response that surpasses reactions to digital equivalents’.
This exhibition will include an installation that considers these ideas, alongside a series of prints. Interacting with books in a new and surprising way, suddenly the books will trigger sound by the turn of a page. The books speak for themselves. The books will be wound, sprung, strummed, slapped and thrown and a soundscape will evolve around the performers.
The tactile nature of the book creates a sensual response that far surpasses reactions to the digital equivalents. It is emotional and aesthetic. Triggering memory and emotion…
Crack the spine
Strum the pages
Play the fragments of memories.
Oriel Mwldan, Bath House Road, Cardigan, Dyfed SA43 1JY. www.mwldan.co.uk
Amy Sterly: The Sound of Reading at Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan, Wales
30th January – 19th March 2016. Photo: Amy Sterly.
PICTURE BOOK: Co-Curated with PAGES at The Tetley, Leeds, until 6th March 2016. Featuring: Craig Atkinson, Christian Barnes, David Barton, Nous Vous, Landfill Editions. Picture Book features a range of UK-based practitioners who take a variety of approaches to producing artists’ books. The common thread between the work on display is a particular focus on the publishing of image-based books, whether an industrially produced compendium of graphic art, a limited edition, hand-bound ‘zine of drawing or photography, or a one-of-a kind, paper-cut tomb so large that it can only be ‘read’ at scheduled performances.
This group exhibition gives audiences an opportunity to see a wide collection of publications alongside images pulled from their pages and reproduced as original artworks. Picture Book culminates with the 19th Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair on Saturday 5th March and Sunday 6th March, which will welcome over 50 artist-publishers and imprints. Curators Tour, Thursday 3rd March, 6pm. Join the curators of our current exhibitions. Free.
The Tetley, Hunslet Road, Leeds LS10 1JQ. http://thetetley.org/picture-book/
Artists’ Book Fairs and Events
Artists’ BookMarket at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. 27th and 28th February 2016. Now in its sixth year, the Artists’ BookMarket offers an annual celebration of artists’ books and artist-led publishing. Described last year as ‘the major Scottish artists’ book fair, our visitors and participants come from all over the UK. Over two thousand visitors came through the doors last year to see more than forty stalls spread across two floors of gallery. We will also run a series of artists’ book events in the talks and workshops programme over the two days’. Admission free. Sat 27th Feb, 11am–6pm and Sun 28th Feb, 12–5pm.
The Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DF. http://www.fruitmarket.co.uk
Artist’s BookMarket at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. Photo: @Sally Jubb Photography
PAGES Leeds | 19th International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair at The Tetley, Leeds, UK. 5th-6th March 2016. PAGES is an integrated programme of artists’ book-related initiatives coordinated by John McDowall and Chris Taylor. The project’s aim is to provide wide-ranging possibilities for the development and awareness of the book as a primary medium in artistic practice. It also evolves opportunities to engage artists with audience and the audience with artists’ books, highlighting modes of production and dissemination in a diversity of contexts. Such occasions of exchange originated by PAGES include exhibitions, workshops, publications, symposia, commissioned book works, audio/video and performance works, and the annual International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair. 50 stallholders showing and selling artists’ books, ’zines, limited editions and artworks, with a packed programme of workshops and talks. Free. The Tetley, Hunslet Road, Leeds LS10 1JQ. http://www.leedsartbookfair.com
BOOKMARKS Artist’s Book and Zine Fair at Edinburgh College of Art. Thursday 24th March, 1pm – 8pm. Talks 1pm-3pm, Fair 4pm – 8pm. A new event which highlights artists’ books, zines and publications in Higher and Further Education in Scotland – featuring ECA students and alumni alongside invited educators and their students from across Scotland.
Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh, Main Building, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DF.
Advance Notice
Exhibition: Technology and the Evolution of the Artist’s Book
30th April – 12th June 2016 at Phoenix Brighton, UK
Building upon Phoenix Brighton’s reputation for presenting unique and highly acclaimed exhibitions of artists’ books, we present an ambitious new project that brings together one of the world’s foremost artists’ books curators and a Brighton-based design team. Plus 14th & 15th May 2016 – A weekend of artists’ books activities and events, including a Round Table discussion with Maddy Rosenberg of Central Booking, New York, and specialists from the world of artists’ books, plus a special event with workshops and special presentations. More info at: www.phoenixbrighton.org/exhibitions-2/press-release-2016-technology-and-the-evolution-of-the-artists-book/
Photobook Bristol 2016
The third edition of Photobook Bristol will take place from 10th to 12th June 2016 at the Southbank Club in Bristol. ‘2016 promises to be the most exciting event yet, with a truly global range of speakers coming to Bristol to talk about photography, photobooks, design, as well as getting down and dirty into the nitty gritty details of marketing, selling and publishing.’
Confirmed speakers so far include Ken Grant, Mark Power, David Solo, Laura El Tantawy, Amak Mahmoodian, Dragana Jurasic, Martin Parr, Krass Clement, Yumi Goto, Ivars Gravlejs and James Barnor. Tickets are £85, available at: http://www.photobookbristol.com/index.php/tickets
Interesting links
Colin Sackett’s essay ‘Publishing then then publishing’ written for ‘Code–X’ can be read online: http://www.colinsackett.co.uk/writing_readings_34.php
Guy Bigland has a new website with information on all of his artists’ books at: http://www.guybigland.com
Maddy Hearn (née Pethick) has a new website, where you can read about recent projects involving artists’ books, including collaborative work with Paul Hearn (as Pineapple Falls). http://maddyhearn.tumblr.com
New Artists’ Publications
The Library by Elisabeth Tonnard. This book is a library. The images in it are tiny selections from pictures in a catalogue documenting the losses of the Gemäldegalerie at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, the present-day Bode Museum, in Berlin during and after World War II. The Gemäldegalerie lost over four hundred paintings, the sculpture collection at the museum lost about a third of its holdings. Photographic documentation and plaster casts remain as ghostly echoes of what was once there. The majority of losses occurred in the days just before and after the end of the war in May 1945 when two devastating fires in the Friedrichshain flak tower destroyed most of the major works of art that had been stored there for safekeeping. The cause of the fires was never explained and has become the subject of legend. Trapped in there were the paintings these images refer to. Out of the smoke we think up this library of unknown books.
Edition of 150 copies. 18 Euros plus p&p. More information and images can be found at: http://elisabethtonnard.com/works/the-library/
Elisabeth Tonnard: The Library, 2015. Photo: Elisabeth Tonnard.
New artists’ books from the Caseroom Press
On the line 1 and 2 by Philippa Wood. Printed on train tickets collected since 2007, these two editions record the various objects, animals and, in some instances people, reported as obstructing lines across the country’s vast rail network – from Ronald McDonald to llamas to tin foil – delays are our destiny.
The tickets themselves indicate a visual anthropology of ticket inspection – from the scribble, to the cross, to my all-time favourite – the cat-shaped punch. Each book is an edition of 10. £5 each available from: http://philippawood.bigcartel.com
The lost art of filing by Philippa Wood. This book highlights how a collection of approximately 200 letterpress blocks have been categorised into seven sections. The classification of blocks should, in theory, enable users to easily locate a particular item, to make the process of printing quick, easy and effective. Printed letterpress with typewritten elements. Edition of 12. £10, available from: http://philippawood.bigcartel.com
There is still no time by Philippa Wood. A sequel to the publication There is no time, this book highlights responses from an all-male audience who were asked to consider and reflect upon all the small things in life that we fail to find time for. The pages of the book get incrementally smaller to suggest the passing of time and each cover features a vintage watch face. Edition of 12. £15, available from: http://philippawood.bigcartel.com
The Collection 3 by Philippa Wood. A collection of sunglasses from the 1950s-1970s form the basis of this limited edition artists’ book. This is the third book in a series that explores the typographic and image-based potential of personal collections. Collaged illustrations – that can be cut-out in the style of a dress-up-doll – are combined with simple facts about sunglasses and the collection. Letterpress and digital print. Edition of 11. £10, available from: http://philippawood.bigcartel.com
The lost art of filing by Philippa Wood, 2015. Photo: Philippa Wood
Knock Knock by Barrie Tullett. Knock Knock is a book of concrete poetry ‘knock-knock’ jokes. With a couple of sight gags, a joke with an east London twang, and lowbrow cultural reference thrown in for good measure. From The Caseroom Press: ‘We can’t help but feel that as a fan of esoteric, niche markets, Barrie has outdone himself.’ Perfect bound extended cut with 16 jokes. The covers are Risograph printed in a random mixture of red, black and green on different coloured stock. £10, available at: http://barrieagogo.bigcartel.com/product/knock-knock
For more information visit: http://www.the-case.co.uk/knock-knock.html
Knock Knock by Barrie Tullett, 2015. Photo: Caseroom Press.
A new book from Collective Investigations: reading the book as an object by Egidija Čiricaitė, Chris Gibson and George Cullen 2015. Based on Collective Investigations experiment with the readers of Tate South Lambeth Library. More information about the project can be found at: http://betweenonehand.tumblr.com
A film flip-book and an experimental article in a folio. 21 x 30cm, 356pp [all ill. b&w], in an edition of 50. £25, available at: http://collectiveinvestigations.tumblr.com/bookshop
reading the book as an object by Egidija Čiricaitė, Chris Gibson and George Cullen 2015. Photo: Collective Investigations.
Compiled by Sarah Bodman, Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol.