I’m uncertain about how to sum up this course; we have covered many topics, some that I expected to be boring, that weren’t; and some that I expected to get a lot from, but haven’t.
This is the first course that I have done externally in ten years. I miss the classroom. I don’t think I have given the right amount of time to the right areas of emphasis. In a classroom teachers are able to guide their students, give verbal prompts that remind them of what’s important and where their focus should be. As I was re-reading the concepts of the course, I found myself at a bit of a loss, and I shouldn’t be – I’ve done the hours (albeit in spurts, but that’s largely out of my control).
So, as I look over the objectives of each topic, what have I learned?
I was able to realise the different forms that books may take, though I don’t believe I have come anywhere near a definitive definition of book. I hope that I can look at an object and identify ‘bookness’; or rather what ‘bookness’ is for me. I’m confident about my knowledge of manuscripts, illuminated or not. I found the subjects of that topic quite spectacular – it’s one of those topics where I learned more than I bargained for. One day, when my chicks have flown the coop, I’d like to see some, especially those whose colours and intensity I found mind-boggling when viewed via a monitor.
I have a fairly clear idea about what block books are; how they were made and why they were made that way. A couple of exceptions though: how are craftsmen able to use multiple blocks in a way that produces a cohesive whole image? And how were/are illustrations transferred to the blocks prior to carving? I asked those questions on my blog, and sincerely tried to find answers (within the confines of the WWW), but I only got inklings of possibilities. I regret that I didn’t look further into William Morris and the Kelmscott Press; as a graphic designer (in the making), it is an oversight I must definitely rectify.
I chose illustrated children's for the optional topic and Assessment One. In most of the books I came across it was obvious which were picture books and which were illustrated books. The history was extensive and I found identifying the important contributors to the genre difficult as there were so many.I spent a lot of time trying to find two appropriate examples of the same children’s illustrated books for the assessment. I scoured the local library's bookshelves and those of friends. I had several books sent from Wagga (expensive business, that), including Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense, and delighted at the myriad styles of illustration from the web links provided for us and those I found myself. Illustration is a true Art form. I looked at many books but Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are astonished me the most because of the changes in the panels and the way they tied with the story. I read that book to my children and children I cared for, many times – and never noticed. Examining the relationship between author and illustrator difficult; there just didn't seem to be much information available.
Artist's books turned out to have a resonance with me, particularly work such as that produced by Ed Hutchins and Emily Martin. The work I have done with scrapbooks and other paper crafts over the years made the genre feel familiar. I would like to look into William Blake’s work and that done by other book artist’s more. Using the form of a book as a way to affect how content is read is something I don’t understand, except for blatant examples of form; like Linda Newbown’s Tennis Ball and I haven’t had the oppostunity to read that yet. I haven’t been able to fully determine quite what an artist’s book is or is not as yet; but I’d like to hope I’ll know one when I see one.
I understand hypertext and hypermedia and can see how they might be used by authors, book artist’s and artists, though I suspect that there are yet many ways they can be used that I have not yet encountered. Digital artist’s books are elusive. Except for one I was able to borrow from the University of Queensland’s library, and then could not use because my technology had surpassed that of the CD-ROM and wouldn’t work (my screen resolution couldn’t be set low enough!); I haven’t been able to find many that were free to view (Patternbook being a noteworthy and wonderful exception). Artist’s need to earn a living too, but as a student, I thinks I’ll have to wait awhile before much digital hypermedia is available to borrow form libraries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this course and got a lot from it. I would have gotten more if I had been better able to focus my learning. As I’m continuing distance education, I hope that’s not too long.
I enjoyed Julia Hayden’s Digital Alphabet. As a graphic-designer in-the-making, it provided some interesting perspectives of items that we see, sometimes innumerable times, over the course of our everyday lives. Don’t try and read Animals Can Be An Alphabet, Tooon Mozilla, folks – it only works on IE: but it is most definitely worth it. Left alone the animal alphabet marches forward through each letter under its own stream; giving the viewer a length of time sufficient to admire Hayden’s creations. I did something similar in a graphic design subject, but I must admit – my designs are far less elegant.
Temptations
I enjoyed the images in this web site; I like the aesthetic of found images incorporated into hand-drawn art accompanying poems, but I do believe that the site functions more as an exhibition space than a book or books.
Transient Books, from which Temptations is sold has other artists books some of which are digital, such as the Janos Book. A site I believe I will look further into when I have time.
Minsky in Bed
I liked the concurrent stories with two voices in the stories in Minsky’s sexual (mis)adventures in Minsky in Bed
The Structure of the Virtual Book
Peregoy’s discussion about artist’s books raised some interesting points but was disappointing – the images he refers to (which can be seen above or below the corresponding text) are far too small to see when clicked on.
Treyf
His Excerpts from the Encyclopaedia of Underwater Investigations looked like an open traditional book with cover, title page and bibliographic information opposite the first page, but as a .pdf, the reader can only scroll down to the next spread which also looks like a traditional book spread. I was not particularly drawn to any of Rob Kovitz’s work.
Patternbook
Interesting: Hadlow at in the first part of the writing in the Patternbook says in regards to writing and drawing “Each involved an intimate and physical relationship between hand, pen and page (whether the page was part of a book or a wall)”. She provides yet another perspective about ‘bookness’, and what constitutes an artist’s book. A fascinating look into how the mind of an artist works. I wish I could see the completed work, though Hadlow might not like that term.
And to think Ruth was at CSU last year…
The Travel Poem
This .pdf is a poem by James Stuart. The Travel Poem have the look of a book but it does present double page spreads per view, so that the reader infers ‘book’. http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/publications/philament/issue8_pdf/STUART_travelpoem.pdf
The functionality of a book pertains to its physicality; turning pages, a cover to protect it. My blog entry about my Issey Miyake book is now questionable. I didn’t consider the function of a book when designing it except as a mechanism whereby pages are turned to see new information. Is that enough consideration? Or is this 1995 quote dated? Perhaps its parameters are too confining, after all, the Book Arts Web members couldn’t come to an answer that all were happy with, (3 years after the aforementioned site) how are the rest of us supposed to?
I’ve never seen myself as an artist. For one of my graphic design subjects we were asked to create graffiti while bearing in mind the implications of that genre. I stencilled a chimp barring his teeth in a scream and holding a globe of the world onto a 1250h x 350w mirror. It was a comment on man stuffing up the world – the chimp is laughing at us: he could have done a better job of looking after it.
I spent a huge amount of time on complicated stencils, and love the result, but if I think of it as Art I feel like a fraud, after all, I’m the person who used an enlarger projector in an illustration subject! I see my self as a crafter – I make greeting cards and scrapbook; and I’ve done paper sculpture and paper tole; cross stitch; knitting; and sewing amongst others.
My point is this: my graffiti piece meets the ‘content’, ‘human action’ and ‘appropriate form’ criteria of 'Art', but I didn’t make it with the intent of creating ‘Art’. To me it was ‘design’ . If the lecturer had decided to put the class’ work in the Gallop Gallery, would it have become ‘Art’ because of the context? I think of it as Art now, does that change what is was when I made it three years ago? Are the drawings from that illustration class ‘Art’ because they fit a pre-conceived definition of what Art is? One of them is a graphite pencil illustration of my son as a toddler, dripping wet with a hose in his hand (I used the enlarger to trace a photograph – cheating, I know). I love it, and so do other people. Another is of a friend’s young daughterkneeling on the ground in a tutu, taken from behind and above in a three-quarter profile. I did that one in coloured pencils, and other people love that one too. But I didn’t consider myself to be an artist when I made them; I struggled, did lots of trials and worked harder than in any subject I’d done before or since.
If my mirror and drawings end up being displayed in my home, like Art, what does that make that black and white photograph of a fish on a silver plater (it's bevel-mounted!), or the abstract design I did that ended up on a hand-made paper shopping bag? Even though all the pieces were created as a student and marked by a professional are the illustrations and mirror different from my fish or bag or even the scrapbook pages (and I have one of those in a frame on display) because of their ability to suit the context of ‘display on a wall’? I have framed several of my cross stitches and they’re hung on walls, does that convert them from Craft to Art?
Artists book(’)s (to quote the Book_Arts-L listserv) simply raised more questions for me, and as I read the entire listserv, it seems the same applies to people whom I assume to be far more knowledgeable and familiar with the topic than I.
From this:
1.“An artist’s book is a book made by an artist” (Donald Farren).
2.“A book whose whole entity is intended to be a work of art” (Karen Sanders).
3.“Physical or intellectual artefacts which are intended to be evaluated primarily by aesthetic, rather than utilitarian or cost criteria.” (Jane [last name unknown]
4.“Intent is everything. An Artists' book is different from other books simply because it conceived and executed from the beginning as a work of art by its creator. Nothing anyone thinks changes the original intent of the artist.” (Michael Morin)
5.“An "artist book" is an assemblage of folios, bound or otherwise, meant to be observed in a sequential fashion, either arbitrary or predetermined, and comprised of elements both textual, or pictorial. Construction is often of an importance equal to that of content. Modes of reproduction are variable, as are methods of construction.” (Michael Babcock)
6."Artists book" is a [controversial term given to] book or book-like object in which the primary interest, or emphasis, is visual rather than textual.”
7.Artist book - A booklike structure of at least 100 pages, opened to approximately page 50, spread evenly with a gem from the recently opened can of worms and SLAMMED FORCEFULLY!!!!! until bits of gunk are evenly distributed over the book, the table, and the artist. (Preferrably within splatting distance of the urinal in the museum.) (Georgie McNeese)
To this:
“Many people, schooled and otherwise, have this hangup about "Art" and "Artists". Duchamp's urinal, mentioned earlier, proved once and for all, that art is whatever we want it to be; that any work (object, composition, dance, thought, etc) in the right situation or context (time and space) *can* be considered to transcend its fellows (other urinals, for example), or simply be sublime in its own right, and be "Art". If only one person considers it to be Art, then -- for that person -- it *is* Art, and if that person can convince sufficient others then for *all* of them it is Art. Obviously, if no one considers it Art, then it isn't.
Further, art is generally considered to be works such as painting, sculpture, musical compositions, dance, etc, therefore those who create such works are artists. If I paint, I am an artist. If I call myself an artist, no one can say with certainty otherwise. They may say I am not a good artist but that is only their opinion. If five people think I am a good artist, and five people think I'm not, then what am I? It depends upon whom you ask. Those painters who are considered to be great artists convinced sufficient others (through words or work) to be thought so. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema used to be considered a great artist: today, most people haven't heard of him and of those who have, most consider him to have been not so great. Europe used to be almost crowded with court painters, musicians, etc, who were in their time, celebrated: today they are forgotten except by a few dusty scholars. Times change, tastes change, circumstances change; and life goes on.
The long and the short of all this is that if Mary Smith calls herslf an artist, and makes what she calls artists books (with or without the apostrophe), then who is to say otherwise. Some will, of course, say she is not, or her works are not art but might be craft, or whatever, but to her friends, family, acquaintances, and maybe even some critics (remember, everyone's a critic) she is considered an Artist and what she does is considered Art. Only time will tell if it really is art, and for how long it will remain so.” (Richard Miller)
I like the way definition #6 is heading in terms of the visual being of primary interest, but it is incomplete. Books such as Windowby Jeanne Baker and Green Air by Jill Morris and Lindsay Muir are created by using photographs of original artwork to illustrate the pages. Baker’s pages don’t have any text and while Morris’s do, the focus of the pages are most definitely the illustrations; but neither book could be considered to be an artist’s book.
Another thing to consider in this definition is the structure of books. Both Ed Hutchins and Emily Martin are book artists, yet the many of their works could not be described as ‘book’ or ‘book-like’. Hutchins’ Words for the World and Martin’s Vicious Circle #6 are two such examples.
One of the artist’s books I found in my research defies all the descriptions I have quoted so far: The Reál: Las Vegas, Nevada (Taylor, Mark, C. and Marquez, Jose Publisher [United States]: Williams College Museum of Art; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art [MASS MoCA], 1997.) is digital (A synopsis can be found here.)
By an interesting twist of fate, I found that one of the authors had participated in the Book_Arts-L listserv discussion. He had this to say (without alteration):
“I thought I'd say something about "electronic artists books" since that category has all *three* points of contention.
Last year, an artist-writer and a philosopher made a CD-ROM and called it an artists book. Apparently, it's so because then a museum published it and a big University press released it.
Since I'm one of those two crooks (the artist-writer), the recent debate on this list is pretty amusing. I mean, after the CD-ROM was done, I went out and got a press and started laying down type.
There is no trajectory as to what must happen in the future of books, nor are there absolute boundaries in art.
Personally, I feel that when I can put a small animation on a piece of paper or play a sound at the turn of a page, there won't be a need for CD-ROMs -- far cheaper to produce than die-cut jobs and offset printing, btw. It's also good to consider that books are often made to *communicate with other people.* I chose a CD-ROM over a more precious book form because I wanted to reach a large number of people, affordably, *and* I wanted to force people to use their computer for something else than looking at sports stats, stock reports, psycho gunmen games and porn.” (Jose Marquez)
The listserv discussion was in March 1998. I wonder if the people who posted on it would revise their opinions today.
I’m curious about the distinction between Art and craft.
It seems to me that the works featured at the Book Workers Guild are more ‘craft’ than they are ‘art’. (I’m referring to arts-and-crafts rather than craftsmanship, but do not intend the term to denigrate.) Where does that boundary lie? That is not to say that the final pieces are not worthy of being called Art, but the processes used to make these objects were not simply ‘painted’ or ‘sculpted’; they involved a number of crafts that when combined created the final piece. For example, a book might be covered in tanned goatskin and comprise hand-made paper, some of which are marbled (the end papers) and others screen printed. Each of the elements that are used in making the book are crafted and together they form an artist’s book and are Art: the book has meaningful content, was made by a human, is aesthetically appropriate and was intended to be a Art object by its creator.
Claire Van Vliet, The Janus Press
Newark, Vermont
W. R. Johnson, Narcissus, 1990
Based on the accordion fold, Narcissus incorporates laser printed visual as well as a Mylar mirror in which the reader virtually sees oneself on the periphery while reading. A meditative experience is presented, reading the poem before turning to the series of cloud images, then moving through layers of violet clouds, to which the words refer, ending, however, with an earth iron oxide. The box for Narcissus is covered in papers made by MacGregor-Vinzani (who also made the text paper) from colored pulp reflecting and suggesting the violet clouds referred to in the text. The box’s interior is fitted with a wooden structure that snugly houses the book’s truncated diamond shape. 24 x 29 x 1 centimeters. Created 1990.
Norma Rubovits
Chicago, Illinois
Marbled Vignette (no date)
Traditional marbling with watercolors on carragheen moss base.
Donald Glaister
Vashon Island, Washington
Mark Beard, Utah Reader, 1986
Bound in burgundy Morocco with onlays of calf, snake and goat skin. Gold, blind and painted tooling with areas of acrylic spray paint and sanded leather. Mark Beard’s story is about his youth in Bountiful, Utah. Beard remembers the K-Mart, the mountains, his tract home with the obligatory basketball hoop over the garage door, the family camper and other classic trappings of suburban life. The binding is simply an interpretation of those images. 31 x 41 x 4 centimeters. Created 1987. Lent by Earl M. Collier, Jr.
From Wikipedia:
A craft is a skill, especially involving practical arts.
Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.
“Art is what an artist says it is.” Marcel Duchamp
This statement, found in Drucker (and in lots of places online) intrigued me, especially as Duchamp’s urinal is so often referred to on the ART317 forum, so I decided to investigate him just enough that I got an overall gist of his philosophies. The sites I used are http://www.toutfait.com and http://www.marcelduchamp.net. In the 30 minutes I allowed myself to search these two sites I found:
He was interested in concepts of chance and metaphor, projection and eroticism as metaphor. “Ideas such as the infra-thin, ambivalence, ambiguity, and ephemerality” Rejected “the high seriousness prevalent in artistic circles in his own time” “Duchamp’s views on avoiding repetition and on the irrelevance of style or the visual”
..... I'm thinking that 30 minuted is no where near sufficient for getting any sort of gist about this man's philosophies, (perhaps this site would be more succinct - for another day and more time) but I like his Art definition.
These images are from a book that I created for a fictional Issey Miyake fashion show; a high end production where guests were sent an invitation and given a catalogue and a gift, all of which were part of the brief. The sky was the limits as far as budget was concerned.The materials used include a purchased book from which I used the cover and some pages; silk; Utee; micro beads; coloured mica powder; laser-printed images; ink; rubber stamps; fancy papers (including mulberry, vellum and form-molded); machine stitching; and transfer papers. The book is 12"x12". I scrapbook and make greeting cards so this book was somewhat a familiar territory for me in that I used or elaborated on many techniques that I was already familiar with. The degree of difficulty and finesse were above what I would go to for most of my scrapbooking endeavours and I spent considerable time tracking down materials. Normally when I create a scrapbook page or album I am doing so for the benefit of myself and my husband and children, or as a gift for a family member, such as grandparents. Most scrapbooking is ‘designed’ a page (or small group of pages) at a time – papers, embellishments and design elements are unique (in combination) to that page or layout and are chosen for their relationship to the photos that will be used.
A slightly different approach was used here as I had a demographic to consider. Fortunately, as Miyake’s garments are so unique, and many of them could be considered more Art (there it is again!) than wearable clothes, I concluded that the audience invited to his show were of the same ilk – left-of-centre, visually oriented and creative. Miyake’s clothes beg to be touched and examined and so the catalogue has a highly textured cover piece, papers that range from embossed and rough to the feathery softness of torn mulberry, incorporates pleated silk and torn vellum, the pages are assembled with stitching that has its ends dangling, and the book is interspersed with hand-coloured pages.
Until the last few weeks I considered the catalogue to be 'craft' because of its similarity to my scrapbooking. Having read Drucker and explored quite a few books and internet sites relating to artist’s books, I think that I can change my description to Art, specifically Artist’s Book. My only difficulty now rests with self-definition. Am I a graphic designer, artist, crafter or a combination? I suppose that ultimately I am a combination of all three, with a lean towards a particular nomenclature with each creation.
I mentioned in my last post that I was interested to find out if the colour work in illuminated manuscripts was different from other artists of the time.
I don't think so...
There's loads of information about the origins of pigments, how they were made and when they were introduced, but there is no differentiation between manuscripts and other art froms, so I can only conclude that the pigments were used unviseraly.
History of pigments can be found here along with loads of other pigment-related information.
Randy Asplund is an illuminated manuscript artist and on this page of his extensive web site he explains how he makes medieval paint for use in his art. These are the colours he creates:
Wikipedia also has an interesting table on medieval artist's colour sources.
We take full, saturated colour for granted these days, whether in the real or virtual world. The intensity of colour used in even the earliest manuscripts is astounding. This Book of Kells was produced in about 800AD by Celtic Monks.
I'm also taken by the way the textual content seems almost secondary to the illustrations. For example, half way down the first column on page 3 of the Sherborne Missal the illustration takes up 2/3 of the column and the text has been made smaller that the rest of the page to fit around it.
More spectacular Sherborne Missal pages
1 and 2 and 11 and 12. As you can see from the enlarged section, the amount of detail and the vibrant colours are amazing.
"This early 15th-century manuscript is probably the largest and most lavishly decorated English medieval service book to survive from the Middle Ages." (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/sherborne.html). A virtual copy of the Missal can be found here. Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berryhas incredible images in which I could lose myself for hours.
The core of the Book of Hours is a set of prayers and readings that were divided into eight parts to be said at different times of the day. The books often included other texts such as calendars and were personal prayer books that were owned by the wealthy members of the Christian community in the 13th and 14th centuries. Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is the most famous of such texts and was created between 1413 and 1416. It is considered to be a high point in the entire history of painting, and I perhaps confirms that illuminators and artists used the same materials to produce their colourful art. It was never completed.
JanuaryAnatomical Man
And in regard to the colours they used:
“The Limbourgs used a wide variety of colours obtained from minerals, plants or chemicals and mixed with either arabic or tragacinth gum to provide a binder for the paint. Amongst the more unusual colours they used were vert de flambe, a green obtained from crushed flowers mixed with massicot, and azur d'outreme, an ultramarine made from crushed Middle Eastern lapis-lazuli, used to paint the brilliant blues. (This was, of course, extremely expensive!)”
My sincere apologies for the varying formats within my blog. It's driven me nuts! No matter how hard I try I can't seem to get the text looking all the same - I just don't have enough html knowledge to fix it!
This blog is for the subject ART317
And I've gotta say, I'm thoroughly enjoying it! There aren't enough hours in the day for this subject, it takes on a life of it's own and leads you in many directions....
Hi, I'm Bonnie, mother of 2 teenage boys, Alex and Jamie, and wife to Phil.
I'm two thirds of the way through my degree in Graphic Design at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga which I'm completing via distance as we have recently moved back to our home in Booval, Brisbane.
