THESIS ARTISTS’ BOOKS AND CHILDREN’S BOOKS Elizabeth A. Curren Art and the Book In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in Art and the Book Corcoran College of Art + Design Washington, DC Spring 2013 © 2013 Elizabeth Ann Curren All Rights Reserved CORCORAN COLLEGE OF ART + DESIGN May 6, 2013 WE HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER OUR SUPERVISION BY ELIZABETH A. CURREN ENTITLED ARTISTS’ BOOKS AND CHILDREN’S BOOKS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING, IN PART, REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTs IN ART AND THE BOOK. Graduate Thesis Committee: (Signature of Student) Elizabeth A. Curren (Printed Name of Student) (Signature of Thesis Reader) Georgia Deal (Printed Name of Thesis Reader) (Signature of Thesis Reader) Sarah Noreen Hurtt (Printed Name of Thesis Reader) (Signature of Program Chair and Advisor) Kerry McAleer-Keeler (Printed Name of Program Director and Advisor) Acknowledgements Many people have given generously of their time, their experience and their insights to guide me through this thesis; I am extremely grateful to all of them. The faculty of the Art and The Book Program at the Corcoran College of Art + Design have been most encouraging: Kerry McAleer-Keeler, Director, and Professors Georgia Deal, Sarah Noreen Hurtt, Antje Kharchi, Dennis O’Neil and Casey Smith. Students of the Corcoran’s Art and the Book program have come to the rescue many times. Many librarians gave me advice and suggestions. Mark Dimunation, Daniel DiSimone and Eric Frazier of the Rare Books and Special Collections at the Library of Congress have provided research support and valuable comments during the best internship opportunity anyone can ever have. Their participation in our Masters program has enriched the curriculum and encouraged us all to be scholars. Erik Delfino, also of the Library of Congress, translated and interpreted library jargon into language I could understand. Jacqueline Coleburn showed me a trolley of treasures from the Library’s Children’s Collection and offered great ideas. Laurie Whitehill Chong, Curator of Artists’ Books for the Rhode Island School of Design, presented beautiful books from the Fleet Library’s Special Collections. Kathie Meizner, Library Manager for Maryland’s Montgomery County Libraries, has talked and walked me through children’s books, introduced me to authors and illustrators, and been a true friend. Artist/author Peter Sís graciously invited me to send him a list of questions and then spoke with me on the phone for ninety minutes. And my husband, Dwain Winters, and our daughter, Meredith, have provided technical support and endless mugs of tea; I could not have done this without them. i Contents Acknowledgements i Table of Contents ii Thesis Statement iii List of Figures and Illustrations iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1. A Short History of Children’s Book Publishing 8 Chapter 2. Maurice Sendak 19 Chapter 3. Peter Sís 31 Chapter 4. Hybrid 41 Chapter 5. Conclusion 45 Illustrations 49 Bibliography 59 ii Thesis Statement The genre of Artists’ Books, with its historical roots in folk tales, culture and the printing industry, has evolved alongside the genre of Children’s Picture Books and Literature. Many artist/authors of children’s literature, in particular, Maurice Sendak and Peter Sis, have produced books that they maintain are not intended only for children. Some questions addressed will be: have some children’s book artist/authors been influenced by the Artists’ Book genre? And, can these commercially published books be considered Artists’ Books or should they be considered hybrids? iii Illustrations Figures 1. Maurice Sendak, “Max in his bedroom”, Where the Wild Things Are 2. Maurice Sendak, “The Wild Rumpus”, Where the Wild Things Are 3. Maurice Sendak, “Now Mickey Cried Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!”, In the Night Kitchen 4. Maurice Sendak, “The Goblins Stole the Baby Sister”, Outside Over There 5. Peter Sís, “Madlenka and the Neighbors”, Madlenka’s Dog 6. Peter Sís, “Madlenka and the Neighbors” [flaps up], Madlenka’s Dog 7. Peter Sís, “Gallileo’s Notes on the Phases of the Moon”, Starry Messenger 8. Peter Sís, “The Meeting with the Hoopoe Bird”, The Conference of the Birds 9. Whitney Stahl, 2013 photograph of Peter Sís’s The Conference of the Birds, shelved with art books in store iv Introduction The Artists’ Book genre, with its historical roots in folk tales, the avant- garde movement and the print industry, has evolved alongside the genre of Children’s Books, each influencing the other. Artist/authors of illustrated Children’s Literature have produced books that they maintain are not intended only for children. Can some of these crossover books be considered Artists’ Books or should they be considered hybrids? Artists’ Books and the field of Book Arts incorporate intentionality, the use of the senses, deliberate choices about all aspects of the book’s form, and an assumption of heightened involvement and participation on the part of the reader. “Every aspect of the artist’s book,” writes historian Betty Bright, “from content to materials to format, must respond to the intent of the artist and cohere into a work that is set in motion with a reader’s touch.”1 In this strict sense of definition, most Children’s Illustrated Books, or Picture Books, would not fit within the genre of Artists’ Books. Their focus and aim are different. To borrow a quote concerning livres des artistes from art historian Johanna Drucker, Children’s Books, “stop just at the threshold of the conceptual space in which artists’ books operate.”2 Children’s Books, while often akin to Artists’ Books in being self- conscious about the structure and meaning of the book as a form, have different goals and strive for a different audience. Their function is to tell a story, in book 1 Betty Bright, No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America 1960-1980 (New York: Granary Books, 2005), 3. 2 Johanna Drucker, The Century of Artists’ Books, (New York: Granary Books, 2004), 3. 2 form that will be published, marketed and purchased for the edification and entertainment of children. Nonetheless, Artists’ Books and Children’s books have much in common. The parallels include many of the same features: a story to be told; deliberate pacing, layout and design; the use of negative space and the relationship between text and images; creative use of type and changes in font; attention to details such as binding and paper choices; experimentation with format; and elements of surprise. It can be argued that these are simply universal elements of good design. However, book artists and children’s book illustrators thrive on bending the rules and pushing the boundaries. Both genres have many participants, admirers, even champions and yet each has struggled for recognition and status within their respective fields. It is hoped that examining these parallels will lead to a better understanding of why both genres, during the 20th century and into the 21st, have remained on the outer edges of their respective fields and how that positioning has been a mixed blessing for the practitioners. The field of Artist’s Books and Book Arts has existed for over a hundred years; both Johanna Drucker and Betty Bright make compelling arguments for the field to be considered to be “the 20th century artform par excellence.” 3 Yet even fine artists are surprised by its existence. The genre suffers by comparison to painting, sculpture, and printmaking even though those disciplines are often incorporated into artists’ books. It may be the very “bookness” that alters the perception of the book art objects as unworthy of the elevated status of fine art. 3 Drucker, Century of Artists’ Books, 4. 3 The very accessibility and familiarity with books that we, as readers, have all come to depend upon may make it more challenging to agree that such common objects are art. Book artists concern themselves with all elements of the book form and they do so in order to fully engage the reader by requiring that, once the artist’s book is complete, the reader must shoulder the responsibility for meaning. There is nothing passive about experiencing an artist’s book. Children’s book art has exerted an influence on artist’s books; however, this influence is rarely recognized and, in fact, many artists shy away from acknowledging it. “Don’t go there; we have enough trouble getting our work to be taken seriously,” is often the response. But there are many connections and it should be possible to examine these issues without a loss of integrity. Books, especially science and technical volumes, have incorporated movable parts for hundreds of years and Pop-ups became well known in the Victorian era.4 Cut outs, accordion folds, collage, and textural elements have been used in children’s books in ingenious ways to entice children’s senses and engage their full attention. Book artists employ these techniques as part of their esthetic repertoire and adults must realign their accustomed ways of reading a book to accommodate these new elements. The creators of Artist’s Books often subvert the traditional role of the book, as a vessel of knowledge and information. What printer Walter Hamady referred to as “the Trojan Horse of 4 Renee Riese Hubert and Judd D. Hubert, The Cutting Edge of Reading: Artists’ Books (New York: Granary Books, 1999), 8. 4 art”, can “insinuate itself into a reader’s consciousness while it delivers content that may be unexpected or disturbing.”5 With a few notable exceptions, such as the multiples of Ed Ruscha, and the offset printed books by Brad Freeman, very few Artists’ Books are produced in large editions. Since most artists consider the intense involvement in all aspects of production of Artists’ Books to be essential, editions are limited.