A Manifesto for the Book Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden A Manifesto for the Book Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden with an edited selection of interviews, essays and case studies from the project What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the 21st Century? 1 A Manifesto for the Book Published by Impact Press at The Centre for Fine Print Research University of the West of England, Bristol February 2010 Free download from: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/canon.htm This publication is a result of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council from March 2008 - February 2010: What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the 21st Century? The AHRC funds postgraduate training and research in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. The quality and range of research supported not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the AHRC, please see the website www.ahrc.ac.uk ISBN 978-1-906501-04-4 © 2010 Publication, Impact Press © 2010 Images, individual artists © 2010 Texts, individual authors Editors Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden The views expressed within A Manifesto for the Book are not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. Impact Press, Centre for Fine Print Research UWE, Bristol School of Creative Arts Kennel Lodge Road, Bristol BS3 2JT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 117 32 84915 Fax: +44 (0) 117 32 85865 www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk [email protected] [email protected] 2 Contents Interview with Eriko Hirashima founder of LA LIBRERIA artists’ bookshop in Singapore 109 A Manifesto for the Book Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden 5 Interview with John Risseeuw, proprietor of his own Cabbagehead Press and Director of ASU’s Pyracantha Interview with Radoslaw Nowakowski on publishing his own Press, Arizona State University, USA 113 books and artists’ books “non-describing the world” since the 70s in Dabrowa Dolna, Poland. 11 Case Study Interview with Antic-Ham, Artist, South Korea, October 2009 131 Imi Maufe’s ABTREE diagram 24 Case study interview with Tim Mosely, Artist, at Southern Interview with Jeff Rathermel - Artistic Director of the Cross University, Lismore, Australia 135 Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA), Minneapolis, USA 25 Case study interview with Baysan Yüksel (also producing work as Bayananderson) 2nd Year Masters Fine Art (painting) Interview with Ulrike Stoltz, artist and Professor of student Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey 139 Typography at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany 29 Case Study - Richard Price, Artist and Poet, UK 143 Interview with Dmitry Sayenko, Russia, who works with Lilla Duignan’s ABTREE diagram 145 colour woodcut and linocut, and binds his own books by hand. 39 Case Study - Caren Florance, Ampersand Duck Press/Publisher, Australia 147 Interview with L. Vandegrift Davala, based in Ireland, whose recent work has utilised interactive digital technologies in Case Study - Lina Hakim, Artist, Lebanon 151 the production of book works. 47 Case study interview with David Paton, Artist and Senior Possible Strategies For Exploiting Wikipedia For The Lecturer: Visual Art, University of Johannesburg, Dissemination and Profiling of Artists’ Books and Multiples South Africa 153 on the Internet - Francis Elliott 55 Case Study - Karen Hanmer, Artist and Designer Interview with Sally Alatalo, artist founder of Sara Bookbinder, USA 157 Ranchouse Publishing, Chicago, USA 59 Case Study - Fernanda Fedi and Gino Gini, Artists, Italy 161 Interview with Kyoko Tachibana, Sohon Studio, Sapporo, Japan 69 Case Study - John Bently, Artist, United Kingdom 164 Interview with Paulo Silveira, Brazil, with input from Maria Case Study - Andrew Eason, Artist, United Kingdom 165 Lucia Cattani about her recent work relating to the book ‘Quadrantes/Quadrants’ 73 Case Study - Horst Weierstall, Artist, Cyprus 169 Interview with Monica Langwe, Swedish book artist Case Study - Nancy Campbell, Dealer, UK 171 and bookbinder 81 Case Study - Judy Barrass, Artist, Australia 175 Ahlrich van Ohlen’s ABTREE diagram 85 Artists’ Books or Artists’ Publications? Interview with Maria White – Chief Cataloguer, Tate An edited selection of responses from the online forum: Britain, UK 87 21st Century Book Discussions at Artist Books 3.0 179 Artists’ Publications – Andi McGarry 91 Defining the Book An edited selection of responses from the online forum: Interview with Doro Böhme, Ramon Cartwright, Andrew 21st Century Book Discussions at Artist Books 3.0 181 Blackleyand Elissa Papendick at the Joan Flasch Artists’ Books Collection, The School of the Art Institute of Emma Powell’s ABTREE diagram 182 Chicago, USA 95 Bibliography / Further Reading 183 3 4 A Manifesto for the Book considered an artist’s book. We also requested that those Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden who took a diagram explored it and altered it according to how they would classify the subject. The response was Book - artist’s book - artist’s publication - book good and we received back many diagrams that art? had been changed according to taste. Ulises Carrión’s The New Art of Making Books begins with: What became apparent to us later, was that the diagram A book is a sequence of spaces. was already wrong. As a tree diagram it was too rigid and too concerned with process. There couldn’t be the If it is to be argued that a book has to be a sequence of cross-pollination that is often required as an artist - when pages inside a container, and if a container is considered you allow the content to drive the process, rather than as a physical entity – then as well as covers, a container the other way around. The diagram was missing the must also be able to be a computer monitor, a mobile links between areas that would inevitably be needed to phone screen, a room, a box, the Internet. A series of describe the working practice of many who produce pages can exist on paper or on a screen. On screens we books. Many who altered the diagram did just that, scroll through the pages reflecting an original, historical adding in connectors across, up and down to bring book format. The big mainstream publishing houses seemingly disparate disciplines together. have no problem terming screen-based works as books. Just look at the recent push for e-books from publishers We also curated three exhibitions as part of the project and hardware manufacturers alike. under the term ‘Artists’ Publishing’. Although the exhibitions were well-received, the term itself was not. One of the key points of this project was to try and Publishing was welcomed by many artists as a term include all the book related activity that artists engage which allows Internet and digital output, but their main with. To include work that was being produced on, and grievance with the term ‘publishing’ was that it removes exclusively for, digital technologies within the book arts the word ‘book’ from the subject area. We felt that field, and not leave it floundering uncomfortably on the ‘publishing’ would serve as an inclusive term for works edge, or given a different terminology altogether, if the produced with newer technologies, and works made artist considered what they were producing to be a book around the notion of the book. Artists can publish their then we felt it should be included. For example the artist work physically: paper, book, pamphlets, and virtually: L. Vandegrift Davala whose recent work has utilised e-books, mobile-phone based, bluetooth, blogs, websites, interactive digital technologies in the production of book and include multiples of ephemeral works such as works, and whose use of iPods is based upon a study of badges, stickers (for example the Wlepki stickers with ancient Ethiopian scroll books and the idea of portability short stories on them in Poland – see Case Study 31 (Investigating the artist’s book: L. Vandegrift Davala, Wojciech Wegrzynski at www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/canon. http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/canon.htm). htm). The most resistance to the term ‘publishing’ was from traditional book makers. They felt that the term At the start of this project we tried to draw a was too slanted towards digital and ephemeral works at classification diagram, ABTREE, for the discipline the expense of the physical, finely-produced book, and that is generally known as artists’ books. To be able to excluded them on the grounds that they did not ‘publish’ encompass some of those disciplines that relate to books art. This was perceived as diluting the field through a or hang around on the periphery, perhaps straddling deluge of e-publishing. more than one discipline; we felt that a more inclusive term was needed. Inevitably the classification was We too were slightly uncomfortable with the term drawn up based on process and working practice, rather Artists’ Publishing. As much as we appreciate work that than content. We tried to think of a title that was loose is ‘published’ by artists, it was not quite the inclusive enough to encompass the artists producing multiples, term that we had hoped. By its nature, publishing screen-based work and audio books, as well as fine tends to define work that is produced in multiple and press, livres d’artistes and just plain old books. In the distributed. For many, that is not what they do. Unique end we plumped for a term that was initially proposed and sculptural books are no small part of the artists’ via the online forum (http://artistbooks.ning.com/ books world and the term publishing does not appear group/21stcenturybook) ‘Artists’ Publishing’. to include these works. Neither does it seem a correct term for books produced in very small editions, which It was a quick diagram, done on the hoof and considered is again a significant theme within artists’ books.