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A Book Is More Than It’s Cover
Jessica Chun
BA Art Design Degree
2023
Contents
Introduction
Exhibition Space
Displays
Ai wei wei - Cats and Dogs
Thao Nguyen Phan - Voyages De Rhodes
Beatrice Coron - New York Redux
Katya McCulloch - Blocks off the block
Cathy DeForest - Ink and Blood
C.J. Shane - The Migrants
Julie Chen - The. Veil
Emily Martin - Madness
Shu-ju Wang - Wounds series
Anselm Kiefer - Lead Books
Bibliograpgy
Introduction
Collected within this exhibition are several handmade books which are artworks, with contents expressing recorded historic moments and political happenings.
My fascination with art books, especially handmade books stems from a project I was given, the task which was to make a book out of any material. This was during lockdown so I had to use the resources within home which was limited unless you are a paper hoarder and a shopaholic. At that time I decided to use a random piece of pre folded cardboard from a package and used it as the base of the book and the end product was a hexagon shaped book with each inner panel having interactive pages of a story. The work developed into concertina books, tunnel books and zines with many different contents. This sparked my interest into making multiple kinds of handmade interactive books and cards knowing that it is a limited self publishing artwork with minimal cost.
A handmade book by an artist is a work of art in the same way as a painting or sculpture but taking the form of a book. "Book arts" refers to the creative disciplines of papermaking, printing, typography, collaging, metal, wood and bookbinding used in producing book art. An artist's book can also be classified as any form of work that combines photography, poetry, collaging, experimental sketches, visual arts, graphic design, or publishing.
In the early years of the 20th century, Futurists and Dadaists created political pamphlets and magazines, Fluxus artists produced the happenings that surrounded them, and conceptual artists dematerialized art objects in their work. In addition to being unique creations, artists' books can also be meticulously crafted and designed. Artists often use the book format for telling stories about complex issues, with ideas that are impossible to express through canvas or other mediums. Some were made by painters or sculptors as a means of extending their artistic practice. In some artist-made books, the words of others are illustrated, combining the arts with literature. And some artists' books are wordless. As a work created by an artist, an artist's book can differ fundamentally from the books you might find in a library, in terms of its nature, appearance, and purpose.
A number of museums, libraries, and private collectors have added them to their collections. There are various studio programs in art schools and online workshops that dedicate themselves to teaching new generations of artists how to make books. Due to their straddling between the art and literary worlds, these works pose certain challenges. Artists often intend their works to be interactive, requiring the reader to turn pages and feel the book's weight and texture. However when displayed in the museum, the book cannot be read which causes these works to be protected under glass, installed as art objects.
Exhibition Space
The exhibition will be held inside, the British Museum Library. The most iconic institution in the U.K from holding 3,000-year old Chinese oracle bones to todays newspaper, the collection spans the sand of time. The British Museum Library, founded in 1753, contained one of the world’s largest collections of books, manuscripts and periodicals, both contemporary and antique, British and foreign.
In this exhibition will bring together hand-made books made by talented skilful artist, in glass case plinths, and advanced technology protectors to allow guests to explore the books without ever touching them. This is a totally unique experience that gives the guests a chance to interact with history in a totally new way.
Displays
Now that technology has been rapidly advancing many there are many ways to show case works of artist without it being tangible as such using motion projection flip book, with each flip of the page the viewers will be able to flip the pages and zoom in and out of the picture. Viewers will be able to see details and commentary of the artist’s thoughts in creating their piece. This engaging exhibition will excite the visitors because of the unique experience
Ai Weiwei. The Papercut Portfolio
In this intricate limited-edition portfolio the social activist artist Ai Weiwei uses the ancient practice of chinese paper cutting to reflect on his life and work. Using his cultural background from China to create these delicate paper silhouettes that are used as his way of story-telling medium in festivities, for prayers, and as everyday decoration. Normally red Joss paper are used to celebrate and wish luck to our surroundings but Ai may have wanted to remind us of the past work that has made a great impact on other young activists and artists.
‘An artist must be an activist: Ai Wei Wei’ (amp.theguardian.com, n.d.)
The Cats and Dogs are a motif that depicts a decisive period in his work, from his return to Beijing in 1993 to the construction of his Caochangdi house and studio. He gives the Forbidden City the middle finger, just as he did in his Studies of Perspective, where his outstretched middle finger measured sights around the world. And the word “FUCK” is another familiar motif of Ai’s Beijing years, where he spelled it as a huge neon sign in his studio garden. The priceless artefact vases branded with the Coca-Cola logo, in reference to his landmark Han Dynasty vase piece, rest on Ming and Qing Dynasty tables. The papercut shows the works as they would be displayed in the studio, dozen of cats and dogs roam free in their house and garden.
“Small is the water. Large the afternoon. In the fold of silence and order. We were ready to march together”(Thao Nguyen Phan Monsoon Melody 2020 Pg.211)
Voyages De Rhodes 2017 by Thao Nguyen Phan
The Vietnamese visual artist Thao Nguyen Phan is known internationally for her poetic, multilayered artworks which explore the historical and ecological challenges facing her homeland Vietnam, the country in which she was raised.
The artwork series titled 'Voyages De Rhodes' includes water colour paintings in which she takes a book written by Rhodes as her canvas. The original title of this text was Rhodes of Viet Nam: The Travels and Missions of Father Alexandre de Rhodes in China and Other Kingdoms of the Orient. It describes his multiple encounters and observations during his time in China and other kingdoms of the Orient. Phan painted based on her visual interpretations of these stories, which she placed on particular pages of the book and carefully removed and framed individually. As you read every descriptive text, you can see how it would have perfectly matched the paintings. Such as the sorrow of their suffering when the harmed children are blind folded and disembodied. But there was also a sense of eerie organic beauty when the sexual organs of the victims became tropical plants like fruits, papaya and sugarcane.
Beatrice Coron is a visual artist in paper cutting, animations and public art. Beatrice tells her stories through the art of paper cutting, the story unfolds into a variety of interpretations of reality depending on the interpretation at hand. The artist starts her work with a utility knife and sometimes would get transposed to other digital techniques for animation.
This artwork is housed in a black folder with concertina-folded pages and a black cut-out silhouette representing the year of Hurricane Sandy. It visualises NYC underwater in an attempt to address the problem of rising sea levels and the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
Instead of dwelling on the tragedy that took place, the artist chooses to visualise the way New York reinvented itself in order to cope with the tragedy. Rather than portraying the famous Westminster dog show, the artist portrays a duck show instead.
There are several panels in this concertina where ducks are shown as taking the place of dogs in people's apartments and in the streets which have been turned into a Venetian style river that is navigated by gondolas.
Blocks off the Block by Katya McCulloch
Katya McCulloch is an active social justice practice artist. Katya McCulloch teaches and collaborates with students in San Quentin state prison through William James Association’s Prison Art Project. And expresses her surrounding phenomenon through visual pieces. The artist uses her printmaking skill as her medium to create this beautifully made hand-bound book of her original linocut prints which were inspired during California’s long drought cycle in 2000.
One could see that the cover of this book might have had a symbolic meaning of the black birds flying around the bird bath as the water droplets fall from the sky. Everyone was affected by how scarce the water was which caused that sense of fear. And in San Quentin prison, inmates were impacted greatly as they would usually only shower three times a week and would use the shower to wash their clothes but as new rules were regulated due to the drought cycles the inmates shower privileges were sadly reduced. The 'Bird Bath' concept in this book covers a wide variety of themes that closely includes water conservation, nurture, sympathy, tranquillity, humour and new beginnings. One can only imagine how uncomfortable and difficult it might have been to be in their shoes.
Ink and Blood by Cathy DeForest
Cathy Deforest is a book artist who works in a broad range of media integrating etchings, letterpress printing and photography into her artist books. The artist creates art and works with underserved communities nationwide using the power of art to address gun violence prevention.
In this Ink and Blood is a collection of four books within a painted portfolio. Each book is dedicated to a different aspect of the Iraqi culture, from the invasion by the Mongols in 1258 to the rich culture of Mesopotamia, which is regarded as the birthplace of civilization, to the bombing of Baghdad's ancient bookseller street in 2007, as well as a dedication to the "Republic of the Imagination".
It is said that the artist felt the need to hand ink each of the thirty-eight pages for each edition to honour those who died for the love of books. (managedartwork.com, 2023)
Multiple background plates were made for each of the four books, and nineteen intaglio solar plates were created to contain the narrative of the book. Ink and Blood is an edition of 8 and is dedicated to the people of Iraq and their long-lived culture. This excerpt captures the essence of one's gratitude to all those who stand for culture.
“Like the rivers that embrace Baghdad, the flow of culture endures: it is in our blood to have ink in our hands.There will always be someone inspired to communicate through words and images. There will always be someone drawing sustenance from art and knowledge.”(managedartwork.com, 2023)
C.J. Shane is a visual Artist and writer. As a writer she has published a dozen books and as an artist her primary medium is painting and relief printmaking. The artist is deeply influenced by her travels, especially the cultures of China and Mexico. She likes to use subtle colours and textures that are key elements in her painting which allows the viewers to have a deeper connection to nature.
Artist explores a number of issues relating to U.S. immigration policy on the Mexican-U.S border between Arizona and Sonora, including its unnecessarily high death toll. With an accordion structure and fabric covers, the book includes a hand-drawn map of places where bodies have been found as well as a monotype of lyrics from Tish Hinojosa's song, "Donde Voy." Like educational textbooks and pamphlets, this type of art book reminds us of a time when the justice system in the United States failed to protect the interests of its citizens.
Julie Chen is an astonishing book artist who has been publishing her limited edition books under the name of The Flying Fish Press imprint for over 20 years. In her work, she combines fine letterpress printing with three-dimensional and beautiful intricate movable book structures. The artist is mainly interested in the interactivity in books, and most of her work is made with a box so as to protect the book and a kind of preview or an idea of what the book content will be about. It also serves as an enclosure concept of creating a world within a world. The Artist’s approach to artists’ books combines with her personal narrative with book forms that present the reader with both intimate reading experience as well as beautiful objects that can be displayed as sculpture pieces
This artwork is called the Veil it is Julie Chen's response to the widespread confusion and anxiety after 9/11. “It’s supposed to echo the veil covering women’s faces — the burqa — in Afghanistan,” said Prasertwaitaya. “The text on the back is the U.N. preamble from 1945. It’s not just her reaction to 9/11, it’s also about the lack of transparency of government actions.”(Patrick, 2013)
Madness: Reading Hamlet in the Time of Covid-19 and Other Plagues, Emily Martin , 2022
Emily Martin first made her artist book in 1979 and started teaching artist books, paper engineering and traditional bookbinding classes in 1998. During her career, the artist has made many limited edition artist books, first at the Naughty Dog Press, and later under her household name alone, she has produced over fifty books, many of which are intricate movable sculptures that apply engineering techniques to the paper itself.
This Concertina book called ‘Madness’ was created during the pandemic which one should be all too familiar with by now it has gone through various forms before it became what you see here. The appearance and content are very much shaped by the artist’s time in isolation. Initially, Emily Martin copied out the entire play of Hamlet by hand starting in March 2020 because she was too anxious to sit and read. At that time she was making paper puppets for companionship. In retrospect, one can see how lonely those times were during the time of the pandemic.
The project kept changing as events swirled around her. She struggled to make sense of the project in a world that has gone crazy. The text is a crazy quilt arrangement of lines from Hamlet and the artist’s hand writing on repeating themes of fear, disease, Black Lives Matter, Asian hate crimes, the insurrection, so much death and isolation. Madness was practically imprinted within every page. The background pattern is made up of the artist’s illustrations of tears, drops of blood, Covid-19 particles and bullet holes
Wounds Series by Shu-ju Wang , 2004
Whenever you think things can't possibly get any worse, they always do. This is what inspired Shu-Ju Wang to make "Wounds", one of three books she created after Nick Berg was beheaded in Iraq. Contemporary artist Shu-ju Wang’s Key foundation is her reflection to her personal history of migration and background in technology, science and art. The artist re-imagines traditional motifs in a more contemporary context in understanding the stories as a relationship between narration to interpretation. In a culture of bigger-is-better and faster-is-better, The artist likes to create small & intimate work, slowly. Influenced by Chinese gongbi style paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and Islamic miniatures, her work combines abstract & representational forms in lush and jewel-like colours, and the artist invites viewers to interpret, to draw conclusions about this world that we live in.
The book throughout focuses specifically on how the story was reported by the media, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In the process of writing her third book, ‘Nightmare Comes True’, she began to lose her rage and become sad even though she has no close ties to the family, sometimes insensitive media coverage would further worsen the artist’s depression. She would spend two weeks painting, gouging, scraping, binding, and crying. In a way I felt that I could relate in the empathy she has towards the victims.
Lead Books , Anselm Kiefer
Kiefer gives us in “High Priestess” books that one man/woman can’t move alone. Profoundly symbolic in that books have traditionally carried the ‘weight’ of the culture/civilization that produced them and here they can’t be transported alone.
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Exhibition Space:
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