Ken Botnick. Table of Contents. emdash, 2021.

Presentation Topics & Links to Speakers' Bios

Kenneth Botnick, The Book as Algorithm: Artists’ Books in the Digital Age.

In spite of the well-known predictions of the imminent death of the book, interest in making books by hand continues to flourish into the 21st century. By its very nature, contemporary practices in the artist book enrich the field of critical inquiry into:

• The essential qualities and relevance of craft in the 21st century

• Technological innovations shaping craft practice

• The evolution of authorship in an age of virtual connectivity.

Inge Bruggeman, The Hand-Printed Book in Its Historical Context

The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley has offered a unique seminar and press room class for some 30+ years. It offers students the opportunity to not only experience the history of the printed book but also to make their own history while collaboratively letterpress printing and publishing an edition of books from unpublished materials in the archives. Students learn the history of the printed book while also considering why writers and artists later chose (and continue to choose) this medium over others as a way to publish and disseminate their ideas and work. The course activates the library’s collections on many levels, as will be illustrated in this talk.

Harry Reese, From Gutenberg to the Gallery.

In The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Marshall McLuhan argued that significant changes in technology would generate massive cultural transformations that will permanently alter the form and function of the book. Fundamentals of book production have not changed much since Gutenberg, but the cultured environments in which it has been grounded and expanded certainly have. The effects of the electronic environment allowed the book form to upgrade its status as a work of art. As the humanities have become more visual, the artist book demands much more than ever before from its makers, educators, curators, and collectors.

Ruth R. Rogers, Finding the Human in the Humanities: a Curator’s Pursuit

Acquiring artists’ books for a liberal arts collection implies risk and obligation with every decision. Will it be used? Do I understand the maker’s intent? Will it continue to resonate over time? These works demand skilled interpreters who will present them as a hybrid book-object that merges language, material, and visual presence as metaphor. An academic library provides outstanding opportunities to integrate artists’ books with historical collections of rare books and manuscripts-- to remind the viewer that they are not separate from earlier forms of the book, but relatives in a long evolutionary line of human expression. The curator’s challenge is to discern from the vast range of possibilities and to imagine how one’s choices will become a permanent part of teaching and learning at their institution.

Katherine M. Ruffin, The Book as Idea

Using Chapter 3 of Amaranth Borsuk’s The Book (2018) as a starting point, this presentation will illustrate models for exposing students to artist-made books in Special Collections that lead to creative assignments in classes across the liberal arts curriculum. Using a variety of tools and strategies—from basic to complex, from analog to digital—students can make books that express their own artistic vision. These types of projects can also address educational goals such as visual literacy, analytic thinking, collaboration, and problem solving. Pedagogical strategies that expand on the book as a creative medium will be presented and illustrated with examples made by Wellesley College students that range from collaborative first-year writing publishing projects to unique artist-made books to studio art thesis projects.

Meredith Santaus, Book/Art/Work: A New Terminology for Artist Books

The term “artist book” is currently a rhetorical placeholder, encompassing both books created entirely as a conceptual work of art, and books which, to any degree, evince elements of the book arts (e.g. fine press editions, designer bindings, and illuminated manuscripts). This ambivalent terminology hinders critical analysis, which in turn hinders the improvement of craftsmanship, the advancement of associated theory, and the growth of artist books’ value to collectors. A revision of “artist book” and the once-popular term “bookwork” provides an inclusive solution by foregrounding the book as a medium between aesthetics and ethics and by determining categorical meaning without imposing hierarchy.

Wellesley College faculty presenters:

Alison Hickey, English

Barbara Lynn-Davis, Art and Writing

Raymond Starr, Classical Studies