Artists’ books are collected sometimes by art museums but rarely as an art form in their own right. They are acquired usually as an adjunct to an artist’s overall output. In other words they gain entry via the back door to art museum collections. Where they may sit uneasily distributed through various departments.
It has been left mainly to libraries to collect what Johanna Drucker in her book ‘The Century of Artists’ Books’ calls, ‘the quintessential 20th century art-form’.
Libraries, however, also have problems collecting these works. Arts Librarians have to be pretty deft at convincing others within their institutions that certain books should be collected. This may be because they may not fall within a library’s collection policy.
Some do not look like books,
some cannot be opened,
some are more like sculptural works than books,
some do not have text,
some may be too small
while others may too large.
They do not meet the criteria and therefore are not collected. But they may be artists’ books.
On the other hand there are many finely crafted books, which fulfil collection criteria, and enter artists’ books collections, but they may not be artists’ books. Even the experts do not agree.
‘A Century of Artists Books’, an exhibition curated by Riva Castleman at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1994, during her time as Chief Curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, is scathingly called by Johanna Drucker, "a misnamed exhibition ... (which) is a representative selection of 20th century livres d’artiste". Drucker adds, "There are a few anomalies in (Castleman’s) exhibition, works which are artists’ books, which probably found their way down the elevator from the MoMA Library collection..."
Obviously the artist’s book has an identity problem. How did this come about?
Before discussing that, I would like to look at some examples of books, which may sit uneasily in some collections.
Flux Paper Events by George Maciunas, chief organiser of the Fluxus movement, was published in 1976 in an edition of 500 unnumbered copies by Edition Hundermark in Germany.
The medieval engraving of papermakers on the cover does not prepare the viewer for the nasty things Maciunas has done with the paper.
The 32 differently worked pages have been destructively altered – torn, cut, folded, punched, crumpled, stapled, glued, dog-eared, perforated and smeared with unknown substances – to record the sheer physicality of the artist’s actions and to emphasise the potential for sensory awareness. The only text is the title on the cover.
Seitensprung
Made up of around 500 pp. It is 10 cm high x 5 cm wide and 5.5 cm deep and is more like a sculptural work, or a multiple. Seitensprung was self-published in 1989 by German artist, Jan Voss, in an edition of 35 numbered and signed copies. The German title, Seitensprung, again like Maciunas’ book the title is the only text used, and literally means ‘a sideways jump’. But Voss is having fun with a German pun as colloquially Seitensprung means having an affair or ‘having a bit on the side’. Viewed from the front the running man is scampering across the fore-edge.
Viewed open or as a flip book the running man runs out of the book. One has the feeling of watching a performance. Voss has very cleverly trimmed the fore-edge so that the print from each page has a ‘bit on the side’ thus forming the running man.
hard cros line is another self-published example by British / Australian artist Ti Parks. It was produced in 1991 in an edition of 24 numbered and signed copies.
hard cros line contains six folded sheets of blank white paper, each sheet has been folded four times, bundled together and sewn with thread so it cannot be opened. A pencil drawing on back with pasted title on front.
Smaller than Seitensprung it is only 7.7 x 5.6 cm.
Merzhanky by Kurt Schwitters, was an open ended edition published by Morning Star Publications in 1994. A paper hanky folded with a Schwitter’s concrete poem ‘Die Wut des Niesens’ (the rage of the sneeze). The hanky is placed in a small envelope 11.5 x11.5 cm with an image of Schwitters presumably reciting ‘Die Wut des Niesens’.
The next book is a commercially printed book.
La Melodie de Tur di di by Swiss artist Warja Lavater
This was the first artist’s book I had ever seen, although I did not know at that time that it was an artist’s book. It stood innocently enough among the art books at Payot, a bookshop in Zurich devoted to French literature. I was immediately captivated, bought the book and it started my collection.
Published in 1971 by Adrien Maeght Editeur in Paris Lavater’s book is a graphic narrative which requires the assistance of a code in order to follow the story. Lavater has skillfully structured the pages to turn the corner and lead into the next space. The use of the concertina format also allows the viewer / reader to stretch the story out.
HIGH TENSION Published in an edition of 1000 signed copies by American Philip Zimmermann in 1993.
It is an amazing production prepared on the computer. The pages are die-cut into saw-toothed diagonal shapes and printed using three colour offset lithography. It is the perfect book for those of us who enjoy tension. It refects the swings between despair and hope.
The first Page opens to reveal a train rushing towards the viewer with the text:
Your heart pounds. Your breathing is shallow.
A life passes before us in the following 90 odd pages to the last page which show the train has passes.
The accompanying text reads:
What doesn’t kill you makes you strong.
These are just a few examples of books which may have difficulty entering collections and in the case of High Tension, a book showing how artists are making use of new technology.
In Paris the cusp of the 19th century witnessed a new star on the visual art scene, the deluxe editioned book, the livre d’artist, published by enterprising gallerists eager to cater to an elite clientele made wealthy by industrialisation,
In the teens of the 20th century in pre-Revolutionary Russia to the cry, ‘Throw Pushkin, Dostoevski, Tolstoi, et al overboard from the ship of modernity’ the Russian Futurists reacted to producing art available only to an elite.
They produced a new book, a self-published book, and they invented a new language called zaum for their new books. Some of their means of production were linocut, potato cut, stencil, rubber stamps, collage. You could say old technology.
This reaction to the elite production of art was not unlike the next big wave of self-published books by the artists of the 60s and 70s. They also may use of the old technology but also used the new technology of the time such as the Xerox machine, then photography, and now artists are usinng the computer.
The term ‘artist’s book’ seems to have been coined around the time of the second big wave, and referred to those cheap small editions,(which are no longer chear) but now encompasses everything from commercial productions right down to the one-of-a-kind book. If we agree with Drucker the term should not apply to the limited editioned, hand printed, deluxe book.
Where is the artist’ book going?
Collections such as the State Library of Queensland and Artspace Mackay who are collecting those books which may not enter other collections, are giving artists the freedom to experiment.
I think we will have to wait and ‘OPEN OTHER END’.
