Noriko Ambe

There have been quite alot of artists lately who alter books through cutting. I like this series by Noriko Ambe because it not only seems to be about the look of the pieces but takes the cutting a step further into self-investigation. This altering of Ed Ruscha's book illustrates, to me, an artist who is both acknowledging the historical significance of Ed Ruscha's work in the book format as well as challenging it. You can see more of her work here.

Her work is also on view right now with other "cutters" at the Bellevue Arts Museum as part of an exhibition called The Book Borrowers: Contemporary Artists Transforming the Book.

Brian Belott

I love this work by Brian Belott. See more of his work here

All I need in life are page by page shots of artist's books on the web. That's really what does it for me.

21st Editions Plate Book Project

These are more images from the set of Plate Books I completed for 21st Editions, publishers of fine contemporary photography. I constructed 70 plate books and 20 boxes to house the books. In addition to the plate book acting as a way to house a single photogravure plate along with its print, it also acts as a display device. The owner/collector can take a single work out, display it, and then put it safely away. This is a great solution to displaying any kind of two-dimensional artwork. The plate books themselves have a few unique features that you do not see in traditional binding. First, the core board is not book board but a .040 sheet of aluminum. I will be doing a future blog post about how to use metal in this manner. Second feature is the spine material--a saturated felt spine. It is very strong and very flexible. Third interesting feature is that everything except the labels and the plates went on dry, with various drymount adhesives. I have to thank Daniel Kelm for exposing me to all of these methods! I actually worked on the prototype for this structure while working for Dan at the Wide Awake Garage. Did I mention he is a genius?

Founding Father's Altered Text

When I heard this Fresh Air episode about religion and the Founding Fathers, I was blown away to hear about Thomas Jefferson physically cutting out passages from the Bible and pasting them into a new blank book--recreating the text as to how he thought it should read. Many book artists do exactly this. Their medium is book and text. Jefferson's Bible reminded me first of the most well-known example of what is called an "altered text": A Humument by Tom Philips. In that work, the artist drew on and blocked out words in a victorian novel so that a new narrative emerged.

I went on a hunt to find images of the Jefferson Bible and was AGAIN blown away to see these stunning pictures from Alexandria Searls, a photographer who beautifully captures Jefferson's actual cut-up Bibles which are preserved (thank goodness) at his home in Monticello. I haven't found any images yet of the book in which he pasted the passages, though I believe he did publish his version of the Bible which you can now purchase via Amazon. of course.

You can see the full exhibit of Alexandria Searls' photographs of the cut-up Bible at the Monticello website. Alexandria graciously allowed me to publish a few here on the blog.

Just came across this other blog post on more cut-up texts http://blog.whitneyannetrettien.com/2009/03/thomas-jefferons-cut-up-bible.html. cool.

Sneak Peak--What I've been Working On

I've been working on an edition for the past 6 months or so. It's been a great project with interesting challenges. I'm finishing it up this week!! Here are some pictures that show a tiny snippet of the process. There are approximately 70 nickel-plated photogravure plates which go into individual hardcover book-like structures which I created and built. These shots show one of the metal plates being glued up and placed into the "book". Opposite the plate sits the exquisite photogravure print which came from the plate itself. I'll post more shots of this project soon. Thanks for looking!

Sewn Boards Binding

These are images from the first sewn boards binding I completed a few years ago. Gary Frost developed this structure and it is incredibly beautiful both in the way it functions and its clean aesthetic. The boards are made from a stiffer, 20 pt card that are folded and sewn on just like another signature in the book (this is what you see as tan in the above photos). Once the textblock is completely sewn, you can insert another stiff card in the folio (this is the black area inserted between the tan sections). These three layers act as the boards for the book, which is then covered with three separate pieces of either paper/cloth/leather.

I believe the original structure was developed as a conservation binding, to re-sew and preserve older books. But Gary Frost also mentions that it is a good structure for edition binding. You can read more about this binding at Gary Frost's website.

Codex Symposium

The second Codex Symposium and Book Fair is scheduled for February 9-11 at UC Berkeley. Audio and video from the 2007 Codex symposium can be found here.

Looking Back--Two Years with Bateau

These are covers I designed for letterpress for the literary magazine Bateau over the past two years. Some of these were not used, but I like to give several options for each issue. If you go to my website, and click on the Letterpress section, you can see a few of these as finished print pieces. The couple who runs Bateau are great to work with and they have a strong commitment to both quality and environmentalism in their production, using recycled FSC certified papers, soy inks and running their offices on green energy. I look forward to another year with Bateau.

Happy New Year.

Who Said Print Was Dead?

"This season there are really only two acceptable vintage gifts: wine and out-of-print books."

from the piece "Who Said Print Was Dead?" in this week's NY Times magazine

New Space, Same Building

This is a picture of my new studio space which is located just down the hall from my old space. This one, however, is bigger and fits all of my equipment. The owners of the building (Orange Innovation Center) are so sweet and got me two indoor plants for my new space. I'm going to try not to kill them--the plants, that is. I will update on projects I am working on soon. Until then, please note my new address: Shelter Bookworks, 131 West Main Street #3C, Orange, MA 01364.

Dieter Roth

I visited the Antiquarian Book Fair in Boston over the weekend and saw some really amazing work. There were many fine bindings to marvel at, but one of my favorite booths at the fair was Derringer Books which focused mainly on late twentieth century artists and writers. Upon entering the book fair, I wanted to find some books on Donald Judd and minimalism in general. Derringer books had these in relative abundance. A Donald Judd furniture catalog he had on display was a little ho-hum and quite pricey at $1000. I was really taken by a book work by Dieter Roth which consisted of a slip case containing two stiff card like wrappers which held unbound cut paper in simple geometric patterns. As the cards shifted in your hands the patterns would magically change, creating clumsy op-art. One set of cards was purely black and white. The other set was a mix of ultra saturated red, blue, and green cut cards. Of course, it was also too pricey for me. Another interesting tidbit at this booth was Marcel Dzama's first little booklet, very simple, going for $500.

Photos From Readers

One-of-a-kind artist's book/portfolio of collage and drawings by Amy Borezo. Drop-spine box contains a series of works on paper that re-utilize imagery found in Holiday magazine from 1940-1975 to consider land and space through the lightness of travel. Cozy slippers, ektachrome color slides and mesas.

Hedi Kyle workshop

I was a little sad to miss the NY Artist's Book Fair this past weekend, BUT I was lucky enough to assist with Hedi Kyle's workshop at the Garage Annex School for Book Arts instead! These are pictures from the numerous preservation enclosures we constructed in only two days. It was an amazing weekend and I'm so glad I got to be there, especially because she said she won't be doing too many more workshops in the future. Hedi Kyle has an amazing mind for creating complex structures through simple means. During the workshop, she told us that she does at least a half hour of paper folding a day to keep practiced. It pays off in her book forms which are sometimes created without a bit of glue--just pure paper engineering.

Novas

A few weeks ago I finished binding 300 chapbooks for Bateau Press. This past Sunday evening, I attended a reading of the chapbook, Novas by Ryan Flaherty. It is always exciting to see a project completed, but I especially enjoy attending readings of books that I work on because I have come to know the written words in a very intimate way. In addition to binding Novas, I digitally typeset the poems and designed the letterpress printed cover. I have designed and printed four covers for Bateau Press and will be working on more in the upcoming year. Bateau has a great new website, too.

New Type

This is brand new metal type still in its package from the Bauer Type Foundry. The Bauer Type Foundry operated from 1837 to 1972 in Frankfurt, Germany. That puts the age of these unopened font sets at approximately 35 years. I've recently purchased several brand new (old) packages of foundry type for use in my Kensol stamping press. You can see the chase I use here for the Kensol and how I set the type. Using metal type (whether it is brass or foundry type) to stamp on bookcloth, paper or leather, is incredibly satisfying. That is why these neat little faded red packages all stacked together give me a slight rush. I am strange--I know this.

Artist's Book spread in Artforum

Over the past couple of years, I have noticed Artforum's willingness to publish reviews of book-related artwork. This makes me very hopeful about the position of artist's books today in the overall contemporary art scene.

In the October 2008 issue of Artforum, there is a substantial spread on the artist's book Sabotage by Charline von Heyl. The full text of the article with images is at the Artforum website. Here is the link: http://artforum.com/inprint/issue=200808&id=21139

The Story of My Printing Press

Winter of Artifice
Originally uploaded by Photo2217
Photo used by permission of Liz Cantu

Anais Nin wrote "The Story of My Printing Press" to describe the process of printing her own work on a foot-pedal operated platen printing press in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The resulting book, Nin's Winter of Artifice, was printed in an edition of 300 copies. "The Story of My Printing Press" is a fascinating examination of why an author might choose to print her own work and what it means when that limited edition book goes out into the world. Here's an excerpt:

"It was hard work. Patient work, to typeset prose, to lock the tray, to carry the heavy lead tray to the machine, to run the machine itself, which had to be inked by hand. Setting the copper plates (for the illustrations) on inch-thick wood supports in order to print them. Printing copper plates meant inking each plate separately, cleaning it after one printing, and starting the process over again. It took me months to typeset Under a Glass Bell and Winter of Artifice. Then there were the printed pages to be placed between blotters and later cut, put together for the binder and gathered into signatures. Then the type had to be redistributed in the boxes."

We Do Design

I was just sent copies of the latest book I designed for Slope Editions, Bow, by the late poet Penelope Austin. I was honored to work on the project. I designed the cover and typeset the interior using LTC Cloister Pro.

Bookbinding at Black Mountain College

I have been doing research on Black Mountain College for an artist's book I am working on. Black Mountain College was an experimental college near Asheville, NC that existed from 1933-1956. During its brief existence, it became a nexus for experimental art and literature on the east coast. I was interested to see that bookbinding was one of the courses offered. BMC also had its own print shop which produced both publications for the college as well as creative works by resident writers and visiting artists. The above pictures are books that were rebound at Black Mountain (photos from the book The Arts at Black Mountain College by Mary Emma Harris). Johanna Jalowetz was the bookbinding teacher. I was surprised and somewhat delighted to see the very coarse fabrics used to rebind these books--burlap and a rough cotton along with decorative paste papers to cover the boards. Here is a description of the bookbinding class from a student, Bill Treichler:

"For an evening activity I went to Mrs. Jalowetz’s bookbinding class. She taught us how to rebind badly worn books from the library by showing us how to take a sewn book completely apart, make necessary repairs, and then reassemble the book. We learned how to fix pages with tears using paste along the torn edges, not cellophane tape. We sewed sets of pages, signatures, as we assembled them in a bookbinder’s rack, then clamped them tightly together and glued a strip of mesh fabric along the spine. The board covers were replaced if they had bent corners or worn coverings. When the covers were ready, the book core was placed in the middle between the two sides and the edges of the binding fabric pasted to the cover boards. Lastly, end papers were cut and pasted on the inside of the cover to hide the binding fabric and make everything neat.

Mrs. Jalowetz also taught us to make covered portfolios and boxes for holding photographs or letters. She not only showed us how to do the work but she also always applauded our efforts."

Excerpt from the Black Mountain College Project