Artist's Books

"The Artist book, like a painting or sculpture is developed from an initial concept; the idea and all the elements of the book are taken into consideration before the book is made, thus not just becoming a book but an art object."

Monday May 24

Artist books are a difficult subject to describe and show examples of, particularly the handmade versions of the genre. This is a problem that arose when writing my essay on the subject. It is a huge assumption to say a book is an artist book purely from an image in a book or online without any background information about the original concept and if the artist created the book from his/her initial idea. Printed books are easier, letterpress artist Ellen Knudson produces books with collaboration or for other artists and writers, and she also publishes books that she has designed, written, printed and bound herself – these are artist books.


Images: (left) How Swimming Saved My Life, designed, written, illustrated, printed and bound by Ellen Knudson, Crooked Letter Press USA, letterpress.
(right) A Strawberry in the Snow written by Leah Linter Eisenbeis, designed, illustrated, printed and bound by Ellen Knudson, Crooked Letter Press USA, letterpress.

Handmade books are often just that, handmade books, perhaps journals, a combination of sketches, prints or photos that are combined to form an attractive album, these handmade books can be as personal as any artist book and can convey the maker's skill as well or better than an artist book.

After completing my essay it occurred to me that I have an artist book that I created myself. One of the major works we had to do for Printmaking 3 at Orange TAFE required us to assemble our work as a book. The theme was landscape. 20 years prior I worked at Madura Roadhouse on the Great Eastern Highway, on the Western side of the Nulabour plain. Rob (now husband) and I utilized our days off travelling hundreds of km.s around the area; I took numerous photos, particularly of the remains of the original Nulabour Station which was deserted sometime in the 1930's. These photos became the basis of my project. I drew images for lino print and etching and rather than attach my work to pages as such I designed a box with a drawer, making a book that could be browsed, the images removed and spread out to view – the box is basically an interactive frame. I made the box from grey box card and rendered it with shellac, gesso, sand paper and wax to emulate the old timber of the remaining out houses on the station. This artist book was from start to finish designed, printed, painted and constructed by me from my original concept.


Images: Nulabor Artist's Book four angles, designed, printed, painted and constructed by anne bateman 2006.

Tuesday May 25

I am adding to my journal some examples of sketchbooks, scanned from the surf culture magazine Monster Children. They are not artist books, but looking at them I can't help but wonder what kind of artist book these artists/doodlers would create should they choose.


Images: (top left) Andrew Pommier, Ink and Pencil. Monster Children issue 18 2008.
(top right) Emmet Jenkins, pencil and felt pen. Monster Children issue 18, 2008.
(above left) Anthony Lister, felt pen. Monster Children issue 18, 2008
(above right) Mark Penxa, brush pens, liquitex, acrylic paints and alcohol. Monster Children issue 18, 2008.

"Describing what an artist's book is not can be as mind numbing as describing what they are..."

Thursday May 27

Artist's books can't be slotted into a simple category like painting, sculpture; printmaking, or photography, chances are any number of artist books utilize some or all of the above mediums.

Neither are they being accepted as craft despite the fact that book binding is a craft. Artist's books could be accepted as mixed media or assemblage but they contain more elements than many examples of these genres. The artist's book can be and generally are an interactive object, they are visibly accessible from all angles like a sculpture, if they are not interactive it seems to me to be defeating the purpose of ''book." A painting can only be viewed on one level, it may invite the eye to travel around the canvas but it has only one surface, the artist book differs, its 3 dimensional character allows more than one surface to be seen at a time. Turning the pages adds to the visual experience, even if the book repeats the same image or text the viewer will keep looking. This is where the book artist, I think, has the advantage over the painter of 2 dimensions - he/she has more scope to work with, more than one surface to convey a message.

Friday May 28.

"In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art."

Sol LeWitt

The Artist's book is a product of the 20^th century, change in social, political and technological areas produced alternate art movements who embraced the book as a tool to promote their ideals and gain a widespread audience. The Dadaists, Futurists and cubists all utilized the Artist's book, not for financial, but idealistic recognition. Artist's books, being multi surfaced, lent themselves to images and text, this flexibility led to experimentation particularly with the Futurists who used imaginative layouts and media. Fortuno Depero designed a book using steel nuts and bolts for binding; his counterpart F.T.Marenetti printed his book Parole in Liberta on sheet metal.


Images: Parole in Liberta, F.T.Marenetti, cover and double spread.

Artist's books became a contemporary art form and have remained so, probably by this association with experimental art movements. In the 1960's groups like Fluxus (Germany 1962-worldwide 1975) also relied on Artist's books to promote their ideals of artistic exploration and socio-political activism, they steered away from old art theories, shunned the use of galleries and aesthetics by creating mixed media works and experimenting with modern technologies. Fluxus, like many book artists relied on independent publishers, their motivation wasn't financial but the need for audience, promoting change not only in technology but social, which in the 60's there was an active following.


Images: (left) Water Yam, George Brecht, first edition 1963
(right) Modern Flux Book Pal Csaba, 2009, wooden box with paint and found objects.

Wednesday June 2

I have been working on my post for Digital books and was going to add this artist as digital, but his web site is so tactile and book like I thought would benefit with Artist's books. The website Graifika contains the artwork of Polish artist Agniezka Musialic. Not only does this book have the feel and interactive advantages of an Artist's book it has the added benefit of hypertext. I dare say it can't be classed as an artist's book but it gives an insight of what could be achieved by book artists who like many illustrators change their creativity from handcrafted to computer generated...




Images: (top) Graifika home page, web site by Agniezka Musialic.
(middle) Grifika pages, web site by Agniezka Musialic.
(above) Graifica pages, website by Agniezka Musialic.