Book Art Object

BEMBindery (Group 2) work-in-progress

2012-02-01T21:44:00.000-08:00

I started the response to my title, It's beginning to hurt, with a reflection on the nature of hurt, both physical (trauma, illness, aging) and emotional (separation, alienation, grief, remorse, embarrassment). This led to a bit of a dead end as I realised that the hurt I've suffered is either too raw or too personal to share and that the hurt experienced by others is not mine to draw upon.
I stepped back and thought more broadly about the edition as a whole; about the conceit of producing a-book-about-a-book-about-a-book; and about how this conceit could be manipulated in a way that brought the title into play. The end result is a decision to take as my starting point the possibility that one of Sarah Bodman's stories has been recovered from the forest. The task I have now set myself is to document this recovery in some way. I've done a few sketches, made some mock-ups and a couple of prototypes and am now at the point where I feel that I'm just about ready to commit. It feels good!

figs and workshops

2012-02-01T02:46:00.000-08:00

Looks like a paper bag tree but these little Japanese bags should keep the fruit away from the voracious flying foxes and hopefully the dreaded fruit fly as well. So far so good but as we've only had a few beautifully ripe and sweet figs, I don't want to count my figs before I eat them. The wet weather seems to agree with them but we need some dry to help them ripen.
Went to a printmaking workshop with Wim de Vos today and it was lovely being at the other end of the process for a change. Didn't help me resolve some of my own personal artist book problems but I wasn't really thinking seriously about using printmaking for this. A nice fresh, not too precious approach was just what the doctor ordered and I went home a happy man. Another workshop with Glen Skein on Friday should finish off the week magically. The workshops at Logan Regional Art Gallery are excellent - what a great workshop area. I'm sure the locals don't appreciate just how lucky they are. The altered book exhibition was also wonderful (I'm sure RoFOs will be beside herself). After what for me was a great desert of artist book exhibitions, all of a sudden, there are heaps. If this week doesn't get me ready for Sydney and Picasso, then I'm not ever going to get inspired. I'm sure that won't be the case.

More Lazy Dog than Quick Brown Fox

2012-01-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

"The Missing Typewriter Key"

A lot of thought processes going on

but not a lot of activity, yet.

Very hard to play with paper when everything

is sooooooo damp.

It tears instead of cuts and is all limp instead

of nice and pert and glue just will not dry.

No illustration yet.

Have been experimenting with different

thicknesses of paper, different kinds of text

and flag folds, but don't know if this is

where I will end up.

As I am new to making book editions,

I'm being mindful that what I do will be

achievable as an edition,and also something that

I will be proud for others have in their possession.

WORK IS IN PROGRESS...

2012-01-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

...just not much progress!
But I am looking at various ideas that will still be true to my intention.

We all made daisy chains. Didn't we? Well, I did! We made them for each other, for parents, for sweethearts, for teachers... they were a child's love token.

For obvious reasons, I can't use real daisies (yes, more than 60 years on, I do still make flower chains!) so I am playing with paper...

Just one picture for now, but rather a lot of daisies floating about our house. The cats have very helpfully been doing Daisy Strength Tests.

Work In Progress, Angela Callanan, Group 3

2012-01-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

To those who don't know me I suppose I better introduce myself before I start rambling ;-) I am Angela Callanan (Blog) and I have been part of Book Art Object since the beginning when I first found this post on Sara Bowen's Blog. I am in Group 3 and have chosen - There Was an Old Lady

Last weekend I finalised the text for my book and made my first mock-up. I have a good idea what the images are going to be but have yet to make them. I am afraid I totally jumped the gun with this one. Not long after Sara first posted the suggestion that we may use Sarah Bodman's book [Sept 2011?] I started on ideas for the book. Again with BAO this book has consolidated ideas that have been 'floating' for months perhaps even years. When I have finalised the text I usually make a small mock up of the signature on rubbish paper as I call it. This gives me an idea of imposition and layout [left of picture]. I try to get the text flowing as I want with a nice balance of images and text. The text for this book (as for the last one) was originally scrawled on a notebook I keep by my bed. It came to me gradually and some of it is a bit illegible because if I think of something in the middle of the night I don't bother turning on the light - I just write it and hope I can make sense of it in the morning [Arzigogolare - aka Lisa McGarry has posted a brilliant poem about this on my Blog]. Well last weekend I took the scrawls written down at various dates and put them together. This paper mock up of the signature says final because I have finalised the text. This scruffy signature is always really important. I number the pages in pencil even though there will be no numbers in the final book and it really helps me with imposition and when printing.

It probably looks like I am well underway but I have a long way to go. I am not going to use the format I made in the mock up. So format wise I am back at square one. The next part of the process may take a long time. I had a complete 'cover crisis' on the last project which lasted about a month when I was totally lost. I have been experimenting a lot with covers. I did the same on the last project and have yet to post pictures and details of my 'crisis' from that project.

For this mock up I did all the text on my trusty Silver-Reed Silverette and am considering perhaps typing the whole edition, but there are problems - specifically bad marks on the paper from the metal bit that holds the paper tight against the roller (not sure what its called). I know you can 'butcher' your typewriter to loosen this and prevent the marks but I am not going to do this to my 'precious'. I was told about a Book Typewriter by someone in the Yahoo Typewriter Group but they are like hen's teeth apparently.

I made the cover by gluing bookcloth to grey card - pressing it and then cutting it to size. I used a corner cutter to get the round edges. I used Lambeth drawing cartridge for the signature. It took the typed text quite well - not all papers do. The stitch I used was one I was going to use on the last project but didn't [picture below]. Anyway, I don't like the the cover - its a bit flimsy and I can't get a good finish. Even with a lot of tweaking and refining I am not sure I will with this format. So its back to the drawing board. The images will be done with rubber stamps again. I just have to decide how I will do the text. So you know what the title is and you know what I'm 'toying' with ;-)

Ama Bolton - Edition 4 Group 1

2012-01-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

I live in England, not far from Bristol. My title is “Paradise Lost”. It leapt out at me from the list.
The first house, according to a book of that title, was built in a forest glade. The forest provided shelter, food and fuel. When we make a garden, we are perhaps unconsciously trying to recreate that long-lost Eden, the forest glade in which our distant ancestors lived. I’ve worked for many years as a gardener, and I still feel driven by the search for a lost paradise.
This is my first experience of participating in a BookArtObject edition and I’m becoming so immersed in it that it’s getting into my dreams. I have taken part in one other group project, the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition, for which I made a letterpress broadside and a book in an edition of 26.
Text is important to me: reading it, finding it, writing it and composing it in a chase to print on my Adana 8x5” tabletop press. I’m still very much a beginner at this printing lark and am constantly frustrated by not having enough letters – or being “out of sorts”.
For seven – or maybe eight - years I’ve been a member of Bron Bradshaw’s weekly Book Class at The Dove Studios near Glastonbury. Now the class has metamorphosed into ABCD: Artists’ Book Club at the Dove, and we meet once a month to share information, ideas, skills and wonderful food.
For the last three years I’ve had the immense privilege of joining The Travelling Bookbinder (Rachel Hazell) for a weekend workshop at Bressay Lighthouse. This is in Shetland, a 36-hour journey from my home and a place I love for its austere beauty and for the good friends I’ve made there.
I’m very much looking forward to this adventure!
http://barleybooks.wordpress.com

Mona Lisa

2012-01-17T10:58:00.000-08:00

I am a very active mail artist and currently have a call out for YOUR version of Mona Lisa. I will return one of course. This is a joint work with Moya Evans (South Africa). The concept behind the call was - an OLD question - what constitutes an ORIGINAL image? This is called:

The authentic massacre of the innocent image.

This will be part of my work for AUTHENTIC for Group 8.

SKETCHBOOK DAYS - Julie - Edition 4, Group 5

2012-01-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

I never imagined sitting down to reveal my sketchbook ideas in the early, fragile days of an artwork. But I have come to think of this opportunity to interact with book artists of a like and not so like mind as having a place to go, to become connected, inspired, driven. I also have appreciated seeing all the starts going on that people have taken the time to document. I think that we are adding value to the work by showing how much thought, experimentation and refining goes into a bookwork. Taking the plunge . . .

My title Throwaway, while first bringing to mind all the possible materials I might use, such as the cereal boxes I have been collecting, and the concept of recycling, also has a sad feeling to it. Perhaps what is thrown away is not so much an object but a less quantified something. Perhaps we throw away our time in an obvious correlation, or perhaps we throw away our attention to things that don't deserve it, and ignore more important things that are right in front of us. These sad castoffs affect quality of life for somebody. Political undertones suggest themselves with the middle class in the USA feeling disenfranchised, their retirement funds thrown away by risky lending by the big banks. Worldwide, I am sure there are whole nations, treated cavalierly by the superpowers, whose concerns for a better life are just thrown away. How easy it is to get overwhelmed by this concept!

I am including my sketches for the possible structure here. I hope they are readable. You may see that I am intrigued with the idea of making a cube box that has the appearance of compacted trash. Other artists has used this concept before and done environmental sculpture. Quite striking. One of the things that calls out is the idea of using crumpled paper. I cannot believe I am actually contemplating printing letterpress words and images, then crumpling my work. The very act sounds horribly painful, yet the power of such a message, the feeling of seeing artwork of potential value in this state ought to impact the viewer, don't you think?

The crumpled paper has to be a little bit flattened out to make an accordion fold book that folds up inside the cube. One of the good things about this structure is that it can be displayed standing up and be readable in its entirety. I don't like the thought of doing a book and showing it where you cannot access all the pages because it is under glass. Kind of one of my beefs.

I let those thoughts sit for a few days, while life went on. We are making room for a new (old) double wide type cabinet to come into the shop area, so I was cleaning up and organizing, and yes, throwing away. You know, throwing away anything these days is awfully tough. You feel guilty about adding to the landfill, but you also realize you cannot live in clutter. Why is there so much clutter in out lives? Maybe it is just me, but even beyond the junk mail, the packaging that can be recycled, there just exists too much cheaply made stuff that is liable to break and become obsolete. Planned obsolescence, capitalism, consumerism, ugh. We are adrift in a sea of wasted resources. Not only that, but all the mental clutter that exists because we are super-connected. Back in the 90s ? we used to talk about information overload, It's not going away. We are adapting, somehow. What is getting lost? All these thoughts roamed through my head as I picked up stuff and decided to keep or to throw away. Finally I wrote out my thoughts there on a cleared space:

It seems that there is yet another approach to Throwaway. Will all this get complied into one book? I think I have several books here. Perhaps a series. Possibly the only way to deal with the clutter of ideas and conflicts (structural/visual) this produces in my brain!

Well, thank you for listening. It will be interesting to accomplish this process in such a public way. I sincerely hope this was appropriate and not TMI (Too Much Information.) That could be a pun in a sort of roundabout way.

Julie Russell-Steuart, Iowa, USA

Making a start - Jac (2)

2012-01-14T02:15:00.000-08:00

Not quite sure how 'Rapunzel' is going to develop yet

Part of me is responding quite literally to the fairy story connotations of the title. This is the bit of me that collects children’s books (though I usually prefer Shaun Tan and Dave KcKean to the more traditional approach.)

This part isdeveloping drawings and experimenting with reproducing them – so far using photocopy litho printing. I like this way of introducing text within the image (spot the not so deliberate mistake).

Another bit of me thinks I should be responding more to themes contained within the original fairy story, Ideas such as imprisonment, isolation, unsuccessful protection from loss of innocence. Probably using a more structural, less literal approach using motifs associated with the story.

So far it seems to be developing into tall and thin. I’m giving myself time to play for a while.

Possible solution for IE users?

2012-01-13T02:53:00.000-08:00

I came across a possible solution for us IE users(Internet Explorer) concerning not being able to use the comment-field anymore.
I have tested it out on my own blog to see what happens.
If administrator on BAO goes into settings and changes how the comment-field is located, is might solve the problem.
BAO now has the comment-field "embedded", which should be changed to "full page" under "Settings" (posts and comments).(Comment Location).

As having two different browsers downloaded on my computor slows it down considerable, I hope administrator of this blog is willing to try this solution?

Elisabeth Omdahl(group six)

Guidelines for posts

2012-01-12T18:03:00.001-08:00

May I please beg that we observe a couple of guidelines with regard to posting? I guess we haven't needed to think about creating guidelines for posts until now because there were fewer "authors" on the blog, but now there are close to 50 authors and suddenly there is a need!

Suggested guidelines:

Use labels/tags! At the bottom right of the window in which you create a new post is a long blank box with the title "Labels for this post". Labels, or tags, are a way of indexing posts so a blog reader can search on different labels to go straight to the posts in which they are interested. Please use at least one tag on each post you make! You will see a link next to the labels box which says "Show all". If you click on it, a list of all the tags used so far comes up.

Please try to use an existing tag! New tags are great if you need one (it will be added to the list) but often you will find an existing tag that says what you want to say. If you don't look and see what tags/labels are already in existence it is very easy to create a new tag/label that is just slightly different... which may not come up when a reader searches the blog.

Think about whether you want to make a post - or make a comment or send an email instead! As we have so many authors it is easy to get into a 'conversation' between posts. This can mean lots of posts about one subject - it might be clearer to carry on the conversation by way of comments on the initial post rather than making separate posts. If you want to send an email instead - because you want to say something that relates specifically to one person, for example - you probably have that person's email address already if they're in your group, and if not, you can always drop me a line.

It goes without saying that we're all lovely polite people and would never put up anything rude or discriminatory!

Can anyone else think of any guidelines we should use now we're so grown up? If so, let me know and I'll edit this post and add them!

THE LIBRIS AWARDS

2012-01-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd write a short piece about this as some of the newcomers may not be aware of the conditions of entry.

The Libris Awards, while a wonderful opportunity for book artists across many genres, is open only to residents of Australia.

What this means, in terms of a BAO group submission, is that the overseas players would miss out and it would not be a true group exhibit. But individual submissions of work from one of the groups, provided the artist is a resident of at least 12 months here, would be accepted.

And the next point is a bit of a "blank stare" as a date has not been set! This is from an email sent from Artspace last week in response to my query about submission dates:

We have decided to move the dates of the next Libris Awards.

We are awaiting the arrival of our next Director to set the dates for sure. But to stay up to date with any news, please keep an eye on our website:www.artspacemackay.com.au

September seems likely.

dinahmow group #4

My Introduction - Penny Peckham - and a discovery about saving a draft!

2012-01-12T04:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I just posted my Introduction, but it's down the list at 3 January, because that's when I began the draft...I didn't expect that to happen! So my Intro's there, if you'd like to scroll down. To cut to the chase...Group Six and my title is A girl waiting....and I'm VERY happy to be involved. Thanks Sara!

Halloooooo!

2012-01-12T03:10:00.000-08:00

Hi, everyone,
I'm excited to be participating in edition four. I'm a painter and book artist in Newfoundland, out in the North Atlantic. Originally from the U.S., I came to visit a friend and fell in love with this rugged island.
"Making Bread" is my title, and I'm just starting to think about the possibilities- I'll send news when I'm making progress.
In the mean time, Happy Year of the Dragon to you all!
Cheers,
Tara

Another introduction: Lisa McGarry/Group 7

2012-01-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone! I'm very excited to be part of Edition Four (my first time participating in a BookArtObject project). I love the premise of using another artist's story titles—and even more so because they were in turn inspired by yet another artist. I am in group 7, using the title 'Mise en place' as the starting point for my edition. I have always been fascinated by the appeal of titles—how they can conjure up all sorts of possibilities. There are many book titles that I would love to build a book upon, though they wouldn't necessarily bear much resemblance to the original book.

It's not just the premise of this project that excites me though. Joining this group of artist has made me feel as though my world has suddenly grown larger...it's been wonderful to see not just the support, but also the suggestions & ideas that artists are offering one another. Although I enjoy (and seem to need) a lot of solitude, I have also been feeling the need to connect with others who spend their days and nights creating/making. I have already begun visiting some of your blogs and websites, and look forward to returning often—and continuing to discover others.

And here's a little background on me ~I'm an American living in Florence, Italy. In 2004, a research trip for a book I was writing brought me here for what was supposed to four months; I have been here ever since. I adore this city...its human scale, the architecture, the piazzas, the noise, the food, being able to survive without a car... Every time I walk out the front door I find new inspiration.

My degree is in Architecture, but I realized after graduating that I am much more comfortable with smaller-scale projects I can create with my own two hands. Since my book about Florence's piazzas was published, I have been able to put more time into making art again—painting, photography and working with paper (and all of the possibilities that entails). More than anything, I love books as a medium. I feel like I am just beginning to scratch the surface with artist books, and am really enjoying the journey so far.

Thank you to Sara Bowen for bringing everyone together...it will be wonderful to see how Edition Four unfolds.

Lisa/Group 7/#67 Mise en place

Ideas for 'Mise en place' are still percolating, so I don't have any images to share yet. The photo above shows one of my recent artist books (Venice: Where Sea & Sky Meet)

Introduction

2012-01-10T18:35:00.000-08:00

Trace Willans from Soewn Earth edition 4 Group 5
I live in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia.
Up till now I have only made one of a kind books
So an edition is going to be a real challenge
At the moment I have no idea how I am going to do it
And anyone who knows me or my work will not be suprised
that I have chosen The Earth as my theme
I did try tyo add photos but blogger wouldn't let me

A fork in the road ......

2012-01-10T11:29:00.001-08:00

Hello to everyone and thank you to Sara for allowing me into this fab project.

I'm not very good at talking about myself so I just thought I'd throw out a few lines to let you all know how I'm thinking about my chosen title.

'A fork in the road'

I was pondering........is it a fork in the road or a place where three roads meet?

Oh and a few lines from an ancient song.

'lie down now True Thomas
I'll show you wonders three

See you not that narrow narrow way
beset with thorns and briars?
That is the path of righteousness
Tho after it few inquires.

And see ye not that broad broad way
That lies across the lily leven?
That is the path of wickedness
tho some teach it is the road to heaven.

And see you not the bonny bonny way
that winds about the fern'd hillside?
Oh that is the path to fair Elfland
where you and I this night must ride.

(Ballad of True Thomas)

Jane

Introduction: Kophieps, 4th edition Group 4

2012-01-10T10:44:00.001-08:00

Dear all, I'm Kophieps. My real name is Bertie van der Meij and I'm Dutch. Perhaps I should add that I am female - English-speaking people are usually surprised when they meet me and hear my name, but in the Netherlands 'Bertie' is not an unusual name for women.

After having worked as a librarian and as a translator for many years I recently started a small letterpress studio. I'm working on digital and paper editions of illustrated alphabets, poetry books, short stories, and more. The Book Art Object edition is an inspiring project for me. I'm in Group 4 and my title is Dust. On the morning of the day Sara emailed me the 100 titles to choose from, I was vacuum cleaning the bedroom. This was in no way a depressing activity. The December sun was beaming into the room and thousands of dust particles were dancing in the light. It was amazing and beautiful. I played with them, letting them stream into the vacuum cleaner's nozzle. Reading my mail later that day, it was immediately clear that I should choose Dust as the title for my book art object.

It's not impossible that the design of my book will involve a vacuum cleaner bag. As for the contents (of the book, not of the bag), right now I'm doing some research on the ethics and metaphysics of dust ;-).

I really enjoy being part of this project and I will love to read about the experiences and results of all participants.

On the web you can find me here: Kophieps (in Dutch) and Falstaff & Fakir (in English).

another starter

2012-01-10T03:37:00.000-08:00

Hello, I'm also new to this blog but want to give it a shot at helping me get some information from such an impressive group of artists. I've just joined a group for Edition 4 and had a bit of a look around at some of the members' blogs or sites and on flikr. The amazing professional printing set up that some of you have makes me wonder if I can do this project justice.
Most of my previous artist books have been one offs which would not satisfy the requirements of the brief. I was hoping to use the humble photocopier or my ink jet printer to enable me to make an edition. I hope this is acceptable.
I am currently putting ideas together, my theme is "Transparent" and have been trying to use tracing paper as a paper for the book but have had mixed results on my ink jet. I'm sure there are transparent parchment or vellum type papers around, I notice someone using polyester sheeting. How do you source this type of paper? If you have some experience and information that might help me choose a nice transparent (or even translucent) paper, I would be very thankful.

2012-01-09T11:19:00.001-08:00

Hi, I am just accessing the blog for the first time. I am excited about participating in this project. I hope I can pull together an interesting book for Edition 4.

Introduction, Celeste in Group 1

2012-01-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

I have followed BAO for the last several years and decided this year to participate. I am a fiber artist who fell in love with bookbinding several years ago. I tend to make mostly blank journals and love to try out different techniques and stitches. I am in group 1 and my title is number 65, To see what he could see. It is a great choice for the options and my challenge will be to focus and pull it off with my limited drawing and painting skills. I'll attach a few photos of some long stitch leather journals I made over the holiday vacation. My blog is Creative Gallimaufry and is truly an assortment of whatever I happen to be involved in.

Researching wolf mythology.

2012-01-08T02:31:00.000-08:00

Reminded of the story about the Fenrir Wolf in norse mythology, I came across some useful links .The rope they finally bound Fenrir with was called Gleipner.
Gleipner was made of six elements, and was strong enough to hold the gigantic wolf down.
The six elements were:
1.The fish`s breath
2.A womans beard
3.A Birds spit
4.A Mountains roots
5.The sound of Cat-paws
6.A Bears tendons(sinews)

All elements being of a supposedly non-excitent nature,all the same it had the power to tie the wolf down..

The story is interesting on many levels, so I certainly can recommend some googling on it.

Here are two trial-proofs I made of hybrid Wolves, tied with ropes.I am testing out techniques like lithography mixed with Moku Hanga woodblock. I am also researching what paper to use, and this ones are printed on a rather thin watercolour-paper.Probably not what I wil be landing on in the end.

Opportunities - a new blog page - Sara Bowen

2012-01-08T02:09:00.000-08:00

Hello, hello. I just wanted to tell you that I've put up a new 'page' on the blog called "Opportunities", which you will find just below the banner on the right hand side. If you hear of an exhibition or residency opportunity that you think would be of interest either to the whole group (i.e. where we could submit a group entry to a juried exhibition) or individual members, you might like to post the details on the "Opportunities" page. I was going to write a blog post about Alicia Bailey's upcoming exhibition Transparent/Opaque 2 which she recently emailed to me, but thought it might be better to put it under a tab so it's easier to find! If you're interested in this exhibition, please contact Alicia directly.

Locating Important Info - Amanda (4)

2012-01-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

It's wonderful to see how vibrant and active this blog is at present with the current edition starting off.
When this post goes up, we will have seven posts in seven days!

So I wondered whether it might be a good idea to copy and paste posts where key decisions are made onto the Edition Four page for easier reference?

So you can see how this looks, I've gone ahead and done it for the colophon post. If anyone can think of a reason why it's not a good idea, please speak up - I won't be offended! I just remember trawling through numerous posts labelled "colophon" for the last edition until I found exactly what I was after!

Sara's Beautiful Book - Thank You

2012-01-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

I had a lovely surprise in the post today. Sara Bowen's beautiful book. Exquisitely made. The construction, simple yet at the same time extremely complex . I love the way the connection was made with Athene (the patron Goddess of the Library of Alexandria) and her symbol the owl. Gorgeous, thank you Sara :-)

Another Introduction: Ellen Golla, Group 6

2012-01-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

I live in the isolated redwoods of Humboldt County in Northwestern California, about a 6 hour drive north of San Francisco. I used to work largely in detailed cut paper collage, but nowadays mostly make books. These have included a few small editions in addition to unique books and book-based sculptural pieces.

The Literary Curefrom a few years ago is an example of one of my editions (5 copies). I thought the way we read books is changing. So why not just take them as pills? (The books are actually blank.)

I'm another first-timer in BAO. I've been following this blog, as well as those of several of the longtime participants, for quite a while. I'm excited to now be a part of it myself. It seemed fitting to be joining for this particular edition, since I've also taken part a few times in the Bookmarks project that Sarah Bodman runs. (I was in Bookmarks V, VI and VII.) I liked the idea of using her work as our inspiration, and that she would be getting copies of the books.

My website is at zebracrossing.org (my longtime studio name is Zebra Crossing Picture Factory) and I blog at paperchipmunk.com (The Paper Chipmunk Press is my bookmaking imprint). I also have some (very) miscellaneous pictures of projects (and cats, etc.) on Flickr.

A Cat's ABC (small open edition)

Speaking of cats, I have three, including two black ones. I picked Superstition for my title, because when I saw it, the line "one should not dance around ladders nor sleep with black cats" popped into my head. I have no idea why. Then it later occurred to me that while black cats are considered bad luck in the U.S., they are good luck in some other places. So if I actually used that, it might not make as much sense in some of the places the book will wind up. Hmm... I'm curious--what sort of luck do black cats bring to Australians? Norwegians?

The Great Colophon Debate continued - Sara Bowen

2012-01-05T02:08:00.000-08:00

Um, just to add to the debate, how about the following for a colophon? You can keep it short and sweet or expand it, but I am suggesting that all of our colophons follow this basic format. What do you think?

BookArtObject Edition Four, Group [insert your group number HERE]
http://bookartobject.blogspot.com

Title taken from An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen (2010), by permission of the author, Sarah Bodman.

[your own long or short explanation about Sarah Bodman's book, your book and how it is made HERE]

[your own version of copy number and signature HERE]

Groups - an update; by Sara Bowen

2012-01-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

There are now 52 artists working in 7 groups on Edition Four! Wow - I am quite amazed (and pleased) by the responses we've received for this project. I've heard from a few more people, but as is the way of things, they may not get back to me with their choice of title, for whatever reason, so I expect we'll hover around this number of participants. I emailed Sarah Bodman and it is safe to say that she was stunned... I don't think she can quite believe she'll be getting in excess of 50 books mailed to her in around a year's time!

All participants have the opportunity to post to the blog and will have received an email from Blogger requesting them to follow a link, create a user name and become an author. There are a few outstanding invitations so if you think you should have received an author invite and you've accidentally deleted it because it came into your Junk email, or if you have no idea what to do with the email you received, please let me know and I'll try and help. It's lovely to see people introducing themselves on the blog. I know several of your names from having read about your work, followed your blog or been in exhibitions with you, but I don't "know" you so it's great to get more insight into what you do. Even if you feel too shy to post an introduction please feel free to comment - taking part in the on-line conversation on the blog is a great way to find your bearings as part of the collective.

On the subject of posting, as there are now many more posts it can be difficult to keep track of names and groups! I know a couple of other people have suggested this already, but it would be great if you could identify yourself in your blog posts - either in the title (as I've done with this one) or maybe sign off at the end.

Lastly - deadlines. Several people have asked me to provide one! It is one of the central tenets of the BookArtObject project that no-one should feel under pressure (least of all me!), but if having a deadline helps you produce your work then you might like to bear in mind June 1st 2012 as an arbitrary line in the sand: if you can get your book finished and a copy posted to me by that date then there's a good chance I'll be able to include it in a BookArtObject group entry to the Libris Awards, one of Australia's premier jusried artists' books exhibitions. The date for this show has changed and although entry forms are not yet available it is widely expected to happen in September, which suggests a June deadline for entries.

Colophon

2012-01-03T17:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, Ronnie posted a comment about the need for an edition colophon. Coincidentally, I'd been working on a colophon for my own contribution to the edition and am happy to put this forward as a discussion starter for others to consider, although those working with letterpress or in miniature will probably throw up their hands in horror. Here it is:

Kurt Johannessen’s Exercises (1994) is a handbook of tasks that individually seem quirky and harmless but, when taken as a whole, are a gently subversive prompt to readers to reflect upon their world.
One of Kurt’s exercises, “write 100 stories and bury them in the forest”, inspired British book artist Sarah Bodman to do just that. Her 100 stories, collected as An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen (2010), are quietly decomposing in a forest in northern Denmark.
The titles of Sarah’s stories have, with her permission, been taken as the starting point for BookArtObject Edition 4.
#41 It's beginning to hurt is a single section pamphlet binding with laminated paper boards and oasis spine piece. The text paper is 118gsm Superfine Eggshell Soft White and the font is Palatino Linotype.
Fifteen copies have been printed of which this is copy number:

[signature]

Terence Uren
Canberra, Australia
June 2012

Introduction: Alicia Griswold Group 7

2012-01-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

What an exciting project this is going to be! I'm looking forward to reading this blog regularly and using it to share the process of making a new book. I'm in group 7 and my title is "Rowing Boats." I have no idea why I picked it; I just liked the sound of the words and perhaps the feeling of heat and splintering wood. I love working with random word combinations and often use them in teaching.

I'm in Atlanta, Georgia where I teach English at the Art Institute, freelance as a business writer and make books. This lets me combine two passions: art and writing. Lately, I've been assigning simple artist books to my students as a way to showcase basic rules of writing, grammar and punctuation. We all love working in color and ink!

A couple of us at the Art Institute are curating a book arts show called "Wallbound." We've finished selecting the pieces and are looking forward to receiving the books, all of which must be able to hang from a wall or the ceiling. The origins of this caveat are prosaic (We have no pedestals!) but the response has been great.

Here's one example of my work: a prose poem of my own and drawings printed using solar plates, then distressed with watercolor, ink and acrylic medium.

My blog is Sending Pages Out to Dry.

Looking forward to this year's project.
Alicia

Introduction - Penny Peckham, Edition Four, Group 6

2012-01-03T03:59:00.000-08:00

With These Hands 2010

I discovered Book Art Object through Ampersand Duck's blog, which I've been following (quietly) since I encountered her in 2008 at Mackay's Artist's Book Forum. (We were both staying at Gecko, though I'm not sure that you'll remember me...the quiet one of the breakfast group.) At that stage I had become interested in artist's books but had made only one or two. I have had a desire to be involved in Book Art Object because art and text come together (notice the title of my blog and a 2011 solo exhibition - Word & Image!!) A lot of my work uses text as I love reading and writing as much as I love making art. I have a background in Art History (could never decide between English or Art History, between making art or writing about it) and so some of my work makes reference to Art History, particularly as it relates to women - as both subject and artist. I work primarily with linocuts, as well as monoprints, hand-cut rubber stamps, collagraphs...generally very hand-made and low-tech. I'm planning to try kitchen-sink lithography soon...it's amazing what you can learn to do on the internet! I don't have a press at home so often print linocuts by hand on light handmade papers such as Unryushi, but I do also work at the Australian Print Workshop access studio. I live in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne and am in Group Six. The title I'll be working with is A girl waiting.

With These Hands 2010

A couple of images of a book of linocuts.

Happy New Year BAO'ers!

2012-01-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

Firstly Happy New Year to you all and secondly welcome to all the new influx, I hope you are all finding your feet gradually, just as I am very gradually trying to keep up with all the new posts! I'm Abigail, came on board for the last edition and have very much enjoyed myself here at BookArtObject. I'm based in London and you can find out more about me and my work on my blog which is linked to in the side bar also. To be honest I haven't posted much for a while, Christmas and my MA took over, but I am endeavouring to get on top of things like posts in the next week or so. So for now it is hello 2012 and goodbye 2011 and I'm looking forward to all that might happen here in the next year.

Abigail Thomas
Group Six
#16 Turn Left

Pictures are always Good

2011-12-31T07:54:00.000-08:00

And with that in mind, I wanted to share a few. First, I could not agree more that it is a very important consideration what you choose to edition. My experience with editions is some fine press books of poetry in numbers of 125 to 230, with sewn binding (pamphlet) that is pretty simple. However, my first artist's book edition of 250 is still in the process of being bound.

Although I have made probably 2/3 of them, this 1995 book The Last Portrait, is on the back burner (unless I turn up the heat.) The reason is the concertina binding I chose. While I love the way the pages open out, and the physical sense of it, I do not love the precise folding aspect and how easy it is to get off-kilter in the folds. I certainly do not love it to the point of doing nothing else till the books are done. I may have gotten better at folding over the years; time to make another run at it, perhaps.

A few years ago, I enlisted my dad's help getting some of them made, but even he grew tired. Helen, you mentioned that you are a stained glass window maker. My parents were stained glass artists in the 1970s in the historic town of Frederick, Maryland USA. I'm sure this was influential in my awareness of craft and art in general. I remember those being the best years of my childhood, going to craft shows, hanging out in the shop, etc. I am including a picture of my absolute favorite window by my dad, James Russell, called "New Beginnings." I have quite a few pieces in my home and this is one of them.

I realized in my introduction post that I completely forgot to mention my location, group and title. I hail from the middle of the USA. I am a part of Group 5, and my title is Throwaway. Recently, I have been working with recycled materials and thinking about our "throwaway culture." You can see some use of materials over my website (caveworkspress.com), at this point it is mainly an altered book that is a "pocketbook."

I have been collecting cereal boxes, which started when I saved them for a fellow letterpress printer who makes greeting cards. As I packed them up, I thought why not keep collecting and use these for one of my own projects?

There is the consideration of archival materials. This material would not be, and I have to think about that and what it means to work with such "throwaway" materials. So much to ruminate over!

Introduction: Vicki O'Shea - Iceland

2011-12-31T00:21:00.000-08:00

I am an expat Aussie (originally from Perth Western Australia) now living in Iceland, if you want to know more about this move it can be found here. I have a Fine Art background mainly in Printmaking and after graduating I was employed by 2 universities in art/education as a Print Technician and Lecturer. As time moved forward this led to a full time managerial position, whilst I worked with a fabulous team of people at university education centres across regional Western Australia and gained heaps from the experience, the position was quite stressful and basically put to rest my art practice. The move to Iceland in part has been so that I can rekindle my practice which has laid dormant for the last 6 years.

I have previously mainly worked in printmaking creating very large prints up to 1.2m x 2.4m in size, I was very fortunate to have access to the largest press in the southern hemisphere at one of the universities I worked at. I have never really delved into the artist book realm at all and have only completed a very basic bookbinding workshop when I was a student. I did however love the workshop and filed it away as something to pursue one day. The one day has now arrived! I have a small etching press and an old nipping press that I acquired just before leaving Australia and have set up a studio space here to work in.

I feel a little daunted by the prospect of editions...because I worked with very large prints I rarely walked that road...I get easily bored and always was ready to move on to the next new artwork...plus I am so messy! As bookbinding and editioning are fairly new skills to me I am sure I will be hounding the more experienced BAOers for tips and hints and many thanks for those posted so far.

I stumbled upon the BAO blog earlier in the year and followed it for sometime (albeit anonymously) I am in group 5, the title that initially grabbed me was taken but after much deliberation, to-ing and fro-ing I have finally settled on #89 Other people, other rooms...I am still rolling this title around my head and have no idea at this stage where it will lead.

My art practice has always been about researching and mapping the invisible, the matter that cannot normally be perceived by the human senses. The invisible being the secret counterpart to the visible, the framework to which all life is inextricably entwined.

I wish you all a very happy New Year...it will be a fireworks spectacular here in Iceland!

Introduction - Helen Malone, Brisbane Australia

2011-12-30T18:23:00.001-08:00

I first heard about BAO through Ronnie (thanks Ronnie). We first met in Coffs Harbour in 2007, and I have followed her projects and those of BAO since then. I used to wonder if I would really want to make an edition of at least 10 books as I usually make unique books or small editions of 3-5. However, when I saw the call for entries this time, I felt very excited about the project and the prospect of joining the group, so I put my name down to participate. I've chosen #73 That Unbearable Lightness and I am in Group 5. There were so many great titles to choose from that it was difficult to choose one, and I'm hoping to make a second edition as well. I feel I'll be able to overcome what I perceived to be the boredom of making the same thing over and over again by working smart (thanks for the tips &duck).

These days I mostly work on artists books and bookbinding but dabble in stained glass windows - I'm working my way around the house. I've already written a paragraph about my work for the Contributors Tab, so I won't repeat it again, you can find it there and you can see my work on my website at http://www.visualartist.info/helenmalone. The two books pictured, 'The Pleasure of the Text' and 'Fragments of the Book Leaf' have just gone to Fremantle WA for the exhibition 'Between the Sheets' in January.

I'm a keen gardener and will go into raptures at the sight of someone's vegetable garden, and I love research and am happy to spend hours on end in an archive somewhere. I've been working on my family history for years (or is that decades) and it's led me to some wonderful people all over the world.

I'm looking forward to getting started and being part of BAO and Edition 4.

blogging with BAO (tips for first timers)

2011-12-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

Hello there everyone

This is Ronnie coming to you this last day of 2011

from sunny Sams Creek

It's wonderful to see so many new contributors in the BAO sidebar - as a contributor you're all now joint authors of the BAO blog - and I'm sure we're all looking forward to hearing more about you - but you might be wondering or worrying about exactly WHAT to post (and for those new to blogging/blogger - HOW you post something) So here's a quick guideline for you

What to put in your first post

Tell us all about yourself! tell us your name as it appears on the participants list (if you're comfortable doing so) - or let us know what group you're in for edition 4 and what title you're doing (and everyone can work it out cryptically!); tell us where you come from; tell the world a little bit about your art background - this doesn't have to be as onerous as a full bio or resume - just let us all know your passions/ interests and maybe how you came to BAO

If you have a website and/or blog and/or twitter account - here's your chance to tell all so we can link and follow and admire! If you are comfortable with blogger - you might to link these sites (it's too easy - simply highlight the word/s you want to link, click the word 'link' in blogger toolbar - paste or type the web address in the box) happy days!

Pictures are ALWAYS good

If you can, say it in pictures! If you can add an attachment on an email, you can upload a pic to jazz up your post - just remember use jpg and reduce the file size... On the BAO blog, choose 'medium' for your pic size and your photo is guaranteed to fit in the post (and not hang over the edges!)...

(here's a detail pic of my BAO second edition book work

I've chosen 'medium' pic size - if you click the pic, you'll see I uploaded a larger original file...
I usually resize my pics to 20cm wide, 72dpi as this is perfect for my art&etc blog but too big for BAO )

A little bit of consistency

Generally it's best not to fiddle too much with the typefaces/size/colour in your post (there are of course always exceptions to this 'rule'!) and I'm sure I don't need to say it - but I will anyway..... explicit content or offensive language is not appropriate on the BAO blog...

What not to post

*Administrative questions ("I've lost the address list, can you send me another one", "can I change my title" etc etc are best sent via email to Sara - she is the BAO group originator, and remains its centre, its hub, its fount of wisdom) Talking about questions - it's important to remember not everyone reads every 'comment' on every post - if you ask a question in 'comments' it may be left dangling in comment-limbo-land....

*Off topic posts ("today I went to the shop and bought milk" I suggest may NOT be BAO post-worthy... unless, of course, you are doing a book project that involves shopping for milk....) Remember this is a project-oriented book art blog - tell the world all about your BAO project - progress posts/pic are positively encouraged! Aside from your BAO work you might like to share other book art things: Been to an interesting book art event? Tell us! Got an interesting book art tip to share? Please do! Got a technical question you'd like an opinion on? Ask away!

I've had a wonderful time with BAO (I've been on board since edition one) I love the friendly, supportive and egalitarian atmosphere of the bloggy group - the books made and received have been a bonus! Kudos and big thanks to Sara for making it all happen.

Last words - If you're new to blogging or blogger I'm sure its all a bit daunting right now - Don't Panic! take the first step by clicking on the 'new post' (or the pencil icon) and type away - save things as a 'draft' and keep playing until you're happy with it (using 'preview' allows you to check your post before it's published). Even after things are published you can still make changes by choosing 'edit'. There's nothing you can do that will break the blog - so experiment, play, try things and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it - we were all first timers at one stage....

oh and have a happy new year!

ronnie

(Rhonda Ayliffe - Group three)

blog - art & etc
website - rhondaayliffe
twitter - bookronnie
facebook - rhonda ayliffe

...

Yet another introduction – Jac

2011-12-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

I am an Art and Design teacher from the north of England.

As long as I can remember I have been interested in reading and in making things. Add to this a more recent interest in all forms of printmaking and Artist’s books become the logical outcome.

I followed BAO most of last year and am really looking forward to being able to participate this time round

Is Jeanette W. Archival ??? !!!

2011-12-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

Excellent Post "BAO Tips" by Ampersand Duck concerning points to bear in mind when creating an edition of artists books for BAO. Oh how I wish this had been here when I started my edition AND that I had been more in contact with my fellow participants from the UK - I say this with particular regard to acquiring particular art materials and so forth for the project. This ultimately affected my choices and outcome - so bear this in mind.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is concerning the permanence or use of materials that are archival.
It is a factor that I'm aware of - as is the case when making my artworks generally (which are printmaking based in the main), I always use archival quality materials.

In fact I chose to not use particular materials in my book INIMOIS as I wasn't quite sure as to whether they would be sufficiently archival.

The other thing was that I remembered that there had been a sale of a set of books from Edition One to the artists book collection of an Australian University and felt that we ought to bear that in mind. I mean I wouldn't want to let the side down by doing something that would jeopardize a sale, to a collector.

Yeah what was said about the size of your books in relation to postage costs is seriously worth consideration. Mine ended up being about one point one kilos per book - which is of course ridiculous and rendered the international postal costs prohibitively expensive - thank the lord for the support of good friends.

Enjoy it and blog about it even if you don't publish the actual posts until after you have delivered your books to all of your fellow participants, you will be glad you documented all the trials and errors the research and development.

I plan to do that this time around.

best wishes

Aine

P.S. excuse silly post title

I am wondering whether Jeanette has been sent her set of "Art and Lies" books ?

- it would be nice to have some feedback from her.

Testing

2011-12-30T06:46:00.001-08:00

Trying not to be 'unknown' (any more than usual, anyway). Still haven't found out where/how one signs in as an author. Checking to see if this posting makes on an author automatically. If so, I shall be glad to post an introduction. In the meantime, Happy New Year from me and "My Ancestor." (Group 7) Victoria

Elisabeth Omdahl, group six.

2011-12-30T00:18:00.000-08:00

I am a printmaker based in Norway, an absolute beginner in bookmaking.Doing an edition scares me, but the challenge was too tempting!
I was lucky to get my first choice of titles, so I will be struggeling with "Silent Wolves".

Another Introduction

2011-12-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

Just a short first post to introduce myself and my bookworks practice to other Edition 4 BAOers.
I am a bookbinder and book artist working out of a small but comfortable and well equipped studio in Canberra (Australia).
I first became involved with the book arts as an architect, looking for a ‘side project’ that could be realised in weeks or months (rather than the years required for large building projects) and, once hooked, trained as a fine binder for several years with one of Australia’s leading contemporary book designers. With this background, my work is as much about the detail of containers for content as it is about the content itself.
I exhibit regularly with Artbound, Australian Bookbinders’ Exhibitions and the Canberra Craft Bookbinders’ Guild (photos of pieces from a current and recent exhibition above) and teach traditional bookbinding skills to artists and others through a local community organisation.
I first became aware of BookArtObject just as Edition 1 was wrapping up but too late to sign-up for Editions 2 or 3 so am looking forward to finally being part of one of its projects, rather than just an envious onlooker.

BAO Tips

2011-12-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

As a seasoned veteran of BAO projects and also as someone who has been teaching book arts with non-booky students for a while now, I thought I'd add to this wonderful flurry of introductory posts with a bit of (hopefully) helpful advice. Sorry if I'm mentioning the bleeding obvious, but it's always good to have some sort of checklist, or even reality check!

1. TIME AND MOTION

Something to keep in mind when planning your edition is just that: it's an edition. You are making multiple copies of your one fantastic idea, so make sure you are prepare to do whatever your process is multiple times. So don't be too ambitious, keep it relatively simple.

Also, think about ways to make the editioning easier. Break the process into chunks or steps, and batch various tasks. Make jigs to help you. Jigs are tools and templates, often temporary (like a corner made of boxboard so that your page stays square), sometimes permanent (like a bookbinder's piercing cradle {snaps to Paper Chipmunk!}). Using jigs is not cheating, and you'll be surprised how many binders and artists use them. In fact, if you have a favorite one, no matter how simple, please share!

I also highly recommend making a maquette copy before editioning. This is a trial run using exactly the same materials and process as the final edition. It's no use doing tests on cheap paper only to find out during editioning that the more expensive paper runs or fluffs. Test things like paper grain and whether your paper cracks when folds before you get too invested in the process to change anything. This particular point will save you TEARS, people. In the sad sense, not the ripping sense.

2. QUANTITY

In the first project, we all merrily made a only copy for each person in the group, with maybe an artist's proof copy for spare, and suddenly there were opportunities to exhibit, and a few institutions were interested in buying a set. GAH! You'll find that people will want to buy a copy of your work outside of the general project too. So what I'm saying is: make the edition a little larger than just your basic eight copies.

Let's break it down:

the group, which Sara B(owen) has kindly kept to 8 people
the author, who in this case is Sarah B(odman)
at least one exhibition copy
if you add another two for external group sales, that also allows for extra exhibitions!
You may find that you want to swap works with people who are in the project, but not in your group. Say, an extra 3.

That comes to 15 copies, and I'm being conservative. You also need to allow for mistakes: I'd normally make 20 to aim for a perfect 15. Or you could make 18 to aim for 15, if you're really confident. And if you do make 18/20 perfect books, HUZZAR! More for the world at large. And a BIG pat on the back for you.

So this, of course, leads back to point #1. Have fun, don't be too ambitious.

3. GOING POSTAL

Remember also that this is essentially a mail art project, so that you are posting your masterpiece all around the world. If you make a big, heavy book, you will be paying the postage and it will add up on top of all those lovely materials you used to make it. That's usually ok if you're selling the books, because you can factor these overheads into the book price. But we're swapping, so you only have the extra copies to sell.

STOP PRESS: Di made a great comment below that I feel compelled to include here because of its importance:

One thing that some folk may not be aware of: Australia quarantine laws are very strict and if they find anything containing feathers, seeds, bones or the like they will do one of two things: destroy the whole package or offer to fumigate it at the recipient's cost.

So do be mindful of what you include in your books!

Incidentally, it's totally worth it when everyone's book arrives in the mail, truly. I just want to get you thinking about size, because it matters. In fact, it matters also with your editioning process. Something very small is as difficult to produce as something very big... just saying.

I'm not in any way trying to tell you to make a small, simple book. I am trying to get you thinking about the parameters of this project and the challenges that it throws at you. It's a fabulous challenge, and I'm sure all the other former participants will agree with me that it makes you think about the practicalities as well as the more fanciful creativity.

Look at Sara B's first book: it was a very cool rotating tetrahedron, a complex folding thing of beauty, and it needed protection for transit. She made a wonderful box to go around it, and included a lot of the necessary features (title, poem, colophon) into the box structure. Ah! Which leads me to:

4. COLO...what?

I wrote a post about this right back at the beginning, and I encourage you to read it. We don't have to be quite so stringent with this particular project, but it will be worth acknowledging and including the provenance of the title you're using, since this project is, excitingly, an artist's book about an artist's book about an artist's book.

And I know this is a really BASIC point, but I have to say it, just as I say it to every student I encounter: make sure your name is somewhere on the book, even if only in the colophon, as well as your signature. I hate looking at a book or even just a print and having NO IDEA who the artist is, because the only information is an illegible signature. If you're proud of your work, own it, and make it easy for the reader/collector/institution to know who you are. They might even buy your other books as a result.

I hope that all helps!

Feel free to ask questions of me or anyone else who has been through it, and if you have additional tips, add them to the comments or write your own post... that's what this blog is all about, isn't it?

ABOUT THE GROUPING

2011-12-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Sara has done a pretty good job of assigning us our groupies, but I have a question and thought others may be thinking the same, so I'll put it out here.

Some of us are doing two titles. (Thus far, only Caren has her two listed. Could we know what others have chosen, please?)

My question is: do we remain in our allotted groups (I'm in #4) for both titles or were you planning to mix it up for the second run? Surely not! You and your girl would be housebound for ages!

My second title, by the way, is "Just Add Water."

Oh, yes...the "dinahmow" link in the sidebar comes back here to Blogger, but my comments link should take you to http://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com, my blog.

Note from Sara - hope you don't mind me jumping into your post, Di, but I thought it was easier to add to what you've said rather than do a comment which people might not see!

My plan is to sort out second books once everyone has had a chance to choose their first title. I'm keeping all the first, second and third choices in a spreadsheet, but not everyone wants to do a second (or third!) title, and there are still another 8 - 10 people who expressed interest in participating in this round but who haven't told me which titles they would like to use. Once the first groups are all off and running I'm going to email everyone to ascertain who is doing further titles. Duckie is a bit of a special case because she's doing a dos-a-dos binding which means the two titles she's using will be in the form of a single physical book, so she's straddling two groups and making twice as many copies of her book so that participants in both groups get a copy. Otherwise she wouldn't have got a second title yet!

When I know who wants to do a second book title I thought I'd mix up the groups again so you're with different people (I'll get darling daughter to put the names in a hat again!). Hope this makes things clearer... any comments, let me know. If they're specific questions probably best to send me an email.

Silly Video

2011-12-29T03:38:00.000-08:00

I've had fun and games posting off my books for Edition Three Art & Lies: I got to the post office armed with customs declarations and remembered I hadn't actually addressed the envelopes... then I realised that it might not be completely obvious how to open the darned book, once you get it. That's my excuse for spending an hour or so putting together a video - my first YouTube upload! - for your pleasure. Editing, audio and credits are all down to my husband, who understands the technology. There is a soundtrack to the video: The Jags "Back of my Hand" from way back in the late 1970s, which I loved when I first heard it, and once I found it on a compilation CD which was my Christmas present to myself I realised I still love it.

Anyway, for those of you in the Art & Lies group, this is how you open and close my book! Of course, it could take anything up to two weeks for some of the books to get to you...

Book Art Object, My Experience

2011-12-29T01:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to all the new people who have joined Book Art Object. It is really exciting and I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone and seeing all the work.

To all those teetering on the brink of joining up I have put a post on my own blog about my experience of Book Art Object. It may just encourage you to take that leap :-)

http://preciouslittlebirdy.blogspot.com/2011/12/book-art-object-my-experience.html

http://bookartobject.blogspot.com/2011/12/bookartobject-edition-four-call-for.html

A Big Thanks

2011-12-28T00:04:00.000-08:00

I would just like to say a BIG thank you to Sara for organising all of this and
being gracious enough to let new people sign up and join in. It's a great opportunity.
Looks like it's growing like Topsy! Congratulations.
I am really looking forward to this new (for me) creative adventure and the chance
to create with other artists is just fabulous, since for most of us, the endeavour of creating
is usually a solo effort.
I have already had some very friendly artists from Blogland get in touch with me, and I can't wait to hear from more.
Below are a few of the books I have created for my upcoming exhibition "Ex Libris Olim (from the books of the past)"in January. They are titled "Cloudland", "Coglock", "Ghost Book".
The only real boundary for these works has been that they are created from books which have been discarded by others. They also hark to things which are no longer useful or existent.
I have a strong feeling that books are becoming less central to our everyday lives and so I treat them like an endangered species which needs care, protection and attention to survive.

For those in Group 3 (or anyone else - all most humbly welcome!) -
here is a link to my blog - rObfOs blogspot

A first-timer Introduction

2011-12-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

Hello! Where do I start? The reason Sara started the BookArtObject experiment,

"I started BookArtObject a couple of years ago because I was feeling a bit disconnected having moved to Australia from the UK in 2006"

is familiar and a disconnect I have been thinking about for a while. Not that I've moved to a different place, but that there is really no art community that I am consciously a part of. Last spring, I seriously entertained the idea of entering the new Master's in Book Arts program at the University of Iowa. After much soul-searching and looking at the logistics involved, I had to conclude that it was not to be. I live about 2 hours away, with a six year old daughter and husband. I have a press, my little shop is getting pretty well-equipped, and I have been teaching myself what I need to know for years. I have the basic background in fine art (Maryland Institute, College of Art), and became interested in artist's books, and especially printing letterpress as an intern after college at Pyramid Atlantic, Center for Book Arts and Papermaking. I've made books of poetry like this one:

Out of the Blue by Aaron James McNally

Letterpress printed

In the last few years I have been moving my thinking and conceptualizing back to artist's books and getting really excited about the possibilities of a medium that I have a strong affinity for. I like writing, words, printing, making multiples, and I'm just a bookworm at heart. Books have really given me a mental life. As a girl growing up with a hearing loss, mainstreamed as they say, into regular schools, I could almost pass for normal with my hearing aids on. That little place, "almost" is a tough place to live. "Almost" understand, "almost" heard, "almost" got the joke....Can you see why books with their complete accessibility were a life saver for me? A door opens....

Anyway, last year I made a little piece that addresses the hearing loss concept a bit. Very few people have seen it; it still has not made it's way out into the world. Here are some images:

Here is my description I of the work:

“She Didn’t Know” is a subtle exploration of the experience of having a hearing loss. Rather than reading a straight-forward text, viewers interact with the fourteen pages or packets, which become progressively larger. Each translucent packet has an illustration painted on the front, with faintly visible backward reading text inside. As the viewer turns it over in puzzlement to read the text, small glass beads swish inside, providing a curious sound and another layer of sense that must be deciphered. Only with effort, by pressing the packet, can each line of the fourteen line sonnet be read. In this way, the viewer gets a sense of how hard a person with a hearing loss must work to understand conversation in a group.
The poem’s content and visual imagery utilize metaphor, and the typography references fairytales, complete with drop cap paragraphs, as the speaker’s (and viewer’s) imagination strains to build a story around snippets of heard

conversation.

I was really intrigued to find this group of book artists who exchange work and presumably get to know one another while working, who can follow each other's work while it is being created through blog posts. I am taking a leap of faith that I can measure up to the caliber of these artists! I feel ready; I'm excited about this and I can't wait to be a part of this community!

Julie Russell-Steuart

introduction

2011-12-27T00:04:00.000-08:00

I was looking for a photo of myself but couldn't find one on this computer so I've uploaded some recent work and some favourite books.
I come to the book arts through paper-making which has had me enthralled for around thirty years so much so that I've been very involved with Papermakers of Victoria (yes I'm a Victorian, have always lived in the suburbs apart from the year I spent on the overland trail back in the early 1970's I only got as far as India but that's another story!) and now am President and Editor for IAPMA, the International Association of Paper Makers and Artists. I have been blogging for about three years but am very occasional. I use the blog as documentation of my work and occasionally to promote workshops and exhibitions. I have a couple of workshops coming up 'Sculptural Books' in Hartwell (January) and Accordion Play in Meeniyan (February).
I have had a web presence for many years, starting with a geocities site in the mid 1990's where I taught myself very basic html, I still use it to maintain my base site www.gailstiffe.info but I don't make changes there very often.
Here are some books I made last month for PoV's Christmas book swap they are recycled archival board that has been embossed with lace.

One of my favourite books, it is called Greetings from India and is a flag book so the hands wave when the book is manipulated. The hands are cyanotypes on handmade paper and are backed by scans of letters I wrote home from India (in the early 70's, my mum kept them all!). A copy of this is in the Artspace Mackay collection.

This is probably my most recent work, it is a pulp painting on canvas, it is just called Vessel 1.

I have chosen pulp fiction for my theme in the exchange, it seemed an obvious choice, I don't know what I'll do yet but it is bound to have some pulp involved.

Groups! The story so far...

2011-12-26T01:17:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make the process of putting the artists in groups for Edition Four as fair and impartial as possible so I enlisted my daughter's help!

I wrote all the names on one side of a small piece of paper and the artist's country on the other side before folding them up and putting the pieces of paper in my hat, country side out. Darling daughter had only two rules to follow: ensure a good mix of countries and no more than eight names per group! Even she didn't get to find out the names until after the groups were put together.

So here is the grouping for BookArtObject Edition Four. It isn't entirely finished: if you can't see your name on the list it's probably because you haven't responded to my email to let me know which title/s you would like to use for your books. As more names come in I will either add them existing groups (ensuring no more than eight people per group) or add more groups.

Group One (now closed):

Ama Bolton (UK) - #95 Paradise Lost
Rachel Marsden (China) - #17 No 43
Jack Oudyn (Australia) - #85 Transparent
Anna Mavromatis (USA) - #64 Counting
Caren Florance (Australia) - #12 It's Raining/#58 Stilled Lives
Celeste Hansel (USA) - #65 To See What He Could See
Anne Pelikan (USA) - #29 Who Knew?
Anne Lydiat (England) - #27 White Lilies

Group Two (now closed):

Jac Balmer (England) - 351 Rapunzel
Momo (USA) - 380 A Work in Progress
Katy German (USA) - #75 Night Work
Fiona Dempster (Australia) - #34 A Subversive Stitch
Lauren Faulkenberry (USA) - #6 Last Night
Tara Bryan (Canada) - #5 Making Bread
Terence Uren (Australia) - #41 It's Beginning to Hurt
Lynn Skordal (USA) - #88 The Clearing

Group Three (now closed):

Jennifer Vignone (USA) - #18 The Locker
Rhonda Ayliffe (Australia) - #96 Knowledge
Kalmia Strong (USA) - #19 More Volcanoes
Robyn Foster (Australia) - #69 The Missing Typewriter Key
Angela Callanan (Wales) - #1 There was an Old Lady
Meg Madison (USA) - #3 A Boy Waiting
Barbara Simler (Canada) - #92 Ghosts
Rebecca Chamlee (USA) - #93 Now I'm a Cowboy

Group Four (now closed):

Gail Stiffe (Australia) - #83 Pulp Fiction
Gillian Neish (Scotland) - #47 While Memory Lasts
Bertie van der Meij (Netherlands) - #74 Dust
Libby Barrett (USA) - #36 Caterpillars
Diane Patmore (Australia) - #71 The Daisy Chain
Amanda Watson-Will (Australia) - #4 A Day Just Like Any Other
Shawn Simmons (USA) - #100 An Exercise
Genevieve Nordmark (USA) - #53 Protein

Group Five:

Vicki O'Shea (Iceland) - #89 Other People, Other Rooms
Michelle Ray (USA) - #39 Three Ships
Helen Malone (Australia) - #73 That Unbearable Lightness
Julie Russell-Steuart (USA) - #99 Throwaway
Sandra Cowan (Canada) - #9 Pulling Up
Trace Willans (Australia) - #31 The Earth
Aine Scannell (Scotland) - #84 The Birds

Group Six (now closed):

Abigail Thomas (England) - #16 Turn Left
Barbara Milman (USA) - #77 Not Quite Drowning
Scott McCarney (USA) - #38 Suicide
Sara Bowen (Australia) - #33 Maps of the Invisible World
Elizabeth Omdahl (Norway) - #7 Silent Wolves
Penny Peckham (Australia) - #48 A Girl Waiting
Ellen Gola (USA) - #87 Superstition
Caren Florance (Australia) - #12 It's Raining/#58 Stilled Lives

Group Seven (now closed):

Gene Epstein (USA) - #42 Delicacy
Alicia Griswold (USA) - #24 Rowing Boat
Victoria Cowan (Canada) - #30 My Ancestors
Laura Rowley (USA) - #81 Hope
Michele Olsen (USA) - #40 Equations
Amy Spencer (USA) - #20 Bright Orange
Rhonda Miller (Canada) - #60 Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
Lisa McGarry (Italy) - #67 Mise en Place

Group Eight (now closed):

Jane Horton (UK) - #35 A Fork in the Road
Alicia Bailey (USA) - #91 I make my Wallpaper from your Postcards
Marion Pearson (Australia) - #21 No Rainbow
Cheryl Penn(South Africa) - #50 Authenticity
Kathy Boyle (New Zealand) - #94 Just Add Water
Katarina Hruskova (Ireland) - #8 Nothing
Xizhi Li (England) - #28 That's Life
Maureen Piggins (Canada) - #37 The Darkness

There is still time to join up! Just use the form in earlier blog post or drop me an email, or even just post a comment on this post and include your email address... I will be emailing all participants so that you each have the contact details for the other members of your group.

Thanks everyone!

Another big reveal

2011-12-23T00:39:00.001-08:00

I think it is finally safe to show you images of my contribution to Art & Lies (Edition 3). I believe that all the overseas recipients must have their copies now – I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for them.

So over on my blog I have posted a little video I made to give you a bit of a feel for my book, “The Great Library of Alexandria”. It’s a structure where handling is a key part of engaging with the work and coming to understand it, so I thought video was the best way to overcome distance. Unfortunately you won’t have a sense of the texture the papyrus has, but I haven’t worked out how to manage that!

I’ve decided to include the letter I posted off with the copies going overseas, so you can see a little more about the way the book came together.

Edition Four update

2011-12-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

Wow! 32 people have signed up for Edition Four so far and I had a look at the geographical spread this time: we've got artists from England, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Norway, China, Canada and the USA as well as Australia... a cosmopolitan selection!

Titles are beginning to fill up with most people making three choices. There have only been two clashes where someone's first preference has already gone, which is good. If you've already signed up you will probably have had one email from me already asking you to choose your titles. In a little while I'll be back in touch to confirm which primary group you're in, and establish whether you wish to take part in a second group.

If you haven't already signed up, the form is still active and we'd love to have you!

Meanwhile, best wishes and I hope you have a great holiday,

Sara

BookArtObject Edition Four - Call for Entries!

2011-12-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's that time of year again folks... No, no, nothing to do with elderly men squeezing down chimneys, snowfall or reindeer with cold noses, but the time when BookArtObject slides gracefully into a new project! Building on the experience of Edition One (Rosemary Dobson's Learning Absences), Edition Two (Claire Beynon's Paper Wrestling) and Edition Three (Jeanette Winterson's Art & Lies), we're about to start Edition Four, based on Sarah Bodman's An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen.

Those of you who are keen readers of this blog will already have noticed the conception of this project, which came out of the Impact 7 international printmaking and artists' book conference held in Melbourne at the end of September. Sarah Bodman inspired many at the conference with her suitcase full of wonderful books, and also her tale of writing a book of 100 short stories based on one of her favourite books, Kurt Johannessen's Exercises. One of Kurt's unlikely instructions is to "Write 100 stories and bury them in the forest", which Sarah duly did. The book of stories is now quietly decomposing in the soil and leaf litter of the forest floor near Limfjordscentret, where the Doverodde festival is held in Denmark. You can see beautiful photographs of Sarah's book and the place where it is interred here, but Sarah carefully arranged it so that she doesn't know exactly where the book is buried and therefore can't be tempted to dig it up! Luckily, even though the finished book is out of reach, the story titles are still available and can be downloaded from the University of the West of England's Centre for Fine Print Research here.

So the brief for Edition Four is this: there are 100 story titles in Sarah's book, and at the bottom of this blog post is an interactive form you can fill in to send BookArtObject your expression of interest in being part of the project. Participants will be allocated one story title from Sarah Bodman's book, and will use that title as the kick-off point for producing a small edition of artists' books.

BookArtObject is a friendly group of artists, some of whom have been part of all three editions produced so far. We've developed some general "rules" as to how the editions work, and I'm setting them out here so that anyone new to the way we do things can work out what's involved! Artists taking part in Edition Four will be grouped together, with no more than 8 artists in each group. Participants are asked to make enough copies of their own personal edition that they can send one finished book from their edition to each of the other participants in that group, free of charge. In addition, participants are asked to make at least two other copies: one for Sarah Bodman and one for exhibition. The copy for Sarah Bodman will be sent to BookArtObject and then forwarded to Sarah once the project is completed. If you would like to make more copies and sell them yourself that's absolutely fine! From time to time BookArtObject tries - but can't promise - to arranged exhibitions for its projects and participants may be asked to send a copy of their book in if they would like to take part in an exhibition opportunity. Participants pay all the costs of making their own edition and sending it out to other artists in their group. Exhibition costs for exhibitions arranged by BookArtObject are usually shared between participants.

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Brainy

2011-12-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

There's a new journal out, focused on artistic research, called amazingly, Journal for Artistic Research. My friend Ursula Frederick sent me the link. She's an amazing artist, Ursula: a fully trained anthropologist doing a visual arts PhD, treating her subject (cars) in an artistic yet anthropological way. Fling into that her artistic obsession with popular music, especially music and cars, and it all makes my brain hurt.

Speaking of brains hurting, check out one of the articles from this journal, called Taking the Book Apart. It's a very interesting read, except that it takes my brain apart with the way it's laid out. There's a reason why single-column codex layouts have survived so long, peoples. It's because you can actually take information into your brain properly without being overwhelmed.

If you want to look around the journal a bit, the orientation is pretty spiffy. Hover your mouse over the top margin, just below the URL line, and a little menu pops down. Quick, catch it before it goes away again! Dammit, there it goes.

Enough whinging! Maybe I'm just getting old (get off my lawn, you pesky kids!). I thought Ronnie especially might like a bit of the hot glue gun action happening in some of the images...

Hey, when are we going to start talking about the next project? The one with all the story titles?

Um... could someone just pick up Sara and dust her off a bit? I'll go find a stiff drink for her...

It's true

2011-12-04T02:13:00.000-08:00

I really am working on the books!

For some reason Art & Lies has thrown up problems for me at every turn: how to make my first reduction lino cut, how to support the print, how to bind it, what text to use and how to include it, creating the title, 'closing up' the book by finding a way to make the covers that would add to the overall structure... So much for all my early angst about form versus content! This time the form and structure have been not so much dictated by the content as evolved from a wish to bring various elements of my thinking about the Winterson text together: the owl (symbol of Athene, goddess of wisdom), ladders (library ladders) and text (from Aristotle's Metamorphoses, probably included in the Library of Alexandria's collection).

So there you have it, an update on a book that has been exercising me for a year... I had a lovely plan to get this book out to all the Art & Lies participants as a Christmas present, with - for some of you - the catalogue from the Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists' Book Awards that I promised you earlier in the year. Well, I can dream. It's probably more realistic to say that I will be posting these books in early January, so you can expect them a week or two after that. If I manage to get them out earlier I will, but I seem to recall that stressful deadlines are NOT supposed to be part of BookArtObject, so I'm trying not to get stressed by imposing a deadline on myself! Meanwhile, those of you who are part of the Paper Wrestling group are allowed to be amused at the idea that I am simultaneously grappling with Claire Beynon's poem... The good news is that I've already done the print AND decided on the form of the book. The bad news is that I haven't progressed beyond that in any important way, for lots of reasons that you can read more about over on my other blog.

The Future Perfect of the Book

2011-11-27T04:25:00.001-08:00

I went to a colloquium of this name on Friday; very interesting. The keynote speaker was Prof Elaine Treharne who has a blog I was looking at and thought that this particular post was very interesting. The whole event was organised by the Book History Research Network, who I think do other interesting events....

I think I have used the word 'interesting' a little too much today!

Another “Art & Lies” edition ready to go

2011-11-26T22:34:00.001-08:00

For those members of the “Art & Lies” edition who live outside Australia, your patience is about to be rewarded at last.

I managed to complete enough of the edition for the exhibition at Impact, and to hand-deliver the Australian members their copies, but today I finished the entire edition. At 10 books plus 1 A/P, it is barely large enough, and I think next time I will revert to making a few more.

I will be packing up and posting the ones that are heading overseas this week, so they will be just in time to catch the Christmas package rush!

Once they have arrived, I will write a post with plenty of photos for everyone to see.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a couple of booky links with you. The first is a video of Randi Parkhurst’s work “Patience” on vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/7694315

If you like Russian Dolls, you will love this. (I just discovered that Carol posted this here nearly 2 years ago, but I thought that it is such a beautiful example, I’d leave it in again).

And for lovers of calligraphy, Yves Letterme has this video posted on youtube. It’s a collaboration between Letterme and harpist, Andrea Voets.

Enjoy!

Artists, Books and Interviews #2: Alicia Bailey

2011-11-20T02:57:00.000-08:00

Oooh yes, I have a long list of people I want to interview! And very close to the top of my list is the lovely Alicia Bailey in Denver, Colorado (USA). I "met" Alicia (over internet) last year when I answered a call for artists for an interesting show called One Unit per Increment at her gallery. Not only is Alicia a talented book artist herself, she also runs the very well respected Abecedarian Gallery in Denver which focuses on works on paper, ranging from artists' books to collage and assemblage.

Abecedarian Gallery in Denver

SB: Being a gallerist and an artist gives you insight into both aspects of the art world but also double the workload! How did you get involved in running a gallery, and what does it contribute to your work?

AB: Ten years ago I couldn’t have imagined directing a gallery of my own, but here I am. In 2007, out of a need for distraction (I had a series of challenging personal experiences in a compressed time period) and as a way to engage more with the public (living and working alone can be very isolating) I put my administrative and project management skills to use promoting the field I am most passionate about.

I am not sure that running the gallery contributes to my studio work, outside of it helping me lead a more balanced life. It does take away from studio time, so having the gallery has made me appreciate the time in the studio more. I find that my studio work affects my curatorial and installation decisions though. Curating and installing an exhibition is in many ways similar to designing and producing an artists’ bookwork.

One Unit per Increment: installation view

Mia Semingson solo show 39+ installation view

SB: Why do you think artists’ books are important as an art form?

AB: Primarily because they are interactive, tactile objects typically of a scale that allows an intimate and personal viewing experience. With so much of what we are experiencing coming to us through digital or electronic means, I think there is a growing need to interact more directly with tangible objects.

My work up on the wall as part of One Unit per Increment!

SB: Does it matter if an artists’ book leaves the codex format behind and edges towards sculpture in its form? I wonder if you have an opinion as to whether artists’ books are more or less interesting once they leave the safety of the traditional book format behind?

AB: I think of all books as interactive sculptures, with varying degrees of sculptural emphasis. Quite often books that leave the traditional book format have greater initial appeal, more bells and whistles if you will. An idea existing in a traditional form may be no more or less interesting but might take a different kind of attention to appreciate. Some ideas are better presented in a traditional format. Knowing when to leave that format behind is one of the most critical decisions contemporary book artists need to make when considering a project.

SB: Many BookArtObject participants and readers are outside the USA… are you able to give a view on the state of contemporary book arts practice in the US?

AB: There are few training programs in traditional bookbinding technique. Much of what I see is created using techniques adapted from other fields. As there are few degree programs specific to artists’ books, many artists incorporate book arts into an existing studio practice, resulting in a very eclectic range of approaches. Where I live and work forging ahead with little regard for or interest in formal training is typical of all the arts. That may seem a bit unruly or negative but handled well, it can be a positive.

Euxoa Auxiliaris
Alicia Bailey

Burning Me Open
Alicia Bailey

SB: Who are your favourite book artists, and why do you like their work?

AB: I know that later I will be chagrined that I forgot about some of my favorite artists. My list of favorites has shifted over the course of time and will doubtless shift again.

The following artists not only produce well crafted, thoughtful works but are committed to this field and are passionate about the work they do. Most of them also work outside the studio as educators, mentors, curators or writers in the field. These are artists whose works I know beyond reproductions in books or on the internet.

In alphabetical order by first name, here is a list of favorites:

Alice Austin, Alicia Bailey (yes, I’m one of my own favorites), Angela Lorenz, Bonnie Stahlecker, Claire Van Vliet, Daniel Essig, Daniel Kelm, Dolph Smith, Ed Hutchins, Emily Martin, Genie Shenk, Hedi Kyle, Jana Sim, Joan Lyons, Julie Chen, Julie Leonard, Karen Kunc, Keith Smith, Laura Davidson, Linda Smith, Mary Ellen Long, Maureen Cummins, Melissa Jay Craig, Miriam Schaer, Pati Scobey, Peter Madden, Richard Minsky, Robbin Ami Silverberg, Shanna Leino, Shu-Ju Wang, Sun Young Kang, Susan Collard, Susan E. King, Susan Joy Share, Tim Ely,

What I most appreciate about these artists in particular is that they bring to their work a consistency of vision and intent with material, content and structure.

Wind Water Stone
Alicia Bailey

If you're interested in participating in one of Alicia's shows, you might be interested in the gallery's annual juried artists' book exhibition: Cornucopia III. The exhibition will be held April 20 - June 2, 2012 with an entry deadline of January 31, 2012. Tony White will be jurying this years' entries: Tony is Head of the Fine Arts Library at Indiana University Bloomington, and an independent curator and book artist who has been involved in the field for 20 years. He is a founding board member of the College Book Art Association and founder of the Contemporary Artist's Books Conference that has been held annually in New York City since 2008. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Artist's Books and currently is Field Editor for Artist's Books and Books for Artists for the College Art Association's online reviews journal. His research interests include contemporary artist's books, print culture, the intersection of craft and contemporary art, and professional issues in art librarianship. The full prospectus is available via PDF download from Abecedarian Gallery's website or you can email Alicia to request a copy.

Thanks to Alicia for finding the time in her busy schedule to answer my questions! And BookArtObject artists will be interested to know that there is a possibility that Art&Lies might be travelling over to visit a new audience in the Abecedarian Gallery's "Reading Room" exhibition space some time next year! Details and finances are still to be worked out, but it's very exciting...

Áine's Beautiful Book

2011-11-17T10:07:00.001-08:00

I had one of those Royal Mail slips through the door to say a parcel was delivered that was too large for my letterbox. Reluctantly I traipsed to the Post Office on Monday evening. Its a horrible journey by bike and its a 2 buses there 2 buses back journey on public transport, I hate it. But this time it was really worth it. When I got home I had the pleasure of opening a package which contained Áine's beautiful book. So I just wanted to say thank you to Áine.

Video of me going through the book with the help of my lovely friend Tatiana.

QR Codes

2011-11-17T04:58:00.001-08:00

Machines and Reading
Hi all, just something I was about to post on my own blog but thought as I have not posted here for ages and its book arts related so thought you guys might be interested.

As part of my research I am looking at machines and reading, especially the future of reading. I am experimenting with QR Codes at the moment as holders of information and text. People generally use them as promotional tools or website links and they are scanned by smartphones and translated by those machines/software into the text and/or webpage link.

I am thinking of building up a narrative using several of these codes and am just at the experimentation stage right now. If any of you have a clever phone please scan this code and let me know how it looks on your phones. Thanks!

Ps. I received Aine's beautiful book in the post the other day; thank you Aine, it is just stunning!

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS AN "UNWANTED" BOOK?

2011-11-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

This blog was set up to focus on the books we, as a collective, were making to exchange, to exhibit, to discuss.

So I may be a little off-beam with this post, which is not to do with our exchanges, although I think it does relate to many of us. Ronnie, in particular, is a user of rejects!

In the "Guardian" , the question is posed: what happens to books that are considered unwanted? There is a further link within the article and, no doubt, we all have our favourite artists and our own ideas.

How about writing a post for this blog, detailing some of the ways you (that would be "we" ) have recycled books.

Carol, I know, has great difficulty with the very thought of chopping up a book! I know I could never take a blade to any of my own favourites, but clunky, outdated text books? Pass the Stanley!

This is not a "set piece" with a deadline and I know Sara and Jane still have work to finish for Round 2 and some people have summer holidays looming.

But I would like to see or at least read about what other things the BAO members are doing with or to old books. You can cross-post to your own blogs, but this is a dedicated artists books platform and I think we could all be a little more active here.

Having "smiled like a grouper" I'd better put my money where my smile is!

Still on my desk and used often, but in a shameful state, this dictionary is about to get a new cover and the old one is slated to become part of a "new" work.

Artists, Books and Interviews #1: Gracia & Louise

2011-10-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

When I was at Impact 7 I had big ideas of going round, mobile phone in hand, interviewing the great and the good in the world of artists' books and printmaking, uploading live as I went. Of course it didn't turn out quite the way I'd planned because I was ~~shy~~ ~~lazy~~ far too busy soaking up the art, the knowledge and the people. However, when I got home it did occur to me that the wonders of modern technology mean that I can ask ~~nosey~~ intelligent questions by email, thus allowing my interviewees the luxury of answering at their leisure, in the comfort of their own homes!

I am delighted to say that Gracia & Louise graciously consented to be my first interviewees: meeting them was a high spot in the conference because I've admired their collaborative work from afar for years, and it was a pleasure meeting them. I think I should stick my neck out and say what I like about Louise and Gracia's work, and it revolves around layers of fascination: through their collages and watercolours they create a world that is colourful, whimsical and fantastical all in one go, but intelligent and philosophical, not superficial. As they say of their work,

"The animal is ever present and easily detectable, the centre of our paper stage. Hard to miss, over here and over there, the animal runs up hills, scales rooftops and passes through a scene new or more familiar. For us, the animal is there to question our very behaviour, those moral principles one governs the self by, and to explore the relationship with the natural world".

With their playful and unexpected juxtapositions of animals and people in strange situations they gently hold a mirror up to our more familiar world. In the text accompanying their 2009 exhibition A Key to Help Make your own World Visible Gracia and Louise explain that they read Herman Hesse's novel Der Steppenwolf:

Spoken in warm voice by Pablo to Harry: 'I can throw open to you no picture-gallery but your own soul. All I can give you is the opportunity, the impulse, the key. I help you to make your own world visible. That is all.' From such we took impulse and created a series of other worlds that lie hidden, other interior worlds viewed with twin 'gleam of pain and beauty that comes from things past'.

~ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗ ⸗~

SB I've had fun this evening, looking at your work on your website while partaking of a very civilised scone and jam with a cup of tea! You describe yourselves as 'besotted' with artists' books, and I wonder what they have contributed to your joint (and I guess independent...) arts practice since you stumbled upon them?

G&L One of the things we love most about artists' books is their scale and versatility. They can be anything. They are hard to exhibit. They allow you to play with sequence, to double back on a narrative. They allow you to use found treasure or work with binding something new. Surely, it is the freedom of the book that draws us close.

For us, it lends itself naturally to the collaborative process.

A fortunate leap
Gracia Haby
2011
Postcard collage

SB Please can you describe for me a good day (or evening!) at work in your studio?

G&L Any good day or evening is one where you look up and suddenly discover that several hours have passed quite without your noticing. The same principle applies to working in the studio. Things go well when the clock seems to tick to new rhythm.

A good working day could see us working on a new project that is yet to form legs, or signing in pencil an edition of new prints. As our studio is our home, it is quite feasible that a good working day is varied, and when one project comes to an end there are several others in the wings. That and a horde of pets to feed. (Our home is shared with Omar, Olive, Percy, Misha, goldfish Henny, budgies Agatha and Claude, and a few local blow ins.)

Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulates)
Louise Jennison
2011
Pencil drawing

SB What is your favourite tool?

G&L For Louise, her favourite tool is her bone folder for its many uses and durability. As for me, my honeybee scissors are my trusty faves. They snip neatly and sharply, and they are comfortable to hold in hand.

SB If you're not feeling very creative, what do you do to get back into the swing of things?

G&L Something else. Always something else. Films are a good way to forget what might not be coming together in the studio or on the computer. A film that is all consuming in tale. A film in the middle of the day, even better. Recently we saw PINA 3D, a film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders, and left the cinema believing we could dance. A good film (or performance or exhibition) can make one feel indestructible. And if leaving the home is not an option, a hot shower or a spot of gardening. Perhaps both, but in reverse order. Perhaps not.

SB What did you get out of Impact 7?
G&L We had a great time participating in the Impact7 Sticky Institute mini zine fair at MUMA. Especially for it, we made a foldout zine, An even distribution of weight. It was great to meet new faces and catch-up with those familiar. Of greatest excitement for Louise and me though was getting to meet Sarah Bodman from UWE Bristol UK in person (having only ever conversed by delight of email).

Modifications in Pictorial Education (i)
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison
2011
Foldout artists' book, unique state, featuring collage elements and pencil

Modifications in Pictorial Education (ii)
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison
2011
Foldout artists' book, unique state, featuring collage elements and pencil

You can see more of Louise's work at her blog Elsewhere, and more of Gracia's work at her blog High up in the Trees. You can also follow Gracia and Louise on Twitter, and buy from their shop!
I hope to bring more interviews to the blog every now and again; I hope you enjoyed this one and thank you to Gracia and Louise!

Still in the charts

2011-10-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Another plug for "Paper Wrestling". Doesn't this give you a little buzz? Read more on Guylaine's blog.

http://gycouture.blogspot.com/2011/10/mon-livre-sur-le-site-de-vamp-tramp.html

(You can see the full article at Vamp & Tramp's website - click HERE - thanks for sharing this, Di!, Sara)

More on Little Free Libraries...

2011-10-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

I had been reading about these elsewhere this week...

Here is their home page...

and here is the first article I read about them.

It's a wonderful idea!!

LITTLE LIBRARIES

2011-10-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

Are you all following Guylaine's blog? (If you don't read French, there's a Google translator)

Anyway, do pop across and see her latest post. I think this is a brilliant idea, especially at a time when so many libraries are being closed. Kudos to Guylaine for highlighting this.

http://gycouture.blogspot.com/2011/10/etre-un-petit-libraire.html

ronnie does 'art and lies'

2011-10-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

I've shared pics and bits of this previously here, here and here...

but never on this blog... so here goes...

a devious hint of finished folded booklet

discharge dyeing black cloth

to form bookcloth

four of the twelve completed concertina booklets
sporting their discharge dyed covers

(and my front verandah steps!)

and finally - inside the concertina....

Rhonda Ayliffe

'Lies and Misdemeanours'

2011

archival inkjet print on TH Saunders

handcrafted distress-dyed book cloth by the artist

satin ribbon

I've shared all the vitals

here

...

zines at Impact

2011-10-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a bit to get back to write this up - I wanted to tell a little about the last day at Impact (as for me it was perhaps the most interesting)

I attended the panel discussion 'Reifying zines: a roundtable discussion of the relationship between ephemera and institutions'.... upon entering the room the Anna Poletti (chair for the discussion) handed everyone a special Impact zine created by Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison ... so even before anyone opened their mouths I figured this talk was off to a great start!

(you can see the whole zine beautifully here and read GH and LJ's Impact account here)

Despite making some of my own small 'zine-like' creatures in the past, I'm not all that versed in the ways of zines and zine culture, so I was interested, then intrigued by the round table discussion that followed. Teal Triggs spoke from her academic position of her take on zine culture (Triggs has published 'fanzines' which we later quite abruptly discovered has not been embraced by all in the zine world...).

Sasha Grishin gave a marvelously entertaining account of how he's been secretly seduced by the zine (I've not heard Prof. Grishin speak before - he is highly entertaining, engaging and knowledgeable - a wonderful public speaker whose passion for his subject matter is clearly evident.... and talk about quotable quotes!) I loved when Grishin explained that 'zines gravitated toward me' but how he thought that having zines in a gallery/institution was akin to 'a crowd of eunuchs at an orgy'.... snort!) At the end of his account Grishin let us know how he has been subversively adding his personal zine collection to the National Library via the archiving of his personal papers (currently being undertaken for posterity by the Library). Onya SG!

And then it was time for the young guns.... John Stevens (archivist and zine advocate - State Library of Vic) and Luke Sinclair (zinester - and primary force behind Sticky Institute) ..... now I must say I got a tad distracted by what I'll call 'the-urban-young-guy-posturing-for-place' thang (and I'm no doubt now showing my ignorance, age and rural heritage) but I think I missed the thrust of both John and then Luke's chats as I increasingly felt alienated by what I increasingly perceived to be a cloistered zine community. One thing I DID notice was the apparent dichotomy of opposing forces at play in zine-land - as zinesters seemingly simultaneous craved and abhorred recognition, loved and loathed renumeration..... hmmmmmmmmm - these zine makers are picky little buggers!

At the end of the chat, now feeling like a distinct outsider, I headed downstairs to the very well attended mini zine fair...

I fell into a chat with one zine maker after another and (shock! horror!) actually really liked the guys and gals!

I bought home a few interesting creations...

I might not 'get' zine culture and thus feel
purposely excluded from zine-central....

but I do like some of the things the ARTISTS are making....

Made it!

2011-10-02T02:03:00.000-07:00

I made it! Although I nearly didn't make it... my super-smart smartphone woke me at 3:00am to tell me it had re-set itself for daylight saving, but it then automatically adjusted my 6:00am alarm to 7:00am which meant I woke in a panic at 6:36am and missed out on breakfast. Nevermind, I made it home (22 hours after I should have arrived yesterday...) and I've unpacked my bags and tidied up the studio.

BTW, plans are afoot for Talking Tuesdays (unless you can think of a more entertaining title!), a series of conversations with book artists (including some of our own!)... More soon.

And so it goes

2011-10-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, things haven't quite finished for me yet because I didn't make it home! I got to the airport bright and early but first there was a security scare 'cos someone or something wasn't scanned and then all the flights were delayed. I spoke to the service desk and was assured I'd be booked on the next flight to Coffs Harbour as I was definitely going to miss my connection AND there were free seats on the last afternoon flight ... But when I got to Sydney I wasn't booked on the flight and there weren't any seats left! So I was waitlisted but some bloke got a seat instead of me even though I was before him on the standby list, and after waiting 4 hours at the airport I had to find and retrieve my bag and Qantas have put me up at the Stamford Hotel at the airport .

I have a nice room and vouchers for dinner, breakfast and the shuttle bus. I paid for the Caipirowska myself! But I'd rather be home with my family.

Sarah Bodman talk at SLV

2011-10-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

One of the many print exhibitions held to coincide with Impact7 is Fine impressions: printmaking and artists' books in Melbourne 1999–2010 at the State Library of Victoria. You can see a little more about the show here.

On Monday night, just before the conference started, Sarah Bodman from UWE, Bristol gave a talk about 21st century artists books. Her notes about the artists mentioned plus a pdf of her slideshow are accessible from this page.

I didn't make it to the talk as I was conserving energy for the next day, so I am thrilled to find these online. Hope you enjoy them too!

and then there were none...

2011-09-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

I arrived (bags and all) home at my creek at 4.30am this morn....

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (sigh) HOME!

I had a marvelous time in Melbourne (and at Impact)... so what were the highlights of my trip?

*meeting BAO gals Sara and Amanda for the first time (and sharing a yum Sri Lankan meal in Caulfield with Caren and others) * coffee from Degraves street in the city * Sarah Bodman's talk at the State Library of Vic * meeting folk like Robert Heather and Des Cowley of the State Library of Vic and booky arty 'names' - like Angela Cavalieri and Peter Lyssiotis

(a sneakily snaffled piccie of Angela's work on display in the faculty gallery....
this pic doesn't give you any indication of size - so let me tell you -
this is quite a BIG concertina book construction..... very nice)

* the trams (I developed quite a 'thing' for melbourne's trams...) * the keynote address by Brook Andrew and Trent Walker (Friday morning... talking about collaboration - and doing the talk in a collaborative manner) * the zine fair (friday again) and the roundtable discussion "reifying zines" (I'll tell more about this when I recover my senses - it was a terrif discussion) * realising I actually knew more people than I thought I did (who knew???) - there wasn't a day, not even a few hours of any day at the conference where I didn't bump into a familiar face.... * 'Unfolding projects: Afghan and Australian Artists books collaborations' - aesthetically yummy and poignant

* Susan Purdy's photograms exhibited as part of 'carbon copy' (on campus... I forgot to take a piccie but one of the BAO gals posted one already) * the opening night small performance/dance work from Rebecca Mayo (very moving) * Beautiful Silks (oh and Artisan Books, Cottage Industry and so much more..) in Fitzroy * the wrought ironwork that seemed to be EVERYWHERE (so pretty)

(this pretty ironwork was directly opposite my temporary bedroom.... me like)

things not so liked?

* getting caught in the scary as thunderstorm complete with drenching rain (and no umbrella) * the architecture of Monash Uni (I mean who the hell put the god-awful mish-mash of brutal concrete and coloured steel together...... yuck! blah! me no likey!) * the waste -- there were so many disposable cups in the bin... and I was one of those guilty consumers... * not having enough hours in the day or days in my visit to do everything I want to..... mostly though - it was missing my kidlets and my creek (my sinuses go into melt down with the city pollution.... I get sooooo homesick)

.... its time for me to have a little nap now - my head has one of those thumping headaches that you usually get after a night of late partying -- mine is courtesy of the long bus trip home and dozing awkwardly with my neck all crooked... ahhh the sacrifices we make....

...

Thankyou, from afar.

2011-09-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well, everyone has packed up and headed home and some of us(that would be me-Alison) are still wondering why stupid Blogger keeps eating my comments!
I have followed all your posts and pics from Melbourne and wanted to say that it has been inspiring and encouraging and looked like a lot of fun (with chocolate!).
Seriously, girls, I do appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

Guess who?

2011-09-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

Yay! Lovely Helen Cole took this photo at lunchtime today... From the left: Ronnie, Amanda, me and Caren. AND... Helen, who is the librarian at the State Library of Queensland, is thinking about buying the Art & Lies edition! We will be emailing each other once we've got back to base.

Today was the last day of the conference and I must say I am knackered. I actually made it to the keynote address this morning, which was a provoking discussion on collaboration between artists and printmakers by artist Brook Andrew and printer Trent Walter (who together created the grey-on-black Indigenous portraits I posted about earlier this week). I say "provoking" because of the dynamic between the two of them and the conventions of printmaking and authorship... Trent Walter continually referred to his own actions in relation to the final pieces as being "in the service of the print", and of course that falls neatly into the master/servant relationship traditionally ascribed to the (superior) artist - the one with the creativity - and the (inferior) printmaker - the one with the techniques and processes. In the end, of course, the printmaker (who might be the only person with a 'hand' in the finished piece, depending on the artist's intentions) usually isn't recognised in the final attribution of intent/authorship/agency... unless that press has a chop mark that the artist is happy to have somewhere on the finished prints.

Brook Andrew, by contrast, was absolutely happy to refer to the relationship as a "true collaboration" and yes, given the amount of input they talked about Trent Walter contributing (far more than just 'process' or 'technique'), it was a true collaboration. But I was left with the feeling that it's very easy for him to say since he, as the 'originating artist' has his name all over whatever he produces in the course of his art practice, regardless of whether he's using a commercial printing company, a master printer like Trent Walter, or a laser printer... they can all be viewed as tools regardless of what skill or experience is invested in their contribution to the ideas, the use of materials or the final output. Ah well. Such is the lot of the truly humble printmaker.

To be continued.... when I've had some dinner!

{p.s. apologies, by the way, for previously writing Trent Walter's surname as "Williams" - I don't know why I did that, but thank you to Anonymous for your comment! Sara (doing the editing a week or so later...) }

That's better. I've just been to the cheap but delicious Chinese restaurant round the corner from the hotel and the hole in my stomach has been filled, although I am still strangely dizzy (it's been happening a lot recently).

My day at the conference was much more related to printmaking and book making, which was fun. I went to a session by Clare Humphries who - sadly I have no pictures - is currently making large reduction linocuts that look almost photographic and very atmospheric. Her practice is currently investigating 'post mortem objects' i.e. mementos from people loved and lost, including items such as her grandfather's collapsible wooden metre rule, or a grandmother's teapot. She draws them on large lino pieces, layering the reducing images up to seven times to create amazingly detailed images, and then the last layer is a thick black through which Clare burnishes back to reveal the smaller image underneath. I was interested in the technique and the process through which she arrived at this methodology in her making, particularly her comment that she now works back through the ink while it's wet because leaving it until it was dry seemed to make the underlying image look passive and inert. She an artist who clearly investigates her own practice in detail - I'm not sure if she's studying - and she relates it to a web of meanings that includes Buddhist systems of substitutions in which relics of the body (bones, hair) are "first order" relics, objects that have touched the body are "second order" relics and objects that have touched second order relics are themselves "third order" relics... well, I was interested at any rate!

After absorbing Clare Humphries' work I slipped into a paper given by Marian Macken in the pedagogy stream, to do with her introduction of a book project into an undergraduate course in Landscape Architecture at RMIT. It was both illuminating and inspiring: she commented that landscape architecture students seem to get caught up in the conception and presentation of final drawings of projects that are, for the most part, never realised 'in the flesh' so the drawings and plans that they produce become the 'ends' rather than the 'means to an end'. This thinking was part of the impetus behind introducing a book arts module into their course that requires students to make a (re-enactable) journey that is then documented in or transformed into a concertina book, and there was a lovely video of the students handling and showing their books running behind Marian as she talked. Clearly the students are taught basic techniques including embossing/debossing and then covering the front and back covers for the concertina books, and I think I detected that there is a restriction in the overall size and general format of the concertina books. But after that it's up to the students, and they come up with interesting and beautiful work. We saw star books and straight accordian books, some with various layers of paper and translucence, some with pop-up elements or cut-paper elements, some in colour, some with two accordian structures held within the two covers. I loved the idea that the students were able to create something from start to finish, and Marian commented that it seems to change their perceptions of what they're studying.

At lunchtime there was a plenary session at which the venue for the next Impact conference in 2011 was announced, which is Dundee in Scotland, and after the last paper was given Roger Butler gave some closing remarks and... that was that! Ronnie slaved away, packing up our books from their display cases in the main concourse, and we all said goodbye and went our separate ways.

I really have got a lot out of being here in Melbourne this week (including a head cold). Not only have I been able to meet up with Ronnie, Amanda and Caren, but I've connected and reconnected with a whole load of other people as well. I've been dazzled, confused and inspired and I'll take a lot home with me to think about. I will also have much to mull over about BookArtObject, but my overall conclusion is that we're "up there" in terms of what we're doing! We're recognised, we're being watched and our work is being acquired... all of which bodes well for the continuation of the project (well, it was going to continue anyway but the encouragement is very nice!), and the continuing interest and involvement of great artists in the project.

I'm sorry I didn't manage to post interviews with other artists, as I'd hoped to do... but I wonder if we can do it by email as a regular post to the blog? Meanwhile I'm going to try and post my one and only sound recording! Thanks very much for reading my meandering thoughts about the people and papers I've seen this week, and I hope you've got something out of me (us) being at the conference.

Ronnie does the hard yards for BAO

2011-09-29T23:23:00.001-07:00

Here's our Impact exhibition, travelling home.
Ronnie's a trooper, isn't she?
The heaviest case is actually the smaller one!

And it's all over now, Baby Blue

2011-09-29T23:07:00.001-07:00

Showing my generation with that title I'm afraid, but it says it all.

After 4 manic, tiring, social & inspiring days we have parted ways to begin our travel to our various homes.

The photo below is of the four of us BAOers in front of our books (kindly taken by Helen Cole from SLQ for us). That's L-R Ronnie, me, Sara & Caren.
I've taken many more photos of the works on show, which i'll post soon plus more about the papers I attended.

Thursday stuff... Monash University Museum of Art

2011-09-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

Woooo... I'm getting to the point of being a bit academia-ed out! It's Thursday evening and I've had 3 days at the conference so far, one day to go. Believe me, I'm not complaining! I'm having a fabulous time and it's been very thought-provoking.

Today's delights included (for me) a stream called Digital Media, Aesthetics and Materiality, which was fascinating. A few years ago when I lived in Bristol I went to Wells Cathedral where someone - can't remember who, unfortunately - had put together an immersive experience in which walking through the cathedral provoked elements of an audio/soundscape. I loved it, as much for what it showed about what could or would become possible as for the experience itself. Troy Innocent (Aus) was talking about generative drawing programs that evolve language through various rules and aesthetic considerations to harden glyphs with ascribed meanings and then imprint them i.e. "use" them in urban art (mainly): "meaning emerges via installation and in relation with the world". Hmm, lots of italics there and nothing directly related to either book arts or printmaking but it was interesting. Troy showed an installation of his work called "Colony" which is a series of laser-cut rough steel posts with various glyphs written on them which pulse and change in response to i-phone apps and the passage of people around them. The second paper was given by Joel Collins and Indae Hwang who talked about their very different projects. Collins has created an immersive environment in which various algorithms respond to or interact with the people in a space, creating light and sound indexed to particular areas of the space. The intention is that occupants learn the immersive environment - without instruction or language - so that they can then manipulate it consciously. Hwang, in contrast, creates machines from wood and mechanisms that look very real, physically present, and tangible compared to the other two's work, but these machines react to the codes we already carry around in our pockets: the magnetic strips on travel cards or student ID cards, for example. I didn't see the machines in action, but it sounded like a lot of fun and I found the idea that we're already carrying those codes around very thought-provoking.

The difficulty and the danger of conference papers is that they can fall very far from your own interests and practice, and today has been a day in which virtually nothing I saw or heard related to either artists' books or printmaking and yet... it has made me think hard about stuff, which is what it's supposed to do, and as a result maybe I will bridge the gap between the subjects I've learned about today and my own print/book arts practice.

I'm not sure what you'd call these: the artist, Dylan Martorell, Hinteridact I and II, "digitally altered screenprints" that are viewed through those old-fashioned viewing glasses that create a 3-D image. You can't see clearly from my photos, which were taken with my phone-camera pressed up against one of the eye-pieces, but they have a tremendous depth which I loved!

One of Petr Herel's beautiful, brilliant, accomplished, disturbing etchings - part of a series related (somehow - not sure how/why) to Jose Luis Borges, which is part of why they interested me.

My notes! I sit there are scribble during the sessions, on this pad of translucent paper which we were given in our conference packs.

Melbourne Exhibition

2011-09-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

My thanks to everyone for their time and effort putting this together. It looks great and the glass case is set out nicely.

Thursday afternoon at Impact

2011-09-28T20:27:00.001-07:00

Just waiting for a panel discussion to get started: printmaking & the post-medium condition - a borderless state?
Lesley Duxbury Au, Kit Wise AU, Joel Galler Au, Matthew Perkins AU

Essential conference kit

2011-09-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

Pen, paper, water, chocolate

An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen

2011-09-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

Sara; you're idea (see this post here) about using Sarah Bodman's work An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen has really struck a chord with me. As soon as I read your post I looked up the page on Sarah's pages on the UWE website and downloaded her documentation booklet and then proceeded to print a copy and make it up as per the instructions; the booklet includes the list of the 100 story titles. I'm not quite sure I got all the pages in the right order.... but it makes some kind of sense to me, I will staple it when I get to my studio where my long reach stapler is!

I hope i'm not jumping the gun; but I am already considering what title(s) interest me most.....

Your books at Impact

2011-09-28T02:11:00.001-07:00

I was thinking that if I was hundreds or thousands of kilometres away, I might get a kick out of seeing my work on display at Impact in Melbourne.

So here they all are, arranged by the industrious Ronnie in glass cases. I know she wasn’t entirely happy – she didn’t get the cases she requested etc etc – you know how it works, I’m sure! Personally, I think they look great and they’ve been getting quite a bit of attention.

Showpersonship

2011-09-27T19:41:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting at my portfolio table, having slunk early out of the first session.

Speaking of showpersonship, the first couple of talks in the Artist Book session room (the only sessions I've been to, apart from the keynote speakers) were fab: David Ferry and Sarah Bodman (who is wearing many hats at Impact).

David was pretty much doing stand-up comedy, talking about societal double standards and the response to it that he and other artists have made.

Sarah was talking about the Book Arts Manifesto project that she & Tom Sowden undertook, using vehicles like the Artists Book 3.0 site and various conferences and fairs.

I'm not sure what order the images will appear... Have to stop because people are starting to look at my stall!

Impact mornings

2011-09-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

Being at a conference is about much more than attending conference papers, although that is definitely the main interest. The other part of it is about meeting people you know, meeting people you've always wanted to meet and a whole bunch of other people as well; attending the peripheral talks and conference activities; and visiting exhibitions and galleries round about.

Part of the installation Carbon Copy by Marian Crawford, Susan Purdy and Rosalind Atkins, which looks at carbon sequestration and global climate change

Black Water, one of a series of prints by Bosnian artist Taida Jarasevic

Yesterday I went to two afternoon sessions but I missed out on the keynote speakers because I was too busy catching up with people in the foyer and touring round the various exhibitions lurking in the different university buildings. Sometimes it's hard to choose which sessions to go to, so you make your best guess and hope for the best! The conference papers are usually organised in 'streams' so that like conference papers are grouped together and stay in the same room.

I went to the "Print, text, semiotics and language" stream first to see three papers: Christopher Wallen (Aus), "Aura of the Semiotic Imprint"; Stephen Palmer (Aus), "Objects in the Text: Art in the Age of Documentation"; and Macushla Robinson (Aus), "Thinking through the body: transcription and its visual image: Bea Maddock's 'Being and Nothingness' by Jean-Paul Sartre". I'm pretty ignorant about semiotics but in fact this was a useful stream to see and relevant to my practice. I was fascinated in particular by Macushla Robinson's paper because of its relationship to the paper cutting I've been doing in recent work. Her paper looked at Bea Maddock's artists' book Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre, which is 27 pages of handmade paper covered with Maddock's careful transcription of Sartre's text, which are then covered in wax and placed in a clamshell box. Robinson's thesis is that transscription is an act of embodiment and can be read as an incorporation of oneself in the text, taking the space of the absent writer. Transcription implies the body of the artist and the physical present/absence of the author. She suggests that as Maddocks made the book the year after Sartre's death it can be read as an act of mourning. Robinson also references Walter Benjamin's book "One Way Street" (which I should probably read!) which apparently suggests that reading is like flying over the landscape in a small plane, whereas transcription is like walking through the landscape.

Don't worry! I don't intend to write about every conference paper I see... After the semiotics session I swapped to the wildly popular "Printmedia and the Artists' Book" stream to see Brad Haylock (Aus) talking about teaching artists' bookmaking as a way of bringing different disciplines together (he takes lucky Monash architecture/graphic design/industrial design students away to Florence each year where they consider the local environment and make low-tech artists' books); Tim Mosely talking about his research into the haptics of 'smooth' and 'striated' space and how that relates to his artists' books; and Sarah Bodman talking about Life, the universe and everything in artists' books. Sarah and Paul have brought a LOT of artists' books with them and it's been fascinating to see them.

Actually - I don't think I'm jumping the gun here... - hearing Sarah's talks and speaking to her has prompted a great suggestion for the next BAO edition! We haven't put a 'call to artists' out yet, but if you read this and you're interested then you might like to send one of us an email or put up a comment. Sarah Bodman responded to an artists' book by Kurt Johannsen (I don't think I spelled that right, sorry) and wrote 100 contemporary fairytales in a book that was buried in a Danish forest! The book is available as a free download - but only the titles, not the tales - and Sarah's said we can use it for the next project. The idea is still being worked on, but artists could take a title each and interpret it how they wish, with the thread connecting the books in the edition being Sarah's book.

Today I'm not planning to go to the conference until this afternoon. Instead I'm going to take advantage of Melbourne and go to see the Ian Potter Foundation gallery in Federation Square and Anna Schwartz's gallery in Little Flinders Street (I think). Hooray!

PS Go Away - Sarah Bodman at Impact 7

2011-09-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might like to see the travel blog that Sarah Bodman & Paul Laidler are writing while at Impact 7; thought it might be a nice complement to what we are doing here with the mobile blogging:

http://psgoaway.blogspot.com/

WE ARE ALL AT IMPACT 7

2011-09-27T03:01:00.000-07:00

Whee! Having the blog makes it almost as good as being there. Almost.

Thanks to Ronnie for the set-up and to everyone else for struggling with their new apps and posting updates.

Ronnie mentioned in comments that it would be good if the rest of us could post a link to our individual write-ups of the process. Here's mine.

http://bookartobject.blogspot.com/2011/07/paper-wrestling.html

Although my part in this work is "over" I am feeling the adrenalin rush all over again at just seeing our collaborative (I think that should be collective, yes?) work on theb log.
GO! BAO...

First Impressions

2011-09-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Christine Willcocks: Flight JQ464, highly saturated digital print on rag paper, 2011, part of the "Footsteps" exhibition of new works from Northern Rivers Printmakers.

Teresa Cole's intaglio-printed collographs, Untitled 2011, a wall installation upstairs in E Block

Karen Oremus, book structures, "Deconstruction /Reconstruction" 2010 - patient cutouts from the text block, reassembled on the cover!

And the BAO cases along the main concourse! Phew, mobile blogging isn't as easy as I'd hoped... But I guess I'll speed up as I go...

Welcome to Impact

2011-09-26T17:25:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how many amazing *printmakerly* people (damn you, autocorrect for making it 'painterly' earlier) there are on this room...
I'm not singling out anyone in this photo, just held it over my shoulder & clicked :)
A bit of atmosphere!

The Robinson Papers - A full view

2011-09-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

Finally! Here is documentation of my Art & Lies piece, no more teasers, its here in full. The Robinson Papers:

The Robinson Papers A Fictional Archive Bookwork by Abigail Thomas for BookArtObject Edition Two

An edition of 15

[there are a limited number available to purchase - please contact me if you are interested - everyweekness(at)gmail(dot)com]

Judy & the Jacaranda: in full

2011-09-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the post below, Ronnie has laboured hard to set up a display of the two editions of BAO books (so far!) at Impact7.

Due to the limitations of glass cabinets, you can only really have a single view of my first edition contribution, Judy & the Jacaranda.

So, in case you haven’t seen it before, I’ve re-posted the page-by-page view of the book to supplement what you can see at Monash. Hope you like it!

almost all installed

2011-09-25T21:03:00.001-07:00

all the little boxes ... all in a row.... filled with booky goodness from the BAO corners of the globe....

it's been a tricky operation (of course)

the eight boxes are in the main corridor as folk arrive and move through the space (impact crowds must pass our site oodles of times each day ... as we are on the way to the food!)

the glass boxes were a tad different than expected (like some were missing shelves)... they had to be manhandled into position by yours truly (if they are crooked or in the wrong place- tough!)

.... now - where's the COFFEE?!

...

Quagmire: IT and Lies

2011-09-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

I'm packed and ready to fly to Melbourne for Impact 7. As I've been getting ready, emails have been coming in saying that my Winterson book has arrived in the UK. I thought that now would be a good time to let you know that I've uploaded my book so that it's readable online.

Here it is. (Of course, if you're still waiting for my book to arrive in the post and don't want the surprise spoiled, don't press the link yet!)

I've used issuu, which seems to be a great way of showcasing book files. I've resisted the urge to scan the final book so that people can see the binding, but just uploaded the files I used to make the book (as PDFs), and arranged it as best I could within the format allowed me. This makes it a lot crisper than the printed version, but of course less tactile; you miss out on the effect of the silvery letterpress at the end and the fun of turning my double-spiral-bound binding!

It's a wee bit clunky, probably needs more tweaking, but I thought it was worth doing before I leave my computer for a week and rely totally on my iPhone!

See you at Impact, virtually or IRL (in real life)!

London Art Book Fair - Day 2 & Day 3

2011-09-24T09:28:00.001-07:00

Day 2
I think my brain is too slow for this mobile blogging. I need to consider things. Let ideas float and settle. It's hard.

EDIT:
Ok, so its Sunday now, Day 3 but I won't be going to the fair again today. I want to write up yesterday and hopefully slip over to Donlon Books to see a display of Sara MacKillop's books (as seen here), because I didn't have time to see it yesterday as I had hoped.

Neither of the talks I had booked to go to were quite what I had expected, but here is a summary none the less:

The Cultural Piracy discussion was still interesting as two of the artists (Andrea Franche & Eva Weinmayr) behind The Piracy Project spoke and they are doing some very interesting research into how other cultures regard copyright and piracy, especially of books, and how there is a certain 'creative space within copying'; I do wish they were able to talk for longer though and more about the Byam Shaw Library where there project started, but I did discover that they have got recordings of some talks and lectures I missed on their website here. Kenneth Goldsmith also spoke about his website ubu.com which is an online media art archive for want of a better term; but I'm not sure I have much to say on that.

The Developing Digital Content talk was also still interesting but not quite as interesting as I wanted it to be!

EDIT 2:
There were two speakers at the Digital Content talk, Sophie Rochester, Founder of the Literary Platform and Niels Schrader, a Book Designer. Sophie discussed several books that have been published recently that have also had a digital version created alongside. One of which was published by Visual Editions and is called Composition No. 1 by Marc Saporta; the book version is contained within a box and is unbound. The pages are deliberately loose so that the reader can shuffle the pages and read from any page, in any order and will still get a narrative that makes sense. The ipad app that is being made to go along with the book, or to buy separately, is designed to automatically shuffle the pages for you at a tap so that you can read the ebook in roughly the same way the real book is designed to be read, but perhaps with more ease.
Then Niels talked about the way he used, and still uses, statistical data from text, a book's hyperstructure, as he called it, to reinvent the structure and design of a book. He has recently worked on a book called I Read Where I Am: Exploring New Information Cultures which is a collection of essays about the future of reading. Published by Valiz and designed by Niels Schrader. I actually bought the same book the day before from the Valiz stall at the fair; it has some very interesting indexes and contents pages. One of which is an Index of Word Frequency, and then there is also an Index of Related Subjects (drawn from Wikipedia). Basically, as Niels explains, these indexes are designed to allow the reader to access the text from different points and new angles. He showed us lots of diagrams and ways this type of data could be used, but to be honest I think most of the audience switched off after a while; he just seemed to be going on about the same thing over and again, and only mentioned right at the end how this might be used in digital publications.

So those were the talks; and they ended so late that I only had time for a much needed cup of tea and brownie (as seen in the above image) before they closed, so I missed my gallery hopping time. I managed to spend way too much over the 2 days and bought several books; the one thing in my mind that made it ok to buy so many is that they all looked very useful for my upcoming MA... Here is a picture of my hoard, including leaflets etc...:

Day 3
I wanted to see at least one of the fringe exhibitions I missed on Day 2, which inevitably was the one closest to my home! There was a display of artists' books by Sara MacKillop at Donlon Books which I really wanted to see. Donlon Books is a small art book shop in East London which has a display cabinet at the back of the shop used for temporary displays. I think almost all of Sara's artists' book works were in the cabinet and you were able to slide it open to view the books, and take them off the glass shelves to read.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that these works were almost all made from photocopies. Photocopying as a process is something I have been using in my practice for years and to see someone else who seems to have the same feelings towards photocopying as a medium is very refreshing. I particularly enjoyed her book Remains which is the one with the green front cover in the image below.

This book was made after the artist found an archaeological monograph/report which had been plastic spiral bound sometime in the 60's or 70's by the author. Sara had then taken parts of this monograph book and reproduced pages with small interruptions using a photocopier to produce a new artistic work which is now her own. This idea of appropriation, piracy and copying (as discussed during the Cultural Piracy talk above) in this manner are themes I have approached within my own work. You could even say that The Robinson Papers that I made for the Art & Lies branch of BAO edition 2 has elements of appropriation within it.

Right so that was my fun packed book art weekend! I hope you enjoyed my rambling; i'm looking forward to hearing from the ladies in Melbourne!

Abigail

London Art Book Fair - Day 1

2011-09-23T10:37:00.001-07:00

So its been a long day, and I am bushed! Too tired to say more right now. Tomorrow!

EDIT:

So its the next day and I have recovered! I am sitting in bed with a lovely cup of tea and my laptop reviewing in my mind, and on here, what I saw and heard yesterday, and also what I bought, and yes I bought quite a few books!

When I first got there my friend was going to a talk which still had places so I went along too. It was a discussion between illustrators and artists that had been working on a project to re imagine classic novels with small publishers Four Corners Books. It was interesting to hear about how these artists responded to a text in some ways similar and in others different ways to how we have here at BAO. Of course we respond to an excerpt of text or a short poem; and the aim is not always to reprint the whole text as part of the works. For Four Corners Books they wanted to reprint whole classics with a twist, that twist being the illustrations and design of the book itself. I liked something one of the artists said when talking about what they wanted to achieve by making these books; that they wanted to make a "book that generates something even when they are closed"; and I think that is true of all book art, perhaps even all books.....?

The Mews; link here

After the talk I met up with more friends and we wandered round the fair for hours, had tea and cake and more tea and bought books. Afterwards I went to a fringe event nearby at The Mews Project Space (see link above), which was an opening of a book art exhibition. Two rooms, several works. The work below caught my eye; a collaboration, a conversation in a box, still in progress. I will keep my eye on that one I think.

Or.Bit ; on the upgrade; link here

Right and now today! I need to get going soon and prepare myself for at least two talks and maybe some gallery hopping as there are two fringe exhibitions I would like to see; one nearby ish to the book fair, and one not at all.... lets see how tired I become!

Impact preparations

2011-09-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to go to Melbourne
(an overnight bus trek on Saturday- save me!)

I'm making small tags and other bits for our BAO exhibition at Impact7

Given the constraints of site (our work will be exhibited in small glass cabinets... one part of me is happy - my personal BAO collection will be protected from grotty or light fingers... the curator/audience part of me is less thrilled - 'what? we can't play with the books? BUMMER!')
I'm planning a very streamlined space.... I won't be cluttering up the cabinets with extraneous bits and bobs - no arty statements etc in the cabinets. I hope everyone understands and supports this decision. The idea is that this blog becomes the hub - and from here it should be possible to find all the information that might have been onsite (only it's far more attractively and comprehensively presented here - and on personal BAO blogsites) Oh and as part of our Impact catalogue entry I listed all the BAO peeps blog addresses alongside our names......

it will be interesting to see what happens...

wellllll time for me to see how I'm going to pack all those BAO books so they survive the underbelly of the bus

...

Mobile Blogging at London Art Book Fair 2011?

2011-09-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

I've just thought that I might join in this book arts mobile blogging event here at BAO a little before Impact with my visit to London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Gallery... what you all think? I am going to a few talks and fringe events as well as the actual fair on Friday and Saturday so I could do a few posts while I am there if you think you would be interested?

I've booked to go to these talks in particular:
Saturday 24 September, 2.30pm - Discussion: Cultural Piracy

Saturday 24 September, 4pm - Discussion: Developing Digital Content

And these events are just open and free:
Friday 23 September, 3pm - Performance: Ode to Words

The Portable Reading Room

I will probably see more than that but this is just a list of things I cant miss!

Anyone else planning on going; Angela? Perhaps we can meet up?

Abigail

Cracking it too

2011-09-18T14:48:00.001-07:00

Testing the phone blogging, Escher-style :)
I'm starting to get excited about Impact, even more so now that I've managed to score a portfolio table thanks to the exhausted generosity of Ruth, no thanks to my disorganized mind.
So, time to see if this worked!

I've cracked it!

2011-09-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this works... I guess the downside of having a Windows phone rather than an i-phone is that there aren't as many apps... It's taken a while to find something that I can use - my first attempt was an app that made it very hard to post photos but this one is much easier (as long as I've got the size right). Fingers crossed!

mobile post from Impact 7 conference!

Amanda is mobile blogging too!

2011-09-18T02:35:00.001-07:00

This is a test

testing the waters

2011-09-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

hi everyone....

well this time next week I hope to be safely in Melbourne ready to install the BAO books as part of Impact 7 .... you may have noticed a bit of blog tweaking over the last wee while as we get ready to take the work - and the blog to town....

Sara and I have chatted about how we might be able to best integrate static books and active blog so the whole becomes an interesting experience - including for those on the other side of the world (especially our fellow BAO artists) who are not able to attend the conference....

We've looked at various ideas about mobile blogging to allow the BAO folk attending the conference (Sara, Amanda, Caren, and me - Ronnie) to share things 'in real time'..... I found a way to do this during my residency at BBWF (my i-feel-the-passion blog was an exercise in frustration as I had to upload one pic at a time via email, I couldn't add text in the same post as a pic and vice-versa.... couldn't edit, couldn't format, couldn't save to draft first...... it was real fly-by-the seat-of-your-pants stuff!)

Today I discovered Blogger have just released a Blogger app in the App store (and yes apparently there's an Android version too...)

This post is a test of sorts - a hybrid posting uploading text and pics from my i-phone, editing on a desktop then further editing back on the i-phone.... just to see if the new app works smoothly.... sooo there's about to be a gratuitous ronnie pic from my phone pics library just to test the waters....

and if I can get it all to work - golly imagine the possibilities!!!!

....

wrestling with ronnie...

2011-09-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

I've just posted a piccie or two (or three)
of my BAO 'wrestling' edition

on my main blog site...

(here's a teasing detail pic)

~~I will share more about the process and evolution of the work~~

~~in the~~ ~~next wee while~~

you can now read about the making of this work here

(ps - all you BAO 'art and lies' folk - your books are in the mail!)

....

Checking in after a long absence...

2011-09-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

Dear BAO peeps, I feel as though I've been living in a vacuum for months, barely blogging or reading posts and not even creating much. I have so much to catch up on but first must say how wonderful it has been to receive the "Paper Wrestling" books. It is such a thrill to come home to heaps of mail (I've been away from home for weeks at a time) and to find your wonderful books there. This last trip had Ronnie's fabulous flower book - I can't express how in awe I am to actually have one of these books. Thanks Ronnie, it's a treasure.

I've just returned from Lake Eyre. What can I say, except that it was wonderful, amazing, mysterious... and that I had no idea that South Australia was so big, so dry, so glorious. I can suddenly see why people say you should see your own country first.

I've blogged about it at www.barnaclegoose.com but here is just one photo:

I'm not sure I'll be joining in with the next book but I'll certainly be reading everyone's blogs, and especially Book Art Object. This has been a wonderful experience, working in a group and I don't want to lose that so I'll be here lurking and watching for a while. Where else could you meet such a varied and interesting (and nice) bunch of people?