Artists Newsletter Magazine - Jan 2000
Challenging Formats
Across the country, even as you read this, an author somewhere
is writing a book. Across the same country, an artist somewhere
is making/designing/creating a book too.
Generally speaking, the author works in isolation. We can all
picture the frustrated writer surrounded by crumpled sheets of
paper, torn from the typewriter and thrown to the floor in desperation
as he/she seeks the perfect start/conclusion to the potentially
prize-winning novel that will launch our writer to instant success.
The image of the artist creating his/her own masterpiece, however,
is less easy to visualise. Who are these lone book-artists? Where
is the work produced? Who funds the publication of the work? Is
there an audience for the work?
Artists have made books for centuries and as we witness the dawn
of the latest, today's artists are no exception. Based in London,
EC2, Book Works have been commissioning new works since 1984.
Their name conjures up images of traditional tomes but nothing
could be further from the truth. Of course, Book Works do publish
and produce books but alongside other works in the form of multiples,
videos, CD Roms and internet/new media projects.
A recent publication by Inventory for Book Works entitled 'Smash
This Puny Existence' is presented as a set of six large-format
double-sided prints packaged in a cardboard tube. What began as
street actions in Glasgow and London, staged by Inventory in March
1999, flyposting busy public thoroughfares, creating 'public newspapers'
have led onto this ambitious work documenting the events and inviting
their audience to 'seize the city' and participate in Inventory's
own brand of 'fierce sociology'. Further participation is encouraged
with the tempting invitation to add to, amend, cut-up or flypost
the posters.
A second Book Works publication, 'The World and Its Inhabitants'
by Paul Etienne Lincoln published in 1997 takes a sideways slant
at the history of the world. Again, not truly a book, twenty-four
'exploratory cards' and a small twenty-four page booklet are presented
in a cigarette-pack style flip-top box. An exquisite piece of
work, each card shows an 'inhabitant' of a microscopic and idealised
world. The photographs on the cards are of small animated sculptures
that Lincoln has created of his subjects and the narrative on
the reverse outlines the historical background and descriptions
of the previous performance details of each mechanical sculpture.
Figures; Louis Pasteur and Robert Goddard (father of modern rocketry
- we learn) sit strangely in the pack next to Britain's first
celebrity Panda, Ming Ming, Hungarian twins the Dolly Sisters,
Rosette de Lyon ('fine salami from the Lyon region of France')
and Dyslexia. Paul Lincoln is an English artist resident in New
York and a fine addition to Book Works quirky and maverick roster
of artists that include Angela Bulloch, Tacita Dean, Tracey Emin,
Cornelia Parker, Simon Patterson, David Shrigley and Sam Taylor-Wood.
Book Works operates a studio that offers a pool of resources and
facilities with experience in producing, designing and printing
editions and multiples on behalf of artists, galleries, libraries
and designers for a what it hopes is a 'wide and varied audience'.
An established leader in the field, Book Works have remained at
the cutting edge. On the evidence of these recent publications
they are attending to stay there.
Located across the river in London and working independently from
the kind of support that Book Works offer is lone artist, Melissa
Thompson. Her recent work - City Almanac 'a momento mori' is described
as something to 'ponder over during those contemplative fireside
evenings'. Sadly it would need to be a fairly short evening: although
in twelve parts and at a metre in length the black and white photographic
concertina images of two London streets are not gripping viewing.
Each book represents the artist's walk along the two streets on
the fifth day of each month recording what she saw with a 'movie
camera'. No real distinctions mark the passage of time and no
link between the locations are offered, the photography is weak
and the use of typography adds very little to a project that breaks
no new ground. Described as 'an aide memoire for the passerby'
it is best forgotten. Would this work have been better had it
had input from an organisation like Book Works? City Almanac appears
to have suffered from the curse of the Vanity Publisher.
Travelling from our first two destinations in London north to
Derby, the University of Derby to be exact, locates RGAP. The
rather dry name; Research Group for Artists Publications, hides
the fact that some interesting works have been taking shape since
it's beginnings in 1994. The First Publication is no more book-like
than the earlier examples. In fact, it is a box. The box does
contain an assortment of editioned works. A pencil with the phrase
'choose one to use...' printed in repetition along it's length,
four black and white printed cards entitled 'Postcards from Washington
DC' with no visible reference to the city, in fact no visible
reference to anything I recognise. 'Distributed Jigsaw' is a work
that contains one jigsaw piece and a positional guide for it and
the other missing 199 pieces of the puzzle, but without the picture
to work from. I think my piece has some grass and flowers on it
but it could be a rug or a green salad or a pullover. Where are
the other pieces? It is worth trying to organise a meeting or
event for owners to put the pieces together? I am not convinced
that everyone would turn up and imagine one piece not arriving!
Other items within the box include a roll of sticky tape with
some words repeated in French and a 'Porcelain form fired to 1210-1240C
(oxidising)' It has, it is claimed, a tiny eighteen page book
inside but it seems such a shame to crack it open, so I leave
it intact. Another one of the works is a set of swatches of different
materials; perspex, sandpaper, corrugated card etc etc and on
the final plywood swatch the words, '...there is an element of
performance or ritual in the making of the edition.' I am beginning
to think that there is a similar element in the viewing of these
works.
Acoustic Shadows, another RGAP publication, looks the most like
a book so far. It has a cover and a binding and pages and yet
upon opening, one discovers a CD. It is not a CD Rom as could
be expected from visual artists but a CD of 'soundworks by artists'.
Of the tracks listed, 'Answering Machine' features a compilation
of telephone messages left by the friend of artist, Jurgen Kierspel,
over a two year period, whilst 'GridReference: Recorded Delivery'
examines the sounds made from a keyboard using a system equating
notes of the musical scale to the letters and numbers of postcodes
of 100 visitors to a previous installation entitled GridReference.
Fascinating as the project is, my guess is that it is a particular
audience that will listen to CD more than once!
Leaving Derby and travelling further north and across the border
into Scotland brings us to Weproductions based in Yarrow. Weproductions
are Telfer Stokes and Helen Douglas. Established in London in
1971, moving to Scotland in 1976 and setting up a printing press
in 1979 has enabled Weproductions to investigate an area of book
arts that examines the structure of visual narrative in different
book forms. Recent publications include: Wild Wood and Between
The Two by Douglas and Song of The Thrush by Stokes and it is
the latter that is perhaps the most thought-provoking. Upon his
first exposure to the raw poverty on the streets of Bombay, Douglas
has used the experience to produce a work that interweaves type
and images in a dialogue that probes the huge population and economic
problems of India. A powerful book, Song of The Thrush forces
the viewer to confront the situation.
So, whilst across the land, authors continue to screw up sheets
of paper in frustration book artists continue to create, design
and publish works that challenge format, subject matter and the
role of the book itself.
© Lawrence Zeegen
