Wandering Stars (2019) Sara Langworthy Hand-sewn booklet of twenty pages. Multi-layered collagraph prints. Hand-set Univers text. Cover paper Kyoseishi. Pages: H(varying to a maximum of)177 x W105. Cover: H181 x W 113 mm Edition of 33 numbered and signed, of which this is #3.
Title page and center.
Note the varying height of the pages. According to the artist, the “pages are an assortment of hand-made and machine-made Japanese papers. Possible papers are Okawara, Sekishu, Kaji, Mulberry, and possibly Akatosashi (this last one is sort of orange-colored)….The little white dots in the color fields were made by combining various pressure print templates with the layered collagraph blocks.” Correspondence with the artist, 9 September 2019.
Without Question (2001)
Without Question (2001) Sara Langworthy The book is housed in a 3-flap portfolio. Photopolymer, sumi ink wash, accordion binding. The paper is Domestic Etch that has undergone repeated printing, rubbing, sumi ink baths, scratching and washing. Edition of 75 numbered and signed, of which this is number #57. Acquired from the artist, 5 February 2019.
Neo Emblemata Nova (2005) Daniel E. Kelm Box: H96 x W109 x D102 mm closed. Booklet cover: H72 x W79 mm closed, H72 x W224 mm open. Booklet: H72 x W78 mm. Möbius strip: each tile is H70 x W70 mm; the strip extended is 1000 mm. Edition of twenty-one, of which this is #18. Acquired from the artist, 20 October 2018.
Opening the work.
Booklet about the work and its creation.
Inside the top of the box.
Closing and returning the Möbius strip to its box requires considerably more dexterity than reading; so much so that the booklet included provides instructions.
The Anatomy Lesson (2004)
The Anatomy Lesson (2004) Joyce Cutler-Shaw Middletown, CT: Robin Price, Publisher, 2004) Limited edition of 50, of which this signed copy is the binder’s copy (Daniel E. Kelm). Acquired from the binder, 20 October 2018.
Twelve signatures of handmade cotton text paper, the central ten signatures each made up of one sheet H356 x W514 mm and one sheet H356 x W500 mm glued to the 14 mm margin of the first sheet, for a total of ninety-six pages, each measuring H356 x W253 mm. Binding of leather covered boards (a hologram embedded in front cover) with an open spine, taped and sewn into a reinforcing concertina structure: H361 X W259 mm. Contained in engraved steel box: H370 x W326 x D44 mm.
Detail of sewing and internal view of reinforcing accordion structure. For a description of this type of structure, see Hedi Kyle’s The Art of the Fold(London: Laurence King, 2018), pp. 82-85.
View of the doublure, which is part of the reinforcing concertina structure.
Cover page of second signature.
Second signature open to double-page spread.
Second signature open to four-page spread.
Further Reading
“Bieler Press”, in Book Art Object, ed. David Jury (Berkeley, CA: Codex Foundation, 2008), pp. 116-17.
Miller, Steve. “Daniel Kelm”, Book Arts Podcasts, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama, 22 July 2012. Accessed 6 September 2019.
From 21 June to 4 August 2019, the Glasgow School of Art hosted an exhibition curated by Vivianna Checchia based on and named after the artist’s book Political Animal by Johnny Rodger (text) and Prabhakar Pachpute (drawings). The event is particularly noteworthy as an addition to this list of large-scale works of book art.
With Pachpute’s involvement, Checchia transformed the gallery at 167 Renfrew Street in Glasgow into “a book”, its pages consisting of Pachpute’s A3 framed drawings, drawings directly on the gallery’s walls as well as 3D objects, and the curator’s notes/bibliography delivered as displayed copies of the works referenced. Walking and looking become “reading”.
Earlier “walk-through books” include Alison Knowle’s The Big Book (1968) and Anselm Kiefer’s The Rhine (1982-2013), but Political Animal, the exhibition, takes large-scale book art and what we mean by the book just that “little” bit further.
Further Reading
Borsuk, Amaranth. The Book (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018). Reviewed here.
Malaya, Vinutha. “Art of the Book”, Pune Mirror, 18 July 2019. Accessed 9 September 2019.
variazione (2015) Eleonora Cumer Linocut on card and tarlatana. Unique. H287 x 416 mm closed. Showing front and back covers. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
Centrally open view, showing printed linen crape (tarlatana) pages.
Views of the three “double-page spreads.
Open envelope for note of thanks. Container for the work. Both with pin-pricked and thread-sewn images. Container initialed and dated on reverse.
scultura da viaggio dipinta n.2 (2017)
scultura da viaggio dipinta n.2/ sculpture de poche peinte n. 2 (2017) Eleonora Cumer Single sheet of card, cut and painted front and back. Unique, embossed with artist’s stamp and initialed. H250 x W116 mm closed, H250 x W270 mm open. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
Cumer’s scultura da viaggio builds on Bruno Munari’s portable or “travelling sculptures”, but they could just as easily have emerged from her own earlier works such as l’attesa, visioni urbani and contaminazione.
l’attesa/ l’attente (2010)
l’attesa/ l’attente (2010) Eleonora Cumer Three-dimensional accordion book with painted front and back pages in painted case. H135 x W125 mm closed, H135 x W 1200 mm open. Unique. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017. Selected for the Abracadabra Bookcase Exhibition, Barcelona, May 2010.
Internal and external views of open cover.
“Reading” the opened concertina l’attesa (“the wait”).
Front view of l’attesa.
Rear view of l’attesa.
visioni urbane/ visions urbane (2015)
visioni urbani/visions urbane (2015) Eleonora Cumer Three cards, tri-fold, painted front and back, and cut, encased in a duo-fold sheet, painted on one side. H240 x 150 mm closed, H240 x 600 mm open Unique. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
Opening the work.
Rear view, top view.
contaminazione (2015)
contaminazione (2015) Eleonora Cumer Four sheets of card, each cut and folded into three panels. H300 x W300 mm closed, H300 x 900 mm open. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
View of the four component cards.
Duo-fold gray cover H302 x W315 mm closed, H302 x W943 mm open. Fourth component card, initialed and dated by the artist.
il giardino della mia VITA (2015)
il giardino della mia VITA (2015) Eleonora Cumer Hand-sewn booklet of hand-stamped photo-collaged paper. Glassine envelope, glued to page 6, contains shards of coloured glass. H288 x W205 mm closed, H288 x W410 open. Edition of 50 numbered and signed, of which this is #20. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
The text in English: “The garden of my life: my life like a garden or better”
PAROLE (2015)
Parole (2015) Eleonora Cumer Hand-sewn booklet of hand-stamped photo-collaged paper. Glassine envelope, glued to page 2, contains slip of lined paper hand-stamped with the letters of the word “parole” superimposed on one another in two groups. H288 x W205 mm closed, H288 x W410 open Edition of 50 numbered and signed, of which this is #20. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
The text in English: ”Words: unreadable words, incomplete words, unspoken words”
Conflitti (2015)
Conflitti (2015) Eleonora Cumer Hand-sewn booklet of hand-stamped photo-collaged paper. German air rifle training disc (distance 10 m) sewn with red thread and glued to cover; exiting on page 1, the red thread crosses to pages two and three; page two includes a pastedown grid, labelled in its margin with the abbreviation for an anti-cholergenic incapacitating chemical weapon. H288 x W205 mm closed, H288 x W410 open. Edition of 50 numbered and signed, of which this is #16. Acquired from the artist, 16 September 2017.
The text in English: “Conflict: the flight to the sea to meet death in search of a new land”
Further Reading
“Eleonora Cumer”, WorldCat Identities. Accessed 5 September 2019.
The Anatomy Lesson (2004) Joyce Cutler-Shaw Middletown, CT: Robin Price, Publisher, 2004) Limited edition of 50, of which this signed copy is the binder’s copy (Daniel E. Kelm). Acquired 20 October 2018.
Twelve signatures of handmade cotton text paper, the central ten signatures each made up of one sheet H356 x W514 mm and one sheet H356 x W500 mm glued to the 14 mm margin of the first sheet, for a total of ninety-six pages, each measuring H356 x W253 mm. Binding of leather covered boards (a hologram embedded in front cover) with an open spine, taped and sewn into a reinforcing concertina structure: H361 X W259 mm. Contained in engraved steel box: H370 x W326 x D44 mm.
Clockwise: stainless steel box container, detail of sewing and detail of reinforcing accordion structure. For a description of this type of structure, see Hedi Kyle’s The Art of the Fold (London: Laurence King, 2018), pp. 82-85.
Top of photo: gives a view of the doublure, which is part of the reinforcing concertina structure. Bottom of photo: gives a view of page 1, which precedes a blank page and half-title. Note that pages are unnumbered.
Title page of the third signature.
Opening of the third signature.
Internal four-page spread of the third signature.
Left-hand page (from the Fasciculus Medicinae) of the four-page spread above. Note that the pagination (lower right) refers to the page number in the source text.
Second page (from Fasciculus Medicinae) of the four-page spread. Again note that the pagination (lower left) refers to the page number in the source text.
Third page from the four-page spread above. Print by Joyce Cutler-Shaw
Fourth page from four-page spread above. Poem by Joyce Cutler-Shaw.
Alphabet of Bones (1987)
The Alphabet of Bones (1987) Joyce Cutler-Shaw Munich, West Germany: VerlagKretschmer and Grossman Edition of 700. Acquired as a gift from Hubert Kretschmer, 10 January 2019
Twenty-six glossy photo cards, offset white on black, H70 x W114 mm with trifold panel of glossy photo paper, offset white on black: H70 x W458 mm Contained in pasted, open-ended box of matte card, offset white on black: H72 x W117 x D14 mm Contained in fold-flap box: H73 x W118 x D15 closed, H72 x W498 open
Further Reading
Cutler-Shaw, Joyce. “Embodied/Disembodied”, LitMed Magazine, 10 March 2009. Accessed 3 September 2019.
Hoffberg, Judith A. “Birds, Bones, and Books”, Episodes of The City – New York as a Source Book, Wallworks and Artists Books of Joyce Cutler-Shaw, exhibition catalogue (New York, NY: Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, 2007).
Theme and Permutation (2012) Marlene MacCallum Hand sewn pamphlet, images custom-printed in offset lithography on Mohawk Superfine, text printed in inkjet, covers inkjet printed on translucent Glama. H235 × W216 mm Edition of 100, of which this is #54. Acquired 5 October 2018.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.
Theme and Permutation is one of a series of artist’s books inspired by the experience of living in Corner Brook’s Townsite area on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. Between 1924-34 the pulp mill built 150 homes to house the mill management and skilled labourers. Over a period of 10 years, I have photographed in several homes, all the same type-4 model as the one I live in. These homes vary in condition from close to original in design and décor to highly renovated. This project gave me the rare opportunity to record the evolution of interior aspects of these homes. It has been the context to explore the paradoxical phenomena of conformity and individualization that occurs in a company town. Having grown up in a suburban housing development, my earliest memories of home is that of living in a space that is reminiscent of my neighbors’. Each artist’s book explores a distinct facet of image memory, multiplicity, sequence and offers the viewer a visual equivalence of the uncanny. Theme and Permutation is a response to the permutations and variations of the type-4 Townsite House. Digital tools were used to translate the original film source of eight different window images from five houses. The sixteen offset lithographic plates were custom printed in twenty-nine separate press runs. Each image is the result of a different combination of plates. The structure is a sewn pamphlet with translucent covers. The viewer enters the body of the book with a tritone image of a single Townsite window. As one moves into the piece, new window images appear and layer over each other. The images become darker and more heavily layered towards the mid-point. The center spread has an inkjet layer of two text blocks printed over the offset litho images. The text speaks of the history of the homes, the architectural permutations and economic shifts within the Townsite area. The ensuing pages continue to provide new combinations of window layers, gradually lightening in tonality and allowing the individual windows to become more distinct. A third text block provides a personal narrative. The piece concludes with a tritone image of one of the Townsite windows in original condition.
Chicago Octet (2014) Marlene MacCallum Hand bound artist’s book with folded paper structure, letterpress and inkjet printing, H166 × W78 mm closed, H443 x W293 mm open Unique. Acquired 5 October 2018.
Photos: Books On Books Collection
Chicago Octet is a work of visual poetry by eight masters of book art. If they were performing music (and you can almost hear the music of Michigan Avenue), MacCallum would be their performing conductor.
The piece I created, Chicago Octet, had several collaborative components. The letterpress printing consisted of a word selected by each participant printed on one of Scott [McCarney]’s folded structures. The images were a digital layering of every cityscape photograph that I made and then inkjet printed on top of the letterpress. The final folded structure was designed by Mary Clare Butler. The case was designed and built by Scott McCarney, the front cover embossment was by David Morrish and Clifton Meador.
Westron Wynde (2016) Cathryn Miller Double-sided accordion with swing panel structure, 4 double-page openings, based on Hedi Kyle’s panel or panorama fold. In wrapper with slip and slot closure. Initialed and numbered by the artist. Edition of 6, of which this is #3.
Cathryn Miller, colophon: “Part of an ongoing series of works based on exploration of colour-graphemic synesthesia. This book presents the poem ‘Westron Wynde‘ in a purely visual form. Letters become colours, and are used as graphic elements. The book manifests the essence, if not the sense, of the poem.”
Westron wynde when wyll thou blow, The smalle rayne down can rayne – Cryst, yf my love wer in my armys And I yn my bed agayne!
L is for Lettering
L is for Lettering (2011) Cathryn Miller Hand bound codex of 56 unnumbered pages. Laser printed on acid free recycled paper, hemp paper covers. The book was hand drawn, then scanned and resized in Photoshop. Text is Caflisch Script Pro. Hand annotated in red pencil. Edition of 26, of which this is #3. H160 x W158 mm
An alphabet book based on the artist’s personal struggle to become a practicing artist. Cathryn Miller: “The trials and tribulations of the art education process as recalled from a satisfactory distance after the author learns that everything is useful after all.”
Paper Architecture (2017) Karen Wirth H230 x W130mm, 24 pages Acquired from Journal of Artists’ Books 42 (Fall 2017)
Photographic images by Karen Wirth from Ayvalik, Amsterdam, Florence, Istanbul, New York City, Rome, San Diego and Venice. The photos are collaged, and the work is based on an architectural installation that included a large-scale book.
Brodsky dedicated Watermark to his friend the American painter, Robert Morgan who has lived in Venice for more than 30 years and the book is illustrated with 14 photo-gravures made from his original photographs.
While Koch was artist-in-residence for the Fall of 2006 at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Venezia imported a printing press from the Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione printing museum. The paper is Twinrocker “Da Vinci” handmade, with the Koch firm’s watermark designed by Christopher Stinehour and Susan Filter. The edition is limited to fifty copies. Copies numbered 1 to 30 are bound Venetian-red hand made papers and housed in a clamshell box. This copy was acquired 31 July 2019.
Donald Farnsworth digitally reconfigured Morgan’s photographs and printed them at his Magnolia Editions in Oakland, California from photogravure plates made by Unai San Martin.
The printed sheets were shipped to Venice, Italy, and the text was set in Monotype Dante types cast in lead at the Olivieri Typefoundry in Milano. Once the printing at the Scuola Grafica was completed, the sheets were shipped to Koch’s studio in Berkeley where the book was bound in richly pigmented papers made by hand at Cave Papers in Minneapolis, MN.
A Little Book of Birds (2017) Book of 48 pages (uncut), 9 engravings by Gaylord Schanilec and a wood engraving by Thomas Bewick, all printed from the original blocks. Signed by Schanilec, with a poem by him hand-set in Bodoni metal type. Hand-sewn to O’Malley Crackling doublures, pasted to Degener Black from Cave Papers. H213 x W146 mm Edition of 100. Acquired from the artist, 7 September 2019.
”As it turned out my mid-life vessel the “Hungry Mind”(Lac Des Pleurs, 2015) didn’t get me to the other side, and A Little Book of Birds led to yet more water. The idea of birds captive within unopened pages was originally intended as a challenge for book collectors—to open the unopened pages—or not. As years passed the birds slowly emerged and their captivity began to mean something else. I thought this book might free the birds. It did not. —GS” from slip insert.
Mill (2006) Wood and leather binding, using discarded library shelves, canvas and upholstery nails. Plaster cast and canvas pages with individual pamphlet book text inserts printed on Canson paper. Casts made using water extracted in dehumidifying the building. H143 x W114 mm closed, H143 x W310 mm open. Edition of 24, of which this is #2.
The work is a tactile exploration of the interior and exterior space of a corn mill in Cromford, built c.1780 to grind grain for workers at Arkwright’s cotton mill.A journey around Cromford Mill, Derbyshire.
“Mill is an investigation of the marks of passage, which have become part of the fabric of the space and reveal time, energy, endeavour and change:
(i) recording the interaction of the human body with the building
(ii) recording the impact of natural forces upon the built environment
(iii) locating the marks that reveal a momentary connection or repetitious action
(iv) examining clues and ephemera.
Silicone moulds were taken from marks of usage around the mill, including the spotwhere a door handle impressed upon a wall and the shape of a break in a pane of glass. Plaster casts were then produced, using water from a dehumidifier within the building to make the plaster. A text piece, contained within canvas pocket pages, creates a unique map of the mill and takes a journey through the building – both to experience the environment and locate the plaster casts.” Correspondence from the artists, 5 December 2018.
What …? (2018)
What …? (2018) Hardback, boxed-bound, black book cloth, concertina book with magnetised and elasticated fastening. Drawings and collages printed on black and orange Canson card. Letterpress. Hinges engineered in Canson card to create a spring in the turning of the pages. H213 x W80 mm closed, H213 x W830 mm open Edition of 5, of which this is #2. Acquired from the artists, 25 November 2018.
The two photos of the same two panels are taken at different angles to highlight the images on the recto panel.
“What? is a book about finding solutions, both in its construction and content. Made over a period of several years, from the first drawing to the final binding, it prefers to raise questions, rather than provide answers. Hence the title. The relationship between What? and viewer therefore depends upon response, perception and making connections. Clues could include: • William Blake • harbingers • manipulation • dislocation • loss • finding a way out • George Orwell”. Correspondence with artists, 5 December 2018.
Further Reading
Paul Salt and Susan Shaw are two artists in Sheffield, England who collaborate under the name Salt+Shaw. Their objects are held by the British Library, the Tate Library and other prestigious collections as well as several private ones. Sarah Bodman (University of Western England) has highlighted their work in a-n News with some outstanding photos:
“At the recent 21st International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair in Leeds, they launched Ocean Bestiary, a unique book of strange and miraculous Medieval-inspired sea creatures that features a concertina construction, letterpress text, acrylic paint, gold foil, whale bone and a leather inlay.” Sarah Bodman, “Artists’ Books #28: Salt+Shaw, collaborative book makers“, a-n News, 6 March 2018.
