Books On Books Collection – Michael Hampton

Books On Books

RAGE PEN (2025)

A red book titled 'RAGE PEN' by David Blackmore and Michael Hampton, displayed on a white textured background.
Black and white image of a person smashing a Christmas tree with a baseball bat in a festive setting, surrounded by decorations and presents. The photo is part of a newspaper article discussing a pop-up rage room experience.

RAGE PEN (2025)
David Blackmore and Michael Hampton
Soft cover, mitre sawn head and foot, perforated fore-edge. H210 x W148 mm. [108] pages. Edition of 100. Acquired from Folium, 13 November 2025.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

Folium, the publisher, describes RAGE PEN as “developed from a relational piece of the same name held at Chisenhale Studios 2017/18”. Per the Museum of Modern Art, relational aesthetics is

A mode of art practice that establishes spaces, situations, or environments for a variety of social interactions. In essence, the social space or interaction becomes the work of art itself. The term was popularized by French critic and curator Nicholas Bourriaud in 1998.

RAGE PEN‘s environment was a safe rage room equipped with a variety of handheld tools. Anonymous members of the public, or “ventees”, were invited to name an object that had caused them frustration, don protective equipment, and enter the shuttered room to smash said objects. The interactions filmed and photographed by David Blackmore formed the images in RAGE PEN the book. Holding the book with its mitre-sawn top and bottom edges and its perforated, still-sealed fore-edges, we might suspect that we are being invited into our very own private relational aesthetic piece.

For example, to read the second and third pages of the Introduction, you have to cut the perforated fore-edge holding them together. You might notice that they aren’t numbered; they would be respectively pages 10 and 11 if they were.

An open book page featuring an introduction section about human rage, with visible text discussing its implications, societal impact, and various forms. The page has a decorative edge and is next to a red and gray tabbed margin.
A partially opened art book resting on a dark surface, with wooden mannequin hands holding the pages. The pages feature a mix of blank sheets and text.
An open book with torn edges on a black surface, one page displaying printed text and the other side showing a red background. A wooden hand is partially visible on the left, suggesting a creative or artistic theme.

Having finished reading and turning unnumbered page 11, you find a folded folio, which, when unfolded and turned, reveals page 17, the end of the Introduction. Together with the blank page after unnumbered page 11, the folded folio accounts, of course, for the unnumbered pages 12-16. The appeal/frustration of cutting the perforated folios and keeping track of the page count might wane, and the satisfying rage/pleasure of cutting open the perforated pages may wax. But beware.

An open book displaying blank pages beside a plastic bag filled with small, colorful items labeled '#1' on a black background.
An open book with a textured white page on the right displaying text, and a partially visible red page on the left, with a hand holding the book.

However rote-driven, frustrated, or adventurous you may be feeling, it is best to bow out the uncut pages and look outside and inside them before cutting. Outside, you will find double-page spreads that you will lose if exercising the paper knife, metal ruler or bone folder. Below, shown across a recto-to-verso spread, are the studio doors through which the invited “ventees” entered. As readers, we are invited to open the doors to RAGE PEN by slitting the perforated fore-edge, by which we will lose the image of the closed double doors. Likewise we will also lose the image of one of the ventees wielding a sledge-hammer across the double-page spread inside the studio doors’ spread.

Open book displaying the title 'Relational Documentation', with details of Chisenhale Studios in London and a date range from September 2017 to May 2018, alongside a wooden hand holding the pages.
An open book displaying a black and white photo of a studio entrance door on the left page, with the text 'STUDIO ENTRANCE' on a sign. The right page is blank with torn edges. A wooden hand is partially visible on the left, holding the book.
A close-up view of a torn paper edge with a black and yellow illustration of a person holding a hammer.

The publisher describes RAGE PEN as an interactive photobook. The term “artists’ book” is closer to the mark. Like most artist’s books, RAGE PEN becomes an artwork that “interrogates” its subject by interrogating itself as a mode of art. It explores the phenomenon of rage not only through the photographs of the staged relational piece but also through invoking our frustration as we destroy one photo spread to get to another photo spread only to find that that we have destroyed that spread as well. And if we don’t cut all the fore-edges, it still lands us with the double frustration of not being able to see clearly those inner double-page spreads and not having the ephemeral work we would have have been left with if we had cut all the fore-edges. This is as complete a challenge to our fetishization of the book object, its design, binding, and concept as any artist’s book has ever mounted. 

An open book displaying images of a workshop environment, featuring wooden crates and tools. A wooden hand is holding the book, showcasing the textured pages.
An open book with a blurred image of a person using a tool on one page and a motion shot of lettuce being processed on the opposite page. The background features a wooden table and a textured surface.
An open book displaying colorful images on the pages, being held by a wooden hand model. The left page shows a person in protective gear working with a tool, while the right page captures a dynamic scene of an object disintegrating, with bits flying out.
Close-up of a partially opened book with blank pages, revealing a red textured material and a wooden art mannequin hand in the background.
View inside a narrow paper bag showing several stacked items in red and black.
A close-up view of a folded paper or image, revealing a colorful yellow and black design within.

If Sven Spieker and MIT Press decide to issue a new edition of the anthology Destruction, which explores how “self-destructing artwork extinguishes art’s fixity as arrested form and ushers in the ephemeral and contingent open work”, RAGE PEN deserves a place in it.

“Hampton & Co. — exercises in parabibliography 28 March – 2 May 2026”

From the Tension Gallery announcement:

So what is parabibliography it might well be asked? By questioning the integrity of the codex as artefact and placing it under pressure, manifold treatments and formats emerge beyond the book per se, be it defamiliarised bibliographic curiosities or monstrosities presented as a bizarre archive.

From a 3-D Arte Povera take on Dosteyevsky’s Notes from Underground, to a cut up Robinson Crusoe, from a combustible HB of Zane Grey’s Wildfire (with a wick), to a doll’s house size copy of The Times, and from an assemblage mythologising Duchamp’s sister to a dodo skull reliquary; a store room where books lose coherence and become unreadable.

Hampton’s notion of “parabibliography” has an affinity with Brian Davis’ notion of archival poetics, whose examples “not only exploit the material and expressive possibilities of the book as object, they function as physical sites for compiling and organizing heterogeneous collections of textual artifacts for narrative and other expressive purposes”. Davis expands the heterogeneity to include “reproduced photographs, paintings, drawings, handwriting, newspaper clippings, x-rays, maps, diagrams, charts, and other kinds of … ephemera”. While there is that affinity, there is another via the influence of the altered book tradition to which the gallery announcement alludes and titles such as After Latham II make clear. Dieter Roth is another likely influence if one peruses the catalogue Souvenirs and considers the Hampton’s collaborative works like RAGE PEN and Paleodrafts.

Here are just a few favorite examples from the visit:

A sculpture of a bird skull resting on stacked books with a red cloth on a wooden shelf against a white wall.
A white animal skull sculpture placed atop a stack of old books with a red cover, resting on a wooden shelf mounted on a wall.

So Much for Theology (2026) biblical remnants | 3-D printed PLA replica dodo skull | bookmark motto | red felt | custom made shelf

A metal wall-mounted shelf holding a rust-colored object and a wooden board, set against a light-colored wall.
A metal wire shelf holding two stacked books, one with a red cover and the other with a dark cover, mounted against a white wall.
A metal wire shelf attached to a wall, holding a large, thick book with red and brown covers.

After Latham II (2022)  ex book | acrylic paint | cutting disc | screws | customized shelf

A wall-mounted display featuring a white ornamental piece alongside a black and white photo of a building, a yellow page with a red tag, and a prize certificate with a protractor.

Suzanne’s Dream (2025) vintage book remnants | plastic set square | wooden “rococo” moulding | hessian | advertising signage

A vertical art installation featuring a scrolling strip of images and text, with various illustrations and colorful sections, displayed on a wall.
A vertical strip of mixed media artwork, featuring images and text. The top includes a scenic landscape with a cloudy sky, followed by an illustration of a person standing on a log. Below, there are various text excerpts and illustrations, including a figure engaged in an activity, all against a white wall backdrop.
A vertical strip of paper attached to a wall, featuring various printed images and text, including illustrations and labels, with a small yellow clip at the top.
A vertical collage of images and text attached to a wall with a yellow clamp, featuring a photograph of a boat, handwritten text that reads 'BACK,' and illustrations of a ship and nature.

Crusoe Cut-Up (c.2008) printed text crops | decoupage | perspex | cardboard | stencilling

An artistic installation featuring layered pieces of paper in green and white, attached to a dark background board. The paper has text printed on it and appears to be creatively manipulated, creating a 3D effect.
Art piece featuring layered, crinkled pages in green and white, mounted on a grey background.
An artistic installation featuring layered pages from a book, with green highlights and a textured surface, mounted on a wooden base against a white wall.

Bell End (redux 2026) torn pages | fibreglass mesh | argyle green Sharpie

410/411 (2025)

410/411 (2026)
Michael Hampton
Single-sheet, eight-panel, slit booklet with loose insert. H150 x W110 mm. Edition of 50. Acquired from Tension Gallery, 2 May 2026.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

From its title self-referencing its topic of titular and bibliographical references to its ephemeral single-sheet structure and to its evidentiary insert, 410/411 captures the essence of parabibliography beautifully. No wonder it was offered for sale on the exhibition’s closing day.

Open yellow brochure with text, revealing a central folded section, placed over a sheet of paper with printed text beneath.
A folded yellow brochure featuring text and a graphic design, including references to books and bibliographical information, with the title 'I borrowed from a reparation's cage.'

Hampton’s over-the-top explanation of this happenstance evidentiary insertion can be read in the image above, so I won’t spoil how it connects with the self-referential reference number of the title (nor spoil your frustration in twisting and turning your device). Feel free to rage or smile as you will.

A page from a text titled 'The Reluctant Professor', featuring a printed excerpt discussing the nature of explanation in aesthetics and artistic understanding.

Hampton’s critical thinking about artists’ books is also represented in The Artists’ Book : A New History (2011), Unshelfmarked : Reconceiving the Artists’ Book (2015), and Against Decorum (2022). Taken together with the works above, these books place Hampton in the company of Germano Celant, Simon Cutts, Johanna Drucker, and Mel Gooding.

Further Reading

Celant, Germano. 1972. Book as Artwork, 1960-72. London: Nigel Greenwood Inc. Ltd.

Cutts, Simon. 2007. Some Forms of Availability : Critical Passages on the Book and Publication. [New York, NY], [Cromford, Derbyshire]: Granary Books ; RGAP.

Davis, Brian. 2024. “Part One: The Rise of Multimodal Book-Archives“. College Book Art Association. Accessed 24 November 2025.

Drucker, Johanna. 2004. The Century of Artists’ Books. [Second edition]. New York City: Granary Books.

Gooding, Mel, and Bruce McLean. 2017. The Invisible Residency. Dundee: Cooper Gallery DJCAD and Knife Edge Press.

Hampton, Michael. 2011. The Artists’ Book : A New History. London: Banner Repeater.

Hampton, Michael. 2015. Unshelfmarked : Reconceiving the Artists’ Book. Devon: Uniformbooks.

Hampton, Michael. 2022. Against Decorum. York, UK: information as material.

Hampton, Michael. Dec-Jan 2008-09. “John Latham: Distress of a Dictionary“. Art Monthly, No. 322.

Spieker, Sven, ed. 2017. Destruction. London, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Whitechapel Gallery ; The MIT Press.

Thomas, Greg. September 2024. “Book Marks“. Art Monthly, No. 479.

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