The material aspects of the book as well as its properties as a form of communication lies at the heart of many artists’ books. The same is true for magazines and newspapers and the artists who take them on as their palette and canvas. For finding examples of print works exploring the medium in its own right, Hubert Kretschmer’s exhibition catalogue Objekt Magazine Object (2018) provides a useful resource alongside his Artists Archive Publications in Munich and this entry on a similar exhibition in Vienna the same year — Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox.
The Anatomy Lesson: Unveiling the Fasciculus Medicinae (2004)
The Anatomy Lesson: Unveiling the Fasciculus Medicinae (2004) Joyce Cutler-Shaw Middletown, CT: Robin Price, Publisher, 2004) Housed in a custom-made, engraved stainless steel box (H370 x W326 x D44 mm), concertina binding co-designed with Daniel E. Kelm and Joyce Cutler-Shaw, produced at The Wide Awake Garage; 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 96 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. The hologram, produced by DuPont Authentication Systems, features an early eighteenth-century brass lancet. Edition of 50, of which this is a binder’s copy. Acquired from the binder, Daniel E. Kelm, 15 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.
Lost and Found in the Garden of Wild Birds and Grasses (2001)
Lost and Found in the Garden of Wild Birds and Grasses (2001) Joyce Cutler-Shaw Two-sided sheet in triangle folds. 190 x 190 mm (closed). Edition of 1000. Acquired from Printed Matter, Inc., 23 September 2022. Photos: Books On Books Collection.
Distributor’s description: “Lost and Found in the Garden of Wild Birds and Grassesis a twelve part continuously unfolding paper narrative. Shaped like a fortune teller, the book’s four corners open out to reveal successive layers of the artist’s calligraphies – the first being her alphabet of bones, based on the hollow bones of birds, the next an alphabet based on the silhouettes of wild birds. The most interior layers of the book show photographs of an environment of grasses and branches, and at the final opening, the book becomes a single sheet on the back of which is printed an explanatory text and the translation of a poem inThe Alphabet of Bones.“
Printed Matter’s description of the origami fold as a “fortune teller”, also known as a chatterbox, whirlybird, or cootie catcher, is not quite right as can be seen from the images below.
The work is simultaneously a poster, a photographic collage from site-specific environmental installations, and, at the heart of one side of this single-sheet book, a poem dually presented in roman and Cutler-Shaw’s copyrighted font for the Alphabet of Bones. Note how the three squares framing the explanatory text and poem rotate to create a sculptural sense of depth, turning this side of the sheet almost into a nest. Like The Anatomy Lesson, this work reflects Cutler-Shaw’s engagement with uniting folds, binding, and printing to achieve singular artistic results. The same can be found in an earlier work showcasing the Alphabet of Bones font.
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
Chen, Julie. 2013. 500 Handmade Books. Volume 2. New York: Lark. See Orbital Loops on p. 262 for comparison with Lost and Found in the Garden of Wild Birds and Grasses (2001).
Jury, David, and Peter Rutledge Koch (eds.) 2008. Book Art Object. Edited by David Jury. Berkeley, California: Codex Foundation. Pp. 198 (Where Do We Start?), 199 (Surplus Value Books #13).
Salamony, Sandra, and Peter and Donna Thomas. 2012. 1,000 Artists’ Books : Exploring the Book as Art. Minneapolis: Quarto Publishing Group USA. Pp. 10 (Chained Album), 11 (Altered), 220 (Crested), 298 (Collection).
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).
Books On Books 