Julie Chen is Coming to Tucson!

This Friday, I am ridiculously excited to announce that one of my book art heroes is coming to Tucson, Julie Chen. I think this must be what regular people feel when they find out they’re meeting … the Kardashians? Or someone else.

Julie Chen, True to Life

Since 1987, Julie has published limited edition artist’s books under the imprint, Flying Fish Press. Her work is not only meticulously crafted, but seamlessly combines interesting writing and concepts with lovely, often abstract imagery and a sense of play.

Julie Chen, True to Life (detail)

Anyway, the Book Art Collective is hosting an artist talk this Friday @ 4pm with Julie at the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center. The Poetry Center was gracious in co-sponsoring the event with us, and we thought the space would be fitting for Julie’s lyric work.

To promote the event, our co-president, John, designed some posters and we letterpressed them yesterday on one of our trusty Vandercooks. The style sort of parallel’s Chen’s use of games in her work. We printed the posters on various French Papers, this one their Pop Tone Whip Cream, Cover #140. It’s pretty. For ink we mixed some metallic copper with brown and then violet. It was…experimental, to say the least.

If you’re in Tucson or nearby, come to the talk and reception after. Meet Julie. Meet the rest of us. Eat food. Hera are the details, yo:

Artist Talk with Julie Chen
Friday, November 5th @ 4pm
Poetry Center, University of Arizona
Reception to follow in Book Art Lab

[Note: I'm cross-posting this on my personal site, here.]

A Conversation with Book Artist Karen Hamner

We are pleased to announce that well-known Chicago book artist and binder, Karen Hamner, will visit the School of Art on October 19th at 5:30 pm. She will give an informal presentation in Room 205 in the Art Building.

Karen is in town for Guild of Book Workers Conference and has generously offered to talk to students, faculty and the our very own Book Art Collective. There will be a hands-on look at her books and she’ll answer questions about her work, which has been shown around the world.

Karen is an expert binder and has just come out with a new book Nevermore, Again: Poe Exhumed. She is probably best known for her flag books, one of which is in the University of Arizona Special Collections.

We hope you’ll join us to talk with Karen and see her work!

New in Artists’ Books: Sanctus Sonorensis

To kick off a new column on our blog (showcasing new publications in artists’ books), let’s start with none other than our very own Philip Zimmermann, a book artist, teacher, thinker and all-around interesting human.

Started seven years ago at the Border Art Residency in New Mexico, Sanctus Sonorensis emerged from Phil’s interest and observations in the landscape and the complex issues surrounding border crossings. The first edition of the book was published in 2006 while at a residency at Light Work in Syracuse, New York, and was printed by inkjet.

Because the book consists of a series of landscape photographs by Phil, he envisioned another edition in the form of a board book, which allows images to span the gutter without the interruption of a sewn signature. But also, Phil likes to push the borders of what a book is and what a form can do. Here are some of his own words:

“I decided to emphasize the missal-breviary-beatitude idea by making it look like a sort of high tech version of those Catholic book forms. I added gilded edges, the rounded corners and the gold-foil stamped titles to have a visual association with religious books. The text is meant to be read out loud as if by priest or an acolyte standing in front of a congregation (and maybe even repeated back by their flock), and I wanted the book to have the right kind of look (or bling) for that task.”

Two-page spread from book’s interior. (Source: Philip Zimmermann.)

The book becomes a sort of prayer; a really beautiful, slow meditation whose point of departure perhaps originated at the border, but ends in a contemplation of humanity. Phil presents a kind of sympathetic view towards all of the involved humans, while clearly asking us to reexamine our own value systems. And I’m happy to have it in my collection.

You can read more about the process of making the book here and you can purchase the book directly from Phil for $50 (+ tax and shipping) by emailing him. I highly recommend doing this.

Lovely Little Video

I’m guessing you’ve probably seen this by now but I love this video so much, I thought we should post it here. This is a video by Abigail Uhteg, taking us through the making of an artist’s book at the Women’s Studio Workshop in upstate New York, which I had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago. A dedicated little place, with deeply interesting bookmakers and beautifully crafted book-forms.

The Tucson Festival of Books!

This weekend, we set up up shop for the first time at the Tucson Festival of Books, a huge gathering with book lovers of all kinds. The festival was held on both Saturday and Sunday, and attracted droves of humans with author appearances, signings, talks, panel discussions and of course vendors.

To prepare for the big event, a group of us got together beforehand with intentions of binding some of the most beautiful notebooks ever to grace earth with their presence. Well…we did bind notebooks, and they were quite lovely, if I do say so.

Using some fresh paper from French, as well as a few of our pastepapers from Curt’s workshop, we made twenty or so pamphlet stitch notebooks, both single and double, hard and soft covers.

After a day of binding, we were ready for the event. We packed up our notebooks and some work from members and set up shop in our booth.

The festival was a really interesting experience for us. Ultimately, the main goal of our being there was to raise awareness of our presence at the university and let humans know about book art in general. At the same time, we did raise some money from donations (notebooks accompanied donations) and promoted an upcoming sale we are hosting with the UA Print Club in April.

Phil was signing his most recent publication, Sanctus Sonorensis, which is totally beautiful and local artist and writer (and member) Alice Vinson had interesting books there too, both blank and filled with content.

So! Overall, the event was a success. We now have a big list of interested humans to whom we will send newsletters and, in the meantime, we will bind more books in preparation for our Book & Print Sale later on this spring. Thanks to all who came by to see us and we look forward to meeting again!

Making Memory: Stories of Nonfiction

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the University of Arizona’s Special Collections scouting the stacks for artists’ books to include in an upcoming exhibition that I’m helping to curate, The Secret Lives of Artists’ Books: Stories of Nonfiction.

The Reading Room at Special Collections at the University of Arizona

With the help of designer/artist/teacher (and our faculty advisor) Karen Zimmermann, a loose criteria was determined with which to choose books (because there are so many, and I would have wanted all of them). We decided that the books should be nonfiction narratives that tell us about life in some way. I also have a particular fondness for accounts of memory, so wherever possible, that topic was favored.

Anyway, the collection is pretty expansive, and I wanted to share some of the books here, because it’s often hard to find images of artists’ books online. Also they are awesome; I love them and want to own them. (NB. In addition to Karen, I had the expert help of book artist Philip Zimmermann to help choose the books.)

Scott McCarney, Memory Loss (detail of cover), 1988

One side of the open view of Memory Loss

Detail of the interior from McCarney's Memory Loss

I don’t know much about this book artist, Meg Webster, but I enjoyed her boxed compilation of items, titled Matter. Inside the box is a bag of crushed clover, a mirror, six marbles, two pearls, and a plate of copper.

Meg Webster's Matter

Inside the box

There's really no reason for this...except that I thought it was pretty

Artist, bookmaker and gallery owner Susan Baker is a witty and talented thinker who is the recipient of many grants and fellowships, like at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. This is an interesting, hilarious book with stories of an adult life.

Susan Baker's How to Humiliate a Peeping Tom

Susan Baker's How to Humiliate a Peeping Tom

A book within a book

Humor. I like humor.

Henrik Drescher is an excellent contemporary illustrator and author (Hubert the Pudge, Turbulence, McFig and McFly…36 books in 23 years) whose work, I think, transcends genres and audiences. Aesthetically and conceptually, the ideas and style communicated within his work appeals to both children and adults because he doesn’t sacrifice his vision. Anyway, here is an artist book he made printed in an edition of 100.

Henrik Drescher, Comeundone, 1989. The book comes in a metal case.

An interview with Drescher can be heard here.

The cover of the book. The book comes in a metal case.

The book explores some sins.

Places (like Shanghai) attached to other places on the skull.

The following book was created by artist Sandra Turley at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY in 2001. Processes used to make the book include devore printing (burning away of natural fibres) and letterpress. The fold is accordion and the craftsmanship is beautiful.

Sandra Turley, This Original Self, 2001.

Detail of the cover, which looks like stained cloth. Delicate.

Accordion fold.

The imagery is incomplete; sentences never begin or end..

One of the first book artists whose work I fell in love with is Julie Chen, founder of Flying Fish Press. Chen currently teaches at Mills College’s groundbreaking MFA program in Book Art and Creative Writing. Chen’s craft is impeccable and the content of her work is poignant, authentic and simple. Perfection, really. This book, True to Life, is about the power of memory on everyday life, and was created in an edition of 100 copies. The structure is a tablet, with a built-in lifting floor, with tabs that are moved and with them, the text/images changes. Very clever, very clean.

Julie Chen, True to Life, 2004.

The book is protected by a clam-shell box.

The book is protected by a clam-shell box.

Detail of the tablet, showing the first lines of text.

The fifth section of text. The pages were printed using a combination of pressure printing, letterpress and photopolymer plates.

Atlanta-based book artist Ruth Laxson makes beautiful experiments with form. Communication is a major theme in Laxson’s work, and she uses the surrealist technique of automatic writing to compose much of her text. The following book, (Ho+Go)2=It, was created in an edition of 500 copies (still available!) at the now defunct Nexus Press in Atlanta, using an offset press and Mohawk Superfine paper.

Ruth Laxson, (Ho+Go)2=It, 2004.

Ruth Laxson, (Ho+Go)2=It, 2004.

“I hope to test the language for meaning and merge text and image in the spirit as the surrealists. But I want to take it a step farther to text as image.” - Laxson.

Another spread.

Another spread.

So, this should be a good start. There are more books in the show and I’ll be photographing next week. In the meantime, enjoy the books!

Here are a few online resources for artists’ books:
- Buy artists’ books (many of the ones shown here) at Vamp & Tramp Press

- See a huge collection of books at the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection

- A huge archive of artists’ books can be viewed (with background information) at Artists’ Books Online

- Here is the Book Arts Web which also publishes the online book arts journal, Bonefolder

- For techniques, tools and terms, see the curiously named Evilrooster Bookweb