Glossed Over: Thle Artmists Book, Part 11
By Celeste Connor
n the 1980s, as artists with graphic design
skills were attracted to the newest genre,
artists' books spread to other communities
and reached new audiences. Letterpress or
offset printers were accessible and the new
desktop publishing multplied the formal and
stylistic possibilities exponentially.
Specialized companies were established to
sell and distribute artists' books. Small exhibitions were
staged in new venues (what are still called "alternative
spaces") rather than older, established galleries.
Libraries in the U.S. and abroad played, and still play, a
leading role in their acquisition and display. For exam-
ple, the New York Public Library and the Getty Center
in Los Angeles offer artists, researchers and potential
collectors opportunities to see, read and handle a wide
variety of artists' books.
The one continuing frustration, experienced by both
makers and lookers, is that, outside of the library, the
vast majority of venues rarely provide a chance to han-
dle or "read" artists' books in any sense of the word.
With increased visibility, interest in the genre expand-
ed, but acquisition by institutions or individuals did not
keep pace.
In 1993, New York cultural critic Brian Walfis, edi-
tor of the influential anthology Art After Modernism
(1984), published an article tellingly tided: "The Artist's
Book and Postmodernism." In it Wallis pronounced
that, "books are an effective, if underutilized, site for
the critique of representation." Now, in 2005, it is clear
that Wallis, along with many of his eastern seaboard
colleagues, conceived of a pivotal role for artises books
in what, subsequently, has been called America's
"Culture Wars." In the early 1990s, the dominant
notion broadcast from New York City, which had
already been the North American hub of art publishing
for over a century, was
that artists should go Above: Johanna Drucker, page from rhe
J Word Made Flesh, 1988;
back to serve their vari- below: Nance O'Banion and Juliel Cheen, Domestic Science, 1990.
ous communities. The
idea of a shared, com-
mon culture, which had
by majority consensus
bound earlier genera-
tions of North
Americans, was now
viewed with suspicion ,
by critics and theorists
of visual culture.
But it was not only
what Wallis termed
"interventionist" critical
theorists who under-
stood the potential of
the new genre to communicate ideas, propositions and,
even, demands. In the 1980s into the mid-1990s, coali-
tions of activist artists had begun to address what they
termed "critical public issues." Artist-collaborators such
as Act Up and Gran Fury, representing factions of the
gay and lesbian communities, were remarkable produc-
ers of pamphlets as visually compelling as those of the
earlier and better known New York feminist artist's
group, the Guerilla Girls.
Now, with a decade's hindsight, we can see that in
New York City and its cultural satellites, book artists
who were persuaded to do progressive political work
12 Artweek
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enjoyed the support of powerful critical voices. The
new genre was singled out by the critical theorists of an
international art capital-in-decline to pick up where
Jacob Riis, the emigre photojournalist of the early
twentieth century, had left off. Many artists, aware of
the disappointments inherent in attempts to play the
roles of social, political or even cultural hero, wvere not
buying in this time as so many their late nineteenth-
and early twentieth-century predecessors had. In fact, a
significant number of artists turned away from the self-
consciously systematized and serialized types of concep-
tual and minimalist art that had been forwarded by aca-
demic leftist writers of October and other forums. Partly
as a result, critical attention was refocused on an
expressionist aesthetic that we now clearly see was
international in scope, transmedia in nature, and long-
standing in historical duration. One of the most
impressive inventors, working in this mode still, is the
German, Anselm Kiefer, who is customarily associated
with his large-format paintings. Yet, Kiefer has always
devoted an important
part of his creativity to
the artist's book, mostly
one-of-a-kind. Like
many practitioners of the
genre, he combines
materials: photographs,
woodcuts, paint, mud
and then transformis
these nascent "pages" by
pasting and tearing in an
extension of the collage
technique.
The fortunes of the
artist's book turned
upward in the 1990s as
the market values of tra-
ditionally privileged
forms of contemporary
art, such as painting and sculpture, took a dive. Small
exhibitions spread the idea of the "artist's book," per-
suading attendees (through concrete examples) of the
innumerable mental and (imagined) diverse sensual
pleasures offered by the genre. In 1990, the University
of California at Santa Barbara staged Cross Currents, an
ambitious and important exhibition that featured
artists' books conceived and created by West Coast
makers. It acknowledged that California, in particular,
was already a significant, although relatively unrecog-
nized, site of artist's book production. In 1995, the
Foundation for Today's Art in Philadelphia hosted an
exhibition of Latin-American artists' books titled Unico
en su Genero (One ofa Kind). And then in 1997, the
National Museum of Women in the Arts in
Washington, D.C., sponsored Book asArt. Thin cata-
logs accompanied all three of these relatively small
exhibits and these combined institutional efforts helped
disseminate a richer quantity of information about
artists' books to greater diversity of audiences in ways
individual makers had not been able to.
In October 1997, a special edition of the periodical
Artpapers was devoted solely to the subject of artists'
books, reaffirming the valuation of the genre pro-
pounded byjohanna Drucker's book,A Century of
Artists' Books, of two years earlier. By the end of the
century, artists who had learned to use computer pro-
grams had created stories and sequences of images with
multiple virtual itineraries that are as complex as those
in contemporary independent film and video. The
newest forms assist viewer/readers to enter into very
creative and complex interplays with the artmakers.
Home computers, kiosks in museums and galleries,
video monitors in public spaces and private spaces now
offer potentially long durations of "warm" new book
pleasures. And, just as e-books are calling into question
the "privacy" of possession, 4-D transmedia artists'
books are re-stimulating the common human desire to
touch objects of sensual facture.
While Drucker predicts that "the ultimate artist's
book will be an unlimited edition available to be seen
and even kept on CD-ROM-but no longer held,
touched or wondered at and treasured," I predict the
contrary based on my experience as a trans-media col-
lagist and videographer, and that of my students, who
hail from all media, old and new. The tactile, sensu-
ous properties of an artist's book, I think, will never
disappear because computer screens (now synony-
mous with TV sets) and CD-ROMs (so music CD-
like) ironically instill, in many of us, not nostalgia but
rather a desire that can only be satisfied by veridical,
not virtual, tactility.
My experience in making, looking at, and handling
artists' books suggests that they facilitate 4-D (time-
based) experiences that differ with each "reading."
Intently interacting with an artist's book very often
yields experiences more comparable to watching filmis
or listening to music than to what we conceive of as
customary visual arts looking habits. In an interview
published in the JournalofArtists' Books in 1999, inter-
nationally recognized Bay Area innovator in the genre
Betsy Davids informed Drucker (her former student)
that she was interested in "the problem of creating a
viewing context that can support a reading experience
longer than five minutes." Davids pointed to contem-
porary examples of artists' installations that had been
successful in creating more desirable reading environ-
ments. She also expressed the desire for "exhibition set-
tings that are more appropriate to our medium, spaces
that merge elements of the library ... with elements of
the gallery...." In that same interview, Davids reported
that she did not see particular trends in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Her testimony helps support the
notion that, at that time, prescriptive critical attention
(of the type noted in New York City) had not targeted
book artists in at least Northern California, perhaps the
entire West Coast.
 So we've come to the end of the twentieth century
in this cursory history of artists' books. No art historian
worth her degree would profess an ability to encapsu-
late the last five -years of global developments within
such a rich, fluctuating and complex sector of artistic
creativity. Instead, I have elicited the insights of three
select insiders in an attempt to describe what is hap-
pening at this very moment in book art
In response to my inquiry about her current think-
ing on the subject of exhibition settings suited to
extended 'reading," Davids responded: "I used to
think five minutes was the maximum reading time a
viewer could tolerate in a typical gallery exhibition. In
recent years, experience with my own books has shown
me that some motivated viewers will spend as much as
an hour or two, even in discomfort, standing.
Nevertheless, we still need to re-imagine exhibition
settings that could actually encourage extended read-
ing. Some key factors: seating of any sort, some mini-
mal privacy or intimacy within the exhibition space,
and hands-on viewing. Handouts for take-home read-
ing/viewing are also helpful. Why couldn't we let go of
the hands-off paradigm that has ruled exhibition prac-
tices among curators, librarians, collectors and makers,
not to mention insurers? Because hands-on viewing is
most practicable with multiple copies, I'm a fan of the
mini edition of two, which permits me as maker to risk
one copy for handling and still have another to keep,
give, or sell."
Davids's respons.e, I think, presents direct challenges
to all of us who 'make book" or share her deep engage-
ment with this genre to "break and remake," as
American Studies scholars put it, existing conditions
within exhibition culture. When I evoked the lack of
systems of display and distribution and of critical
reviews as expressed in the writings of Lucy Lippard
and later Drucker,
Davids responded with
a telling comparison:
"Artists' books remain . --,.,
marginal even though
the genre is not so
very new any more.
Consider the contrast I 'e SR | k
with video, which
came out as a medium E
for contemporary artE
around the same time
as ardsts' books. All
major contemporary
art institutions now
show video work regu-
larly and have adjusted
their exhibition practices to accommodate its require-
ments. The changes that would have to occur to make
a place for artists' books are not one bit more challeng-
ing, but those changes haven't really happened."
Next my interviewee directed her remarks to book
artists- 'If we bookmakers want a larger presence in the
worlds of contemporary art, we'll have to re address
the issues of access and attention Lippard and Drucker
identified, and then some. For improved reader/viewer
access to artists' books, further development is still
needed in appropriate display practices, as well as
venues for distribution and viewing (including develop-
ment of public collections and appropriate guidelines
for public use of collections). For increased attention to
artists' books, reviewer activity (now below 1990s lev-
els) is one element; other factors are exhibition cata- -
logs, education programs at all levels, academic
research and mono-
graphs devoted to indi-
vidual practitioners.
And here's a biggie: We Betsy Davids, (above) Once and F
And-haeryes etabigihed
haven't yet establishedWea (below) DreamingAloud/book tv'c 1989.
vital and ongoing dia-
logue with new generations of curators, which will be
crucial to the inclusion of artists' books in the exhibi-
tion culture of contemporary art." I had heard some of
these thoughts expressed preliminarily by the artist in
informal conversations with students, bookmakers and
aficionados on the occasion of Drucker's talk at the
California College of the Arts last spring. Here, she
presents clear and concrete strategies, carefully
designed by a sensitive and seasoned insider to ensure
the continued evolution of the genre.
I could not let pass the chance to learn if the artists' challenge; certain book structures, like the accordion,
attraction to "books that embody their content very
fully" had evolved in the six years since the Journal of
Artists' Books interview and this one. I was rewarded by
this comprehensive update: "In the first-half-decade of
the twenty-first century, the book arts community has
continued the 1990s direction of developing many book
structure options, including some based on traditional
practices researched and adapted by hand bookbinders,
and some newly innovated by paper engineers and
designers. My own desire for books that embody con-
tent as fully as possible first manifested in our [Davids
and Jim Petrillo] Rebis Press books of the 1970s with
the use of nontraditional materials such as plywood,
shower caps and hair. Recently, it's the new structures
that have me mnost excited, especially working through
their content value. For example, my newest book
object,- Unfoldings, is a sort of 3-D flexagon, an unfold-
ing and refolding cube in which the successive openings
deconstruct and reconstruct the initial images, thereby
embodying the book's themes of
emigration and return, destruction
and documentation, deaths and
memorials."
I had the good luck of actually The genre confuses most galleries, unless the work is a
reading and handling Unfoldings at
\ 'is, an intelligently staged exhibition at ued media by an artist already known for that other
Paul Sunderholm Gallery in San
Francisco last August. The show,
2 ffi/ tellingly called one-off, comprised
not just the object in question,
which the gallerist himself handed
me, but a select few artists' books
including a memorable work by
devoted practitioner of the art of
handmade paper, Bonnie Cohen.
For a second informed per-
spective on "the now" of artists' books, I turned to
another important Bay Area artist-teacher, Nance
O'Banion, who first introduced me to the practices and
pleasures of artists' books. O'Banion's unique work,
visually very distinct from Davids's, has been similarly
successful in cultivating an international reception since
the 1970s. O'Banion, creator of the amusingly titled
Permanent Press, graciously set aside time to answer a
line of questioning very much like that I had posed
Davids. O'Banion reports: 'I see the biggest issue fac-
ing the book world as that of access: for the maker and
the reader/viewer. There are a variety of recent trends,
which address this problem in different ways. First of
all, the number of "how-to" books has expanded, giving
greater information and technology to a wider commu-
nity of makers. The current trend in "scrapbooks" uti-
lizing ready-made components, sometimes recycled or
_ often purchased at stores dealing
in specialty materials, has grown
enormously giving rise to yet
Travels,
luture 1992; another community of makers.
Next is the interest in digitally
produced bookworks where
multiples are more easily created, giving access to a
broader audience than unique works. Lastly, and the
most controversial new avenue, is that of virtual books
done in cyberspace. Like the library-on-line movement,
the access created is phenomenal along with a broad
range of interactive possibilities, and yet the sense of
touch is nonexistent."
Keenly attuned to the importance of the senses,
O'Banion continued: "Display and the problem of
touching in more traditional book forms is always a
lend themselves to easier non-touch reading as do the
freestanding sculptural books. For many reader/viewers
the ability to hold a work is critical to their definition
of an artist's "book." Editioning helps because an artist
can create a touchable version while other copies
remain for collectors and collections."
O'Banion's last observation here reinforces that of
Davids. In an upbeat tone, O'Banion cites alternative
means of informadon exchange, apart from the tradi-
tional form of exhibition reviews: "Of course, there
continues to be a lack of writing about artists' books,
but there are centers of education across the U.S.
where challenges such as this are being addressed.
Recently, at the annual conference at Pyramid Atlantic
in Riverdale, Maryland, such concerns were raised and
trends, like the role of bookworks in cyberspace, were
discussed. New books like The PenlandBook of
Handmade Books offer a portfolio of contemporary
artists' works along with statements about their tech-
niques, as well as why they create in this genre. The
next trick will be to get this same discourse out into the
broader arts communities to place the artst's book in
the context of contemporary art-making in general.
edition that can be used to complement other more val-
work." O'Banion's last comment, I think, helps to
explain the "discovery" of Kiefer's contributions to the
genre: His paintings were already granted status and
value. As long as art historians, critics, curators, private
collectors and publishers subscribe to traditional, hier-
archical prejudices (consciously or unconsciously) for-
mer "minor" arts will continue to be ignored by all but
the most adventuresome thinkers among them.
O'Banion also offers insight into her sources of cre-
ative stimulation: "Currently I'm most excited about
pushing the boundaries of installation and collabora-
tion." Those readers already familiar with O'Banion's
oeuvre know of her early penchant for collaboration
and the successful results of these co-operative ven-
tures. The projects she has created with other book
artists such as Julie Chen, demonstrate the great poten-
tial for thoughtfiul integration of two disparate aesthet-
ics. O'Banion concluded our interview with a generous
preview of an ambitious work-in-process: "My current
book is composed of a series of about 300 (to date)
wooden tablets installed on shelves so that they can be
picked up and handled. I consider this a life work, so
acquisition of the original work may be a long time
away. The tablets are painted and drawn upon. Some
have text and others have imagery only. They are based
continued on page 27
May 2005 13
Competitions
*Red Ink Studios/Gallery
"Clay(re) Emerge 2005"
Deadline: Jun. 25, hand-deliver. San
Francisco, CA. JuL 2-Aug. 3. Open: Bay
Area. Media: Ceramic SC. Fee: S10/entry,
3 max. Commission: 40%.Jurors: Danae
Mattes, JustinJacobs. For PROS send
SASE to: Maggie Malloy, Clay(re) Emerge
2005, PO Box 15670, San Francisco, CA
94115,415-751-1150,
malloysmail@aol.com d
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
"Art/Music" (Art about Music)
Deadline: May 31. Sebastopol, CA. Jun.
16-Jul. 17. Open: CA. Media: AIL Fee:
S12/entry, nonmembers; S8/entry, mem-
bers (S35/annual, membership). Awards:
S250. For PROS send SASE to:
Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Art/Music,
6780 Depot St., Sebastopol, CA 95472,
707-829-4797, satrip@monitor.net,
www.sebarts.org d
Santa Cruz Art League
"Fiber Art"
Deadline: May 20. Santa Cruz, CA. Jul.
2-24. Open: CA. Media: TX. Fee:
S15/entry, 4 max., nonmembers;
S12/entry, 4 max., members. Awards.
Juror Lisa Homer. For PROS send SASE
to: Santa Cruz Art League, FiberArts, 526
Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, 831-
426-5787, fax 831-426-5789,
cindy@scal.org, www.scal.org d
Olive Hyde Art Gallery
Guild SpecialJuried Exhibition
Deadnme:AMay 13. Fremont, CA. JuL 8-
Aug. 13. Open: Bay Area. Media: CE,JE,
MM, PA, PH, SC, TX,WC. Fee:
S10/entry, S20/3 entries, plus S25/annual
membership. For PROS send SASE to:
Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Art Guild, PO
Box3073, Fremont, CA 94539, 510-657-
4267, 510-770-1263, wateriris@
sbcglobal.net, www.fremont.gov/
recreation/olivehydeartgallery d Francisco, Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma,
Monterey Bay Women's
Caucus forArt
"Love theland"
Deadline: May 10. SanJuan Bautista,
CA.Jun. 3-Jul. 31. Open: Monterey, San
Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz counties,
women. Media: All, landscape. Fee:
$10/entry S25/hanging.Juror Barbara
Wolanin. For PROS send SASE to:
Galeria Tonantzin, PO Box 606, San Juan
Bautista, CA 95045, 831-623-2783, fax
831-623-2783, janetmimmpublishing.com,
www.galeriatonantzin.com d
City of So. San Francisco Cultural
Arts Commission
"General Art &Photography Show"
Deadline: May 11. South San Francisco,
CA. May 13-14. Open: Bay Area. Media:
DR, GR, PA, PH, PR, WC. Fee: S5/entry.
Juried. For PROS send SASE to: Ercie
Santos, City of So. San Frmncisco Cultural
Arts Commission, PO Box 711, So. San
Francisco, CA 94083-0711, 650-829-3800,
fax 650-877-5378, erciesantos@ssf.net,
www.ssf.net d
Aluneda Art Center
"Somebody"
Deadline: May 27, 11-6; May 28, 11-3,
hand-deliver. Alameda, CA. Jun. 3-23.
Open: Bay Area:.Media: All, (figure exhi-
bition). For PROS send SASE to: Alameda
Art Center, 1701 Webster St., Alameda,
CA 94501, 510-748-7888, fax 510-748-
6860, muse@alamedaartcenter.org,
www.alamedaartcenter.org d
Artisans
'"Bon Apetite"
Deadline Jun. 3. MiL Valley, CA.Jun. 7-
30. Open: Bay Area. Media: All, except V.
Fee: S25/3 entries. Awaids.Juried. For
PROS send SASE to: Artisans Galery,
78 E. Blithedale, Mill Valley, CA 94947,
415-388-2044, artisansartgallery~sbc
global.net, www.artisansartgallery.org d
Morris Graves Museum of Art
4th Annual Northwest Eye
Deadline: Open. Eureka, CA. Apr. 2-
May 22. Open: No. CA, OR, WA, B.C.,
Yukon Terrs., AK. Media: PH. Fee-
Sl0/1st entry, $10 each addel., 5 max.
Awards: S2,250.Juried. For PROS send
SASE to: Morris Graves Museum of Art,
636 F St., Eureka, CA 95501, 707-442-
0278, fax 707-442-2040, artmailhumn-
boldtarts.org, www.humboldtarts.org d
Plaza Arts Center
'2,3,4orMore ... Artwork
in a Series"
Deadline: May 13. Healdsburg, CA. Jun.
1-Jul. 10. Open: No. CA. Media: AU. Fee:
$20/entry, nonmembers; S15/entry, mem-
bers. Awards: $100. For PROS send SASE
to address shown below.
"Textrres, Feeling, Seeing,
Touching ... Aret
Deadline: Sep. 9. Healdsburg, CA. Sep.
28-Nov. 7. Open: No. CA. Media: All.
Fee: S20/entry, nonmembers; $15/entry,
members. Awards: $100. For PROS send
SASE to: Plaza Arts, (name of show), 130
Plaza St, Healdsburg, CA 95448,707-
431-1970, plazaarrsoffice@aol.com d
Festivals/Sales
*Marin County Fair
Deadline: May 19. San Rafael, CA. Jun.
30-Jul. 4. Open: U.S. Media: AU. Fee:
S12/entry, 6 max. Awards. Jurors: Berenice
Iriks, Clark Mitchell, Susan Swanson,
Virginia Breier,Barbara Sebastian, John
Toki. For PROS send SASE to: Marin
County Fair, Fine Art-Fine Craft, 10
Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael, CA
94903, 415-499-6400, fax 415-499-3700,
www.marinfair.org d
Grants/Fellowships
Flintridge Foundation
2005-06 Awards forVisual Artists
Deadline: Jun. 30. Open: CA, OR, WA,
mature phase of artrnaking, not of current
nati. renown. Media: All. Awards:
$250,000 (10 awards). Juried. For info:
Flintridge Foundation, 1040 Lincoln Ave.,
Ste. 100, Pasadena, CA 91103, 800-303-
2139, fax 626-585-0011,
Awards@FlintridgeFoundation.org,
www.FlintridgeFoundation.org d
Kala Art Institute
Deadline: May 6. Berkeley, CA. Open:
AU. Media: PR, Ph-process, letterpress,
book arts, digital, sound or video. Award:
$2,000. Term: 6-mo. free studio; 24/7
access to workshop, media center, exhibi-
tion. For PROS send SASE tO: Kala Art
Institute, Lauren Davies/Fellowships,
1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley, CA 94701,
www.kala.org/fellowship2005.html d
Membership
Los Angeles Prinunaking Society
Deadlnes: May 18, mail;.May 20,2-
6pm, hand-deivecr; May 21, 2-6pm,
pickup. Santa Monica, CA. 2005. Open:
U.S. Media: GR, folio/6 prints, 2 edition
prints/technique. Fee: S40/annual mem-
bership. For PROS send SASE to:John
Greco,Josephine Press, 2928 Santa
Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404,
310-453-1691, josephinepress@
earthlink.net d
Miscellaneous
*Alameda County Art Commission
Artwork Purchase Program
Deadline: Sep. 16. Open: Alameda
County. Media: 2D, SC. Awards: S5,000-
S15,000/artist. For PROS send SASE to:
Alameda County Art Commission, PO
Box 29004, Oakland, CA 94604-9004,
510-208-9646, fax 510-271-5192,
artcommission@acgov.org,
www.acgov.org/arts e
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
"More Than Minutes"
Deadline:Jun. 30. Chicago, IL. Open:
All. Media: MM, F, DR, GR, PA, PH,
PR, V. Fee- None. Award: S1,500.Juried.
For entry form: Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, 6042 S. Kimbark Ave.,
Chicago, IL 60637, mmcontest@thebul-
letin.org, www.thebulletin.org/contest d
Public Ad
*Alameda County Art Commission
Alameda CountyJuvenile
Justice Center
Deadline: Jun. 24. San Leandro, CA.
Open: U.S. Media: Site-specific; 5
projects. Budgets: S30,000-S250,000.
For PROS send SASE to: Alameda
County Art Commission, JuvenileJustice
Center, PO Box 29004, Oakland, Ca
94604-9004 e
*San Francisco Arts Commission
Poster Design Proposals
Deadline May 16. Open: Bay Area.
Media: PA, PH, DR, PR, MM, WC.
Awards: S10,000/each, 4 projects. For
PROS send SASE to: Judy Moran, San
Frandsoo Arts Commission, 25 Van Ness,
Ste. 240, San Francisco, CA 94102,
415-252-2586, fax 415-252-2595,
vww.sfartsco'mmission.org/pubari/ d
City of Berkeley Civic Arts
West Berkeley Rail Stop
Deadline:Jun. 30. Berkeley, CA. Open:
Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San
Marin, Santa Cruz counties. Media: PA,
mural. Commission: S43,750.Juried. For
PROS send SASE to: Mary Ann Merker,
2180 Milvia St., 3rd Fl., Berkeley, CA
94704, 510-981-7533, fax 510-981-7099,
mmerker@di.berkeley.ca.us, www.c.
berkeley.ca.us/civicarts/publicart.htn d
Residencies
*Headlands Center for the Arts
2006 Residency Program
Deadline: Jun. 3. Sausalito, CA. Open:
All. media: CE, DR, F, MM, PA, PH, PR,
SC, V, TX Fee: S15. Term: 1-6 mos. For
PROS send SASE to: Headlands Center
for the Arts, 944 Fort Barry, Sausalito, CA
94965, 415-331-2787 ext. 24, fax415-331-
3857, hblake@headlands.org,
www.headlands.org d
The Arsts' Enclave at I-Park
2005 Residency Season
Deadline: Open. East Haddam, CT.
Open: AU. Media: visual art, music com-
posers, garden designers, architects.
Term: 4 weeks/May-Oct.; 6 weeks/Oct.-
Nov.; living and studio accommodations.
Fee: S20. For application and info: 860-
873-2468, ipark2002@ureach.com d
*John Michael Kohler Arts Center:
Deadline: Aug. 1. Open: U.S. Media:
SC, vitreous china, iron, enamel, brass.
Termn: 2-6 mo., stipend, housing, studio,
materials, travel reimnbursement (within
continental U.S.) For PROS send SASE
(#10 with S.55 postage) to: Arts/Industry
Coordinator, JMKAC, 608 New York
Ave., Box 489, Sheboygan, WI 53082,
920-458-6144, fax 920-458-4473,
www.jmkac.org 6
Artist's Books
continuedfrompage 13
on dreams, daydreams and everyday life experiences. I'm working
on ways to get the original out into the public eye using digital
output and video, in addition to seeing the whole book installa-
tion in a museum or nonprofit gallery. Documentation and access
is key here."
I was still pondering these informed and informative insights
into the heart of the contemporary book art community when I
turned to another bookie insider. I was seeking what I felt were
additional, crucial, perspectives: those of veteran paper-makers,
publishers and collectors. I had the good fortune of finding all of
this and more in the person of Simon Blattner, chairman of the
board of trustees of the California College of the Arts and the
publisher of Eastside Editions of San Francisco. As I had with the
artists, I put hard questions forward, citing the luiited places for
exhibit, venues inappropriate for "reading," the sparseness of
reviews and the limited funding (I believe the genre is not yet
even a funding category). The response I got was practical,
thoughtful and full of hope. What to do to begin to turn the cur-
rent situation around step-by-step? "The artist's book doesn't yet
have a distinct profile. We must raise the profile of the genre,"
said Blattner, who is just wrapping up a productive three-year
term during which CCA has increased its visibility as of one of the
Bay Area's most esteemed art colleges. He continued, "Set up a
collective ... an exclusively artist's book collective with our own
exhibition spaces. Then our collective can sponsor a touch-and-
feel show." I learned that this papermaking publisher has no
problems with even his own lavish illustrated books (which
includes Art Hazelwood's pictorial Gargantuan,a lovingly fabri-
cated ocular and tactile feast of handmade papers) being made
available for hands-on perusal.
Blattner's exciting, specific answer to problem of limited
reviews: "An artists' co-op can create a better vehicle for review-
ing artists' books. Get a group of bookies together to contribute
funds for a periodical exclusive to the genre." Apparently Mrs.
Blattner, who according to her husband will play the lead role in
any of their future acquisitions of artists' books, has reminded him
that he is, above all, an educator. Indeed education, or more accu-
rately reeducation, is yet another means (addressed by both
Davids and O'Banion in their lives as well as their responses here)
that must be used by all of us who profess to care about artists'
books. Convinced of a collaborative ideal, Blattner recognizes the
need for institutional partnerships: "Colleges and universities, dis-
cretionary art programs, will need to be persuaded to take more
responsibility ... And non-commercial venues." His energetic
commentary here not just relates to the expressed needs and
desires of book makers, but more generously responds to them.
Like Davids, Blattner is actively reenvisioning the book world.
What has at times seemed like an impasse now appears like
doors flung open. There are clear strategies being planned and set
forth in several sectors of the book arena, concrete and thoughtful
designs for the continued evolution of artists' books. There are
devoted practitioners who, with their students, are at work mak-
ing the next rounds of book objects to be seen and held. There is
at least one thoroughly engaged bookie publisher who is ready to
assist in the organization and funding of new cooperative ventures
for continuing exhibit and education.
And, spme forward-thinking institutions, big and small, are
ready to lend support to these efforts. In April, the O'Hanlon
Center for the Arts in MillValley showed New Editions
Books>O0d>New>Digital,coliaboratively curated by artists
Elizabeth Sher and Madelaine'Shellaby. It featured twenty-seven
emerging and established practitioners of the genre and was
juried by Davids. And in Southern California, Joyce Ludmer, bib-
liographer and curator of artists' books at the Getty Research
Library, is curating The Artirst Turnsto the Book, which runs May
24 through September 11.
'Glossed Over: The Artist's Book, Part I appeared inthe March 2005
issue of Artweek
Celeste Connor is a freelance writer based inOakland.
May 2005 27
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TITLE: Glossed Over: The Artist’s Book, Part II

SOURCE: Artweek 36 no4 My 2005
WN: 0512104370005

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