Talk: Iona Jackson
Book Arts
"The practice of creating and designing books as artistic objects."
Challenges conventional notions of what a book is and how it functions. Instead of a collection of ideas, the book is the idea itself. Experiments with the "structural and conceptual properties" of the book.
"Conceptual or narrative-driven artworks rather than just functional reading materials."
Artists Books
"Works of art that utilise the form of the book."
Examples...
Marcel Duchamp, 1947, Cover for Le Surrealisme (containing his prints). Outside just as important as the inside, the art is spilling out of the book.
Marcel Duchamp, 1947, Cover for Le Surrealisme (containing his prints). Outside just as important as the inside, the art is spilling out of the book.
Dieter Roth, Collected Works Volume 12: Copley Book, 1974
From MoMA; "Copley Book is about the process of making a book: its pages are an accumulation of Roth’s doodles and notes to himself; instructions on printing, production, and scale; mirrored and symmetrical images taken from an Icelandic children’s textbook; and a copy of a letter from the printer, who apologizes for having misplaced two pages intended for the volume."
From MoMA; "Copley Book is about the process of making a book: its pages are an accumulation of Roth’s doodles and notes to himself; instructions on printing, production, and scale; mirrored and symmetrical images taken from an Icelandic children’s textbook; and a copy of a letter from the printer, who apologizes for having misplaced two pages intended for the volume."
All the content; letters, notes, directions and various other papers, are of different size, shape and material, and is packed and folded into a book size box. Important to note the box has the familiar function of a cover that lifts and opens, like a book does. The reader unpacks and explores the content in whatever way they wish. Breaks the walls between concept, production, product and audience.
"Undone the book by deconstructing the object."
Like a gallery with a list of contents. Presents a temporary space with multiple entry points that allows access to 'artefacts of administrative exchange and assemblage'.
Notes on video by Guinn-Chipman, The Book's Undoing: Dieter Roth's Artist's Books
Dieter Roth is a German post-war European book artist. The video is from an exhibition of his work. Began experimenting with bookmaking in the 50s. Questioning what a book is, what it can do, whether it needs text, etc. Trained in printing, collaborated with poet Eugen Gomringer to make concrete poetry.
Dieter Roth is a German post-war European book artist. The video is from an exhibition of his work. Began experimenting with bookmaking in the 50s. Questioning what a book is, what it can do, whether it needs text, etc. Trained in printing, collaborated with poet Eugen Gomringer to make concrete poetry.
Questioning linearity of books; how the contents of the book dictates the sequence, or direction, of reading. Book functioning as conceptual space.
Sol LeWitt's manifesto, Sentences on Conceptual Art, 1968
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Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Zang Tumb Tuum, 1914
Marinetti founded The Futurist Political Party, which was absorbed into the National Fascist Party (PNF) of Italy, and he co-wrote with Alceste De Ambris the Fascist Manifesto.
- Conceptual Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
- Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
- Illogical judgements lead to new experience.
- Formal Art is essentially rational.
- Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
- If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
- The artist’s will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
- When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
- The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the components. Ideas implement the concept.
- Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
- Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
- For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
- A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist’s mind to the viewers. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist’s mind.
- The words of one artist to another may induce an ideas chain, if they share the same concept.
- Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken), to physical reality, equally.
- If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.
- All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
- One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
- The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
- Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
- Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
- The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
- One artist may misperceive (understand it differently than the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
- Perception is subjective.
- The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
- An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
- The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
- Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist’s mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
- The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
- There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
- If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist’s concept involved the material.
- Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
- It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
- When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
- These sentences comment on art, but are not art.
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Sol LeWitt puts to us that creative thoughts, or conceptual ideas, that we have are more important than what materialises from those thoughts/ideas. Abandoning the craftsmanship, the idea becomes focal. How it manifests physically takes secondary place to the idea.
"The idea becomes the machine that makes the art"
'Books are worlds, like little museums, they can be exhibitions in themselves.' - Iona Jackson
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Zang Tumb Tuum, 1914
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Après la Marne, Joffre visita le front en auto, 1915
Marinetti wrote the first futurist manifesto, which rejects the past. It instead celebrates speed, machinery, violence, youth, and industry, advocating for the modernisation and cultural rejuvenation of Italy.
"I call for a typographic revolution directed against the idiotic and nauseating concepts of the outdated and conventional book, with its handmade paper and seventeenth century ornamentation of garlands and goddesses, huge initials and mythological vegetation, its missal ribbons and epigraphs and roman numerals. The book must be the Futurist expression of our futurist ideasm... even more: My revolution is directed against what is known as the typographic harmony of the page, which is contrary to the flux and movement of style." - Marinetti, Typographic Revolution, 1913
Marinetti founded The Futurist Political Party, which was absorbed into the National Fascist Party (PNF) of Italy, and he co-wrote with Alceste De Ambris the Fascist Manifesto.
Zang Tumb Tuum was featured in his artist's book, a 228-page softback, and includes foldout pages as part of the poem.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Les mots en liberté futuristes, 1919
"A book is not a case of words, nor a bag of words, nor a bearer of words.
… A book is a space-time sequence."
… A book is a space-time sequence."
"A writer, contrary to popular belief, does not write books.
A writer writes texts."
“A book may be the accidental container of a text, the structure of which is irrelevant to the book: these are the books of bookshops and libraries.”
From this article, an excerpt from The Book, 2018, by Amaranth Borsuk;
"Carrión’s tongue-in-cheek dig at the book as a commercial artifact reflects on the separation of form and content he perceived in the writing and publishing of his time. Carrión was not opposed to bookshops altogether, and in fact founded one himself, Other Books and So, in Amsterdam that same year. Specializing in artists’ books and multiples, the shop was also an artist-run exhibition and event space that distributed the kind of work he wanted to see more of in the world: books conceived of as a whole, rather than “texts” bestowed by the author on a publisher for dissemination to a reading public."
"Carrión’s tongue-in-cheek dig at the book as a commercial artifact reflects on the separation of form and content he perceived in the writing and publishing of his time. Carrión was not opposed to bookshops altogether, and in fact founded one himself, Other Books and So, in Amsterdam that same year. Specializing in artists’ books and multiples, the shop was also an artist-run exhibition and event space that distributed the kind of work he wanted to see more of in the world: books conceived of as a whole, rather than “texts” bestowed by the author on a publisher for dissemination to a reading public."
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| Ulises Carrión at Other Books and So, Amsterdam |
Ulises Carrión, Other Books and So : Catalog No. 1, 1975
"While in England he began to envision a different approach to the book and publishing, thanks to Mexican artists Felipe Ehrenberg and Martha Hellion, whose Beau Geste Press (founded in 1970) introduced him to mimeographed* books by members of Fluxus, a loose collective of artists interested in chance operations, ephemeral performances, conceptual practice, and participatory works that blur the line between art and life. When he moved to Amsterdam in 1972, Carrión began producing artists’ books of his own,"
*A mimeograph machine duplicates by producing copies from a stencil. This method has been superseded by the photocopier.
Beau Geste Press, 1970 - 1976
An independent publishing house run by Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion and David Mayor in Devon that printed limited-edition artists' books, pamphlets, magazines, flyers and postcards.
"Our Press is not a business, it’s a way of life."Felipe Ehrenberg, one of the founders of the press, said "The main reason we (anybody) set up our press was to cut out all the grievous bullshit about submitting work "for consideration"... The act of submitting work of any sort for the approval of any editor carries implicitly a series of concessionary attitudes, detrimental to the work".
They used printing methods of mimeograph, offset lithography, and letterpress, making production cheap and heir books working in small editions; "within the satisfying boundaries of an operation sponsored by no one," (from their editorial manifesto).
"Our activities serve as a link-up, stressing contact between Britain and Latin America as well as East European countries. We are political though not politicized. Our editions are limited because we print, bind and distribute ourselves."
The group behind the press printed eight issues of their in-house magazine, Schmuck, put together by a group of artists, many of whom are associated with Fluxus, such as Robert Filliou, Kristján Gudmundsson and Takehisa Kosugi.
Iona Jackson describing a Book as Avocado;
Skin - cover
Meat - content
Seed - purpose & message
David Hockney, Untitled Fax Print, 1999
Collection of fax prints in a book that can taken apart to be made into big piece of art. Contains 18 sheets of A4 copier paper, 16 of which are prints that can be placed together to make up one larger image, then a covering letter that shows the finished image, and another on how to care for the print.
Kiki Smith, Companion, 2002
Kiki Smith & poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Endocrinology, 1997
Notes from this video showcasing two of Kiki Smiths' books; interactive and intimate, "you have to be bothered to pick it up and look at it."
Fluxus, Year Box 2, 1966 (artists multiples)
There isn't much information about this work by Fluxus, however in the Fluxus Newsletter of March 1965, George Maciunas called for a second year box that would contain “book events” that “are enacted by the reader automatically as he inspects the book or box… It may include flip books, solo games, or puzzles made of paper or other materials.”
Yoko Ono, Grapefruit, 1964
Also considered part of the Fluxus movement, Ono created this book that is a collection of conceptual instructions and poetry.
It was published by her own press, Wunternaum Press, Tokyo, printing 500 copies. This was the only publication the press printed. The second edition of Grapefruit was published in New York, 1970, by Simon Schuster, and third edition in London, 1971, Sphere books.
"CLOUD PIECE
Imagine the clouds dripping.
Dig a hole in your garden to
put them in.
— 1963 Spring"
Woodie Leslie, Tiny Ideas, 2019
"Tiny Ideas is a chapbook subscription series from 2019. Six issues—each with their own unique subject—were released over the course of the year and mailed to subscribers directly as they came out." |
| Issue 3: Grocery Store Conversations (May) |
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| Issue 4: Characters (July) |
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| Issue 6: Letters (December) |
Statement from the artist -
"as a writer who designs, prints, and binds his own work, I write with a consciousness towards the conceptual and material considerations of the book. My writing process is a constant shifting between composing, and working backwards from the end, considering the effects and demands of material, structure, and means of production every step of the way. I don’t just write texts; I write books."
Lim Family, Rubbish FAMzine no. 4, 2015
This issue has two thin sheets of plywood make up the front and back cover of this issue, sandwiching the contents within. The use of wood is an allusion to the issue’s theme of urban gardens.
Lim Family, Rubbish FAMzine no. 5, 2016
This book is a creation by a family in Singapore who set up .The book contains various ephemera of colourful tip-ins, collaged photographs, photo reproductions, paper-clipped pages, and a mini TV Weekly marked with a Post-it note. It is bound together by a neon green copy of Lim Tiap’s death certificate, with an exposed sewn spine that reveals the array of paper stock.
Lim Family, Rubbish FAMzine no. 6, 2017
This edition of the Rubbish FAMzine is packaged in a Chinese take-out box. When opened, you first encounter a layer of specially-made to-go bags, utensils, and a thick postcard printed with a photo-realistic image of Yangzhou Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage. When you reach it, the single book is comprised of six mini-booklets increasing in size, and saddle-stitched together with “Rubbish” printed over three separate covers.
This edition of the Rubbish FAMzine is packaged in a Chinese take-out box. When opened, you first encounter a layer of specially-made to-go bags, utensils, and a thick postcard printed with a photo-realistic image of Yangzhou Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage. When you reach it, the single book is comprised of six mini-booklets increasing in size, and saddle-stitched together with “Rubbish” printed over three separate covers.
Lim Family, Rubbish FAMzine no. 11, 2023
Pann from the collective notes, "we have deliberately designed the ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’ book without an actual back-cover. The last page has the message ‘There Won’t Be A Back Cover To This Book Because Our Story Continues’ to simply hint that this is not the end and there will more coming"
A great article that interviews the Lim Family their practice.
There is also many on Eye On Design, such as this article about issue 5.
A good overview of the work can be found in this article.
Methods & techniques:
