Leeds Arts University Artist Books collection
The LAU library has an extensive selection of artist books, photobooks and illustrative books. During class, we had a look at some of them and discussed books.
Notes from presentation by Frances Ann-Norton
Artist Books - "original works of art, utilise and explore the qualities of the book, through content, context and form."
Photobooks - "photography books"
Illustrative Books - "books whose meaning and form hangs on the illustrated or graphic content: Comics, graphic novels, illustrated texts, picture books, or zines."
Zines - "independently produced magazines. Most are of a pamphlet format, either stapled or stitched."
Possibilities of artist books:
- Bindings that do not bind
- Pages that do not turn
- Folded or moulded pages
- Flat designs that are meant to be folded into a box,
- Pulped paper that is lathed into a shape.
- String, rubber bands, wire clips, boxes and casing.
Ideas of what a book can be;
- "A sequential experience of some form"
- "An object that uses time and our perceptual engagement in time (so viewing film or tv is different because the haptic is not engaged with in the same manner)."
- "Moments of anticipation and then an event of meeting or averting or subverting the anticipation."
- "Papercraft which may start from something book-like yet actually result in viewing rather than reading."
- "Research process, or a gathering of perceptual experience, is made apparent as craft and thought in collusion with narrative. The narrative need not be epic story-telling! Sometimes it can reside at a very small level, a simple fold, for example, can become a narrative device."
The Book Of White, Jules Allen, 2019
From the artist; "A book of belongings. Kid leather gloves, hand made paper, housing a collection of utilitarian antiques and collectables from the mid to late 20th century."
Her work is fascinating. I will explore further in an upcoming blogpost. For now, her website here.
MADRES TERRA, Carlos Saavedra, Sebastián Ramírez, MAFAPO, 2021
Published by Raya Editorial; "a Colombian imprint focused on thinking, editing, designing, and publishing photobooks with the goal of creating objects that allow readers to experience books through “rhythms, pauses, dialogues, contrasts, action-reaction, surprises, climaxes, changes in temperature, temporality, color, and emotions” -Raya Editorial"
Pteron, Jennie Crawford, 2011
'pteron (Greek) wing, feather
Edition number two of three on Somerset paper'
Can't find any information on this book but it is a concertina hand printed illustrations and type to one side, presented in a slipcase.
Feral Angel, Jane Kennelly, 2001
Can't find information on this book but it is a concertina with hand printed illustrations and type to one side, presented in a beautifully slipcase with ribbon and feather.
Nothing Matters, Francis Day, 2025
Description by the artist; "Nothing Matters is an existential crisis of a book. Its subject matter is ‘Nothing’ and it is made so that nothing is as you would expect: the pages can be outside the covers, or inside, and can swivel to be in any orientation. The making is exposed – cord and tape bindings, a hand-made headband forms the swivel binding joint. One section is sewn askew. The contents have the usual sections found in a book: contents, epilogue, colophon, chapter headings, diagrams, text and so on, but none are in the correct places. Mostly it is light-hearted, but there are some nuggets about the importance of Nothing as a philosophical and numerical construct. Mostly, I had a lot of fun making it."Day's work seems very interesting and I will research her further in upcoming blogposts. For now, her website here.
This project transforms in satire the absurdity of the story of a frustrated navigation, and addresses issues such as the imperfection and failure. De Middel’s photography has no rules and presents fictional scenes through a lens based on the reality of her photographs."
Dust to Dust, Mette-Sofie D Ambeck, 2012
Concertina book "double-side laser engraved into 280gsm Somerset Velvet Antique"
This artist has work in many galleries, including British Library, Tate Britain, V&A. Her blog here.
Man Jayen, Cristina de Middel, 2016
The binding and design of this book is very simple, I was mostly drawn to the content design, page layout and image manipulation.
The description from the artists website tells us;
"Cristina de Middel was invited by the Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC) to develop a work related to this photographic archive, which includes images ever published or displayed, almost in the “suburbs” of photography. The project for AMC completes the story of a crew that in 1911, just before the First World War, brought together scientists from different specialties, English and German, in the common goal of reaching the island of Jan Mayen, situated between Greenland and Iceland. However they never took land. The story of a failure aroused the interest of the artist.
"Cristina de Middel was invited by the Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC) to develop a work related to this photographic archive, which includes images ever published or displayed, almost in the “suburbs” of photography. The project for AMC completes the story of a crew that in 1911, just before the First World War, brought together scientists from different specialties, English and German, in the common goal of reaching the island of Jan Mayen, situated between Greenland and Iceland. However they never took land. The story of a failure aroused the interest of the artist.
This project transforms in satire the absurdity of the story of a frustrated navigation, and addresses issues such as the imperfection and failure. De Middel’s photography has no rules and presents fictional scenes through a lens based on the reality of her photographs."
Nox, Anne Carson & Robert Currie, 2010
Poetry by Carson as a concertina book, presented in a box.
An article written in depth about this work here.
OSSU, Vol. 2, various artists, designed by Fang Jian-ping, n.d.
"OSSU; the first photo magazine to explore male sexuality in Japan. Every issue features new bodies of works by the OSSU artists and guest contributors."Description from Motto;
The “ハンサム(Handsome)” issue of OSSU presents new works by the participating artists: “Fly” by Kotori Kawashima captures a youthful boy wondering around the tropical landscape of Taiwan; “Chinese Whisper” by Simon Fujiwara is a strange T-shirt catalogue, The T-shirt designs combine images of Chinese food and Chinese men, along with texts he found on T-shirts that Chinese people were wearing; For “Feeling Crystal”, Motoyuki Daifu, a young photographer with distinct style, presents his first collection of male nudes; Sakiko Nomura’s decadent black and white photographs reveals nude men in dark rooms; Futoshi Miyagi’s “A Cut Piece” is a memoir of an American man whom he met in Okinawa during the time of the Gulf War; “Intimacy” is a collection of gently lit photographs of boys in Tokyo by Eiki Mori. The second issue is designed by Fang Jianping, an emerging designer from Beijing. Each work is presented as an individual booklet, and the six booklets were connected by a strip of fabric reminiscent of waistband of men’s underwear.
RECIPROCAL SCORE, Tauba Auerbach & Charlotte Posenenske, 2015
Published by Diagonal Press.
8 accordion folded pages hand stamped with custom rubber stamps bound with cotton twill tie.
"Reciprocal Score corresponds to an exhibition by the same name, comprised of Charlotte Posenenske's D and W square tubes series and my own woven paintings. It took place at Indipendenza in Rome in 2015.
The four pop-up volumes in this book are scale models of the four cardboard components in Posenenske's DW series. In preparation for the show I made models of these pieces with the same bristol used for the book. The stamps correspond to key components in the weavings: brick-like building blocks, oval holes, two- and three-dimensional renderings of architectural ornament common to Rome."
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| Image from Diagonal Press |
More by Tauba Auerbach, published by Diagonal Press
Z HELIX, 2014
Indigo print on 4mm transparency film, bound with two 16mm spiral bindings
MARBLES FOR THE JOHN J. HARVEY, 2018
104 laser printed pages with die-cut cover bound with a screen-printed plastic comb.
"(...) Dazzle Camouflage was a painting strategy invented by the artist Norman Wilkinson during WWI. Usually comprised of sharp, contrasting, stripey designs, dazzle was devised to confuse rather than conceal. For my interpretation of the tradition, I marbled paper to generate high contrast images of fluid behaviours. This book chronicles the project and compiles a selection of the unused designs."
MAILLE, 2014
24 laser printed pages, bound with 28 metal jump rings with title insert.
"A collection of images from research about chainmaille, which have been heavily processed and rendered using a variation on halftoning: a mesh of differently sized white rings. The volume is hinged together with the type of ring used to make the maille weaves in the photographs."
