Creative Book Design- ‘Altered books’ Research Points:
Find two artists’ books that you feel demonstrate an interesting relationship between their form and content through the materials that the artist has chosen to use. Reflect on these books in your learning log.
Irma Boom
I began this research task by looking at previous artist’s books I had researched during this section and chose my favourite (Irma Boom) to reference. I also looked at Tom Phillip’s work, which is very interesting. Phillips reduces whole pages of text down to just a few words using illustrations and mark making. The words remaining create a new emotive meaning especially being paired with various different imagery and colours. The use of words/separating them across the page allows them to form new meanings, which is very sophisticated. This reduction idea is something I will carry forward and test within my assignment.
I used the Reed College collection of artist books website to browse for further inspiration. I came across a book called ‘Life and Death’ by Robert Creeley and Francesco Clemente. I was familiar to Clemente’s art which initially drew me towards this book. Robert Creeley was a poet, the collaboration of the two artists was very interesting. I would like to see the whole book! I read a little further about Creeley here.
The materials used for this book add a further meaning to the content. To me, the black ‘holder’ for the book was ‘death’ and the textured dark silver cover was ‘life’ with the paint stroke texture being a mixture of good and bad. The use of these materials creates a deeper meaning to the book and elevates the work from a book to art. Thinking of the book with a different cover, or with lesser considered materials changes the feel of the book completely, this demonstrates the importance of material when related to context.
I created a mood board of some of my favourite work by Clementes to refer to as inspiration when creating my own book. The drawings and colours used are very dramatic and emotive. I really enjoy the use of heavy black lines/patches. The materials used here again can add context to a body of work and in this case an artist book. I will keep in mind use of material and as to why I would use a certain colour etc.
Above is a body of work by K. T. Kobel and Lucasz Geida. I have referenced to Kobel’s work regularly and here again is another interesting example of his use of screen printing. His screen prints are reproduced via a laser print onto 120GSM Munkenprint paper, with the cover being Eskaboard. The size and shape of the book itself here I feel ‘is’ the context. The abnormal, rectangular framing of each screen print creates a narrow and close viewpoint. The sizing leaves 0 negative space on the page, leaving you faced (as the portraits are positioned) directly with the carnage and person/people in front of you. I think this is brilliant and very sophisticated. The size of the book itself matters, perhaps I could manipulate the size of the book itself for my assignment?
An artist that resonates with me a lot is Dieter Roth. Online there are very little imagery of his diaries/books so I decided to get a physical copy of a book looking at his diaries specifically, collated by his son Bjorn Roth and others. This book is a great insight into Roth’s creative process. Roth ‘lived’ art in a sense that his personal diaries were creative and expressive. He used every medium imaginable to express his thoughts, feelings or to just jot down something he had to do. The books he used tended to be an actual diary, or he would write the date and the city he was in at the top of the page himself a lot of the time. The form of a diary itself allowed Roth to express his feelings, thoughts and life with ease and in a way is the deepest, most meaningful process of art possible.
The expressive and gestural markings within Roth’s diaries is brilliant and something I will take inspiration from when working on my own book. The use of colour and lines creates very interesting visuals and representations of thoughts and emotions.
Above is a magazine by artist Mario Picardo. The magazine includes larger and smaller works by Picardo and fills and/or travels across a double page spread. The magazine format makes the work seem more casual and ‘street art’ like and I don’t mean this in a negative sense at all. The quality is very good and is made of a thick matte paper, being stapled at the side. This is a cheaper method of presenting work and allows it to be consumed by more people as it is affordable.
I came across David Carson’s End of print books. Both books have some overlaps of the same work, but many different pieces are included. This is a less personal format as it is a book about an artist as opposed to an artists book but it still remains inspiring. The large blocks of colour/texture which break up pages are very interesting. Many of the works extend over double page spreads which makes the book feel more personal and adds a more dynamic/emotive feel.
