How an Artist's Book is Not Like a Picture

I've been pondering ways of conveying the progression of time and movement in books. I was recently re-skimming parts of Keith Smith's Structure of the Visual Book. He talks about how the structures of artists' books relate to those in "music, poetry, story-telling and cinema." He then cautions:

Carryover of past concepts is often inappropriate... Revolutionary ideas must be realized when starting to work in a new medium. The basic problem in making books is approaching it as if it were many single pictures, and it is not. 

This error comes from working in one medium, and carrying over principles to a new process, rather than discovering what is unique about the new medium.

As someone who used to work largely in single pictures, this is something that I've found to be both exhilarating and vexing about making artist's books.

I was listening to a talk that Bea Nettles gave at Duke University (thanks to a link posted on the Book Arts List). She mentioned how in one of her books she partly conveyed the slow, subtle process of aging by gradually transforming the background color of the book's pages. As the book progresses and the subject grows older, each page becomes ever so subtly more purple. By the end, the viewer realizes that the pages have become deep purple, hinting at how a person almost imperceptibly ages from day to day, slowly evolving into an older person. Now that's the sort of thing that makes a book unlike a painting.

A Book Break

I went down to San Rafael to see the Art of the Book exhibit at Donna Seager Gallery before it closed. It was wonderful and truly inspiring.

I also found it reassuring. I often feel insecure about the little imperfections in my books. It was enlightening to handle work by some of the book artists I admire most, and to see that theirs, too, splay or have stitching that is not quite perfect, or windows that are just a tiny bit crooked. It's good to be reminded that those little idiosyncrasies can add character and warmth to a piece.

The show has come down, but is still online (via the link above). Note that there are two pages of pictures.

I also got to stop at California Carnivores in Sonoma County, my favorite plant nursery of all time. It was quite hot during the trip home. It wasn't safe to leave my new babies in the car when I stopped for coffee, so they came in with me. For some reason, people stared.

Lambeth Surprise

A good friend recently went to Wales and England for a visit. The Lambeth Palace Library was on her itinerary. This is the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of Canterbury and is the principal repository of Church of England historical documents. It's one of the earliest public libraries in England. It was founded in 1610.

They are currently having an exhibition of rare manuscripts and documents in celebration of the library's 400th anniversary. It sounded like a stroll in paradise for book lovers.

Today I got an unexpected box in the mail. Nestled inside among all sorts of wonderful books and ephemera from the UK was a shrink-wrapped copy of the lushly illustrated Lambeth Palace Library Exhibition catalogue. Oh my!

Thanks K!

This is a spread from Petrus Apianus's Cosmographia from 1529, which shows a movable volvelle that could be used to tell the time in any latitude.

Books as Comfort Food

I've been rereading one of my favorite art books, Drawing the Landscape by Chip Sullivan. Its intended audience, I believe, is aspiring landscape designers and architects who want to learn to draw, which wouldn't include me. But I love street views and maps, and this book is so quirky and full of good advice. It's hard not to like an art book—one meant to be used as a textbook, no less—that tells you that a proper art studio needs to include a comfortable place for reading and napping. "Perhaps a couch with a bookshelf nearby." He then goes on to describe napping and reading as essential parts of the creative process. I hadn't looked at it in a long while, and was surprised to realize it even included a few examples of book art at the end. He cites his earliest artistic influence as Mad Magazine.

I've been going through one of those physical periods of frustration where I haven't been able to do much. Rereading a favorite old book like this has been like comfort food.

From the section on the creative process:

"There is a certain degree of magic and mystery to creativity, but if you understand the process, it may come easier. First, you must be open and receptive to your imagination. Creativity is not one of those things that comes effortlessly; it is not instantaneous. It takes a lot of work, and artists strive for it constantly. Creativity is 90 percent hard work and intense preparation. Ideas implanted in your mind linger for a long time; they're nurtured, then explode into a burst of creative energy. . . The creative flow is very much intertwined with perseverance." (My artist friend Joan also blogged about this very thing a while back.)

A practical consideration is how does an artist persevere to create when lacking in physical stamina and fighting off other forms of physical limitation? But I keep trying to actively feed my head with ideas. Favorite books are good nourishment.

Pictured: The couch in my studio, which is actually a covered plastic love seat. The framed print above the road sign pillows is an example of Joan's artwork. The deer crossing sign next to them is papier maché.

More Inspiration from the Land of Children's Books

This time around the topic isn't children's books themselves, but a how-to on illustrating them. This was another find from Eureka Books that dates to the 1950s. There really is so much overlap when it comes to the design of kids' books and that of artists' books.

This especially got me thinking about possibilities for illustrated end papers and book covers, along with other aspects of book structure.


But what I most wanted to do was share the chapter on typography with bookmakers I know who tend to think of font and type matters as afterthoughts, if they think about them at all. Henry P. here says:


"Type is the most important element in most books. Even in the young child's picture books it is still a factor of great moment. No book could be considered well designed unless its type faces were well chosen, its size appropriate, and the type panels well proportioned and well printed. And the relation between type and illustration must be a successful one....Illustrations are almost always near neighbors of type in some form, and they must be compatible...


Occasionally, an illustrator is tempted to use an exotic type face because it goes well with his pictures, but here another factor enters: legibility. There are many...display types which excite and delight the eye for a line or two but which bore and repulse if pursued page after page. The so-called book types have stood the test of countless hours of reading and have survived because they do not weary....


Picture and text are bound to influence each other, beneficially or adversely. Who would choose any but the way of cooperation between them?"


Indeed.

Children's Books and Artists' Books

Books meant for kids often have some of the best ideas for artists' book structures. They are, in many respects, often quite similar--they have an emphasis on illustrations with perhaps a little bit of text. Sometimes they also have an unusual structure or shaped pages.

I recently came upon a couple of children's books from what looks to be the 50s.

The first was sent to me by a friend. It's a German translation of an English book that was called Animal Lore and Disorder. It advertises "more than 200 comic animals." The pages are divided horizontally, so as you turn them, you create little mish-mashes of mixed up animals and mixed up descriptions to go with them. This here is a "Cowk," a cow/elk: "This animal lives in the farmyard. He gives lots of milk and cream and...hunters often go around Canada hunting him." The book itself is interestingly made. It is essentially a pamphlet with hard covers and a buckram spine. The paper cover wrapper is glued directly onto the book boards, with flaps left free. They tuck in around the front of the book. You can see the raw edges of the book board.

The second I found in a bargain bin at Eureka Books. It's not in great condition, but I liked the form of it and the way it was made. It's an accordion. The pages are shaped book board panels, all joined together with book cloth hinges and a cloth spine. It's satisfying to open and arrange these heavy, smooth panels joined with cloth. The sections move in a way that wouldn't be possible with the cheaper production methods of newer picture books.

I'm already imagining how elements of these two book forms can be worked into my artist's books.

Julie Chen Videos and Magnetic Attraction

Last March Julie Chen came up here to Humboldt to give one of her "Book Brain" workshops to the book arts group I belong to. It was a good experience, and I can highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about taking one of her classes.


Julie was featured several weeks ago on the PBS show Craft in America. It used to be available for viewing at the PBS site, but they've since removed it (how unkind of them). You can still see a couple of segments from it here and here. I particularly liked one quote from her. Talking about how she uses skills from traditional bookmaking and printing to make beautiful objects, she stresses that creating an attractive item is not the end purpose. The polished look and the methods used in the construction of the books are there to help support the content. "Everything that goes into the piece should contribute to the meaning of the piece," she says.


While poking around I found another interesting Julie Chen video from 2004 that originally aired on the San Francisco PBS station KQED. One of the scenes that awakened my fuzzy brain was of Julie showing some of her books to her students at Mills College. One is a carousel-style piece that is held in its open display position with magnets, rather than with ties or whatever. How clever. It made me want to pull out my own magnet collection, which I got a long time ago from K & J Magnetics on the advice of another book artist (who, in turn, had gotten the idea originally from Julie Chen). These particular magnets are tiny, yet very strong, making them ideal to embed in book board and such. Or at least that's the idea. When I played around with mine I found that the magnetic pull wasn't quite strong enough once the book cloth and such were added on top. Perhaps I hadn't been using the best sized magnets, or enough of them. At any rate, I think I might have to give it another try. The video also shows Julie paper shopping at Flax in San Francisco. Just the sight of all those flat files bulging with paper makes my heart pound..

Little Paper Bird Flies Around Mountain Folds

book experiments...
Originally uploaded by littlepaperbird

A while ago, when I first started getting into book forms, I stumbled upon the work of Sarah in Leeds (LittlePaperBird on Flickr and in blogland), and found it quite inspirational. The books were largely explorations of relatively simple folding and stitching patterns. Yet she tweaked them and built upon them in a way that made them seem so complex and elegant. She also does some nice, more traditionally bound books and boxes too.

I was recently browsing around the web and rediscovered some pictures of those folded book forms from a while ago. Great stuff.