User:Adventdavid2/Artist's book

Critical issues and debate

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A number of issues around the artist's book have been vigorously debated. Some of the major themes under examination have been:

1. Definition of the artist's book: distinguishing between the terms "artist's book", "book art", "bookworks", "livre d'artiste", fine press books, etc.
2. Where the artist's book "should" be situated in relation to Craft and Fine Art traditions.
3. Where to put the apostrophe.
4. When is a magazine a book? Some examples of "artists' books" provided on this page (such as Theo van Doesburg's De Stijl) are magazines and not books at all.
5. Publishing as an explicitly political act and the desire to challenge an art establishment.
6. Publishing as an implicitly political act and its challenge to imagine a new kind of reading.
7. How artist's books act as catalysts for social change
8. How artist's books reimagine public art

Practitioners have asserted that the term artist's book is problematic and sound outdated:

“Artist’s book” as a term is problematic because it ghettoizes, enforces the separation from broader everyday practices and limits the subversive potential of books by putting an art tag on them. (…) While extended discussions have taken place around the term, including heated debate over whether and where to put the apostrophe in artist’s book, Lawrence Weiner once cut through the Gordian knot by concluding: “Don’t call it an artist’s book, just call it a book.”

There are a variety of critical issues concerning artists books, including their content, form, function, and usage.

One of the most important critical issues is how artists books function politically. Artists book are often expressions that challenge dominant political systems.

One other critical issue is how the form of the artist book is related to issues of illness and corporeality. Amanda Couch, for instance, has written extensively on how the production of artists books mirrors forms of digestion.

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See also

[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Artist's books.

• Art diary
• Altered book
• Asemic writing
• List of book arts centers
• Bookbinding
• Chapbook
• Ezine
• Fine press
• Illuminated manuscript
• Letterpress printing
• Miniature book
• Minicomic
• Pop-up book
• Something Else Press
• Visual poetry
• Zine

References

1. Greenfield, Jane (2002). ABC of bookbinding: a unique glossary with over 700 illustrations for collectors and librarians. New Castle (Del.) Nottingham (GB): Oak Knoll press The Plough press. ISBN 978-1-884718-41-0.
2. ^ Jump up to:^{a b} Drucker, Johanna (2004). The Century of Artists' Books. Granary Books. p. 8.
3. ^ Artists' Books: The Book As a Work of Art, 1963–1995, Bury, Scolar Press, 1995.
4. ^ "Books – Book Art – Research Guides at Virginia Commonwealth University". Guides.library.vcu.edu. 2010-05-28. Archived from the original on 2015-07-16. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
5. Martinez, Alejandro (24 January 2021). "Ten Theses on the Artist's Book". Artishock Revista. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24.