MA BOOK ARTS EXHIBITION EVENT
Abigail Reynolds collects guidebooks and alters the contents by folding pages and insetting one picture onto another. She uses mass produced books bought second hand and cuts up the pages to create a new unique piece that sells on a different level. abigailreynolds.com
Eleanor Vonne Brown distributes books made by artists and poets in a bookshop. Events and readings transform the shop into a performative space. bokship.org
Why do we choose one book or another? Why a particular image? Each book carries its own freight of cultural meaning and belonging, identity and history. The distribution of elements across the space of a page or spread evokes feelings, sounds or shapes of a particular moment, or an unique thought; a substrate of words, text and images. (from In-Folds exhibition guide)
Books are sculpture. Paper can't stay flat: it is a material with depth. A double spread with gatefold creates more space. Books can stand up, they are 3D objects.
There are many ways of reading and the readers bring baggage with them. Meaning can be expanded across several pieces which link together as a unit.
The book is a private space and the readers' experience of the book is different to that of standing in front of a picture in a public gallery. The book can be held, put to one side, picked up again......re-read months hence.
Today it is more common to see book art in the gallery space. The space in which the books are encountered affects the experience. A reading room, or a bookshop that does readings and events makes the book more accessible. An exchange takes place, there is a connection and interaction.
This conversation encouraged me to think more about the possibilities of how to work with the book ....... I have paraphrased just part of the conversation..... and I have so much more to think through.....
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