In the exhibition catalogue for the Book Arts show there is an interesting introduction by Gustavo Grandal Montero looking at the book in this digital age and recalling just how many digital advances there have been in recent years.
He suggests that the three main aspects of the book; form, content, relation to reader, will be affected by digital technology.
I think that the book and digital is a similar situation to painting and the invention of photography. Painting pre photography was about recording a likeness in a realistic manner. Photography replaced this function of painting by capturing the realistic through the lens. Painting was free to be material and concrete. Likewise the traditional role of the book is changing.
Words on a page enter the mind by reading. As readers we engage our minds with book content and create thought pictures. Digital is good for the content of mass produced books where physical form is unimportant. As fewer paper and ink books are printed printing will become a more informed bespoke choice: an opportunity for the small publisher and print press.
The book as been defined and associated with the print industry. But with printing in decline the book can be redefined as art in both physical form and content. Painting was all about content before photography: depicting a person's likeness or describing a meta-narrative. Photography enabled painting to break free form conveying content to an audience. Painting went on to address its own physicality of surface texture and colour.
Likewise the book no longer has to fit into an agenda, or be an vehicle for thought. Digital is that container rammed full of information covering huge distances at the click of a button. Now more that ever before the book can be new art. Can we let go of 500 years of printing history to see what the book could be?
for book art events at the MA BOOK ARTS SHOW click on in-folds.tumblr.com
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inside the exhibition looking out
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