| back
Silja
Ahola
ARTIST’S
BOOKS
AHOLA
NYLANDER
PURTO
TORIKKA
VALKONEN-GOLDBLATT
Biblioteko
is Esperanto and
means library.
This exhibition is a
collective act by fi ve artists
and presents artist’s books
created by them.
They
are not
literature
but
visual art.
TALKING
ABOUT ARTIST’S BOOKS
”A book feels, appears,
smells, tells, opens, closes ...
A book brings with it many meanings.”
Arja
Valkonen-Goldblatt
The concept of artist’s
book has been given many
definitions.
We might say
that an artist’s book is a
work of art which is based
– sometimes it only refers
– to the form, structure or
idea of the traditional
book. While the artist’s
book challenges and opposes
or ironicizes the idea of
the book and seeks to
alter the concept of the
book’s form and content.
The message of the artist’s
book is contained in the
work itself and its
visualization, not only the text. It
is often an individual,
unique work, but it can also be
a mass-circulation flyer
or printed matter. It can be
produced from just about
any material in just about
any form. Above all, the
artist’s book is a work made
or produced by the artist’s
her/himself.
Two main streams have been
discerned in the
production of artist’s
books: on the one hand, those
in the traditional book
form and, on the other, exciting
experiments, book
sculptures, assemblages,
objects and artefacts which
have little or nothing
in common with the book. The
works are meant
for viewing, scanning,
touching, in some cases even
smelling.
New forms of the book
include books which
cannot be opened, virtual
books, treated and altered
books, books made of
strange materials like
stone, lead, glass ...1
The history of the artist’s
book phenomenon goes
back a long way since the
book and visual art have
a long common history. The
modern artist’s book
dates from the early 20th
century, when it was
brought to the art arena by
Marcel Duchamp, who
defi ned it as something
the artist has made or says
it is. There is room inside
this broad defi nition for a
wide variety of artist’s
books.
Livre d’artiste –
artist’s
book – fi rst appeared as a
form of book illustration
in France in the early 20th
century. To counterbalance
the industrially produced
book, there was a desire
for experimental works
where the illustrations
were original prints by wellknown
artists.2
The term is also used in
portfolios produced by
the artist’s representative
or gallery, where a series
of plates is ordered from
the artist and executed by
professional printers and
binders.1
Many groups of artists
representing various twen-
tieth-century movements have
issued manifestoes
expressing their goals,
ideas and methods. The book
and the printed word are
considered to be a signifi
cant vehicle for public
expression. Mass-circulation
graphic work is also based
on the idea that art
serves society.2
The traditional
content-based book form is used
to document presentations,
happening, performances,
momentary environmental
works, and other art
events. Often they are
photographic works, but, for
instance, maps, drawings,
signs and texts can also
be used, as in the manner
of Richard Long, where
some typographic
arrangement has signifi cance in
depicting the work.2
In
the work of minimalists
and
conceptual artists
documents have play significant
role.1
A
separate genre is limited
edition works, based
on printing and binding
techniques, where the content
has been collected from
different sources.1
Many
artists are
interested
in the form of the letters
and their physical
appearance on the page. Intypo-
graphic books the
representation of the letters
is often more important
than the literal text.1
Boxes, containers, cases,portfolios and card files
form their own type of artist’s book. They are collections
which can be utilized both materially and
expressively.2
In
this way the idea of the
portfolio has expanded into a
type of
treasure trove for collecting
selected images, texts and
objects.1
Exhibition catalogues and books are a separate
genre and are produced both randomly and with a
specifi c purpose, for example, so that each participant
in the exhibition does their own part independently,
and then the parts are collected into a book.
The exhibition catalogue or book can also in its entirety
be a designed artist’s book, which is produced in a limited
edition.2
The exhibition book you are now holding is a unique artist’s
book: its interleaves have been produced independently by the
artists and they are arranged between the printed pages. 50
copies of the book have been made.
The artist’s book became an accepted
concept
in the 1970s. The name artists book (later artists’
book / artist’s book) was fi rst used at an exhibition
in 1973 in Philadelphia, in the USA. The show
displayed over 250 European and American works
from 1960–1973, and among the exhibitors were
painters, conceptual artists, minimalists, musicians
and choreographers.3
Internationally,
the
artist’s
book has in recent decades
been a commonly exhibited and
studied art form;
numerous books, articles and
web-pages have appeared
concerning it. Researcher and
artist Johanna Drucker
considers the
artist’s book to be one of
the core art forms (e.g.
video art, performance,
body art) to come out of the
1960s.4
In
Finland the
artist’s
book is not yet an accepted
concept. Artists dedicated
to it attempt in different
ways to express its essence
and signifi cance as a
separate category in the
art world.5
In
recent years
artist’s books have, for
example, been produced in
several art schools and a
number of artists working
with it have taught courses
about it in various places
in Finland. Rather than
galleries artist’s book exhibitions
have been held in libraries
and museums. The library on
Rikhardinkatu in Helsinki founded a
permanent collection
of
artist’s books in 2000, and
contains almost 200 titles.
Book exhibitions are also
continuously arranged
there. It appears that the
artist’s book is entering a
boom phase – an example
of this is the
international artist’s book exhibition to
be staged at the Lönnström
Art Museum in Rauma
in 2006.
But what is it in the book
that is captivating, that
attracts more and more
artists to book art and the
artist’s book? Gwendolyn J.
Miller6
has
listed nine
factors which explain the
phenomenon’s growth:
• development of digital
technology
• women’s great interest in
the art form (and the
reason for this)
• the book’s tactile
nature, drawing us to the sense
of touch
• increased teaching of
book art / the artist’s book
• numerous approaches and
points of departure
(from visual art, the
library, conservation or e.g.
architecture)
• familiarity of the book
• the book’s fourth
dimension, time, which provides
added value in comparison
to the examination of
two or three-dimensional
works
• traditional connection of
the book with power
• books are fun.
THE
ARTIST’S BOOK
IN THE
PRODUCTION OF
THE BIBLIOTEKO GROUP7
The book form has
fascinated the visual artist
Arja
Valkonen-Goldblatt for
years. For her the
unique series nature and repetition with their small
variations are well suited
to the book form. The
book has often been part of
her installations, where
it has been a pure object,
a book, in her construction
of the total content of the
work. The ”pöytäkirjat”
(literally ”table
books”)
in this exhibition are
autonomous works which take
the form and material
demanded by their content.
The paper is wrinkled,
torn, sewn, dyed, bloodied,
burned, gilded, waxed
... then plastered, nailed
or sewn together. In their
repetition the pages tell a
story through their material
which does not translate
into the language of
words.
Printmaker and video artist Leena
Nylander works
both in literature
and visual art. Her poetry,
visual poems and prose
works have not yet found a
publisher but she
published Kunnianosoitus tunteelle
[Homage to a Feeling]
herself in 1984. The work is
composed of texts
and drawings in which the
impulse moves from
image to text and back. The
text does not explain
the image nor does the image
the text; they are an
independent path to
consciousness and points of
intersection. The book
form has for Leena become a
natural way to process
unconnected observations or
express interpretations
of the world. Making
artist’s books has also
led to a long-time interest
in calligraphy and computer-based
work. Digital prints
are material for books as
much as calligraphic
prints made by hand. The
journey from
graphic
installation to a book hung
against the light is
not
great. The multimedia work
Kuperjatkot (2002)
[Somersault party],
available at a
number of libraries
– a
time-bound arrangement of
poetry and music of
Jarmo
Kähkönen
expressed through images and
in part typographically –
is itself an artist’s book.
”In addition to words, my
environment includes a
variety of changes upon
which the viewer can concentrate
to read. When an
observation is compared to a
recent one, the
witness’s
reality begins.”
The principal content of
printmaker Anu
Torikka’s
work has long been the
combining of image and writing
as well as the signs in the
borderland between
them.
In her work she has
even gradually moved in a
direction where making
artist’s books is also
very natural.
Collecting
found objects and an interest
in handicrafts
and
bookbinding are a part of this.
Surprising combinations,
changes in form and then
giving these
found objects
a new content is the way she
works.
Since 1997 she
has created book works as
introductions to her
exhibitions. For example, in
the 2005 exhibition
Jäljillä [Tracks] at the Ahjo Art
Centre in Joensuu there was
a box containing cards in
relief to which were
attached objects found on the
shore of Lake Onega –on the back were written
texts for the works in the
exhibition. Some visual or
written diary entries from
her travels have in different
ways become part of
collected book works; in some
cases the text has
been written on newspaper
wrappers or the pages are
collages of found materials.
Her April 2005 stay at the
artist’s residence in Grassina, Italy was the source of four
artist’s books
in the Biblioteko
exhibition: Word Book, Come va?,
Explorations and Colours.
Visual artist Marja
Purto
became interested in
artist’s books in the fi
nal stages of her art studies in
the 1990s. Long before this
she had felt the attraction
not only of the traditional
book, but card fi les,
cases, boxes, wrappings,
etc. The book production
of her post-art school
years has not yet been exhibited
– she has, however,
executed several of the collected
book works introducing Anu
Torikka’s shows.
As a librarian and graphic
designer Marja has a
rather special relationship
to the book – the artist’s
book as well: for her it
represents the perfect form,
where as an object it
fascinates the brain and
senses. The book is
organization, control of chaos;
it is a time machine, a
return ticket; a new world,
something other than your
own world.
Architect Silja
Ahola’s
work is guided by
the
infinite possibilities of
using materials and
the
aesthetics of the book
form. "Interest in the
artist’s book was awakened
when I studied
paper-making
five
years ago. The
properties of the
hand-made paper observed by
touching and the eye
captivated me. Paper itself
was a self-evident artist’s
material which could be
naturally be shaped into
the form of a book. Later
I became involved with
various recycled materials
which were originally
related to other contexts,
made for other purposes.
They might be an aluminum
profile found at the
recycling center, an old
book, a fragment of a
mirror, a monotype plate or a
piece of a print... all of
them can be given a new life
in a new context. Sometimes
the origin of the material is
discernible, sometimes it
has been destroyed, but there
is always a
depth, one layer of time added
to the experience that is
the basis of the individual
book work. A material I
have recently started to use
is ceramic clay, which gave
birth to the series ”Kivikirjoja”[Stone
Books]."
The artists in the
Biblioteko group have known
each other for years. In
this exhibition they combine
their interest in the
artist’s book with the expression
used in their own genre. Based
on the works in the
show, the artist’s book
emerges as a polymorphous
but very personal and
intimate form of expression.
Leena Nylander
characterizes this in respect to her
work: ”The artist’s
book –
more paper than words,
more the essence of paper
than the visual message.
There it squats like a fi
gure in a looking-glass: me
through and through.”
Sources
and notes
1. Dover, Peter & Lumb, Michael, 1999. Information is
Power, in Printmaking today, Autumn, vol. 8:3. http://rikart.lib.hel.fi.
7.8.2005.
2. Purto, Marja, 1996. Sivullista taidetta [Pages of Art].
Unpublished thesis at the North Karelian Polytechnic, Visual
Arts Department.
3. Klima, Stefan, 1998. Artists Books: A Critical Survey of
Literature.New York: Granary Books.
4. Drucker, Johanna, 1995. The Century of Artists’ Books. New
York: Granary Books.
5. The artist Tatjana Bergelt has worked to this end in her
proposal NAUM BOOK ART – Finland. The artist group working
with the proposal is attempting to regularly present its
professionally made artist’s books in Finland and at forums at
international forums. http://rikart.lib.hel.fi . 7.8.2005.
6. Miller, Gwendolyn J. Discovering Artists Books. The Art,
the Artist and the Issues. www.goshen.edu/~gwenjm/
bookarts. 7.8.2005.
7. Texts by the artists of the Biblioteko group concerning the bases
for their work, summer 2005.
back
|