Clive Phillpot
from Printed Matter 1986/87 Catalog
The phrase "artists'' books" has been criticized enough, but it is impossible to deny that among the possible alternatives it has the greatest currency. One objection to this designation has been that it defines books exclusively in relation to the profession of the visual artist. While this may annoy writers who experiment with the form of he book, alternatives like "writers'' books"(?), or "musicians'' books" can still be swept up into the all-embracing category of book art: art dependent upon the book form. In any case, it is clear that visual artists have contributed to most to the revitalization of the books as art over the last twenty -five years, and to the development of visual and verbi-visual languages articulated within the book form.
One consequence of the popularization of the term "artists'' books," beginning with the exhibition Artists'' Books at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia in 1973, was the creation of an alternative to the phenomenon of "livres d''artiste." This French term was used to denote the then prevailing form of interaction between artist and book: expensive limited editions of pre-existing texts usually augmented with lithographs or etchings by artists. However, the efflorescence of cheap multiple books by the sixties and seventies, including those which integrated text and image, and their consequent prominence, served to give the English term "artists'' books" a new respectability and rendered the French term somewhat redundant, outside France. So successful has this phenomenon been, in fact, that the phrase "artists'' books" is now not only used to describe cheap multiple books by artists, but also unique books, book objects, and the limited-edition portfolios and books previously known as "livres d''artiste." The term has now come to encompass so much as to be confusing in its application.
Perhaps it is time to characterize those publications by artists like Ruscha, Weiner, Baldessari, and LeWitt, that originally gave the phrase "artists'' books" currency as "artists'' booklets" instead of "artists'' books." This would help to bracket works of this specific nature, while offering a fairly accurate description of their appearance.
These thoughts have been occasioned not only by the proliferation of exhibitions and texts which refer to "artists'' books" and yet exclude multiple books and booklets by artists, but by one particularly notable booklet to appear this year (1985), Richard Tuttle''s Snow published in Bari, Italy, by Galleria Marilena Bonomo.
For some months Snow has been one book by an artist that I have not been able to dislodge from my mind. I found it immensely intriguing, but at the same time annoying, for it refuses to be neatly pigeon-holed as an "artists'' book." In the first place, Snow is hardly a book. Four sheets of paper stapled together with a cover attached, form a small twenty-page booklet, 15 1/2 cms. by 10 1/2 cms. One the front cover are reproduced a few random black lines and marks, apparently produced by dragging a crayon or piece of charcoal across coarse paper, while on the back cover the title appears, followed by a paragraph which fails to explain how this was derived. Inside, the first and last openings are blank, while the other seven openings bear a color reproduction of one of Tuttle''s assemblages. One would think that since the seven works reproduced here are described as having been exhibited in Bari, the booklet must be an exhibition catalogue. Well, yes and no, for each of the small reproductions is almost concealed in the gutter of each page opening.
Can a publication containing a number of reproductions amount to an artists'' book? Tuttle has not only effectively canceled the reproductions by splitting them in two, but he has at the same time used this device to dramatize the opening of each pair of pages. As the pages are parted, the rigid assemblages open up as if they were hinged. Similarly, both the incongruent cover image and concluding title put the reproductions in an entirely different context than customary exhibition documentation. Tuttle has produced a singular new work from images of other works; a small fiction which depends upon the form of the book. In the realm of book art he has given us an artist''s booklet. No?
Since this preamble has left me with little space to do justice to the thirty or so publications included in these two exciting packages, I will conclude with remarks about three that show particular ease with the book form, three that were conceived from cover to cover.
The Tornado Treaty by Janie Geiser is a kaleidoscope of red, yellow, orange, and white marks on deep blue and black backgrounds. Her verbi-visual story is concerned with the virtual destruction of an island community by quasi-militaristic forces. The short text is chipped out in a style close to the energetic images. Together with the vivid colors and dynamic design, they lift the story into the realm of the fabulous. The artist is thoroughly at home with the medium; more books must surely follow this one.
The Lively Dance by Anne-Catherine Fallen is a beautifully conceived and constructed book, which, through repeated imagery, semi-opaque printed overlays, and a few distilled but evocative phrases conveys a sense of reverie. The narrative is literally unfolded; the work is a highly physical and accomplished example of the art of the book.
Spin Off by Telfer Stokes and Helen Douglas, working together as WeProductions, is a powerful and unusual new story in words and pictures. Entering the book, the way ahead is obscured by snow on the windshield. The windshield wipers flick back and fourth, continually revealing and rebuilding the view. They are both an inspired device and the source of a compelling narrative rhythm. The fragments of text build up by accretion, like the layering of the snow. When a motor bike spins off the road half way through the book, images and words go spinning too. The interplay of images and words is masterly; these artists, too, know their medium.
The other titles in this selection represent a wide range of sizes, shapes, bindings, printing processes, and preoccupations; these differences and the level of accomplishment attest to the vitality of the medium, and to the proliferating possibilities of the book form in the hands of contemporary artists.