Review and summary of my Artist's Books Series of blog posts (Artist's Book Series XXVII)

Here's a look back at the previous twenty-six posts in the Artist's Book Series.

• Bookworks, a bookshop for artists' books at the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) (Artist's Book Series I, 13 October 2013)
• Marxist mystery meats and the lmnts r for the Performance of Presidents (Arist's Book Series II, 14 October 2013)
• Malachi McCormick, "vox audita perit littera scripta manet" (Artist's Book Series III, 16 October 2013)
• Works by Paul Dean, a dark A Gulf and a Day-Glo Paper Shrine (Artist's Book Series IV, 18 October 2013)
• "He looked like a wolf and like to scare people by growling" and 12 more dog tales by Susan Baker (Artist's Book Series V, 20 October 2013)
• Loneliness, great buys, rambling gibberish, mood swings: Daily Annoyances by Joann Thornton (Artist's Book Series VI, 22 October 2013)
• Palm Island, a RatFeast Production by John A. Hernandez (Artist's Book Series VII, 24 October 2013)
• Printed Matter, the artist's book pilgrimage site (Artist's Book Series VIII, 26 October 2013)
• No mail art, but mail-order Artist's Books from Printed Matter (Artist's Book Series, IX, 28 October 2013)
• An important note about the apostrophe (Artist's Books Series X, 30 October 2013)
• Mark Pawson: image junkie, photocopier fetishist (Artist's Book Series XI, 1 November 2013)
• "Hey dese drawings are really lousy!" Hell Yes! says P. Shaw (Artist's Book Series XII, 3 November 2013)
• Acrylic Virgin, from Bug's Lunch Press, Burnsville, NC (Artist's Book Series XIII, 5 November 2013)
• Katz and Mice: A Winter's Tale (Artist's Book Series XIV, 9 November 2013)
• Sandpaper from Stairs: Indigenous Asperity (Artist's Book Series XV, 11 November 2013)
• At the Atlanta crossroads of art and the book: Nexus Press (Artist's Book Series XVI, 13 November 2013)
• "You Know I Love You Baby But I Just Can't Fold You Up" by K. Nelson Harper (Artist's Book Series XVII, 15 November 2013)
• Where to find Artist's Books in your library: N7433.4 (Artist's Book Series XVIII, 17 November 2013)
• A visit to Printed Matter in 1992 (Artist's Book Series XIX, 19 November 2013)
• Postcards and Palindromic Playing cards ... (Artist's Book Series XX, 21 November 2013)
• Each soft touch conceals sharp-edge instruments of desire (Artist's Book Series XXI, 23 November 2013)
• I love baby, but I just can't play you any more ... 33 and a third RPM art (Artist's Book Series XXII, 25 November 2013)
• A look back at Culture Wars which never cooled and neither did global warming (Artist's Book Series XXIII, 27 November 2013)
• "In the winter, the speculators get cold and the East-Village starts to burn" (Artist's Book Series XXIV, 29 November 2013)
• Penultimate ... No Trespassing ... over and over again by Val Tillery (Artist's Book Series XXV, 1 December 2013)
• Meta Artist's Book collection, documenting the collection process (Artist's Book Series XXVI, 3 December 2013)
• "Don't change the message, change the mess": documenting the collection process (Artist's Book Series XXVII, 3 December 2013)
• Art Postale, closing out the collection at the Walker Art Center (Artist's Book Series XXVIII, 5 December 2013)
• Looking back, a summary of the Artist's Book Series posts (Artist's Book Series XXIX, 7 December 2013)

Art Postale, closing out the collection at the Walker Art Center (Artist's Book Series XXVIII)

It was a quiet nearly decade for my artist's book collection. Stored safely away, I would revisit the collection on occasion, particularly when I would teach the "Art and Museum Librarianship" class at the School of Library and Information Science at The Catholic University of America and would bring some in for examples of special collections in art libraries.

And then, in 2004, I was visiting Minneapolis for a meeting and took some time to visit the Walker Art Center. There in the shop, was a nice collection of artist's books. I browsed for a while and found Kelley Walker's Art Postale which, with its faux post cards played on another of my collecting interests, post cards.

At the time I didn't know it, but this would be my last artist's book purchase.

Kelley A. Walker
Art Postale: Tres Grande Voyage (2002?)
St. Louis, Self-Published
Copied/illustrated postcards telling story of the artist's trip to Europe
Cost: $5.00 | xmrk04 | More information

Meta Artist's Book collection, documenting the collection process (Artist's Book Series XXVI)

Sometimes the act of collecting art can, in a PoMo (that's Post Modern to the rest of you!) or even Fluxus kinda way, become an act of art itself. 

And so, in the spirt of PoMo, in the spirit of Fluxus, and the spirit of Mail Art, I offer up a collection of purchase receipts, exhibition announcements, correspondence with book artists, and other ephemera miscellany. 

Penultimate ... No Trespassing ... over and over again by Val Tillery (Artist's Book Series XXV)

By 1994 I had started to slow down my artist's book purchases. I only had one purchase in 1994 and then, in November of 1995 I made a trip to Bookworks and found No Trespassing by Val Tillery. The vibrant colors struck me as well as the intricate design in such a small size. The item was a bit pricey by my usual standards, but I went ahead and bought it ... it would be my last purchase for quite a while ...

Val Tillery
Untitled [No Trespassing] (1991)
n.p., Self-Published
Synopsis: No Trespassing. The bright reproductions in this book resemble woodcuts and are printed on uncut, perforated pages; they speak of human isolation, a mythic creature, and destructive impulses in a folk art style.
Cost: $9.00 | x41392 | Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection

"In the winter, the speculators get cold and the East-Village starts to burn" (Artist's Book Series XXIV)

I consider this item the jewel in the collection. A great bit of story (gentrification of the East Village area of Manhattan); intricate graphic work, paper folding and cutting, and a unique inclusion of found objects (cigarette butts, bottle caps, a burnt matchstick, and dirt/sand from the streets).

Beatrice Schafroth
Rent-Free in the East Village (1985)
New York, Self-Published
Assemblage, text, and drawings illustrating life in the East Village; there is also a copy in the Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute
Cost: $11.50 | x41287 | Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection

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A look back at Culture Wars which never cooled and neither did global warming (Artist's Book Series XXIII)

Artist's books often tackle social and controversial political issues. I'm highlight just two of the books in the collection that have an element of social or political commentary from three different topical areas: war, environment and artistic freedom.

Sharon Gilbert's Green the Fragile addresses the topic of global warming (a topic that for some reason is still being debated nearly a quarter of a century later!); and Karen Wirth's remarkably well-made and complex little work, Nude Youths: Parental Advisory is an artifact of the cultural wars of the 1980s-90s taking on the controversies surrounding the funding of edgy art exhibitions by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Sharon Gilbert
Green the Fragile (1989)
New York, Self-Published
Xerographic collage/text encouraging Green thinking and saving the trees. Signed: 76/300
Cost: $2.00 | x04442 | Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection

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Karen Wirth
Nude Youths: Parental Advisory (1991)
n.p., Self-Published
According fold copy of Sistine Chapel nudes with text from NEA (?) guidelines about nudity and sexual depictions
Cost: $2.50 | x41238 | More information

I love baby, but I just can't play you any more ... 33 and a third RPM art (Artist's Book Series XXII)

Not, I suppose, technically an artist's book, this "flexi-disc" (aka "soundsheets" which is something that most kids these days, in the era of downloads and iTunes and all that new-fangled stuff) don't know about (though I also suspect there's a whole sub-culture of hipsters who still make these little plastic discs that could be slipped in books or magazines, or 'zines, and distribute their audio stuff.

Revolutions per Minute (The Art Record) is excerpts from a longer vinyl album with "pieces" by a number of Feldman Gallery's artists. Here's a New York Times review of the long-player.

Chris Burden, Ida Applebroog, Jud Fine
Revolutions per Minute (The Art Record) [excerpts] (1982)
n.p., The Charing Hill Company, Ltd.
Soundsheet with three excerpts from the “Revolutions Per Minute” performance work
Cost: $0.00 | xmrk01 | More information

Artists included on the long-player were:

• Vincenzo Agnetti
• Eleanor Antin
• Ida Applebroog
• Conrad Atkinson
• Joseph Beuys
• Chris Burden
• Douglas Davis
• Jud Fine
• Terry Fox
• R. Buckminster Fuller
• Helen Mayer Harrison & Newton Harrison
• Margaret Harrison
• Komar & Melamid
• Piotr Kowalski/William Burroughs
• Les Levine
• Edwin Schlossberg
• Thomas Shannon
• Todd Siler
• SITE
• David Smyth
• Hannah Wilke

Each soft touch conceals sharp-edge instruments of desire (Artist's Book Series XXI)

These three items don't really share all that much in common. I found the contrast of the two items (Forty-Six Instruments of Desire and Variations for Sharp-Edge Instrument and Chorus) with their images of sharp and sometimes painful items with Increase Maready's Each Soft Touch with its Xeroxed roses interesting.

Variations for Sharp-Edge Instrument and Chorus, with it's cut/folded pages is a particularly striking work.

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Increase Maready
Each Soft Touch (1993?)
Printed illustrations of anatomic and botanical illustrations to a short poem
n.p., Self-Published
Cost: $2.00 | x46147

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Stephen Perkins
Forty-Six Instruments of Desire (1991)
Iowa City, IO, Plagiarist Press
Cost: $2.00 | x41405 | Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection

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Jose Soler
Variations for Sharp-Edge Instrument and Chorus (1987, 1985)
New York?, Cheap Press
Fourteen leaves with “X” cut in the middle; each cut is folded in a unique manner with accompanying text
Cost: $8.00 | x41198

 

Postcards and Palindromic Playing cards ... (Artist's Book Series XX)

Artist's book makers are often drawn from the world of print making. At the same time, much fine printing becomes it's own art form. So, also in my collection are two very nice examples of fine printing.

The first is a deck of playing cards from 1991, the title of the work is "Palindromes" fitting, of course for the year 1991. Printed/published by Grafik Communications, the artwork si by Bob James and Evangelia Phillippidis. The jokes in the deck are printed with palindromes.

Grafik Communications, Ltd., ed.
Palindromes (1991)
Alexandria, VA, Grafik Communications, Ltd.
Deck of 52 cards plus two jokers and five cards of text; issued to celebrate 1991 as a palindromic year; Aces are Jokers are printed with palindromes. Illustrations by Bob James and Evangelia Phillippidis
Cost: $0.00 | xmrk03

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The second graphic item in the collection is a set of 12 letterpress postcards that I don't remember exactly where I purchased them. Each finely printed postcard also has a quippy saying, such as "Irony is the best policy".

Anonymous
Letterpress Postcards (1991)
Oakland, Black Swan Printing
12 letterpress postcards in paper band
Cost: $10.00 | xmrk02