This exercise was to produce a small pamphlet in the spirit of an artist’s book / fanzine, featuring 6 artists books. The brief was to be playful / provocative.
I have been to a couple of Artist’s Book Fairs and an exhibition and enjoyed looking at the vast variety of books on offer, the range of slick, professional publications to the handmade (again the range of the beautiful to the “dog ate my homework” look). My work falls in the “dog ate my homework” category and I’m trying to embrace that rather than feel sad about my lack of technical ability. My own personal sketchbooks veer into the “Artist’s Book” category rather than working books and I produced 2 fabric versions for my final Assignment in Textiles 1.
My starting point was to find 6 Artist’s Books, I decided to analyse them as physical objects, their dimensions and how they were made.
I had bought some books on my visits, had been given a book and then made up the number with my own book. The six nicely emcompassed the range of books I had seen on my visits.
I started to measure each book and make a list of their characteristics.
I started to lay them out as a sequence of pages and images.
Rethink
At this point I was thinking in a very straight forward way about a pamphlet but I reread the brief and realised I hadn’t been at all experimental so had a rethink.
I explored various ideas, a concertina format, different ways of folding a single sheet. I kept coming back to the problem that in my pamphlet I wanted a user to experience some of the charm of an Artist’s Book. I thought about the pamphlet being a giant envelope and making mini versions of the books that would be inside, the details printed onto the mini versions. I still like that idea but the time factor came into play and I went with a simpler idea of a type of Advent Calendar. I have always loved Advent Calendars, the opening of the little doors to reveal a fresh image behind. I decided to have a go at making one, as an experiment.
Process
I arranged the books on the floor, they are of widely differing sizes. I originally thought of an A3 sheet but because of the difficulties of printing that on my printer, changed to A4. I divided the size of each book by 4 and then created rectangles on a page. I put images of the books in the rectangles and printed off a mock up on Bristol Board, ordinary paper was too flimsy.
mock up
Quite early on in the process I decided to make the largest book slightly smaller and the smallest, slightly larger so the differences were not so great.
I then was in the territory of creating multiple sheets with identical rectangles on them. Having learnt from a previous exercise, I switched on the document grid to help line them up.
I added a coloured background to the front page. I wasn’t happy with the random arrangement of the books so lined them up in 2 columns. By this time I had a 4 page document that I was working with.
Page 2 was the reverse side of the front page and so needed images which would be on the back of the little doors.
Page 3 was to be stuck to the back of the first sheet and needed the images that would be seen when the little doors were opened.
Page 4 would be the reverse of the whole pamphlet and I repeated the images of the books and overlayed them with the details that I had recorded.
I printed another mock up and added text as to the venue, date etc.
Overall
I was quite pleased with how it all worked out. In real life a more conventional pamphlet would have undoubtedly worked better (been more useful), but I liked the feel of the mock advent calendar. I felt the little doors with the pictures behind them, the concertina pages coming out of “rust marks” and “a copse”, had a sense of charm about them, which mirrored the pleasure of walking round a book fair and handling items.
Details of the books
Unknown Book by Alice Fox (www.alicefox.co.uk)
210mm x 146mm, landscape format, 80 pages
Self Published by Stitch:Print:Weave Press
Printed professionally by Briggs Bros. (Silsden) Ltd.
perfect binding ( pages folded into signatures glued into stronger cover)
Mixture of words and text, Helvetica title and text font.
Other comments: Number 6 in a series of self published works. Book about a book about a book. Part exhibition catalogue, part means of sharing work which is a finished piece in a gallery. Also describes how she became a publisher as part of her artistic work.
Hidden Journeys by Gary Crowley (www.garycrowderart.co.uk)
215mm x 215mm. Square format. 40 pages
perfect binding
Largely images. Title font in American Typewriter. Body text in Gotham.
Other comments: Like an exhibition catalogue in style. Professional appearance.
Untitled by Sarah Pease (spillustrate.wordpress.com)
290 x 280 mm (roughly square) 24 pages.
Handmade: Cover – handmade paper, pages – fabric, stitched individually together.
No text
Other comments: very much a handmade, idiosyncratic piece. A selection of fabric pages, making a variety of shapes and patterns with stitching and holes cut through, each page leading to and connecting with the previous page. The book has no right way up, no left to right direction, no beginning or end.
Pots I haven’t made (yet) by Beth Wise
145mm x 210mm, portrait format, 12 pages.
Handmade: no cover, pages thick paper with printed images of handdrawn illustrations. Pages stitched together by sewing machine through centre pages.
Handwritten text.
Other comments: student work purchased at a Book Fair. Rough and ready style
rust marks book 2 by Alice Fox (www.alicefox.co.uk)
94 x 75mm, landscape format, 6 pages.
Concertina format.
Handmade but very beautifully made. Fabric covered board cover, pages made up of long strip of rust stained paper, folded in concertina fashion, glued to front and back board.
Band holding concertina closed with title text in simple sans serif font.
Other comments: an object of beauty
a copse by Elizabeth Willow
74 x 104mm, landscape format. Made up of single, long strip of thin card, folded 5 times. Printed on both sides. Irregular but symmetrical, concertina format. Concertina held together by transparent band with title in transitional, serif font.
Other comments: student work purchased at Book Fair, simple and nicely made.
Butterfly book by unknown artist.
34 x 36mm, no formal pages. Book handmade by folding a vintage Butterfly card in half. (free in Brooke Bond tea). The artist has cut out 5 images of butterflies in decreasing sizes and attached them through the centre fold with thread. The thread is then available to wrap around the card to hold it closed.
Front
Front (doors open)
Back
spill---ustrate 