I became aware and extremely interested in "artists books" as a specific art form around about 1997. Prior to that I think I had heard of something called book art but it didn't seem to be anything that was connected to me somehow.
It was while I was on my Masters printmaking course at Wimbledon School of art, that one of our tutors Julia Farrer brought in some artists books from her own collection to show us. When it comes to something like artists books - seeing the actual physical object and feeling and interacting with it, does something to you especially if you are a printmaker who loves to understand how things are made and as an artist you are imbueing how the books creator has integrated the concept of the book with the nature of the chosen materials as well as the means by which the pages have been 'joined'. We also did a wee workshop with Finlay Taylor who is another artist working primarily in the artists books medium - he taught us how to make 'unglued' and 'unstitched' books.
The first artists book I made was called "Motschmann Type Infant", this was for the Bankside Browser. It was part of an exhibition programme linked to the opening
of the Tate Modern (1999). B.B. was a wonderful project and included several well known artists such as Antony Gormley.
They had the database of all of the works (several hundred) for a few years but it has now no longer viewable online. What I learned from that experience is to make your own documentation of really good projects so that at least you have a record of selected elements for your own archives.
It was while I was on my Masters printmaking course at Wimbledon School of art, that one of our tutors Julia Farrer brought in some artists books from her own collection to show us. When it comes to something like artists books - seeing the actual physical object and feeling and interacting with it, does something to you especially if you are a printmaker who loves to understand how things are made and as an artist you are imbueing how the books creator has integrated the concept of the book with the nature of the chosen materials as well as the means by which the pages have been 'joined'. We also did a wee workshop with Finlay Taylor who is another artist working primarily in the artists books medium - he taught us how to make 'unglued' and 'unstitched' books.
The first artists book I made was called "Motschmann Type Infant", this was for the Bankside Browser. It was part of an exhibition programme linked to the opening
of the Tate Modern (1999). B.B. was a wonderful project and included several well known artists such as Antony Gormley.
They had the database of all of the works (several hundred) for a few years but it has now no longer viewable online. What I learned from that experience is to make your own documentation of really good projects so that at least you have a record of selected elements for your own archives.
