Shapely Artist Books & Travel Plans!

Artist books showcase a lovely intersection of sculpture and books where the form and shape of each book gives more information about the content of which is explored within the pages. As any avid reader knows, the joy of books in-part comes from the objects themselves. The pleasure of turning pages, of feeling the spine bend, and the aesthetic joy of seeing them upon a shelf all enhance the experience of the book.

Artist books typically take this one step further in offering different experiences in how a book can be engaged with. Many push to expand the definition of what a book can be and create puzzling arrangements of sequence, form, and bookish-ness. One of my favorite book artists is Julie Chen, founder of Flying Fish Press, and currently working at UC Madison - Wisconsin as an instructor in their book arts program. Her body of work is a true marvel, and she probably has work in a Library Special Collection near you! 
Something that we often take for granted while books are sitting on our shelves is the shape of them. Shape is one of the core elements and principles of design and is one of the first things that artists consider when in the sketching/prototyping stage of their practice. How does the shape of a book aid in delivering its message?

Image from the Bodleian Library, UK, photo credit John Cairns

Books have changed shape throughout history, and the shape of books has largely depended upon material availability. Stone was one of the first materials that held our stories. One of the most infamous examples of this is the world’s oldest surviving works of GAY literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh. This small clay tablet, dating back 3,500 years was found in 1853 as part of a 12-tablet collection in the rubble of the library of the Assyrian King Assur Banipal. These collections of tablets are considered to be the world’s oldest recognized epic poem and parts of its stories are mirrored in the Hebrew Bible, making it also one of the oldest recognized religious texts as well.

Between using clay and stone as writing surfaces and the typical codex book form that we’re familiar with today. Humans were experimenting a lot with paper and other fibrous plant writing surfaces. It’s well documented that papyrus was an excellent writing surface and was used in Ancient Egypt and surrounding communities, but we have no surviving texts that used this plant because of its biodegradability. But, because of hieroglyphic illustrations, we know that this plant paper was used in the form of a scroll.

The earliest surviving scroll that we know of are commonly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and also known as the Qumran Cave Scrolls. The scroll dates range from the third century BCE to the first century CE. While Hebrew is the most frequently used language in the scrolls, about 15% were written in Aramaic and several scrolls were written in Greek. These scrolls were primarily made of parchment, a few made of papyrus, and the text of one scroll was engraved on thin copper. Although many of the texts included in these scrolls are now part of the Hebrew Bible, evidence suggests that the communities contemporary to the scrolls did not have a unified conception of these spiritual works, and many stories were included and some were contradictory. The idea of a biblical ‘canon’ only emerged later in history.

Fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The scroll was, and is still, extremely cumbersome and difficult to navigate. The longest Ancient Egyptian scroll was around 131’ long and Ancient Greek scrolls did not exceed 36’ long. To find and keep your place in a scroll is nearly impossible, but it does make for easily adding information to at the end of a session as a scribe could simply add another sheet of papyrus or parchment to the end of the scroll using the appropriate paste of the times. But these limits somewhat explain its relatively short historic use.

Paper was invented in China in 105 CE during the Han Dynasty by a Chinese Court official Ts’ai Lun who recorded the process of making paper on some of the first mass produced paper ever! Some of the first papers were made from recycled fishing nets, pulped bamboo, mulberry bark, or hemp. Papermakers followed several steps to make paper in China. First, the papermaker harvested the fibers. Large pits lined with stones or wooden vats were used to soak, or ret, the fibers for up to three months. The papermaker then pounded the fibers into a pulp, likely using wooden tools or stones. Then the papermaker poured a scoop of the pulp on top of a mold and spread it out evenly by hand. Water drained through a screen below, leaving the pulp behind. These molds were then placed in the sun to dry.

Around 500 years later, papermaking expanded to Korea where several advances were made including : animal powered grinding or pulping mills, the invention of a laid paper mold, and moving the wet paper onto wooden boards to dry, allowing the paper molds to be reused more quickly. These early Koreans are also responsible for two inventions that we still used today: the envelope, and toilet paper.

And with the advent of paper, and the circulation around the globe along the Silk Road books began to change shape. At around 4 CE codices began to outnumber scrolls due to their economy of size and shape, but after the advent of paper the codex book form became the standard. Most early codices were spiritual texts or ledgers and much of the binding styles that came about during the onset of the codex book form were vast. .

One of the earliest sewn book structures is called the coptic stitch. The Coptic Stitch originated in Egypt around 2AD and other Northern African areas and was developed by a sect of Egyptian Christians, called the Copts. Coptic binding is still one of the most durable and beginner friendly bookbinding methods that’s been developed. It boasts elegantly braided stitching with its exposed spine along with rigid hard covers. This book form is considered an ‘unsupported ‘technique of sewing a book block because it requires no specialized equipment to keep the book stable while it’s being sewn, whereas other book forms require a cord or a ribbon to be used to stabilize the block and support the tension of the pages being opened and the spine being bent. The coptic binding is an all-in-one technique where the same stitches that sew the signatures together also serve as stabilizers for the book block.

And after this point, books stayed in their rectangular shape because of how paper was milled and produced. Today, with different technological advances, we are able to produce a wide variety of shapely books in large editions. The advent of the laser cutter is a great example of technology that is helping artists engineer new and exhibiting shapes within book arts. Two recent books from my press explore different shapes that, despite the complexity, have completely enchanted me!

The first is Dream eats Memory. Dream eats Memory is a meander book and accompanying enclosure that tells the story of being eaten by a snake as a metaphor for being engulfed by depression. The book is printed using a combination of letterpress and archival inkjet printing on 80lb French Paper. The covers are wrapped with letterpress printed paper. The enclosure is a box with a hinged lid topped with a snake head sculpted from Apoxie Clay and painted using water-based acrylic paint, then finished with an archival glossy varnish. The book measures 1.75”x2.25” and the enclosure is 4”x2”x3”. This set was made in an edition of 18 and will be assembled to order, each snake head box is uniquely made so variations will exist within the edition. 

The artwork on the meander book utilizes both sides of the paper. One side is the archival print of a drawing showing a figure being eaten by a snake. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that in addition to book-making, I also draw…ALOT. Much of my newer drawings, including this one, are all components of a game that is in development titled Inferno. It’s still very much in the preliminary development phase, but learning to combine this project with my book arts pieces has really reinvigorated my studio practice!

The second work that I’m exceptionally excited about is Ever Dream of this Man? I grew up as someone who was chronically online, and most of my friendships developed on chat rooms and in video games. While scrolling Tumblr one day, a man with a sly smile and robust eyebrows appeared on my feed with the caption “Ever Dream of This Man?”, Of course not!, I thought, but the fear of someone invading my dreams was disturbing.‘This Man’ is a figure of internet folklore that is rumored to have visited thousands of people in their dreams. What began in 2007 as a global marketing campaign by Andrea Natella to promote a film (that was never produced) quickly spiralled out of control. In the span of 3 years, ‘This Man’ had hooked his way into Youtube ghost stories, early Internet memes, Spam emails, and Tumblr. Then fiction became fact, as several real-life accounts of ‘This Man’ appearing in people’s dreams flooded bulletin boards solidifying him as not just a myth, a folk-tale, but also as fact.

‘Ever Dream of This Man?’ is a hardcover pamphlet stitch book with accompanying hexaflexagon, and enclosure that explore the worldwide marketing campaign turned internet folklore ‘This Man’. The book includes a brief essay about the history of this mysterious dream invader, and the hexaflexagon has 6 unique images that can be folded and transformed on a whim!

It was printed on French Paper using archival inkjet printing, and the box and book are wrapped in synthetic leather. The enclosure measures 5”x4.5”x1.5”, and the book measures 3.5”x4”x0.25”. Finally it was made in a small edition of 10.

This piece was also made for the International Dark Folklore exhibition hosted by the Gothe Residency of the Arts and Dark Cornwall. This exhibit is being held at the Cornwall Museum of Art for one night only on August 16th! I am doing a lot of personal fundraising to pay for things like my flight ticket, food, and a place to stay so if you, dear reader, would like to buy zines, prints, artist books, a game please consider visiting my shop! Any and all proceeds will help make it easier for me to help participate in this exhibit.