artists books (Alcain-Baselitz)

Alfredo Alcain 1936 Spain

Io Sono Pinocchio (1984)

b&w etching of Pinocchio’s nose 10 x 63cm (open), 10 x 6.5 cm folded. Housed in plastic cassette case. Signed, dated and editioned in pencil. Edition 120/195. Galeria Estampa, Madrid.

One drawing as frontispiece and blank pages inserted between carbon paper in carbon paper box. An ever changing book – through turning the pages the viewer leaves marks on the inserted pages, rendering each book unique. 34.4 x 22.8 cm. Unknown edition. Published by the artist.

Giovanni Anselmo 1934 Italy

Lire (1990)

A work devoted to the visual properties of the printed word. Taking the simple word, lire (read), Anselmo varies the size and scale on the page until a progression is established. As you flip through the book the word becomes smaller and then gradually larger and larger until the book concludes with a completely black page where the word is no longer readable. 80pp, 21×16cm, pbk, printed offset. Imshoot, Uitgevers for Affinites Selectives, Ghent, Belgium.
Grahame, Noreen (ed.), 1991, Artists’ Books – The Catalogue, grahame galleries + editions.
Drucker, Johanna, 1995, The Century of Artists’ Books, Granary Books, NY.

Ian Anüll Switzerland 1948

Art in Safe (1989)

Foreword to work:?The work of 8 artists will be put in a safe deposit box (30 x 50 x 10cm)?in the Banque Hypothécaire du Canton de Genève.?-The 8 keys of the safes will be displayed in the Ruine, Geneva.?-The works themselves may be viewed on appointment at the bank.?-By buying the key you become the owner of the work.?-The works presented in the catalogue do not correspond to those?deposited at the bank.?Participating artists:?Joseph Beuys; Guillaume Bijl; Daniel Buren; Les Levine; Hermann Nitsch; Dennis Oppenheim; Meret Oppenheim; Fanz Erhard Walther. Catalogue as artist book. Open ended edition. Vexer Verlag, St Gallen, Switzerland.

Natalie d’Arbeloff Paris since 1964 lives London

Philosophy (1990)

Coloured etchings/acquatints on Japanese Hodomura with hand-colouring in acrylics on the reverse. Handmade indian endpaper. Japanese-style binding and slipcase made by Rob Hadrill with dovering paper by NdA. Philosophy is the first of a series of NdA publications titled The Gabriel Books to be produced by d’Arbeloff as a limited edition. 10 x 25 cm. London.?Grahame, Noreen (ed.), 1991, Artists’ Books – The Catalogue, grahame galleries + editions

Anthony Aziz 1961 USA

Excavations (1989)

Public Restroom in the Urban Environment?An Archeological Survey – Series No 12, vol. III – no. 1??A humorous look at archeological digs with this contemporary archeological survey documenting erotic graffiti in a male “public restroom”. Edition of 250 unsigned and unnumbered copies. 12pp, 21 x 14cm. Published by the artist, in cnjunctin with exhibition Southern Exposure at Project, San Francisco, California.

John Baldessari 1931 USA

The Telephone Book (1988)

The conceptual artist’s large collection of film stills is given a new narrative context through his intuitive cropping, collage and juxtapositions. The Telephone Book contains many of the graphic elements which Baldessari brought into his large photo-collage works of the 1980s – particularly the odd but distinctive shapes of the cropped images and the brightly colored circles or dots used to cover faces or other important details.?The Telephone Book is articulated mainly through the use of dramatic stills shots. In the opening sequence there is an image of a phone caught between two different persons’ hands; then the neck of a woman dancing with a male partner – again displaying pearls; and a third image in which another woman in a black cocktail dress wearing another string of pearls speaks on the phone. The sequence’s structure replays the main themes of the title through a careful deconstruction of the elements – the telephone and pearls – into variations on their identity. The same elements show up, but as different versions, and the assumption of their relation is strong enough to carry through the book into every appearance of phone or pearls. Male power and female objectification are presented as pictorial and cultural stereotypes… (Drucker, The Century of Artists’ Books, pp. 222-3). 66pp unpaginated, 21.0 x 14.6 cm, soft cover, 45 colour reproductions. Imshoot, Uitgers for IC, Belgium.
Drucker, Johanna, 1995, The Century of Artists’ Books, Granary Books, NY.
Grahame, Noreen (ed.) 1991, Artists’ Books – The Catalogue, grahame galleries + editions
Lauf, Cornelia and Phillpot, Clive, 1998, Artist/Author Contemporary Artists’ Books, Distributed Art Publishers Inc. and The American Federation of Arts, New York.

Zorro (Two Gestures and One Mark) (1998)

Gestures taken from films (Humphrey Bogart, Jean Paul Belmondo. The recreated gestures are taken from three popular films, Jean-Paul Belmondo wipes his lip, Zorro leaves his mark, and Humphey Bogart chuckles. A flip book without commentary. 152 pp with 76 images, 15.0 x 10.0 cm. Edition of 800 signed and numbered copies, and an edition unsigned and unnumbered. Gallery holds signed copy No 196/800. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Köln: Oktagon Verlag,
Moeglin-Delcroix, Anne, Dematteis, L, Maffei, G & Rimmaudo, A, 2004, guardare/raccontre/pensare/conservare (looking. telling. thinking. collecting) four direction of the artist’s book from the Sixties to the present, Casa del Mantegna, Mantova, Edizioni Corraini.

John Baldessari and Meg Cranston
Lamb (1989)

This book was produced as a supplement to an installation created for IVAM, Valencia, Spain, May 1989. 17.0 x 12.5cm, 12pp. IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, Spain.
Grahame, Noreen (ed.) 1991, Artists’ Books – The Catalogue, grahame galleries + editions, Brisbane.

Stephen Banham Australia

Qwerty (1991-1996)

A series of idosyncratic booklets looking at various aspects of Australian typography. “Qwerty” takes its title from the first six letters of the English keyboard. The six books in the project commenced from 1991 to1996. Some issues were printed offset, some letterpress, some used stencils and some contain found ephemera and rubberstamps.

Qwerty 1Q: For Those who get their fingers dirty (1991)

A reaction against the artless early desktop publishing period, Qwerty 1 was designed during the late shift at a newspaper design office. This first issue of Qwerty is based on hand-generated type with interviews with Noel Pennington at the St.Kilda-based studio Design Bite and the freelance designer Peter Long. Although never intended to be so, this issue is now considered quite a historical document of an earlier period of Melbourne graphic design. The tiny format of Qwerty (74 x 105mms) was a product of sheer economy and was the only way to get 24 pages out of a small two colour sheet. 10.5 x 7.5 cm, 24 pp. Edition of 250. The Letterbox, Melbourne.

Qweerty 2W: Australian Vernacular (1992)

Exploring the sheer diversity of the Australian vernacular, this issue asks noted Australian graphic designer and collector of ephemera, Mimmo Cozzolino, whether there is a distinctive Australian vernacular style. The answer was ultimately inconclusive – but it was a worthwhile journey to discover that seeking an ‘Australian style’ is a self-defeating argument. After all, the beauty of Australian culture is its diversity and reluctance to be classified. 10.5 x 7.5 cm, 24 pp. Edition of 250. The Letterbox, Melbourne.

Qwerty 3 E: A Shadow of its former self? (1993)

An intentionally anticipating the boom in urban stencilling by a decade or so, the third issue of Qwerty was centred around stamps and stencil typography. All of the text and imagery in the issue hand stencilled, which in a publication of A7 dimensions, is quite a feat. This issue is testimony to the beauty of these portable and unique mediums of expression. Features early career contributions from Fabio Ongarato amongst others. 10.5 x 7.5 cm, 24 pp. Edition of 250. The Letterbox, Melbourne.

Qwerty 4 R: Recession? (1994)

Produced after the recession of the early 1990s, this issue of Qwerty was an observation of the typographic fall-out from such economic hardship. This included a survey of business signage being wrenched off buildings and other skeletal remains of spent commerce. The text is set in a customised typeface (Bankrupt) based on the glue outlines that are left after a sign is removed. This issue features a tipped-in four colour letterpress section printed in Sydney. 10.5 x 7.5 cm, 24 pp. Edition of 250. The Letterbox, Melbourne.

Qwerty 5 T: Big is Beautiful? (1995)

A collection of the biggest letters in Australia from A through to Z, each letter is measured in metres, feet and even points. In case you’re wondering the biggest was an uppercase Y estimated at being half a kilometre in dimensions (it was written in the sky). This issue also introduced the now notorious 2 mile Readymix logotype in the Australian desert which has been researched in subsequent writings such as Fancy. 10.5 x 7.5 cm, 64 pp. Edition of 250. The Letterbox, Melbourne.

Qwerty 6 Y: At home with the Alphabet? (1996)

Based on domestic forms of typography, this issue features typefaces made from icing sugar and a study of type featured on Australian letterboxes. Being the sixth Qwerty, this issue was the last of the set and drew to a close the series a very specific time and place in Australian typography. Having sold out the edition of 250 copies in 1996, they are now collected all over the world. 10.5 x 7.5 cm, 64 pp. Edition of 250. The Letterbox, Melbourne.

Grahame, Noreen (ed.) 1996, artists’ books + multiples fair ‘96, numero uno publications, Brisbane.

Monica K. Batholomé 1950 Germany

geheimLicht (1984)

15th booklet, Edition Hundertmark. 16pp unpaginaged, 7 drawings printed offset, 20.9 x 14.7cm. Edition Hundertmark, Cologne. Collection holds copy from 2nd edition.
Glasmeier, Michael, 1994, Die Bücher der Künstler: Publikationen und Editionen seit den sechziger Jahren in Deutschland, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Edition Hansjörg Mayer, Stuttgart.
Grahame, Noreen (ed.) 1991, Artists’ Books – The Catalogue, grahame galleries + editions, Brisbane.

Georg Baselitz 1938 Germany

Ce que to n’est pas est un autoportrait (2002)

Book of Baselitz’s texts in French with loose untitled ’self portrait’ engraving 21 x 11.5 cm. Reflecting the artist’s working method the title and chapter headings are written upside down. 46 pp, 21 x 12.5 cm. This is the 55th title from the ongoing edition ‘l’art en écrit’. Editions Jannink, Paris.