Art as Book or Book as Art
This article appeared in State of the Art, 1998. Author: Noreen Grahame
3rd artists’ books + multiples fair brisbane
Madonna Staunton, Untitled, 1996, recycled wood and Chinese woodcut, worked with crayon, paint and letraset, unique, 14.5 x 11.5 x 6.0 cm. Collection: Centre for the Artist Book, Brisbane.
The changing social and political climate of the 1960s and the early 1970s provoked the birth of the modern artists’ books movement. Many current commentators writing of this period maintain that artists wished to bypass the gallery system, to democratise art, and that the book became the most appropriate vehicle. But the former librarian at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Clive Phillpot, writes, “What seems to have escaped the notice of such (uncritical commentators) was that many of the pamphlets of the sixties and early seventies were published by galleries.” He asks, “Were the galleries trying to circumvent themselves?” And adds, “John Baldessari’s observation that artists’ books were a kind of cheap line from the dealers was only too true of many of these publications. But if they were relatively cheap to purchase, they were not so cheap to publish.”[i] Nevertheless, technological advances in printing and the advent of the photocopier made it possible for artists to self publish, and whether it was being published by the artists themselves or by their galleries, we now had a ‘new’ book.
This new book was not a painting nor was it a sculpture, but it was no longer just a book. The book had become a new art form, and new definitions had to be found to describe it. The term ‘artists’ books’ derives from the French livres d’ artistes, those deluxe limited edition books usually illustrated by renowned painters in collaboration with writers. It is not clear when the term ‘artists’ books’ was first use to include those cheap, unlimited editions, but Clive Phillpot dates its first usage in this context to the 1973 exhibition titled ‘Artists’ Books’ at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. This exhibition included deluxe limited edition livres d’artistes as well as the cheaper unlimited editions, and the exhibition title came to denote the modest artists’ publications and was employed in this context, again according to Clive Phillpot, for some fifteen years.
Until this time the relationship between visual art and the book was clear. The book was a receptacle for art history. Ulises Carrión who established an artists’ books space in Amsterdam in the early 1970s wrote, ‘In order to read the old art, knowing the alphabet is enough. In order to read the new art, one must apprehend the book as a structure, identifying its elements and understanding their function.’[ii] Artists began experimenting with the book format, with the shape and the size of the book. The artist’s book itself was becoming many things. It was a book but could also be an object. In ‘Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972′[iii] there is a report on Clement Greenberg’s Art & Culture, published in America in the early 1960s. It had found its way into the library of the St. Martins School of Art, London, and in August, 1966, John Latham, a part-time lecturer at St. Martins, taking exception to its influence on students and to its title, borrowed it from the library. He invited artists, students and critics to an event called ‘STILL & CHEW’.
On arrival they were asked to take a page from ‘Art & Culture’ chew it and spit the product into a flask. With some selective choosing around a third of the book ended up in the flask to which was added sulphuric acid, a neutralizer and yeast. ‘Art & Culture’ bubbled away for almost a year until Latham received a postcard marked VERY URGENT, requesting the return of the book as it was wanted urgently by a student.
‘Art & Culture’ was distilled, bottled, labelled and returned in its new guise. It took some time to convince the librarian that this was indeed Greenberg’s ‘Art & Culture’, and the next day the principal of St. Martins wrote to Latham saying he was unable to invite him to do any more teaching.
How does one classify Latham’s ‘Art & Culture’? Is it an altered book, a book object, an anti-book, a project book, or just a book?
Noreen Grahame
grahame galleries + editions, Brisbane
March 1998
Madonna Staunton, Untitled, 1996, recycled wood and Chinese woodcut, worked with crayon, paint and letraset, unique, 14.5 x 11.5 x 6.0 cm. Collection: Centre for the Artist Book, Brisbane.
[i] Phillpot, Clive 1994, Booktreck: The Next Frontier in 1st ArtistBook International, Ist ArtistBook International, Paris 1994.
[ii] Carrión, Ulises 1975, The New Art of Making Books in Plural no 41, Mexico.
[iii] Lppard, Lucy R ed. 1973, Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object, Studio Vista, London.