the book project
Over lunch one day, Claire and Ruth came up with an idea for a collaborative project inspired by an artist’s book which we had been looking at (which Ruth found in the library at UOW after reading about it in another book). The book is called A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel, by Tom Phillips, (Thames and Hudson, 1980). Phillips took a second-hand book, the first book he found for the price he had decided to spend (choice by serendipity), and it happened to be a Victorian novel called A Human Document. Over some (presumably extensive) period of time he worked into the original book, drawing and painting into every single page, leaving just enough text visible to allow a thread of narrative, and in the end created a new illustrated book from it which incorporates graphic and poetic content. According to his website (www.humument.com) it can be seen as a defining product of post modernism, linking traditions as various as medieval illumination, experimental poetry and non-linear narrative with the procedures of modern art. One of the fascinating things about A Humument is that it is shelved amongst the Victorian novels, not in the art section of the library. So one could come across it accidentally, which would be a great surprise no doubt, if you were looking for Victorian novels…
Inspired by this, and by the book itself (which has some 300 or so artworks as every page has been approached as a discreet work in itself), we got a bit excited and thought it would fun to work on a project based on a similar idea. We thought it would be more interesting as a collaborative project, with several people involved and several books circulating. This would enable a number of approaches, more serendipity, and create an ongoing project to which we could all devote as much or as little time as we each have. Over lunch we came up with a bit of a structure for the project in the form of a set of rules (see below). We also thought it might be interesting to generate some specific rules for each book once we had seen them, as an informed response (see below). We also thought the project would work better if there weren’t too many people involved, so we came up with a short list of people we’d like to work with and are hoping you might all be interested in being involved.
Five participants
--Ruth
--Claire
--Nicole
--Marg
--Belinda
Five books
--One chosen by each participant
--Second-hand and inexpensive
--Not too big (considering potential postage costs)
A number of set terms
--Books to be rotated amongst the group until finished
--Each book is kept for 1 month at a time, before sending on to the next person
--Books rotated at the end of each calendar month (so we don’t forget…)
--The number of pages that you choose to rework during this period is up to you
--The order of the pages that you choose to rework during this period is also up to you
--Each page of each book must be treated in some way by the end of the project
--Treatment may include removal!
--The project will continue until all books are finished
--Copyright to be shared by all
--Each book is to be returned to its original owner, unless otherwise negotiated
A number of terms to be decided
In addition to the basic framework set out above, we can jointly determine a number of additional guidelines for each of the five books. We thought these could be set up during an initial rotation period, where each participant will have one of the books for one week (before passing them on) and suggest a guideline in response to it. Once all the books have circulated and each book has gained a set of (5) guidelines - one from each of us – we can begin working on the books. These rules might focus on content (poetic or textual), materials, techniques, approaches, or any other relevant aspect. They should aim to be sympathetic to the original artefact and to the project itself in order to inspire and inform the work, rather than confine it.
Our suggested timeframe
By 10 October: Let us know if you would like to participate
By 17 October: Select your book and mail it to Claire
By 20 October: We will organise the initial rotation of all five books
More information about the original artist’s book: A Humument
--Catalogued at 823.9/PHI if your library has a copy of the book
--The official website is: http://www.humument.com/
--Tom Phillips’ website: http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/
(Both these sites include extensive image galleries)
Other books on artists’ books:
--The Century of Artists’ Books, Johanna Drucker, 1994/2004, Granary Books, NY
--Guardare, Raccontare, Pensare, Conservare (Looking, Telling, Thinking, Collecting: four directions of the artist’s book from the Sixties to the present), curated by Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Liliana Dematteis, Giorgio Maffei, Annalisa Rimmaudo, 2004, Edizioni Corraini, Italy
Please add to this list if you have any suggestions – it would be great to compile a number of references on artist’s books.
Inspired by this, and by the book itself (which has some 300 or so artworks as every page has been approached as a discreet work in itself), we got a bit excited and thought it would fun to work on a project based on a similar idea. We thought it would be more interesting as a collaborative project, with several people involved and several books circulating. This would enable a number of approaches, more serendipity, and create an ongoing project to which we could all devote as much or as little time as we each have. Over lunch we came up with a bit of a structure for the project in the form of a set of rules (see below). We also thought it might be interesting to generate some specific rules for each book once we had seen them, as an informed response (see below). We also thought the project would work better if there weren’t too many people involved, so we came up with a short list of people we’d like to work with and are hoping you might all be interested in being involved.
Five participants
--Ruth
--Claire
--Nicole
--Marg
--Belinda
Five books
--One chosen by each participant
--Second-hand and inexpensive
--Not too big (considering potential postage costs)
A number of set terms
--Books to be rotated amongst the group until finished
--Each book is kept for 1 month at a time, before sending on to the next person
--Books rotated at the end of each calendar month (so we don’t forget…)
--The number of pages that you choose to rework during this period is up to you
--The order of the pages that you choose to rework during this period is also up to you
--Each page of each book must be treated in some way by the end of the project
--Treatment may include removal!
--The project will continue until all books are finished
--Copyright to be shared by all
--Each book is to be returned to its original owner, unless otherwise negotiated
A number of terms to be decided
In addition to the basic framework set out above, we can jointly determine a number of additional guidelines for each of the five books. We thought these could be set up during an initial rotation period, where each participant will have one of the books for one week (before passing them on) and suggest a guideline in response to it. Once all the books have circulated and each book has gained a set of (5) guidelines - one from each of us – we can begin working on the books. These rules might focus on content (poetic or textual), materials, techniques, approaches, or any other relevant aspect. They should aim to be sympathetic to the original artefact and to the project itself in order to inspire and inform the work, rather than confine it.
Our suggested timeframe
By 10 October: Let us know if you would like to participate
By 17 October: Select your book and mail it to Claire
By 20 October: We will organise the initial rotation of all five books
More information about the original artist’s book: A Humument
--Catalogued at 823.9/PHI if your library has a copy of the book
--The official website is: http://www.humument.com/
--Tom Phillips’ website: http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/
(Both these sites include extensive image galleries)
Other books on artists’ books:
--The Century of Artists’ Books, Johanna Drucker, 1994/2004, Granary Books, NY
--Guardare, Raccontare, Pensare, Conservare (Looking, Telling, Thinking, Collecting: four directions of the artist’s book from the Sixties to the present), curated by Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Liliana Dematteis, Giorgio Maffei, Annalisa Rimmaudo, 2004, Edizioni Corraini, Italy
Please add to this list if you have any suggestions – it would be great to compile a number of references on artist’s books.
posted by Claire at 4:35 PM
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