Here are some odds and ends from old books to inspire some new book artists! It’s funny to see how the traditional or conservative designs of one era look bright and audacious to another, not to mention how novels looked in a time before it was so easy to put a photograph or painting on a cover.
Posted in inspiration
Another presence at BAF 6(coming up on the 25th of February) will be Nick Davies/Nik DavEz’s translation of Roland Barthes’ book The Pleasure of the Text into the language of text messages and internet instant messenger services. Davies used the database at transl8it.com for some of the text, while other parts were done “manually”, such as the more academic terms, which were then added to the transl8it database for the benefit of future users.
Davies references the slang used in A Clockwork Orange as an example of language acting as the site of conflict between the values of one generation and the next. Even the title draws attention to this – the double meaning of the word “text” makes it an essential part of the academic’s vocabulary as well as the tech-savvy 21st century teen, as both a noun and now a verb. Davies is humorous as well as conceptual as he forces supposedly disparate parts of culture to speak each others’ language.
In the likes of A Clockwork Orange and Finnegan’s Wake, deviation from the English language as we know it and the constant generation of new words makes us work harder during the act of reading: here Davies’ translation forces readers to become translators themselves. On a purely aesthetic level the pages look completely unlike regular English: words are jagged and choppy and the use of capital letters and numbers pull our attention all over the page. Does Davies distil the ideas behind the text and create a more efficient way of writing, or is the result more distracting, flamboyant and decorative than what we’re used to?
Posted in BAF6, What I want to see
Keep checking the links to the right for new additions to the line-up for Ffotogallery’s 2012 Book Arts Fayre on Saturday 25th February.
Season’s Greetings!
We’ve just received virtual word that the 2012 Dummy Award from Fotobook Festival is now receiving entries. If you have a photobook masterpiece in the making but no publisher and a spare 32 euros, this international competition could be a fantastic opportunity.
Yes, you have to pay 32 euros just to enter, but one silver lining is that 50 of the best submissions (selected by a jury of international professionals) will be exhibited as a part of the Festival, taking place at the Parisian photography art space du jour, Le Bal this coming April 2012. If that isn’t convincing enough odds, first, second and third prizes are awarded, with the first prize winner receiving full production by German publishers Seltmann+Söhne. Although relatively unknown here in the UK, S+S boasts a decent catalogue with a particular interest in photography. The company, since its birth in 2004, takes pride in each publication being designed and printed in house. Last years 2nd and 3rd places were awarded book production with the festival’s other partners Blurb, to the value of 500 and 300 euros.
Two closing dates have been advertised, 31st March and 5th April…March it is then. There’s more information about the competition and how to enter here.
Take a look at last year’s shortlist here. So there you have it. Happy New Year!
Posted in News
This article from Time magazine provokes some interesting questions about zines and self-publishing in an age of globalization. Give it a read and see if you’re convinced that creating physical artefacts in a literary world currently enamoured with internet publishing is in line with, or a betrayal of the counter-cultural roots of the zine.
When does an ethical stance become snobbery? Are there any “wrong” reasons to make a zine?
Would you be turned off a publication because of its high or low production values?
Do you find zines therapeutic to read or create? What makes unedited, unmediated media so appealing to people more accustomed to the opposite?
(With thanks to Ariane Parry for these little gems)
Posted in inspiration
The date is down, bookings are now being taken. BAF 6 is all systems go.
Ffotogallery’s next Book Arts Fayre will be taking place this coming Spring on the 25th February 2012. As usual we are taking over Turner House from 11am – 5pm, all our stall spaces are FREE of charge and yes, the Various Artists stall will be back.
If you would like to apply for one of our free stall spaces or submit works for sale on our Various Artists Stall, please email the team on turnerhouse@ffotogallery.org a brief description and any images or links about your practice, imprint, zines or self publishing initiative by 17 December 2011.
The VA Stall is a curated stall of works for sale by artists/makers who cannot get to the event – Ffotogallery do not take any commission from sales, all we ask is that you cover return postage for any unsold items.
If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch by emailing turnerhouse@ffotogallery.org or call the team on 02920 708870.
Again, A Time Machine is a fluid tour of new commissions and archival presentations drawn from the 27 year history of Book Works, a London based contemporary visual art publisher. Re-imagined as the work moves from venue to venue, the exhibition presents responses to a theme that plays with and inverts notions of time, archive and distribution, received pasts and possible futures.
Related events:
Thursday 15 September, 6-8pm: exhibition preview
Tuesday 20 September, 3-5pm: Book Works Surgery for artists
Tuesday 20 September, 6pm: Book Works: Pasts and Futures
Tuesday 27 September, 6pm: Re-make/Re-model: Performing Documents
Saturday 1 October, 2pm: exhibition tour
Tuesday 4 October, 6pm: Performance: Laure Prouvost and Rory Macbeth
Saturday 8 October, 12-5pm: Artists’ Book and Zine Fair
Posted in Events
Visual Editions are a London-based publisher specializing in “writing that uses visual elements as an integral part of the writing itself” and fresh, original ways to bring together visual and literary arts. The striking aesthetics of these editions aren’t just for decoration, they’re designed to impact upon the experience of reading.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes is a new story cut from the pre-existing novel The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. Below is a video showing the printing and cutting of the books:
Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer: Making Of from Visual Editions on Vimeo.
There’s also an edition of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy that rejects the idea that a conventional printing does justice to the aggressively nonlinear classic. Opting instead for irregular page layouts, doodles and diagrams, and flashes of neon orange ink; this is a reassertion of the novel as a physical artefact that stands out all the more in the current climate of Kindles, iPads and other e-readers.
Posted in inspiration
