Beatrix Potter Rarities at BibliOdyssey

Spectacled Mouse Reading Newspaper
Previously unknown drawing dating from the first year of Potter's association with Hildesheimer & Faulkner greeting card manufacturers (1892).

If your a Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit or Benjamin Bunny fan then peacay's recent post, Beatrix Potter Rarities, at BibliOdyssey is a must see. peacay features numerous rare Potter sketches, watercolors and drawings, many from her days as a greeting card illustrator before her huge success as a book illustrator.

What is of particular interest here is that all images were culled from the archives of Sotheby's and Christie's and not from the digital archive of various library special collections. It opens up a whole new world by offering us a glimpse of important material that usually ends up in private hands. The image archives of the leading auction houses are a goldmine and greatly enhance the understanding and study of our material culture.

The Image of the Child in American Picture-Book Art

Illustration Copyright © 2002 by Yumi Heo. From Henry's First Moon Birthday by Lenore Look.

The Getty Gallery at the Los Angeles Public Library is currently hosting, The Image of the Child in American Picture-Book Art, the first U.S. exhibit devoted exclusively to the image of the child in contemporary picture-book art.

“Today, more talented artists by far are involved in picture-book making than ever before, with art schools, museums, and galleries most recently becoming devoted to picture-book illustration as an art form,” said picture-book historian Leonard S. Marcus.

They exhibit focuses on illustrations of the last ten years and is divided into the following categories:
The New Child
The Child in the Family
The Child at School and Play
The Child in the Community
The Child in History
The Questioning Child and
The New Picture Book.

Featured illustrators include: Etienne Delessert, Marla Frazee, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Maurice Sendak, William Steig and Chris Van Allsburg.

The show was organized by the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY, and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, and is co-curated by Marcus, art historian Jane Bayard Curley and librarian Caroline Ward and runs through September 14.

Speaking of picture-books. Don't miss Erica S. Pearl's piece at Salon.com, "I'm Talking to You, Corded! : The Mismatch of Technology and Picture Books." Pearl takes a look at the disconnect between the representation of technology in modern picture-books and the reality of the modern technologies that appear in many children's environments.

Pearl asks the question "Why do modern picture-book scenes often look so dated"

"The homes we see in children's picture books—even books published in the current decade and set in the present—often seem conspicuously dated. There are few computers. E-mail is hardly ever mentioned (much less checked). Phones usually have long, loopy cords tethering the receiver to the base."

She offers numerous visual examples included a few that incorporate the appropriate technology of the day.

Illustration © Sylvia van Ommen from Jellybeans.

The Where of Reading : Field-Tested Books

Talk about books and technology. Is the book on life support? The reader? Is information going in? or coming out?

This fantastic screenprint was designed by John Solimine of Spike Press in an edition of 400 for the recent publication of Coudal Partners' Field-Tested Books. It also serves as the cover art.

For over six years now the folks at Coudal have been asking been asking people to send them 300-500 words about a book they read somewhere; a “certain book read in a certain place.”

The Field-Tested Books book contains three years of reviews featuring 143 entries from more than 90 contributors. It sells for $17 with a portion of the proceeds going to First Book, a charity that buys new books for underprivileged kids.

Book available here

Wipe Away the Confusion

click on image to enlarge

Poster designed by Shaz Madani to promote the M25 Motorway in London.

Front side "gives exact directions that would have to be taken in order to travel from one side of London to the other illustrating the complexity and confusion involved in taking alternate routes through the center of the city"

Back side reads 'wipe away the confusion take the M25"


Thanks to pan-dan for the lead

My Morning Jacket's Beautiful "Librarian"

The highly anticipated new album from My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges, hit the stores this week and on it is a sweet little ballad of desire called "Librarian."

Here is a sample of the lyrics:

walk across the courtyard
towards the library
I can hear the insects buzz and
the leaves 'neath my feet

ramble up the stairwell, into the hall
of books
since we got the interweb these
hardly get used

looking for a lesson in the
periodicals
there I spy you listening to the AM
radio...

it's not like you're not trying, with a
pencil in your hair
to defy the beauty the good lord
put there

simple little bookworm-buried
underneath
is the sexiest librarian...take off
those glasses and let down your hair for me

so I watch you through the bookcase
imagining a scene
you and I at dinner, spending time,
then to sleep...

These guys are good.

New York Times piece on My Morning Jacket "Out of the Comfort Zone, Into the Wild Rock Yonder" by Ben Sisario

People Reading

The Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina recently opened the doors to its' new location with the powerful exhibition People Reading : Selections From the Collection of Donald and Patricia Oresman. The exhibit is perfectly curated by Thomas L. Johnson, librarian emeritus at the University of South Carolina, and consists of 60 works from the vast Oresman collection which consists of over 2,000 images.

Maurice Askenazy PIONEER, 1929 Ink and pencil on paper 2 15/16 x 3 11/16

We see people reading books, we see people reading newspapers, we see people reading alone and in groups, in bed and in the bath, at night and during the day, inside and out. The range and breadth of the images conveys both the power and the pain inherent in the act of reading.

Will Barnett SWING AT DUSK, n.d. Lithograph (edition unknown), 11 x 14 in.

In his introduction to the catalog for the exhibition Johnson mentions that one of the reasons he wanted to curate the show is because "he loves books and art" and "While I do not worship them, I do love them intrinsically-as wonderful and curious objects to be handled or images to be seen and enjoyed spontaneously-as well as for their power to communicate emotionally and intellectually at the deepest levels."

Johnson then goes on to ponder the question as to why such a collection has not be duplicated in the public domain. He offers us this:

"Why not establish a collection in the public domain that brings together these two themes and elements-these twin necessities of reading and artistic expression-in the phenomenal way in which the Oresman's have accomplished this in the private realm?"

Ah, the "twin necessities" for the masses - what a beautiful thought.

View the exhibit online

Catalog available here

Top image: Catalog cover Leo Meissner WAR BULLETINS, c. 1942. Wood engraving (edition of 50) 6 1/8 x 11 1⁄4 in.

The Enduring and Evolving Codex

Is the end of the book near? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer boldy claims in his talk with the Washington Post that "In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down" and there will be "no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network." Though talking particularly about newspapers and magazines there are many who would include the future of the book in his assessment. While I agree that newspapers in there current state are doomed, magazines less so, the book will continue its reign as a premier mode of content delivery. Yes, there is a good possibility that most book content will be available digitally in the next 10 years but this will simply be a complement to the printed book not a replacement.

Before we continue with the funeral arrangements Joyce at Bibliophile Bullpen reminds us that printed book is most enduring media element in the history of mankind.

Here is how it stacks up:

CD-ROMs are estimated to last from 30 to 200 years.
CD-Rs, before they are recorded, have an estimated shelf life of five to ten years.
CD-Rs, after recording, estimated 70 to 200 years.
CD-RWs are expected to last at least 30 years.
Photo CDs have an expected life of over 100 years.
Magnetic tape has a life of 30 to 100 years
Hard drives expected to last 114 to 170 years
A vinyl record has a life span of 100 years
Solid state drives last about 145 Years

while The Archimedes Palimpsest, written on parchment in the codex form, has survived since the second half of the tenth century!

For a comprehensive look at how the codex is evolving in today's world there is the newly published 500 Handmade Books : Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form from Lark Books.


500 Handmade Books is a visual journey through the world of contemporary book arts. The only requirement is for each piece to "function like a book." The books were chosen by Steve Miller who studied under legendary book artist and teacher Walter Hamady and teaches in the book arts program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The book is a stunning testament to the book form and to the artists who continue to find in the book a means to communicate.

Book Details:
500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form. New York: Lark Books, 2008. First Edition. 8" X 8". 419pp. Pictorial french-fold wraps. Illustrated in color. $24.95

Book available here

The Bookselling Dilemma of the Modern Age

This is the cover of the current issue of The New Yorker. It's called “Read-Handed” and was done by Adrian Tomine.

He is about to open the bookshop, she is about to receive the book she ordered on Amazon. Who feels worse?

It is a spectacular graphic representation of the independent struggle; the struggle that both the independent business owner and the independent-minded consumer face in todays book marketplace.

To get a get a better view of the image, and to see Tomine's other book-themed illustrations click here ("Read-Handed" is the 5th image on the first row).

The Artist's Library

Joseph Kosuth. On the Phenomenon of the Library, 2006

The Artist's Library, currently on view at the Centre international d'art et du paysage de l'ile de Vassiviere, features work by 9 contemporary artists whose work centers around the book.

"The Artist’s Library represents a ‘Library of Babel’ like that born in the visionary mind of the great Argentinean writer J. L. Borges. Artists and spectators become its librarians"

This seminal exhibition is curated by Carrie Pilto and consumes all of the Aldo Rossi designed building. The bookshop, the theater, the reading room, the cafe have all become part of the "library."

The artists featured are Carol Bove, Claire Fontaine, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Thomas Hirschhorn, Joseph Kosuth, Maria Pask, Martha Rosler Library publications, Peter Wüthrich and Nina Katchadourian; basically, an a-list of contemporary artists who work with the book.

Thomas Hirschhorn from « Restore now », 2006

"Rules of the game: each of the works integrates the book as a ‘readymade’ or found object. In this way, books are valued not only for their content but also as objects of formal beauty. Some maintain the books’ status as books, offering a framework in which to read the selected volumes. Others transform them, physically or conceptually, into works of art – to contemplate but no longer touch. These works may only suggest, by a cover, title, or citation, the meaning inside. Books become tools, building blocks, weapons, databases..."

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Reading Rug (Dystopia), 2007

Claire Fontaine. Les grands Signes de la fin du Monde brickbat,
L'amour de Dieu brickbat, La fin du Monde brickbat, Le jour dernier brickbat…

This is exciting stuff.

The Artist's Library press release

Previous Book Patrol posts:
Thomas Hirschhorn
Martha Rosler
Nina Katchadourian

The Cabinet National Library

In 2004 on a desolate desert tract on the outskirts of Deming, New Mexico Matthew Passmore, and other members of the San Francisco arts collective Rebar, built a library.

"The Cabinet National Library takes the form of a circle with a radius of twelve feet—viewed from the south, the cabinet is situated at the top, or "12 o'clock" position on the circle. At each of the positions representing three, six and nine o'clock, we have set a solar-powered lantern into the earth to help guide you around the library grounds should you find yourself there after sundown. Each lantern is also outfitted with a light sensor that automatically shuts the light off during daylight hours (while the batteries recharge) and turns the light on at night.

What's in the Library:

"The top cabinet drawer contains the library card catalog, a guest book and other "guest services" (a plush pillow to sit on while you read and an umbrella to shade you).
The middle drawer contains the collection of the first thirteen issues of Cabinet, with each magazine individually-wrapped in a plastic cover for protection from the elements.
The bottom drawer is the "snack bar" which, at the time of our departure, contained a bottle of water, a pair of sturdy workboots (men's size 10) and two cans of steadily-warming beer."

The current issue of The Bear Deluxe Magazine has a piece by Molly Cooney-Mesker on what the folks at Rebar are up to these days (unfortunately, as of this writing the new issue not yet been posted online).

The Legacy of Tom Phillips' HUMUMENT

In 1970, artist Tom Phillips published the first edition of his now-classic altered book Humument with London's Tetrad Press. "A Treated Victorian Novel," Phillips himself has described the project as combining "medieval illumination, experimental poetry and non-linear narrative with the procedures of modern art." As seen in this gallery of images from the first edition or this slideshow of the fourth (Phillips continues to expand and revise the project), the results can be breathtaking. The book's first trade edition in 1980 established it as a cult fave and it remains in-print to this day. Indeed, it is probably the most famous altered book ever produced.

I was reminded of Phillips recently when I stumbled over several projects that clearly owe a debt to his work. Austin Kleon is a cartoonist, designer and writer whose Newspaper Blackout Poems are not nearly as visually arresting as Phillips' work. But Kleon shares a knack with Phillips for producing uniquely moving texts by paring away the surrounding verbiage.

Altered Books, meanwhile, is the project of numerous artists, each working on a particular book: "Cut the bindings off of books found at a used book store. Find poems in the pages by the process of obliteration. Put pages in the mail and send them all around the world. Lather, rinse, repeat." The finished pages are posted regularly to the site and many are quite striking.

Finally, the work of Will Ashford most clearly reflects Phillips' influence. Using predominantly the works of Emerson, Ashford's Recycled Words approaches the subtlety and sophistication of Humument, but with a quieter and more restrained tone:

'The Writing's On The Wall' : Art Meets Language

SHIRIN NESHAT -Rebellious Silence (1994)
Black and white RC print and ink, 27.9 x 35.6 cm.
Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.

The current issue of ArtAsiaPacific features an in depth look at artists who employ text in their work.

Articles include:

-A great piece on contemporary calligraphy in China, "Square Words, Round Paradigms" by Eric Wear.

-A look at Yoko Ono's embrace of online communities (Ono averages 200 new 'friends' on MySpace a day) by HG Masters.

-Gregory Galligan's looks at Islamic text-based art in his piece, "Architecture in Script: From Without Boundaries to Archive Fever," and includes Shirin Neshat whose iconic work appears above.

Also in this issue is Eliza Gluckman's profile of Sharmini Pereira and her publishing imprint, Raking Leaves, which focuses exclusively on artists using the printed book as the medium.

It is refreshing to see how widespread the use of language, and the book for that matter, is in contemporary art. These new avenues of textual consumption expand the boundaries of reading and offer us fresh ways to make sense of the world.

Related: previous Book Patrol post : "The Book Gods of Contemporary Chinese Art"

Landscape with Books

Chris Engman. The Library, 2005

Engman got the books "at a discounted rate from a used bookstore, where many of them had sat on shelves for more than a decade, unwanted, " and constructed The Library in the desert of eastern Washington State.

Haunting in its barrenness yet the mere existence of this textual outpost offers a glimmer of hope.



What did the last visitor take with them? What will the next one find? How much time is left before the desert wins?

Jean Jullien

London based artist Jean Jullien has created some fantastic book themed posters. Above is one for the London night club Cliche, and below one of two new posters about the Fables of La Fontaine.

Also, don't miss Jullien's compelling visual essay about social apathy and the culture of protestation." The piece is titled "don't protest." Jullien places colored flags with printed text in various settings around the house and around town. The flags are also collected in book form.

Thanks to manystuff for the lead and also congratulations to manystuff, the blog has entered the print world with the release of the first issue of their magazine Manystuff #0.

Jullien has an illustration in the premier issue.

DQ : The Ultimate in Online 'Books'

from Beneath a steel sky

We have ebooks and book social networks. We have book trailers and internet book tv but the folks at DQ Books (nothing to do with Dairy Queen) have come up with what just might be the perfect marriage of technology and the book form.

DQ Books brings together artists, illustrators and photographers and places their visuals within the context of the book form using Flash technology. Each thematic issue is accompanied by a soundscape created by French composer Avril.

The first 4 issues are:

Invasion - 7 days of graphic improvisition by Festo and Telemolindo

Seasons - 16 illustrators, artists and photographers invent a life of a woman according to seasons

Where's the Party - Brazilian, Italian and French artists for a narcotic party, carried out with a blue Bic pen

Beneath a steel sky - From Brooklyn to Central Park beneath a steel sky, analog photography by Festo

These are the wordless novels of the 21st Century.


Thanks to Brian Cassidy for the lead

Zechariah Reading

Michelangelo. The Prophet Zechariah. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, 1508-1512

Pearl Jam Visuals

"Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest" -Eddie Vedder

Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros brings together 229 posters created for Pearl Jam from 1995-2007 by the Ames Bros and Brad Klausen.

The book features over 80 comments on individual posters from all five members of Pearl Jam and running commentary from the poster designers -- offering insight into the inspiration, concepts and process of poster creation.

Details:

Bros, Ames and Brad Klausen. Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros: 13 Years of Tour Posters. Ames Bros Inc. / Ten Club LLC, 2007. First Edition. Quarto. 263pp. including index. Illustrated throughout in color with reproductions of over 200 posters. Green cloth lettered in gilt with 3 color illustration on front board. As New, issued without dust jacket.

Book available here


Pearl Jam Press Release

Pop Surrealism Meets the Book

"Dry All My Tears" 2008

Ink and acrylic on old book
Size: 27/29cm (10.5/7.5in)

Mike Stilkey is on a roll. On the heels of his amazing installation, "When the Animals Rebel" at Rice University this past summer comes "An Occasion of Wonder" his one-man show currently on view at at Milieu Gallerie in Bern, Switzerland.

From the exhibit intro:

Using ink, colored pencil, acrilyc, gouache and lacquer Mike Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. His work is reminiscent of Weimar-era German expressionism and his style has been described by some as capturing features of artists ranging from Edward Gorey to Egon Schiele.

"Man Trips and Falls In His Own Country" 2008
Ink, colored pencil and acrylic on old book
Size: 27/29cm (10.5/7.5in)

I can think of no better afterlife for these books.

Here is a neat video of Stilkey at work.




Previous Book Patrol post, "The Book Painting of Mike Stilkey"

Side image: "The First Mortgage" 2008. Ink, colored pencil and acrylic on old books
Size: 77/29cm (30.25/11.25in)

Book Hybrid

"The Future of Books" by Kyle Bean

Thanks to if:book for the lead

The Rory Macbeth Version of the Bible

"Bible", 2007, printed document, edition of 300, 21 x 30 x 0.5cm

Welcome to Rory Macbeth's new word order. Macbeth has developed software that reorganized the complete text of the bible into alphabetical order and then printed it in an edition of 300.

Did you know that there are 313 exclamation marks, 56 uses of the word
'slaughters' and 86 instances of the word 'ass'?

Also of note is Macbeth's 2006 rendering of the text of Sit Thomas Moore's Utopia on the outside of a building in Norwich, UK.