An opportune moment for this event since there have been two recent major exhibitions, the large Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition
Blood on Paper in April/June this year and the exhibition in the Centre for Contemporary Art at Glasgow of the work of Yugoslav/Croatian dissident book artist
Mladen Stilanovic.
The symposium was attended by over 75 delegates from across Britain and consisted of six papers delivered through the day. The complexity of the subject quickly became apparent in the six different approaches adopted. Sarah Bodman, from the AHRC funded Centre for Fine Print Research at University of the West of England in Bristol, presented a wide variety of current contemporary examples much of it contrasting with the luxury products that featured so strongly in the Victoria and Albert exhibition
Blood on Paper. She also, as did a number of the speakers, emphasised the relationship of book arts practice to Poetry and gave particular emphasis to the haptic enjoyment and pleasure of making associated with this field.
On the subject of the hand-made,
Gerald Fleuss, from the Edward Johnston Foundation, gave a fascinating insight into the history and current practice of calligraphy in particular the use of the broad pen. He speculated on what might happen if such practices were reintroduced to the contemporary art school curriculum. Susan Skarsgaard raised the theme of exhibition problems in book arts with a defence of the digital and its possible use in enabling at least some sense of the content of rare unique artists books. Much of the day raised questions about the nature of both ‘book’ and ‘artist’ in the term artists’ books and there was some playful comment on drawing or transgressing boundaries. Susan Skarsgaard evidenced this in her practice not only as an independent printmaker but also as a designer working for General Motors and producing lavish books.
The artifice of the designer was further taken up by
George Hardie who in describing his practice as a designer/artist, collector and teacher remarked that “I notice things and get things noticed;” which nicely summated this peculiar role of a book designer involved in sequencing and page turning, done with wit. Mark Pawson also addressed ludic wit but very much within the context of mail art, cheap photocopying and the creating of books that, as he put it, “I could afford to buy;” essentially a practice concerned also with constructing and seeking out audiences across conceptual art fanzines and punk graphics alike. Sam Winston addressed more philosophical propositions as in “what might happen to content in the intimacy of its absorption’” or when the “space of the page suggests other internal spaces in the head,’ or indeed the gallery. Much of what he showed brought such spaces together in dramatic installation form.
The final panel discussion did not perhaps provide hard answers to these questions. It did bring, however, clarity to some issues associated with modern book arts as a genre. This is worth pursuing on a number of different levels not least because it exemplifies some of the long held traditions of Brighton as an art school and indeed it exemplifies that much vexed question of inter-disciplinarity; to the point; to the point where one should look forward to a similar event next year?
Peter Seddon was the chair of the symposium.
