|
Introduction
Contemporary art, by default, is a continuum that tolerates, and in fact welcomes indefinite numerical values of materials and techniques; the ever-increasing diversity of mediums _not just media_ help artists to realize their concepts, ideas, revolt, ideologies and values.
The continuous evolution and progress in technology and the incorporation of technological elements in the works of artists, drove creators to alternative source of inspiration, some abandoning totally traditional mediums, others using traditional mediums in a variety of totally untraditional methods of incorporation in the artwork.
More and more in the fifties, sixties and seventies of the twentieth century artists were driven to focus and work on their concepts away from “the craft” of the making; abstraction and conceptualization reigned, and the process of production ever since took paramount importance, sometimes more than the final artwork/product.
In total surprise to the evolution of things, today many artists who work and express in untraditional mediums resort to sketch and scrap books, basic as they may seem, much sophisticated they turn to be; those books are magnificent tools, many times under-regarded and under-represented, to document the process of the art practice.
Historical Note
Artists produced books for over two millennia, much before the traditional book form that we know today, created before but propagated after the invention of printing, and much before the description of artist was ever fully defined by man.
Scrolls/pages were made of treated leather, flattened plant stems or leaves, and later paper; surfaces included both texts and illustrations.
In fact, much earlier in history, scrolls and books recorded language in a pictographic form, depending on visual symbols with illustrative indications for meanings.
Later language became ideographic, somehow closer to abstraction, where one symbol carried several meanings"
In her book Century of Artists Books , Riva Castleman traces how photography entered the game of bookmaking, and later how artists used this new medium to incorporate in their books and artworks. As early as the nineteenth century artists became interested in making unique books as stand-alone pieces.
She studies the historical background of book art, the beginning of artist's book, the subjects that artists dealt with and book production and its relation with other arts.
She successfully follows how, with the development with mass printing, the relationship between the artists and the artisans involved in printing became sophisticated and indispensable; with time, publishers and writers joined the team of the book-making. Today, galleries and foundations work with teams of printmakers and artisans to produce unique books for artists like Jasper Jones, David Hockney, Georges Revolt and Sol le Wit, to name a few.
Books as a Contemporary Form of Expression
Today we can trace two principal approaches that artists take to working with books; the book as a content, be it intellectual, philosophical or other, where the artist use the content as a principal tool for expression, beside the creative manipulation involved in the work; this is many times is referred to as “artists’ books” or more precisely “fine books of limited edition”; the second approach is "books as works of art", where, regardless of the content, the book itself becomes through manipulation a creative piece of artwork.
Fine Books and Uniqueness in Genre
Respecting some content, artists worked through the content with their creative/manipulative techniques: drawing, etching, coloring, then transforming such works into typographical molds in order to reproduce a limited number of fine printings for exquisite acquisition.
Typical for such pieces in their early history, the books would include fine prints of prominent photographers, painters, and graphic designers, whose works are based on the literary texts involved in the content.
The fine books would sometimes include prose and poetry to enhance the finesse; Portfolios of independent fine works were also produced, all for exquisite collecting.
Fine books were powerful artworks that combine the book content with art and artisan work, with a price that was more than the book and less than the price of a painting. This form is still in practice and has its markets and collectors circles. The art finesse makes books go beyond their pages and play in a different art field, unique in its specificity.
Unique Books as Visual Works of Art: a Genre is born
Sketch blocks, scrap books, architectural blue prints, tracing paper drafts, scribbling texts on café napkins, among thousands of other pencil, crayon or colorful acts of illustrative thoughts are among the seminal forms of artists books/artworks.
In recent contemporary art history, many artists’ studio acts, objects, tracing drafts and scribbling became regarded and treated as pieces of art that trace the artist’s process, and hence get more light and importance. Most of those drafts and scribbling are either compiled on unique piece/book or spread in frames over museum walls and given the treatment of a complete artwork.
Many artists compile their thoughts and observation, images and writings as well their notes and sketches in a workbook. Today it became a genre and tool of expression, much acknowledged and sometimes solicited by collectors and museums.
Hypothesis of Motives
This new medium, if we can call it so, solicits and seeks to experiment and probe new values, beyond the book content. The book is transformed into a sculptural field of research, with new aesthetics of form, color, space and conceptual meaning.
The idea/concept becomes the objective of the art practice, not the very final product " .
Artists’ books thus transform the viewing process altogether, and adds a tactile, or visually tactile, value to the viewing experience, where the viewer can touch and flip in the piece, a type of interactivity that painting and photography cannot attain, and only books can.
Artists Books in Egypt
The first time for Egyptian audience to experience a full range of unique artists’ books took place at the Grand Mubarak Library in the year 2000, with an exhibition of American Artists’ books entitled One of a Kind, organized by the United States Department of State, in collaboration with the National Center of Fine Arts. Curators Suzanne Horvitz and Robert Roesch delivered two workshops in Cairo and Alexandria for young artists.
The first organized attempt to trace the practice of unique artists’ book making by contemporary Egyptian artists dates to the year 2002, when Bibliotheca Alexandrina (known in lay language as Library of Alexandria) organized/launched the first “international” biennial of artists book under the name of Imagining the book . The exhibition and its workshop aimed at envisaging how books would be like in the future, something that was not easily reflected by the title; the event though managed to attract several Egyptian artists who had never tackled the medium, and others who have had prior experience with the medium.
The workshop statistics/warehousing books record the wildest of materials that were delivered to artists upon their requirement: burning tools, conserving or dissolving chemical substances, light-sensitive materials, honey wax, stationary adhesive materials, cement, twine, sand, iron, wood, glass, pieces of furniture, bullets, lead, maps, magnifying lenses, laser ray pointers and various types of paper.
The works produced works reflected a diversity of contemporary issues: gender, migration, identity, ideology, politics and simple too personal/intimate elements.
Drawing a Map of Practices
After five international events at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and the involvement of many Egyptian artists in the unique book-making practice, we can trace the approaches as working through four principal pillars:
- Painterly approach: where drawing, coloring, collage, inscription and printing inside books without going out of their pages, papers or covers becomes the rule and restriction in this practice.
- Manipulative/Sculptural approach: where the book is treted only as a sculptural element, and a surface to shape, manipulate and color.
- Techno approach: where solid, technological and/or electronic elements are involved in the making of the book; computers, screens, video and laser applications may be involved.
- Installation/Surround approach: where photography simulation and various installation elements are paramount in the construction of the book insinuation.
Conclusive Thoughts
In her introduction to the touring exhibition One of a Kind, Judith Hoff berg insists that books will not remain the main method of storing and distributing information. They will not remain the main source of storing and developing human knowledge in the contemporary civilization as they used to be. However, books will play a new role. Their conductive function will focus on aesthetic values and dimensions more than on storing and imparting information.
* Wael Darwish is a Cairo-based painter, installation and video artist; he is Ph.D. holder in art and education form Helwan University, Cairo. International group shows include: Trilogie Méditerranéenne: from Athens to Marseille to Cairo, Palais des Arts, Marseille, France, 2008, The Present Out of the Past Millennia: Contemporary Art of Egypt, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany, 2007.
Wael Darwish’s work will be exhibited as part of the next 11th Cairo Biennale, December 2008.
|
|
