Fuck Yeah, Book Arts!

fer1972:

Hand Drawn Traveller Map of London by Wellington’s Travel

Centre for art form that combines crafts of papermaking, typesetting and bookbinding inspired by founder’s US road trip.

“Some people travel the US to see the sights and bright lights, to maybe lose themselves in the kitsch of Vegas or Hollywood’s craziness. Simon Goode, on the other hand, roamed the country to explore the joys of papermaking, typesetting and bookbinding.

“The trip was like a holy grail,” he said, rhapsodising over three months travelling from New York to Los Angeles on a mission that has helped result in Britain’s first ever centre for a craft that is in danger of disappearing: book arts.

That term may be a mystery to some. “It is a difficult one to define and still, to this day, a lot of people don’t know exactly how to define it,” admits Goode.

Essentially, it is creating art in book form. “Then you’ve got the question, what is a book?” he added. “My experiences define it as using traditional techniques, like bookbinding and letterpress making – but not wholly, and not exclusively – for artists to produce their own works.”

If that’s still fuzzy, then Goode hopes people might just come along to his centre to explore an art form whose practitioners have included Richard Long, David Hockney and Ed Ruscha, whose first artist’s book was Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations, which featured 26 photographs of just that. In the UK, the largest number of artists’ books is held by the V&A, while Tate has about 5,500.

It could be said that book arts have been around since medieval illuminated manuscripts, but the craft as we know it emerged from the French tradition of the livres d’artistes, or livres de peinture, around the turn of the 20th century. Since then there have been futurist artists’ books, surrealist artists’ books, conceptual artists’ books and more.

Goode said it was something of an anomaly in the UK that while there has been no centre until now, there are plenty of artists’ book fairs and shops where the books are sold.

That’s not the case in the US, where the first book arts centre opened in New York 38 years ago, with others following in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Goode said his trip to the US “visiting these incredible institutions” was a complete eye-opener and that it was these experiences which led him to create the London Centre for Book Arts in a 365-square metre space in Fish Island, Hackney, which has been funded by membership fees and benefactors.

The centre will offer classes and workshops for both beginners in search of a hobby and professionals who just cannot easily access the specialist equipment needed to create their own artists’ books.

Clive Phillpot, a former director of the Museum of Modern Art’s library in New York, said it was “remarkable that a capital city such as London has not previously had a specific centre for book arts”.

Goode’s mission has been driven by his experiences when he graduated from his book arts course – now earmarked for closure – at the London College of Communication (formerly the London College of Printing) in 2006.

“I soon found out there was nowhere for me to use all these bits of specialised equipment that I’d learned. I spent three years learning all these bookbinding and printmaking techniques, it was amazing and I had a brilliant time and I wanted to carry on, but there was simply no access,” he said.

“Unless you can afford to buy all your own equipment, and you’ve got a living room with reinforced floors, there’s no way of doing it.”

It took two weeks to move in the specialist equipment that Goode had been accumulating and storing in garages over the years, including an impressively intimidating Victorian guillotine once owned by Ted Hughes, who used it for his own small press publications. That has been donated by the University of the West of England in Bristol, while a wooden press from 1897 comes from a former printer in Birmingham who sold it ridiculously cheap so it went to a good home.

“It is a little bit dangerous, which is why it’s chained up at the moment,” said Goode. “It’s not for use by anyone other than myself really. It looks nice though – and it does work.”

Goode opens the centre later this month and hopes to have about 2,000 people through the doors in its first year.

The opening has been welcomed by people in the book arts world. Sarah Bodman, senior research fellow for artists’ books at the University of the West of England’s centre for fine print research, said the UK needed to establish something similar to the American example.

“The UK needs a model like this to open and support the creative economy and help artists to produce book works, build upon their skills and network with their peers,” she said.”

tacticalshoyu:

London Cityscape. New work from paper artist Andy Singleton. 

(via paperphilia)

The inaugural European artists’ book event will take place this year in London on Saturday the 21st July 2012.

KALEID editions invites submissions from European based artists for an exhibition and book fair; to showcase the best of artists’ books to an international audience, to attract private and public collections and to establish a networking event for creative practitioners. 

KALEID 2012 is supported by Art Academy London, the British National Art Library and English Arts Council’s Saison Poetry Library.

Calling all London-dwellers! The annual Handmade and Bound Book Fair 2011 is this Sunday at: St Bride Foundation, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8EQ.

Handmade & Bound is an independent fair with affordable, handmade artists’ books, comics, zines and more!

Hopefully see some of you there ;)

Hide and Seek sketchbook by Hiroko Matsushita, an illustrator and paper-craft artist.

Anonymous asked: I'm already jealous of your blog, but hearing you also lived in Paris for three years brings it to an all new level!

Haha cheers Anon! Yes Paris was beautiful, but I feel I was too young to fully appreciate it at the time (plus Marymount was an English speaking school so it’s fair to say my French is pretty shambles!) I’ve also lived in Edinburgh (4 years) and now currently London (2 years so far), but I’m originally from Dublin. I realize I’m very lucky to be under 20 and have already lived in such amazing cities. :)

prettybooks:

London Underground Travel Journal (by kristin82175)

Scrap-booking

(via teachingliteracy)

Today is the  Handmade & Bound Bookfair!