Artist Books

Wanted to continue with a few words on the artist books of Julie Chen who I heard talk HERE.  
 
What is an artist book?   Hard to define.   Julie says “they weave the narrative qualities of text and image into the palpability of a physical structure: they are artworks that read as books and books with the impact of sculpture”      Over 30 years she and her Flying Fish Press have produced an amazing variety of complicated structures.   She says the words often dictate the form.   I put the postcard here to show a few of them, but there is no way other than handling these books in a library to really appreciate, read, and view them.   So  somewhere along the way, she started to use a laser cutter so was able to make editions of 100 with the help of studio assistants, but now she “only” makes 50.   The spread here in the catalogue (the other page folds out too) is of a book about climate change that when expanded is  5 feet wide.  The message is clear…between the beauty of the earth and the dire facts as told in  3 3 page spreads and several pop ups.    go here if you want to learn more.  the UW has a very extensive collection of artists' books because the curator who has been collecting for 45 years) is such a big fan.  


I think Julie's book brain is amazing, and I can appreciate the difficulty putting all of these together.  but I have to admit that I find I like artist’s books with more of a “hands on” feel better…..  and with more photography.   I do love artist’s books….I  would love to have more in the UW collection but making more than an edition of 1 seems to be beyond me.  and books like these are an impossible act to follow.    but that’s the beauty —there are as many sorts as there are artists who make them.