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Artists books
in the future
opportunities and challenges
Having
reviewed the history of book arts, and established the current state
of the medium, we can begin to look toward and plan for the future.
According to art historian and curator Cornelia Lauf, artists books
have grown up and and left behind the ambiguity and contra-diction
of youth.1 I believe that it is still in the young adult stage:
full of ingenuity and excitement and with a few major life decisions
ahead.
Book arts and artists books
have matured in recent years due to the confluence of two key trends;
education and technology. These trends will continue to have an
impact on the future of the medium.
Education
In the last decade an infrastructure
for book arts education has become firmly rooted in this country.
With facilities close at hand and teachers that are experts in their
fields, knowledge of the medium can be passed on to future generations.
As noted in an earlier interview, not all places and people have such
an open and giving attitude. This seems to be one great characteristic
of book arts in the U.S.
At this time many not-for-profit
book art centers and colleges and universities are working collaboratively
to create an innovative environment for learning. Examples of this
would include Columbia College Chicago Center for the Book, and University
of Iowa and Iowa Center for the Book.
As programs are being built
in higher education, libraries are challenged to provide learning
resources for students by beginning to collect and display artists
books.
A Council of Book Arts
Programs has formed that holds conferences every other year. This
group hopes to deal with issues such as establishing a significant
national voice for book arts education and its history, developing
critical and theoretical frameworks for education, setting curriculum
standards, and improving support between "parent" programs
and "youthful" programs. As seems to be the norm for book
artists, members at this past conference held in February 1999,
were called to act "selfless," and to get involved at
the grassroots in order to continue to promote book arts. They were
called to edit a newsletter, organize exhibits or hold a conference.(2)
Teachers of book arts are
also adapting the way they teach, moving away from just teaching about
new structures to addressing concept and content. This will help to
ensure that the next generation of artists will continue to bring
maturity to the medium.
Concerns that will need to
be addressed in the future include making sure the time-honored, solid
techniques of the conservationists are taught to ensure that art work
exists in the future and retains its value. If high quality is not
maintained in the execution and structure of the book-as-art-form
it will begin to unravel the anticipation and excitement that accompanies
it at present.
As museum, gallery, and library
collections grow, knowledge of how to catalog and display this unique
art medium is being shared, but more work needs to be done to overcome
preconceptions caused by the familiarity of the common book. Somehow
exhibits will also need to address the issue of the audience.
One of the problems we face is that the book art audience
is the most sophisticated of any art medium. It requires textual
and visual literacy. It is tactile, time-dimensional and interactive.
It's not something you generally color-coordinate with a couch.
It's private rather than ostentatious.3
Perhaps there
needs to be an educational component that accompanies exhibits in
order to help the audience understand and appreciate the work at a
higher level. At present artists' books are a very affordable medium
and for the price of one major painting you could purchase a collection
which includes work by all the major book artists.4
Another issue that must be
resolved is that we need a way to exhibit books that allows them to
be touched and at the same time preserve them. These two contradictory
needs pose a critical challenge. Having a book that is meant to be
interactactive enclosed a glass box, statically fixed in one position
destroys the innate attraction to the medium. It is like displaying
a painting under a veil to protect it from the light.
A challenge voiced by many
of the prominent first- generation book artists is that someone needs
to begin a documentation of the history of contemporary book arts.
Several of these charter members have died in recent years and it
is important to document their contributions for future generations.
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