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Interviews with
artists
art and issues
In
the previous two chapters I discussed how artists books are being
defined and highlighted the major historical developments and trends
in book arts. This has provided a context and foundation for looking
at the work of contemporary book artists and issues facing book
artists at the beginning of the 21st century.
Conversing with and researching
current artists provides a glimpse into what attracts artists to
the book medium, what work they are producing, and what issues they
are struggling with.
One of the interesting
aspects about artists books is that artists approach the medium
from numerous interests or genres: calligraphy, fine printing, graphic
design, structural concepts, photography, performance and conservation,
to name only a few. I have interviewed artists that represent this
variety of paths to the medium. Some are well known, both nationally
and internationally and I was thrilled with how available and accommodating
these “celebrities” were to my research. Others are known
on a regional level, but are established book artists and devote
considerable time to their art and the development of book arts
in their community. I regret that I could not interview and research
more artists at this time as there are many more that could have
enriched this work. In order to set some limits on my research,
I interviewed only American artists; however I tried to have different
geographical areas across the United States represented.<br>
In
the interviews I conducted, I tried to cover similar topics with
each artist so that a fuller picture could be gathered for the various
issues, however I was not always able to get answers to each question.
1) If I could not find the resources elsewhere, I asked artists
to talk about their backgrounds. What brought them to book arts?
How they were educated? Who were their mentors?
2) To get a wide representation of what is being created in artists
books, I asked them to describe what type of work they are doing
and how they develop ideas for their work? In addition, I asked
that they send images of work.
3) I was interested in their opinion of whether or not there has
been considerable growth in book arts and/or artists books in the
last 10-20 years and, if so, to what they would attribute that growth.
A very interesting aspect of this question surfaced as we talked
about this issue: the disproportionate amount of women as compared
to men that are involved in many of the aspects of book arts. Many
interesting theories came out of this discussion.
4) I wanted to know how they perceived the role of computer or digital
technology in both their work and artists books in general.
5) I was curious how they marketed their work and whether there
was enough interest from galleries, libraries and collectors of
artists books to support the growing population of book artists.
6) If they were a teacher, I wanted to hear about their pedagogy
– how they structure the learning experience and help students
learn to develop meaningful content in their books.
7) Because book arts involves many different areas of expertise,
artists frequently collaborate. If the artist collaborates, how
do they handle that process?
8) And last, I tried to get their ideas for where the medium might
go in the future.
In keeping with the chronological organization from the previous
chapter, I have chosen to write about these contemporary artists
in the order they became involved in book arts or artists books,
with the section on Claire Van Vliet being an exception to this
order for reasons explained later. However many of their time frames
overlap or have only with a little variation as one would expect
as they are all living and practicing artists.
I have placed subheads in the right hand margin so specific topics
are easy to find when comparing answers from artist to artist. I
felt that it was important to keep their replies in the context
of the whole interview as many questions relate closely to the ones
that come before or after. This also gave a fuller picture of the
artist and seemed a better solution, than have sections for all
similar questions. During the interview, I tried to cover all the
topics, but in a more natural, conversational way.
Unless otherwise noted all quotations are from personal interviews
with the artist. In chapters three and four, many of these ideas
and issues are synthesized and analyzed in relation to other materials
and findings.
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