BOOK ART OBJECT
book art object is a record of the proceedings and exhibitors attending the first biennial CODEX International Book Fair and Symposium titled “The Fate of the Art.” The events were held on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley in February of 2007 and showcased contemporary fine press artist books and fine art editions produced by many of the world's most esteemed printers, book artists, and artisans. Work was represented at the fair that originated from and/or illustrated every continent including Antarctica.
book art object is case-bound, twelve by nine inches (portrait), contains 432 pages and approximately 735 color images and presents the work of the artists, designers and printers who came to California from all parts of the world for CODEX 2007. The section illustrating the work of the exhibitors occupies 200 pages.
There is a preface by Peter Rutledge Koch, Printer and Director of the CODEX Foundation and a substantial introduction written by David Jury, Head of Graphic Media at the Colchester Institute, School of Art and Design UK, outlining the historical relationship between art, design, and the book. A section contains the illustrated transcripts of each of the four speakers:
“The hybrid lexicon: an overview of contemporary artists publishing in the UK” by Sarah Bodman, Research Fellow, Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE, Bristol School of Art, Media and Design.
“Spiritual geometry : the book as a work of art” by Robert Bringhurst, Poet, Philosopher, and Typographer.
“Cutting and pasting, metaphor of life” by Felipe Ehrenberg, Artist / Neologist, Diplomat, and former Publisher of the Beau Geste Press, London.
“Recto verso : aspects of contemporary German book art” by Dr. Stefan Soltek, Director of the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany.
The book also includes five brief essays written by prominent printers, artists, and designers from around the world: Crispen Elsted, Canada; Markus Fahrner, Germany; Martha Hellion, Mexico; Jadwiga Jarvis, Australia; and Gerald Lange, United States of America.
There is an index of contact information and historical details for every 2007 CODEX book fair exhibitor, including descriptions of their working methods and current work.
Praise for the book:
“book art object offers a great look at what is going on today in the world of artists' books. For sheer range and scope, there is nothing else like it out there in this exciting field.”
-Johanna Drucker, Breslauer Chair of Bibliographical Studies, UCLA
“book art object shines new and brighter lights on one of the most delicious corners of contemporary art. Not only does it unite and reunite an astounding variety of artists of all shapes and colors from all over the world, it pumps new energy into an art form capable of surprising, tantalizing, pleasing, and satisfying a very, very wide public.”
-Felipe Ehrenberg, Neologist and former cultural attache of Mexico in Brazil.
“Not only an invaluable resource, but a beautifully designed book as well. book art object documents a seminal event in the history of bookmaking and records in arresting color the works by an unprecedented gathering of contemporary international bookmakers. David Jury's introductory essay-art, design, and the book-is a gem, worth the price of the book itself.”
-Bill Stewart, Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, LLC
“book art object takes the temperature of the book in the contemporary world and demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that the codex form is very much alive. What's more, the patient has a creative high fever. Book art Object surveys the field with impressive thoroughness, and is itself a thing of beauty.”
-Bruce Whiteman, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA
book art object is edited and designed by David Jury. The photographer is Douglas Sandberg.
book art object $75.00 + $5.00 shipping within the United States.
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CODE (X) + 1 MONOGRAPH SERIES
Announcing the publication of the monographic series CODE (X) + 1 devoted to the subject of book and print culture with editorial direction by the Codex Publications Advisory Board.
The book is a durable artifact in which author, reader, and the artisans who make and preserve them enter into ordered and potentially pleasurable relationships.
A printed book is enhanced by the materials and processes with which it is made.
The book—in the era of digital reproduction—is an object of pleasure as well as a container of information.
To consult information relieved of the pleasures of turning a page, smelling ink, or admiring the binding we can rely on the internet.
The book as “ark of deposit” requires neither electricity nor fossil fuel to either read or maintain.
The book as an object dwells at the intersections of writing and art, philosophy and poetics, science and scholarship.
The structure of a book is a sculpture for reading.
The meaning is transmitted and...
The book remains.
CODE (X) + 1 monographs celebrate the culture of the book.
Why There Are Pages and Why They Must Turn by Robert Bringhurst
“In cultures possessing fluent scripts, paper, and printing, books have acquired a stable material form. Those quiet, reliable, portable, legible objects are the benchmark incarnation of the book for most of us now, yet we know that, to be real, a book must be more than a physical object. What makes the tangible form of a book rewarding is that it stands for an intangible reality alive in the heart and mind.”
ART : definition five (and other writings) by Peter Rutledge Koch
“The great collections at the Museum of Modern Art and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco are filled with what are loosely referred to as “artist’s books” but a great many of the books are more or less ordinary books with art in them. The books of Vollard and Kahnweiler are containers of art. Erase the pages and what remains is an entirely ordinary but blank book. Contemporary art with its more comprehensive and sophisticated approach to physical and formal properties requires the book itself (full and present in all its particularness) to measure up. This change in perspective has matured greatly in the last thirty years.”
each new book by Alan Loney
“There is no doubt that fine press books propose a value for their material existence per se. This value could be seen as a replacement/rejection of the ‘spiritual’ value of the ‘sacred’ object. This is not merely the slip of my prejudices showing (tho I do not deny it is that) but also the whole undergarment in contrast to the invisible threads by which the ‘sacred’ has bound communities together over against other communities. The chosen book is the chosen community, even in the avant garde. The question remains – how do I value the book without rendering it ‘sacred’ – even if the sacred is read simply as ‘a thing apart’”
CODE (X) + 1 Monographs are available for $35 each or $100 for all three.
Order Form (PDF)
Download Brochure (PDF)