Page 48 - Studio International - July August 1973

lithograph by Claes Oldenburg, reference. Nigel Greenwood's gallery music, poetry and pure visual, its physical presentation
Store Window, Bow, Hats, Heart, is becoming one of the prime sources documentation, very often the necessitates similar forms. A lively
Shirt, 29c. for information about, and examples conventional attributes of 'the art of well produced magazine devoted to
Petersburg Press Ltd., 59a of, the kinds of books listed in Book the book' are such as to be opposed 'the new poetries' is Stereo
Portobello Road, London, has as Artwork: lists of new booklets and by exponents of book-art. An article Headphones. Number 5 Winter 1972
recently published 18 new lithographs catalogues are issued regularly. in the July 1971 issue of Art and (£0.40 from Church Steps, Kersey,
by David Hockney. The prints were Another useful source in London is Artists by Pat Gilmour entitled near Ipswich ,Suffolk) features the
drawn and printed at Gemini Editions Compendium Bookshop, 240 'Book as object' largely discusses the new visual and photo poetries of
in Los Angeles in January. Several of Camden High Street, London NW1. 'hand-made' book, but does also Japan. While some of these poems
the prints deal with elements— rain, Artists Books is the neat catalogue make reference to artists working are basically single images, several
snow, sunshine, and mist. The image of an exhibition organized at Moore creatively through mass media demand that the viewer 'read' them,
of Rain is quite a striking graphic College by Dianne Perry Vanderlip. techniques. Two English presses to notably the block poems of
image but few of the others rise above On the front cover there is a photo of which she refers are Circle Press and Takahashi Shohachiro and the works
being illustrations. Snow looks another similar booklet, but the Tetrad Press. of Shimizu Toshihiko and Ito
almost like a Christmas card, partly actual title of the catalogue only Ronald King has published many Motoyuki. This issue is also concerned
due to the razor-edge paper it is appears on the photographed 'limited artist-edition books' since with sound poetry, a carry-over from
printed on. Hockney's portraits of booklet—so what is one holding ? Circle Press was formed in 1967, the number 4, and has an article by Bob
Celia, Henry Geldzahler and Ken Inside, after a foreword by the most recent being Bluebeard's Cobbing and Peter Mayer which
Tyler are more successful because organizer there is a short piece Castle, with poetry by Roy Fisher and discusses 'Some myths of concrete
they seem less worked out and less 'Slices of silence, parcels of time : three-dimensional pop-up designs poetry'. Number 6 will be devoted to
complicated prints. The portrait of the book as a portable sculpture' by by Ronald King himself. However work by poets and artists who 'treat'
Henry Geldzahler is a very nice Lynn Lester Hershman, followed by this costs £75 and I wish to draw texts.
direct wash lithograph that really 'Some thoughts on books as art' by attention to the books with longer (From sound poetry and book-art
looks like a lithograph. It is interesting John Perreault. thirteen illustrations runs and more modest prices which those who wish to can accompany
to note that portions of these editions of some rather conspicuous books, he also publishes. These are generally Germano Celant on a short leap
which were reserved for sale in and then a detailed alphabetical list of poems and prints, such as Claim, sideways into another area which he
America were sold out by May, nearly 250 books (and a few claim, claim, Looks like nothing the has annexed in an article entitled
soon after they had been printed. q magazines). A comparison of this shadow through air and A line that 'The Record as Artwork', which
BUD SHARK list with the one mentioned above may be cut which cost £6 each ; the appeared, with an English
suggests an overlap of less than a prints are by Ronald King and Ian translation, in Domus number 520
quarter, an indication of the diversity Tyson, and the poems by Anthony March 1973.)
FEEDBACK of material now available. John Conran and Larry Eigner; but he has the book as a medium for visual
In the belief that even after a decade
also published Daily Translating
Perreault's 'thoughts' include the
best attempt yet to evince System and To the sincere reader by artists is still relatively unexploited,
There have recently been two characteristics and suggest a Nelson Howe at £5.25 each, the and that significant advances are
publications about the use of the definition of book-art ; he states that latter work, which is built round a being made or will be made, I would be
book as a medium by the visual 'Books as art are not books about art poem by Keith Waldrop, is a series of grateful for details or examples of any
artist. The first, published this year by or books of reproductions of art or collaged images and words, new or neglected work in order to
Nigel Greenwood Inc. Ltd., 41 books of visual material illustrating beautifully printed in black, red and make a survey or exhibition that
Sloane Gardens, London, SW1 and literary texts, but are books that make pale yellow but making full use of the might be planned properly,
entitled Book as Artwork 1960 / 1972, art statements in their own right, whiteness of the page. Ronald King comprehensive and up-to-date. q
costs £0.50 or $1.75 plus postage, within the context of art rather than of also publishes poetry posters and CLIVE PHILLPOT
and relates to an exhibition held in literature.' This is obviously the kind pamphlets; for more information
September/October 1972 ; the of working definition that has write to Circle Press, 22 Sydney
second published by Moore College informed both of the exhibitions, but Road, Guildford, Surrey.
of Art, 20th and Race Streets, one could make it tighter by laying Ian Tyson of Tetrad Press has BOOKS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, in emphasis on works which exploit the published works by Derrick Greaves,
1973, is entitled Artists Books and given physical form of the mass- Tom Phillips, Richard Pinkney and Ivon Hitchens edited by Alan
costs $1.00. produced book without over- himself, and it was he who made the Bowness, with an introductory
Book as Artwork is poorly concentration on its objectness. screen prints for the magnificent work chapter by T. G. Rosenthal.
produced, as is acknowledged by the In fact Perreault sees book-art as the entitled The Graves based on texts Lund Humphries. £12.
publishers, hence the fairly low price; utilization of a 'found structure ... from the Black Book of Carmarthen Like nearly every other book out of
however it does make Germano not weighed down by history', and 'Stanzas of the Graves' translated by Lund Humphries, owing no doubt to
Celant's text available to an English- says that for the artist and the viewer Thomas Jones, which costs £75. the wonderful vigilance of Tony Bell,
speaking audience (it first appeared this medium is practical, democratic, But he also publishes the Tetrad this is great stuff and beautifully
in Italian in substantially the same cheap, portable, personal and Pamphlets of which there are now produced. Who of you knows
form, but covering the period potentially disposable, and states the two boxed volumes each containing Hitchens, well or at all ? Fess up !
1960/1970, in Data number 1, obvious when he writes that 'books ten immaculately produced pamphlets Here it is, however, marine period
September 1971, and has also as art will never replace painting and —some of these were included in the and all, a perhaps heavily influenced
appeared in French in VH 101 number sculpture'. Artists Books exhibition in and deft lean man doing the best I've
9, Autumn 1972). The chronological The book is a vehicle suitable for Philadelphia. Each pamphlet is seen for yars and yars — in his way. Of
list of books which followed the Data certain kinds of idea, as is film, usually composed of a screenprinted course the book is expensive, nicht
article has been extended and book-art is not a movement, although image and text in a single opening, the für Kinder, but so what ?
expanded so that there are now about its emergence at this particular time artists involved include Phillips,
250 books recorded. The text is is significant, and, just as books Greaves, Pinkney and Tyson in the Art Book by Martin Sharp. Mathews
disappointing ; although it is one of themselves exist on most subjects, first volume, while the second volume Miller Dunbar. £1.50.
the first pieces about book-art as an so book-art occurs at the point of also introduces Ian Breakwell with Better and better from this
adjunct of conceptual art, it really overlap of many different activities. Six phototext sequences. Donato publishing house. This small book
amounts to a cobbling together of a Similarly some of the virtues claimed Cinicolo with Sundie and Valerie consists of strangely imaginative
series of annotations to the works, for the book as a visual medium will Large with Space Cut, a superbly examples of blend. Here we have
without any real analysis of the use of also be seen to be the virtues of the kinetic overturning three-dimensional Magritte doubled over upon
the book as a medium. Its value lies in book per se. foldout. The pamphlets can be Van Gogh, there Piero della
Celant's references to the significance The term book-art may suggest an purchased individually at £1.50 each ; Francesca on top of Luini, Vermeer
of the book-form to certain artists, in echo of the phrase 'the art of the for more information write to Tetrad swirled with Barry Flanagan, the
its attention to Italian examples, and book' which has been the traditional Press, 103 Grove Park, London, sweet heroin mummies with the
to the fact that he (and Lynda Morris) arena for artist and book to come SE5 8LE. broken veal chums.
have attempted to produce a first list together, while this is reasonable in Having mentioned one of the
of examples of book-art. Had the that the present heterogeneous routes leading out of the book-art New Realism by Udo Kultermann.
publication in fact been presented as situation includes something from intersection, it is natural to refer to Mathews Miller Dunbar. £3.75.
an annotated bibliography it would this tradition, it also includes elements another, concrete poetry. Since much I for one have seen this book around
have proved even more useful for from cinema, sculpture, graphics, of concrete poetry is specifically in the shops for a couple of years, but
38