[BKARTS] Meador article

[Inge Bruggeman <inge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I also read Meador's article on jab-online and since Richard Minsky  
has opened the forum up here I thought I would add a few comments. . .

I agree with the basic premise of Clifton Meador's article, however I  
have a slightly different way of looking at some of the concepts  
presented therein. I get the sense that Meador would like to distance  
craft and traditional fine press work from the field of artist's  
books (or the field of book art as Minsky states). I would prefer to  
see the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the field of artists'  
books embraced and defined, instead of cutting off and distancing  
ourselves from the parts that are not as accepted by the larger art  
community. Most art has a craft aspect to it (as well as a history, a  
precedence) and in any medium it is distracting when things are not  
constructed well. Craft is part of the discourse. I am not a  
traditionalist, however I had a big problem getting around statements  
like "when the serious work of artists making books as art gets  
conflated with fine edition publishing, many people who share this  
dismissive attitude toward crafts are driven away." I can see the  
point trying to be made, but this line of thinking does not seem  
productive. I am more interested in defining the differences and  
commonalities of these works. There are similar critical discussions  
that can happen in both fields of artist's books and fine press  
printing.

This idea that people working in traditional fine press book form  
have no artistic voice is repeated throughout the article and I have  
to disagree. Many people disliked William Morris' Chaucer because  
they thought it unreadable and too visually distracting to be a  
proper book. Although traditional in some respects, this book imparts  
a strong concept that is the vision of the maker of the book. This  
work should not be dismissed as having nothing to discuss in terms of  
artist's vision and concept.

An assignment I like to give in my class compares Beatrice Warde's  
article 'The Crystal Goblet' with Phil Baines' article 'clear enough  
to read' published in Emigré magazine. My class usually comes to a  
similar conclusion every time – that both are forms of expression,  
the difference is more about the volume of that expression and its  
context. One of the most compelling things about typography and  
design is that, like architecture, it so strongly reflects the social  
concepts of any given time. Warde and Baines certainly reflect the  
ideas of different eras, where the role of self/artistic expression  
functions at different levels. I don't agree that it is possible to  
separate form from content and Beatrice Warde, if she were around  
today, may even adjust that wording. I believe she would recognize  
that because the design of a text is made to seem 'invisible' does  
not mean that the intent behind that design is not powerful, or non- 
existent.

To say that "Warde's transparent, beautiful books simply don't work  
well in our current environment," may be true and another,  
interesting conversation to have, but to continue on saying, "They  
are, to quote Ulises Carrión, books where nothing happens," is just  
not true – there is in fact quite a bit happening. Whether we  
understand how to visually read those subtleties in design and  
composition anymore is the question. To visually read 'Un Coup de  
Dès' by Mallarmé or 'Parole in Liberta' by Marinetti is easy (and  
exciting, I love that work), but to enjoy the subtle visual decisions  
in a well designed page of regular, plain, old text (whether designed  
digitally or in metal), with no images at all, can be intellectually  
and artistically rewarding as well.

I am primarily interested in the same thing as Clifton Meador, "to  
make books that are more aware of the possibilities of the form of  
the book," to make the book as we know it into something new. I  
wonder however if it isn't just making books that are more overtly  
aware of themselves. The traditional and craft foundations give such  
a complex and important starting point for any contemporary artist  
book maker that I would hate to see us distance ourselves from them.  
I would like to see us continue to critically define the distinct  
areas that fall under the umbrella of artists' books (book art) and  
educate the larger art community to understand its different and  
unique facets.

Inge

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Inge Bruggeman
1017 SE 34th Avenue
Portland, OR  97214
www.texturaprinting.com



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