Re: [BKARTS] Blurb Books vs. Artist Books --

[Aine Scannell <aine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Amanda

You make a very good/important point there in what you say about ³content².

I mean I have often seen artists¹ books that were very impressive with their
bindings and structures but which, on further interaction have content quite
lacking or that just fail to  engage me as a viewer.  I think that what
matters is the artists concerns/ intentions ­ be that conceptual,
aesthetic, formal, narrative, or a combination of these and other
dimensions/aspects.  And of course one hopes that the artist will make good
judgements from all of the available strategies that are at ones disposal
within the parameters of form and content .

This whole discussion has really made me think about considering making a
book using spod. 

I had thought of using someone like Blurb, as I got the impression from
various things I have read on the web, that their paper and
photographic/printing  quality was/is good.

I would just want for the book to be on good quality paper - that would be
important to me.  Also I would plan for interventions with the book as in
?fold-out sheets¹ and perhaps inter layering other sheets (pages) to
compliment what I would plan for within the main body of the book.

I would most likely also do a container probably a clamshell.  Incidentally,
( on you website ) I see that you do these absolutely beautifully.

 It was interesting to hear someone mention in one of the emails on this
topic that you could upload your pages for the SPOD book in Photoshop format
thereby getting round the  limitations of their in-house ?book templates¹.

Those are my thoughts for now

Aine


 
http://ainescannell.blogspot.com/index.html










On 18/9/08 14:30, "Amanda D'Amico" <tiny.revolutionary@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 It pains me to hear people talking of "real" books being only those made by
 hand. I completely support the idea not only that SPOD books allow one to
 focus more on the content of the book, but also that SPOD may even at times
 support the content of the book. Artists are presently responding to
 technology and mass production. Such topics may be better expressed with
 digital printing and a mass-produced feel than with letterpress and
handmade
 paper. Then again, maybe not. Every book's content should be supported by
 its printing, structure and binding.
 
 In many ways, this is no different than offset printing and outsourcing
your
 binding, which many artists have done in the past. The question in this
 debate to me is not if a SPOD book is still an artists' book if it is full
 of content with no evidence of the hand, but if a handmade book is always
an
 artists' book because the pages have been folded and bound by the artist,
 even if it contains little or no content?
 
 -Amanda D'Amico
 Philadelphia, PA
 http://www.transientbooks.com/
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