The second direction my art has been taking is Book Art. I decided to start looking into this format of working because I always work in sequences and there is a certain story or 'life span' within my work that I feel suits the narrative, sequential feel of books. I also love books as objects in themselves, and am very interested in the idea of 'treating' old novels and text books!
Last year I had started moving into this art form, using books to neatly display my reducing images and also to explore narrative and movement in little flick books. I enjoyed the process of making the books and using different papers and cards to make the covers. However I do feel my knowledge of book making/ binding is very limited and unprofessional so I aim to improve on this.
I'm researching book art for my dissertation so I have been exploring not only influential book artists but also the fundamental meaning or definition of 'Book Art'. A very useful book so far has been 'Speaking of Book Art' by Cathy Courtney. In the foreword (by Eileen Hogan) it claimed that book art 'could be described as books in which the form was used by the artist both to represent the content and as a vehicle for ideas.' meaning the nature of books could become the concept I explore, at the same time I will use books to articulate my thoughts on my concept (the nature of books). Yeah... confusing! However I feel this would be a good place to start in my research.
As well as this I found the work of Ian Tyson who makes very linear artists books. They show geometric rectangles of colour next to poetry by Jerome Rothenberg that perfectly compliments the images. I like the idea of using 'swatches' of colour; almost like a deluxe colour card, but having some complex puzzle behind the work that gives it more depth than just colour testing. I've started to make books exploring the idea of colour patterns and swatches, however the colour is never random, being based on a numerical system of adding tints and black to adjust the colour.
