Month: September 2012

PUBLICATION = PUBLIC + ACTION*

Books have been created for centuries. They evolve with technology, human skills and human aspirations. In the 20th century, a new form of art emerged, the artists’ book. There are various roots but it is in the 1960’s that this form began to proliferate. The book not just being a platform but a medium, a form, an art work itself. Technology as well as printing has developed. Today, it is not as expensive as it used to be which opens a large field in production. For the past few years, publications have increased rapidely. Art book fairs, workshops, and presentations have popped up everywhere.
Independent publishing became the new way of promoting publications, distribution and collaborating with various artists.

This thesis takes place in a time where a lot of people are still active in the field of independent publishing. Artists, publishing houses, press houses, and collectors were interviewed on the topic of artists’ books. More precisely, on their opinion on today’s situation within their work as well as on the evolution of the publications. Did the peak of independent publishing already occur or is it happening today?  How are the publications going to evolve?  The answers to these questions differ from person to person. But what everybody agrees on, is that printing technology and its accessibility gave the chance to independent publishing to arise.

Today, a lot of talks are focusing on the economy of independent publishing. There is the need to understand and to analyze its evolution within the last few years. From this research material, the aim is to apply the results to my practical project. By realizing an artist’s book that would correspond, with the caracteristics of this evolution, and to the actual and future situation of independent publishing.

To emphasize the concept of the book as a form, my objective is to create illustrations that evolve within the page of the book. A fantasy animal that evolves from the earliest form known on earth to the future. The animal breeding only in the codex and not in any other medium. By folding the pages, another characteristic is added to the animal and vice versa, offering more than one reading on the evolution of this animal. The purpose is to interact and to experiment within the form and the pages of the book.