Artist's Book Yearbook 2003-2005 - Book Arts - University of the ...

Not until the end of the 24 page book, do you
find printed ‘Immanuel Kant “Critique of Pure
Reason” (II, I, II, III)’ indicating that this was
the text removed from its punctuation.
In Eve Rhymer’s Love the alphabetised words
kept their punctuation, attached like decorative
accessories, even though function was lost in
the listing format. In ‘Reality’ empty white
space is punctuated, and the process of reading
is again questioned. Here the marks become
notation - a new text. Kozlowski’s work is within
the tradition of Polish conceptual artists whose
work utilises ‘poor’ or cheap materials to
distinguish itself from the more glossy ‘official’
art and government publications. The green
cover of my stapled copy of Reality has already
faded to yellow at the edges.
Reality Jaroslaw Kozlowski, 1972
The loose theme of ‘reformations’ has been
an excuse to revisit some artists’ books on my
shelf. Considering that all content is reformed
and negotiated through the process of
becoming a book, it has also been an
opportunity to focus on strategies artists employ
to derive new meaning from existing cultural
constructs, processes which will continue
reforming. The strength of these artists’ books
is in simultaneously existing in their own right
as well as prompting a reassessment, or new
reading, of their sources. Walter Benjamin
speaks of this relationship to the original in his
discussion on translation, where he refers to an
‘afterlife - which could not be called that if it
were not a transformation and a renewal of
something living - the original undergoes a
change.’ 3
37
Susan Johanknecht is an artist and publisher
under the imprint of Gefn Press. She recently
co-curated the writing instructions / reading walls
project with Redell Olsen, for which there is a
forthcoming book. She is Subject Leader of the
MA Book Arts course at Camberwell College of
Arts, London.
notes
1. Marcel Broodthaers as quoted in Dirk
Snauwaert ‘The Figures’ in Broodthaers:
Writings, Interviews, Photographs, Cambridge,
Mass: MIT Press, 1988, p. 129.
2. Tony Kemplen in a note to the author, 2001.
3. Walter Benjamin Illuminations, London:
Pimlico, 1999, p. 73.