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

13+: Contemporary Book Art From Germany
Ulrike Stoltz
Preface
13+ is the name of a rather informal group of
German Book Artists. The name 13+ is an
indication of the fact that the number of
members is not necessarily constant. Yet there
is a sense of community among the members, a
result of the group’s history so far. In the
autumn of 2000, the Association Internationale
de Bibliophilie (AIB) held its yearly colloquium
in Berlin. On this occasion, Jean-Marc
Chatelain from the Bibliothèque Nationale de
France in Paris and secretary general of this
worldwide association of collectors and
institutions initiated a presentation of
contemporary German book art at the
Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. He asked Françoise
Despalles to curate and organize the show and
to edit a trilingual catalogue: 13 x Künstlerbücher
Livres d’Artistes/Artists’ Books. 1 The deciding
factor of selection was the AIB’s wish to see
a representative cross-section of those book
artists and publishers who have their focus on
experiment and innovation.
The members of 13+ have quite different and
manifold artistic approaches and temperaments
- as well as much in common. First of all, they
share a longstanding, often exclusive, and
professional preoccupation with the book as
media. Their working field is mainly the same:
they are book artists in the first place, some of
them fine artists or authors as well, they are
‘illustrators,’ type setters, printers, producers,
maybe even book binders and - of course -
publishers, that means organisers, distributers,
book dealers all in one.
The general idea is that the work of a book
artist can be compared with that of a stage
director or film maker. The underlying subject,
theme, concept, image or text is being
interpreted and put on stage, historic material
is being questioned for its present meaning.
Starting point of work is not necessarily a text
by somebody else or even a text of so-called
world literature. It could as well be a text by the
author, or no text at all, but instead a concept,
an idea for an image, or some other material to
work with. The artist is author in every regard.
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At the same time he or she is the one who
actually does the work, who has to cope with all
technical details and problems, who runs the
whole business. The craft itself and the
technical processes generate experience as well
as ideas and can lead to special ways of
production. Craft becomes a genuine and
integral part of the art. There is no division of
labour in this book art, and no limits. Today,
we have come full circle: Aldus Manutius is our
direct ancestor. We live in a time of technical
progress and upheaval as hardly ever before.
Maybe the book will again become the elite
media as it once was. Apart from that it seems
the time of the book as media of cultural
memory is going towards its end. The book as
such is questioned profoundly by this development,
and it has to be re-thought thoroughly.
The situation is comparable with that of
painting after the invention of photography.
There are no answers or recipes of general
value. Each has to find his or her own solution.
What finally counts is the single book, its
contents, and the fulfilment of the criteria
chosen by the artist himself/herself. Most of
the books presented here are small editions,
some of them one-of-a-kind. Depending on the
project, all available techniques and crafts are
used, be it woodcut, photography, scans,
moveable type, laser printer, photocopier, or
data transfer.
While the book artists bring an idea into form
(into being), while they experiment with
typography, or binding structures, or material
to print on, they always look for the possibilities
and conditions of the book as a contemporary
media and sensuous object.
From the very beginning, Dr. Stefan Soltek,
former curator for book arts at the Museum für
Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts)
in Frankfurt am Main and now director of the
Klingspor Museum in Offenbach, was part of
13 + as author as well as consultant. After the
AIB’s colloquium in Berlin, Dr. Wulf D. v.
Lucius published an essay in the Bulletin du
Bibliophile, introducing 13 + to a wider international
audience of experts. 2 At the same time,
works of 13 + were shown on the International
Book Fair “Salon du Livre” in Paris 2001 as part
of the presentation of Germany as the guest
country. 3