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

natural organism. As a consequence the choice
of the theme for the annual production evolves
from the experiences of the previous year. For
example themes have been : Das Plagiat
(plagiarism): 20 artists copying each other,
every copy being the original for the next one
in line; Das Unsägliche (unspeakable):
I write a text for your picture / you illustrate
my text (involving 19 artists); Das Gastmahl
(the banquet): 17 artists were invited to eat
and drink and make art and read Platon’s
Symposium, resulting in a series of one-ofa-kind
artists’ books; Exerzitien (religious
exercises): 18 artists spent a week together in
complete silence in a monastery, only
communicating by exchanging pictures drawn
into “cell books”.
The illustrations (opposite) show samples from
Frankfurter Edition’s latest project: Im Städel
(At the Städel-Museum) art about art. Fifteen
artists investigated selected items of the
Museum of Fine Art in Frankfurt, resulting in a
collection of contemporary responses to
classical paintings of the 17th to 20th century,
here especially works that all deal with
Courbet’s The Wave.
Hartmut Andryczuk is artist, author, publisher
and journalist all in one. He is especially
interested in book arts’ networks, artists’
magazines networks, and, of course, the
internet as a platform for literature and fine
arts. For 10 years, his Hybriden Verlag has been a
forum for contemporary experimental artists’
books with contributions by Pierre Garnier,
Valeri Scherstjanoi, Wolfgang Müller and
others. Often Hartmut Andryczuk invites artists
to work on a certain subject, such as Schädlingsbekämpfung/pest
control or Virenbibliothek.
He often collaborates with artists and authors
such as Freddy Flores Knistoff or Felix Martin
Furtwängler and publishes some different sorts
of magazines (periodicals): Unikatmaschine,
MMM-Diarium, Hybridenland. Works include
texts, sculptures, installations, performances,
audio-CDs, and editions which document
what’s happening and continue to explore the
results.
Uta Schneider is an artist especially interested
in collaboration. Rather than monologues in
self-assertion the interest in artistic dialogue
62
becomes important. Jeder wusste um was es ging
(Everybody knew what it was all about) is the
result of one of these artistic dialogues: a
collaboration of Uta Schneider with the painter
Thomas Dahmen. The book consists of three
parts with the themes lines, planes, and figures,
all printed from linocuts, woodcuts and
cardboard cuts. Each part was printed page
after page starting with the first page; the
translucent paper connects not only the open
double spread but also the pages following.
Jeder wusste um was es ging Uta Schneider / Thomas Dahmen
Every page is the result of what has been
printed before and influences the next pages.
Hand set texts were added and printed in
white, as the text should not be in the
foreground, but rather be a commentary voice
in the background. The book can be read as
a visual essay on perception: how do forms and
figures influence each other, how are image
and text related to one another? - these are
some of the questions the book deals with.
Liegend/Im Fall uses a text by Uwe Warnke, with
whom Uta Schneider has done a few other
books as well. Here, the text, which consists
only of one sentence (which I think is a
speciality of the German language!) leads to
the structure of the book: From colon to colon,
the text is cut into 49 parts. Each part of the
text is printed onto the middle of a square
sheet of transparent paper, with overlapping
elements of illustrations. The 49 squares make
up one big square of 7 x 7 sheets, thus giving
one image and the text in its proper order.