What is an Art Book? Volume 2
An Art Book today can be seen to occupy various different positions including that of a piece of theory, a catalogue, a printed exhibition, a piece of art in itself, a supplement to a pre-existing piece. It can be a proposal for the future or an examination of the present or what has passed. “What is an Art Book?” will be an investigation of what an Art Book is in terms of material and conceptual concerns. It is a collaborative project that will be produced during the Artist Books Weekend at the Mews Project Space. Artists, writers, curators, designers and other practitioners are invited to respond to the title of the project by contributing their interpretation of what an Art book means to them and their practice. Each contributor can propose text, drawings, photographs, sculpture, performance, audio recordings, video or any other concept/theory as long as it can ultimately be realised in A4 paper format and in black and white.
An Art Book today can be seen to occupy various different positions including that of a piece of theory, a catalogue, a printed exhibition, a piece of art in itself, a supplement to a pre-existing piece. It can be a proposal for the future or an examination of the present or what has passed. “What is an Art Book?” will be an investigation of what an Art Book is in terms of material and conceptual concerns. It is a collaborative project that will be produced during the Artist Books Weekend at the Mews Project Space. Artists, writers, curators, designers and other practitioners are invited to respond to the title of the project by contributing their interpretation of what an Art book means to them and their practice. Each contributor can propose text, drawings, photographs, sculpture, performance, audio recordings, video or any other concept/theory as long as it can ultimately be realised in A4 paper format and in black and white.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
“What is an Art book?” is a question that is defined by the density and the
variety of the responses it evokes. This is a complex question with many
possible responses, which will become evident as you travel through the
content produced by the 36 contributors. In these 314 pages you will find
work by artists, writers gallery directors, magazine publishers, curators and
scriptwriters. Their individual languages collide bringing written language,
drawing, video, performance, graphic design, painting, sculpture, photography,
found material as well as hybrids of all of the above.
This book was made as the Modern Language Experiment’s response to the
Whitechapel Art gallery’s Art Book Fair, at The Mews Project Space over the
course of a weekend. Much of the content was produced on site in the project
space surrounded by a constant stream of other contributors and audience
members; but many more were made in isolation within the artists own studio
and brought to the gallery. Through exposure, collaboration, isolation and
constraints we hope that we can create an alternative model for art book
production and in doing so question the books role and impact on today’s
society.
With this book we have instigated a conversation that we will continue to
develop, a question whcih will be asked again and again for it is a good
question. As the masochists in us all yearn for the definitive in what cannot
be cornered.
Long live the Art book.
Matthew & Keh
12 October 2012 & 2013
London
11
Change language