{"id":11868,"date":"2012-11-28T17:59:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/?p=11868"},"modified":"2023-05-01T18:09:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T18:09:44","slug":"what-is-an-artist-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/zh-hant\/what-is-an-artist-book\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an Artist Book?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cDiamond Leaves<\/a> \u2014 Brilliant Artist Books from Around the World\u201d (group exhibition)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum<\/a> <\/strong>(No.8 Huajiadi Nan St., Chaoyang District, Beijing). Sep 18 \u2013 Dec 18, 2012 (closing date extended)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s world of virtual communication and visual explosion, this could be a purely metaphysical question. In a more profound sense, books could be an indication of the times, or else as Pierre Bourdieu said, they signify \u201csymbolic power\u201d since books and reading had been the sole privilege of a society\u2019s elite for a long time in history. With limits imposed by print technology and education, the ties between books and texts were extremely intimate, so much so that having a text would seem to define inarguably what a book is. Yet in CAFAM\u2019s exhibition \u201cDiamond Leaves \u2013 Brilliant Artist Books from Around the World,\u201d we see what else books can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intricate curation aside, what makes this show special is the gamut of ideas about art and cultural history it inspires in the viewer through this non-mainstream medium of handmade artists\u2019 books. The particular format of an artist\u2019s handmade book originates in the illuminated books of the 18th century Romantic artist and poet, William Blake. However, more appeared with the wave of 20th century avant-garde art and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first question an average viewer might ask is, \u201cWhat is an \u2018artist book\u2019?\u201d Although the curator was reluctant to limit and define this, the ambiguity could easily make \u201cartist books\u201d to be confused with \u201cart books\u201d \u2014 the latter being ornate limited-edition books, usually related to literature, which publishers often ask artists to illustrate. In such cases, artists more often illustrate according to the text and rarely have the chance to reflect their own will. This is why the priceless religious manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the later 14th- and 15th-century magnificent volumes like Les tr\u00e8s riches heures du Duc de Berry<\/em> illustrated by the Limbourg Brothers, exquisite as they are, do not qualify as artist books. In other words, \u201cart books\u201d fall under the category of decorative art, whereas \u201cartist books\u201d are pure art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this show, artists pushed the boundaries of their imagination within the restrictive size and format of a book. The \u201cbook\u201d is conceptualized and linked with film, installation, illustration \u2014 even the sense of smell. For instance, materials like cinnamon, wild cherries, and tree bark were used to create the sole edition of Mesopotamia <\/em>(2010) published by Organik; the pages were covered in yellow plant pigments, which combined with thickly textured effect and giant images of insects recalled a of a Middle Eastern desert. In the display cases, round holes were even created, allowing viewers to take in the fragrance of the spices and be transported to an imaginary Mesopotamia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar manipulation of the senses and subversion of form was also seen in another work, \u201cDuchamp.\u201d The artist, Robert The, used a razor to \u201cdig\u201d out the shape of an insect from an open book of Giorgio de Chirico\u2019s metaphysical paintings, and then hung this \u201cinsect\u201d on the white wall above the book \u2014 which from afar looked very lifelike. To surreally carve an insect out of de Chirico\u2019s surreal images, and then calling the whole piece \u201cDuchamp\u201d is just marvelous \u2014 a dream within a dream, decadence upon decadence. This interest in art history and the art world has often served as a theme for artists, as seen in Bongo\u00fbt\u2019s wire-mesh work \u201cIf,\u201d where he uses wire mesh to recreate the representative work of every artist he has ever worked with. Similarly, another artist, Chuck Close, and a poet, Bob Holman, collaborated in a photo album, combining modern art and high-resolution photographs of music stars, as well as Chuck Close himself and Cindy Sherman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDiamond Leaves \u2014 Brilliant Artist … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":11871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[8493,8489,368,8490,8492,8491,8494,8495,61,8496,8497,8498],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is an Artist Book? - \u71c3\u70b9 Ran Dian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_TW\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is an Artist Book? - \u71c3\u70b9 Ran Dian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cDiamond Leaves \u2014 Brilliant Artist … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u71c3\u70b9 Ran Dian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-28T17:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-01T18:09:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/05\/canonique-berry.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"948\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Duyen Le\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Duyen Le\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"\u9810\u4f30\u95b1\u8b80\u6642\u9593\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 \u5206\u9418\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Duyen Le\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/#\/schema\/person\/4d95ceea857b4c4fde91b6437bfaee13\"},\"headline\":\"What is an Artist Book?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-28T17:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-01T18:09:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/\"},\"wordCount\":637,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"artists books\",\"Bob Holman\",\"CAFAM\",\"Chuck Close\",\"Cindy Sherman\",\"Diamond Leaves\",\"Giorgio de Chirico\",\"Ken Campbell\",\"Liang Shuhan\",\"Limbourg Brothers\",\"Organik\",\"Robert The\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"zh-TW\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.randian.art\/what-is-an-artist-book\/\",\"name\":\"What is an Artist Book? 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