Book Art Object 2
Book Art Object 2 Following the highly successful and acclaimed Book Art Object, published in 2008, Book Art Object 2 includes a record of the third biennial Codex Book Fair and Symposium: “The Fate of the Art,” held in Berkeley, California, 2011. Codex events showcase contemporary artist books, fine press and fine art editions produced by the world’s most esteemed printers, designers, book artists, and artisans.
Artists and Their Books / Books and Their Artists
Marcia Reed and Glenn Phillips
GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
This stunning volume illuminates the current moment of artists’ engagement with books, revealing them as an essential medium in contemporary art. Ever innovative and predictably diverse in their physical formats, artists’ books occupy a creative space between the familiar four-cornered object and challenging works of art that effectively question every preconception of what a book can be. Many artists specialize in producing self-contained art projects in the form of books, like Ken Campbell and Susan King, or they establish small presses, like Simon Cutts and Erica Van Horn’s Coracle Press or Harry and Sandra Reese’s Turkey Press. Countless others who are primarily known as sculptors, painters, or performance artists carry on a parallel practice in artists’ books, including Anselm Kiefer, Annette Messager, Ed Ruscha, and Richard Tuttle. Artists and Their Books / Books and Their Artistsincludes over one hundred important examples selected from the Getty Research Institute’s Special Collections of more than six thousand editions and unique artists’ books.
ALCHIMIE DU VERBE / CODEX Foundation
The book as a spiritual instrument has long been associated with the ancient alchemical tradition of the transformation of self and matter. From the Utriusque Cosmi... of Robert Fludd in the 17th Century to the Neo Emblemata Nova of Daniel Kelm in the 21st, the alchemist has remained a vital metaphor in understanding the works of the creative imagination.
The pieces within this modern Alchimie du Verbe range from traditional private press and playful typographic experimentation to contemporary avant-garde. In other words - a collection truly representative of the CODEX bibliosphere - presenting an international and inclusive view of the book arts as practiced by some of the finest artists and printers working in the field. The symbolic imagination is a constant force in the art and thought of all ages and cultures. In the spirit of the internal bibliosphere and the studium codex, we raise a glass to the typographic imagination and the poetical alphabet.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Walter Bachinski and Janis Butler, Victoria Bean, Karen Bleitz, Carolee Campbell, Aaron Cohick, Crispin & Jan Elsted, Nacho Gallardo, Martha Hellion, Sarah Horowitz, Mikhail Karasik, Peter Rutledge Koch, Patricia Lagarde, Clemens-Tobias Lange, Alan Loney, Peter Malutzki & Ines von Ketelhodt, Russell Maret, Rick Myers, Didier Mutel, Robin Price, Harry Reese & Sandra Liddell Reese, Dmitry Sayenko, Veronika Schäpers, Gaylord Schanilec, Johannes Strugalla & Francoise Despalles, Richard Wagener, and Sam Winston.
EDITION
Thirty are designated hors de commerce for distribution to the participants. Forty numbered copies are offered for sale.
DIMENSIONS
printed pieces: roughly A4 (8.25" x 11.75")
box: 8.75" x 12.5" x 2.25"
CODEX Foundation