NEBA MEETING & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS VIEWING –
Our first meeting of 2020 was January 10th at the W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library of the School of the Museum of Fine Art, Tufts University. We were treated to a presentation by the Library’s head librarian Darin Murphy. He gave a fascinating presentation of SMFA’s extraordinary collection of artists’ books.
We began our meeting with a welcome to more new members. The excitement over our private viewing helped to accelerate our agenda. Here are some highlights:
• Thanks to Cristina Hajosy for putting a terrific Newsletter together
• Updates on the progress of the proposed NEBA By-laws which will be presented to the membership in February with the discussion and approval vote in March
• Members were presented with the logos submitted to date
• Sign-up sheets for the next Meeting on February 7th and the next Field Trip on February 17th, were distributed
• Cristina Hajosy asked members to make a small donation towards basic NEBA expenses, discussed the application for non-profit status, and the plan to collect dues starting January 2021
• Rhoda Rosensberg – Volunteered to open a checking account for NEBA
• Nancer Ballard Valentine – Volunteered to help NEBA obtain its not-for-profit status and review the by-laws
The SMFA Library’s online catalog is a wonderful resource that provides additional, in-depth information about the artists’ books that Darin shared with our group. It’s connected through the Fenway Library Organization to other libraries with artist’s book collections. The direct links included below provide a gateway to browse the collections. Book descriptions and professional photographs are from these sources.
Julie Chen/Flying Fish Press
Chrysalis
1 volume (unpaged), edition of 50, 2014
MFA Library Special Collections copy: 42/50; signed by artist
28 x 18 x 18 cm, in box 30 x 17 x 16 cm
“Chrysalis is an interpretation of the complex and transformative nature of the process of grief”–Flying Fish Press website.
“Chrysalis was envisioned and produced by Julie Chen, and letterpress printed from photopolymer plates. The terra cotta colored paper is from Cave Paper in Minneapolis and the black denim paper is from La Papeterie Saint-Armand in Montréal. The shape of the outer structure is a version of an oloid, a geometric shape discovered by sculptor and mathematician Paul Schatz in 1929… Special thanks to Faith Hale, Kendyll Dittmann and Keri Schroeder for their assistance in the studio”–Colophon.
Work consists of a sculptural book object in the shape of a faceted oloid that is held closed with magnets. The faceted planes of the book object can be opened by the reader to reveal contents on the inner surface, as well as in a book with circular pages that is housed within. When fully opened, the book object lies in a flat plane (30 x 46 x 8 cm). The dark blue book, held in place with magnets, can be removed and read. The book object is housed in a box with a panel that slips into a groove in the box’s base that can be slid out to reveal additional content. The colophon is printed on a paper sheet and affixed to the inside of the box lid. Tufts Digital Library Catalog entry
Candace Hicks
Common Threads. Volume LXXVII
Unique artist’s book, 8 unnumbered pages, embroidery, 2016
Hand-embroidered canvas soft sculpture book, with a pattern of red lobsters embroidered on the front and back covers. Text sewn in black thread.
“Common Threads, a series of hand-embroidered unique canvas books which copy the form and design of dime-store ‘composition’ books. The books themselves, self-consciously hand-made objects, are a record of coincidental occurrences generally gleaned from reading or mundane events. The use of embroidery thread allows for the production of the text and image with the same mark and material, to make the text, image and substance of the book inseparable. Artist’s statement: Storytelling is key to Candace Hicks’ artistic practice. There is an implied narrative in everything, even, as Hicks addresses with her work, in the seemingly pointless mental wheel spinning that is a part of daily life. Her work acknowledges the unavoidability of simulation and the impossibility of originality. Her choice of the book as a principle medium is due to the phenomenon of the book as authoritative. Books provide an arena in which fiction can be accepted as fact and observations can take on a mythic narrative quality. Her interest in books also stems from their inherent unity of text and image, which lends books continued relevance as a transmedia hybrid.”–Description from Booklyn Artists Alliance website.
Visionaire. 55, Surprise
SMFA copy: “No. 0554 in a limited edition of 4000”–metal plate on box closure
Surprise is a collaboration with the Champagne house, Krug, 2008.
Books with pop-up illustrations and movable tabs designed by various artists.
Housed in box 29 x 23 x 16 cm
Title and author information from book covers:
“Executed by paper engineer Bruce Foster, this issue features moveable images, three-dimensional scenes and surprise reveals.”–Publisher’s website.
Consists of 11 hardcover pop-up books, with projects by Andreas Gursky, Cai Guo-Qiang, Steven Klein, Alasdair McLellan, Sølve Sundsbø, Yayoi Kusama, Sophie Call, Mario Testino, Gareth Pugh, Gary Card, Nicola Formichetti, Steven Meisel, Guido Mocafico, Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean, and James Kaliardos. An additional book (paperback) lists the names of the artists and contains the colophon for the entire set.
Each book is bound with purple paper over board, with the artist’s name stamped in silver on the front cover, and additional production information stamped in silver on the back cover. The box is covered with purple cloth, and closes with an engraved metal magnetic clasp. Once opened, the sides of the box fall back as the center compartment containing the books moves forward. Tufts Library Digital Catalog entry
Christien Meindertsma with Julie Joliat
Pig 05049
Artists’ book consisting of text and photographs showing 185 products created from a single pig, with thumb indexes delineating sections, and a plastic swine ear tag affixed to the book jacket spine, 2007.
From artist’s website: “Christien Meindertsma has spent three years researching all the products made from a single pig. Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel. Meindertsma makes the subject more approachable by reducing everything to the scale of one animal. After it’s death, Pig number 05049 was shipped in parts throughout the world. Some products remain close to their original form and function while others diverge dramatically. In an almost surgical way a pig is dissected in the pages of the book – resulting in a startling photo book where all the products are shown at their true scale (1:1).”
Utilizing every last bit of animals in non-food products is nothing new; ancient books were made from vellum, a specially prepared sheep skin, and Native Americans were famous for finding a practical use for every ounce of the buffalo. What Meindertsma and Joliat so elegantly illustrate is the level of disconnect, physically and psychologically, consumers have from the production of objects we use on a daily basis. Who would have thought pig products went into making toothpaste? Instead of a strident polemic against meat eating, the designers have given us an homage to a sapient, individual creature, memorialized in the wildly divergent products that are born from 05049’s death. Tufts Library Digital Catalog entry
We were treated with another Julie Chen as a bonus!
A Guide to Higher Learning
30 x 30 x 10 cm
Edition of 100 copies, signed and numbered by the artist, 2009
Letterpress printed from photo polymer plates by Julie Chen and Alan Hillisheim
“Cloth covered clam shell box. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates. Interior lid contain instructions on how to unfold the book. Bottom tray has instructions on how to refold the book. Includes 34 x 34 in. felt cloth for displaying and reading the book. Folded cloth is stored at the center of the structure. Book consists of a central box surrounded by rows of square pages on all four sides. To read the book the whole assembly must be lifted from the tray and placed on the center of the cloth. Each square page is numbered clockwise. The reader thus begins with page 1 on the right and continues around the structure clockwise through page 12 [folding out sections to be read following arrows]”–Vamp & Tramp Booksellers Website.
“A Guide to Higher Learning includes many elements that are highly technical in both language and concept which often go far beyond my own level of knowledge. I would like to thank the following people for their contributions to this project. Henri Ducharme and Laura Norin supplied all the mathematical formulas and equations that appear in the book and spent much time and effort trying to explain to me what they mean. The intricate patterns of lines that appear with the equations are origami crease patterns by Robert J. Lang and are used with his kind permission.”–The Answer Book.
The Answer Book (a single sewn signature, 8 x 8 cm.) is placed in the center of the structure. It explains the mathematical ideas, the origami patterns of Robert J. Lang, and the Ulam spiral at the center of the book. In Tufts Special Collections. Tufts Digital Library Catalog entry
Many thanks go to Chantal Zakari for organizing and booking the event, as well as to Darin Murphy, for generously taking time from his very schedule to give us the treat of a lifetime!
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
SMFA’s W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library
Special Collections – Artists’ Books
230 The Fenway, Boston, MA
