A wonderful consequence of Shauna’s Blue Spine project is the many, many questions it has inspired.
When listening to a group of women discuss the project in the GWL kitchen, one remark in particular really made my ears prick up – an expression of confusion at the idea of treating a book as an object, a visual form, a blue spine! I sensed an undertone of reluctance at the idea, and it made me think.
Many people consider the book to be a precious object, and are horrified at the slightest mention of dog-eared pages or scribbled notes in margins. In fact, there are books on how properly to handle books; chapters and chapters describing in loving detail how to hold your book, how to turn the pages, written with such sensual affection I felt mildly disturbed upon reading.
This reverencing of books may also be cultural – I have a childhood memory of dropping a book on the ground and being instructed by my conscientious older cousin (by 6 months) that a dutiful Indian would kiss the fallen book as a sign of apology and respect. After that, I tried apologising to every book I wronged, but it became impossible as I acquired terrible habits of dropping books, standing on them, throwing them, writing all over them, leaving them in precarious towers on the floor, getting them wet, smearing chocolate on the pages…
I confess I consider most books to be safe-boxes for their precious goods – textual or pictorial or musical contents that will not be destroyed even if the container is. (Of course, first editions, small press publications, antiquarian books, books that hold sentimental or historical value, are a different matter.) Books aren’t disposable objects, I acknowledge where they came from and what it took to produce them, but they are meant to be used well and enjoyed.
Art-books are objects in a wholly different sense to the latest edition of Pride and Prejudice, books I certainly would not read in the bath! They are usually unique, frequently hand-crafted, almost always enchanting. They are art objects, comparable with paintings and sculptures, and must be treated with similar care.
Art-books (or bookworks) are books made by artists that are objects by nature; what is extraordinary about them is that many artists base their objectifications of the book on the book’s content. In doing so, they create an intrinsic link between the book and its insides (body and soul). A good example is book artist Su Blackwell, who constructs 3-dimensional illustrations of the books she works with:
This is just a taster of book-art, more examples to follow…
