Guerilla Bookbinding

It looks like I'm going to be without a projector for my bookbinding class on Friday, which is a big pain the arse, though not a fatal one.

Some notes for talking follow.

The idea with these: to present a number of books for passing
around. Some books illustrate some points, mostly this is a handling
exercise, to show the simplicity of books and the effects they can
quite easily produce. Some examples are well-finished, some push the
book form a bit out of shape.

This is an introductory talk to help us to settle into the idea that
we'll be talking about books all day: there is a richness to this that
can carry us through...

Books

What is a book? Some conceptual notes.

Sequence
Container
Project
Presentation

This tells us, inevitably why binding is useful.

IE for Sequence
Container
Project
Presentation

Sequence

Bookforms
not always sequential: often spatial. But they allude to sequential
form and are readily accepted as such in a way a suite of prints, say,
has to work harder to attain. Not all book artists would see this as
desirable, and some want to push away from the boundaries of the book.
Notwithstanding, their protest is predicated on the book form itself.

the idea of sequence leads to the idea of...

Container

A book is a container. Amongst other things it contains the
narrative function and sets the boundaries of the narrative within its
covers. It has a certain amount of play within these borders, but
nonetheless is a container we can work with or out of. Its virtues as a
container allow it to create a "microclimate" for creative activity. We
can isolate a part of practice within the borders of a book in order
that we may explore more easily.

the idea of container leads into the idea of...

Project

The book is a tremendous way of manipulating visual practice and
research into projects. Because we can use the book as a container for
sequence, for relating one idea to another and articulating one with
another, we can pusue complex ideas in them. This isn't unique to books
of course, but as a strategy for creating permissions for oneself to
work, it's a good strategy. Books can also be private: what is within
is not necessarily ostentatiously displayed.

Presentation

The way a book displays the ideas within has powerful potential to
create narrative drama, coolness, atmosphere, certain effects of play.

This section would link quite well into my existing introductory notes about structures and planning of books.

I might like to say something as an afterword about what happens to
the book after it's out of the hand of the artist: its durability, its
life in the hand (its portability), its ability to support readings,
its ability to present the artistic intention in an extended way.