Fabulous Books, Fantastic Places comes to a close…..but….

Artists’ Books on-line

As Fabulous Books Fantastic Places draws to a close and the books are taken down from the shelves in the Greenfield Gallery in Newton Aycliffe,  its been a pleasure reading back through some of the comments left by exhibitors and visitors to Fabulous Books Fantastic Places.

“Lovely fair – great range and quality of work – wanted to buy it all!” 

“Very inspiring” 

“Fabulous event- we came across it completely by accident and super pleased we did” 

“Very inspirational event, both to participate in and as a visitor.” 

“Amazed at the creativity and ideas” 

Art Editions North

Exhibitors taking part traveled from far afield, including Nigeria, Miami, London, Glasgow and Wallsend!

 

AM Bruno

“A very friendly, intimate book fair. I hope it becomes a regular feature (yearly? Biannual?) without loosing the feel” Marco Cali  (AM Bruno)

Lucy May Schofield

“Perfect location & lovely visitors” Lucy May Schofield

Gloria Ceballos

“The place was amazing” Gloria Ceballos

Black Hearted Press

“An enjoyable event, thanks for having us. We felt at home and very welcome” Sha Nazir

The next artist book related event hitting the North East will take place at Newcastle’s Lit & Phil.  An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street represents over 200 handmade books  made by artists and poets in response to the bombing.

50 books from the collection will be exhibited at the Lit & Phil between  August 5^th and 30^th September 2013 and are available for viewers to pick up and explore.  To accompany the exhibition of work at The Lit & Phil, Sheree Mack, Writer-in –Residence @The Lit & Phil will be leading a writing workshop 17^th August 10-1pm 2013.  I am a contributor to the Inventory of al-Mutanabbi Street,  and  will be leading a print and bookmaking workshop 24^th August 10-1pm.  This workshop will introduce participants to simple printmaking techniques incorporating text using traditional type and colourful textures.

On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community.

Throughout 2013-2014 the books will be exhibited simultaneously in USA, Europe & the Middle East.  While on show at the Lit & Phil, the collection will also be exhibited at Center for Book Arts, New York City, in collaboration with Poets House, New York City – July 10 – September 14, 2013 and Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington – August 19 – October 31, 2013.

A complete set of all the books will be donated to the Iraq National Library in Baghdad.

Newcastle’s Lit & Phil
Photo Credit: David Lawson

On show now at Greenfield Community & Arts Centre

On show now at The Greenfield Gallery @ Greenfield Community & Arts Centre is the exhibition Abode.

The Sunderland Book Project @ The Greenfield Gallery

An exhibition of 4 parts – including “Sunderland Book Project,”a collection of artist’s books, “Northern Bound” on tour from Fabulous Books, Fantastic Places BALTIC, a display of small scale prints by local artists, and “Special Edition” printed artworks.

Northern Bound@ The Greenfield Gallery

Fabulous Books, Fantastic Places: Northern Bound

Working alongside printmaker and book artist Theresa Easton, participants explore the art of bookmaking using printmaking techniques and themes close to home such as identity, learning between generations, social history and storytelling. The exhibition formed part of Fabulous Books, Fantastic Places: BALTIC Artists’ Book Fair  celebrating the Festival of the North East, marking the temporary return to the region of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Exhibitors include, Tyneside Women’s Health, Greenfield Community & Arts Centre, The North Tyneside Intergenerational Volunteer Project & pupils from Richardson Dees Primary  School Wallsend and Hartlepool Borough Council Culture & Information and Youth Services

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair presents an exciting mix of book art, comics, photo bookwork and hand made books.

Over 30 national, regional & international participants at BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair will be exhibiting, selling and showing their work today on Level 1 at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead.

Stormy skies over Gateshead

After an evening in Central Bar Gateshead, catching breath and taking stock, the Book Fair continues today with exhibitions and stalls.

The exhibitors present a range of subjects, themes and bookbinding skills working with ceramic, paper, textiles and metal.  If you plan to come along, bring your cash and work to a budget!  There are plenty of tempting pieces of work you will certainly want to walk away with you.

Saturday 15th is the last day of the Fair and along side book fair exhibitors North East Photography Network (NEPN) partnering with Side Gallery and photographer/producer Aaron Guy are presenting a whole room stuffed full of the most amazing photo book work including handmade books, zines, newspapers, published and self-published issues, to the more traditional ‘photobook.’

Digital Photo-book presentation, 11.30-12.30am, Cinema Space

There will be a screening presenting new forms of digital publishing at 11.30-12.30  in the Cinema space.  All Welcome, just drop by!

Also on display on Level 2, graduates from Cleveland College of Art & Design (CCAD)  present their latest exhibition ‘Don’t Judge a Book By its Cover’ alongside The Book Apothecary.

Participants from Hartlepool, Wallsend, Newton Aycliffe and Newcastle exhibit their print and book work under the banner ‘Northern Bound’ .

Theresa Easton, Book Fair organiser worked for a number of weeks with the groups developing their print and bookmaking skills, drawing on themes of identity, story telling and heritage.  They present a collection of their finished pieces alongside Sumi Perera’s 15:1, beautifully hand made book art from Beijing.

This event is part of Festival of the North East and is funded by Arts Council England & Newcastle City Council.

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair – special exhibition, just installed!

15 to 1

15 to 1

15 to 1

15 to 1

15 to 1

Dog-god (15:1)

“The 15 artists’ books in this touring exhibition were made by postgraduate students studying for a MA in Graphic Design at the Central Academy for Fine Art in Bejing. London based artist Sumi Perera taught an artist book module there over a period of two weeks in December 2007.          

 

The 15 books show a wide variety of techniques as the students explore the medium of artist’s bookmaking, from the more conventional, but exquisitely realised, I Ching Book of Changes (Zhi Jun Wang) to the imaginative Thinking Plaster Tape. The Book of Changes, reflecting on its subject matter, builds its coherence from the continuity of a painted line running through all the paper pages in this stab bound work. Text (in Chinese) is printed on acetate showing and reflecting on the painted line/road/path beneath. Thinking Plaster Tape (Zhai Wen Si) explores thinking activity. The ‘book’ comes in a sewn, zipped cover, ‘a white round bag that looks if our brain’, and out of the cover comes 2 sets of instructions/explanations (in English and Chinese) together with a ball of tape. Different sorts of tape in the ball reveal different patterns of thinking, such as collecting information, or studying it. Using the concertina format Zhang Zi Long in Mr Empty’s Publishing House explores the concept of filling bookshelves with empty binders. What look like old red gilded versions of Shakespeare’s plays are merely empty sham, paper thin and nothing behind them.

In Chinese these artists’ books rely on their visual content alone for ‘reader’ exploration. Mostly in black and white shape/ cut out becomes more important. In Flowering Smoke (Ren Shan Shan) the pages have been burnt out consecutively to produce the palimpsest of a charred edged flower while in Person (Shun Zhi Hua) the Chinese ideograph for person runs throughout the book but cut up gradually.

Removing literal, translated, meaning from the text allows a new way of seeing the book as a visual, physical presence, something which these Bejing graphics students have exploited.”  Theo Wood

[Bookartists :Zhi Jun Wang, Ji Yu Jie, Jia Ge, Wian Qian Ge, Shun Zhi Hua, Zhou Wen Jun, Qu Lei, Zhia Wen Si, Ren Shan Shan, Zhang Zi Long, Cheng Zhu Shan, Shi Xiao Hui, Wang Shunshun, Tu Ya, Li Zheng & Sumi Perera ]

VENUES:

• University of West England, Bristol. May 2008

http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/15to1.htm

• Liverpool Artist Bookfair. Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool. November 2008

http://artistsbookfairliverpool.blogspot.com/2008/10/151-exhibition-curated-by-sumi-perera.html

• 12^th  International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair, Parkinson Court, University of

Leeds. March 2009

• BABE 2009, Arnolfini, Bristol. April 2009
• Moufflon Bookshop. Cyprus. June – July 2009
• Frankfurt Bookfair, BuchDruckKunst e.V. Germany. 14-18^th October 2009
• 25SG Gallery, 25 Stratford Grove, Newcastle. 19^th-20^th June 2010

http://25stratfordgrove.wordpress.com/

• Gallery North Artists’ Bookfair. Newcastle.  26^th June 2010
• Sunderland Book Project. Washington Arts Centre. 3^rd September-5^th November 2011
• Turn The Page Artist Bookfair. The Forum, Norwich. 4^th & 5^th May 2012
• Press & Release. Phoenix, Brighton. 27^th April- 9^th June 2013

Sumi Perera

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR                                   Sumi Perera   RE

cloth bound book with etched zinc title plate.

Pages consist of etched, embossed stitched Somerset paper 300g. Endpaper red cartridge paper 100g.

Size : 10.5 x 23.5 x 1.5 cms

 DEATH OF THE AUTHOR is an exploration of text written by the 18th century novelist Laurence Sterne, who wrote for the 21st century reader. The book’s front cover has the date of birth of this influential author, who was inspired by many great writers (Rabelais, Swift, Cervantes, Locke etc.), and in turn inspired many others (Beckett, Joyce, Woolf, Rushdie etc.). The playful devices used in his work, which is considered as the model for modernist literature, is mirrored in this artist’s book. The back cover bears the date of the death of the author, while the inside narrative is a loose thread of codes to unravel and build one’s own story – the same reason why the spine is left blank. The book also bears a quote from Roland Barthes’ writing (1977:”The Death of an Author” in Image-Music-Text).

 

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair, special exhibitions: CCAD graduates, Lucy May Schofield, The Sunderland Book Project & North East Photography Network

Applied Arts Cleveland College of Art & Design

Fresh from their Degree show in Hartlepool, Graduates from Cleveland College of Art & Design have successfully installed their book work in the Archive & Library in BALTIC.  The work is a reconfiguration of the exhibition ‘Don’t Judge a Book by the cover’ curated for Empty Shop, Durham in December 2012.  Work by Leanne Howard, Amy-Rose Tucker, Alison Murphy, Jenny Robinson, Lucy Addison, Sarah Davidson, Tracey Lou Gilmore-George, Jessica Langford, Carely Pearson & Kimberley Shields is on show until 23rd June as part of the Fabulous Books Fantastic Places project.

BABL

Lucy May Schofield & BABL

The Bibliotherapy Artist’s Book Library (BABL)  provides visitors with a space to express their needs, fears, habits, anxieties, disorders and desires, a place to offload their worries to a stranger. Visitors then receive a tailored prescription of Artists’ publications appropriate to their woes, in hope of providing some comfort, direction, empathy or humour.

Lucy will be on hand to deliver her Bibliotherapy on Level 1 in BALTIC.

The Sunderland Book Project comes to town comprising of 62 hand made books based on the city of Sunderland from over 70 contributors from around the world.  Its an opportunity to browse the library of books, discovery some hidden stories of Sunderland and be inspired to make your own contribution as the project gears up for its next venue!

Also travelling in from Sunderland is North East Photography Network showcasing the vibrancy of contemporary photography book-work.  NEPN is pleased to be partnering with Side Gallery and photographer/producer Aaron Guy on the production of their  involvement in the event.

Exhibiting contributions include Wideyed,  an independent artist-led collective based in the North East of England. Founded in February 2008 by Lucy Carolan, Richard Glynn and Louise Taylor, the group is dedicated to creating, curating and promoting compelling contemporary photography for exhibition and cross-media publication. The self-initiated projects and creative collaborations the collective undertakes lead to the production and innovative dissemination of new works. Its photographers have played active roles in international photography festivals, received awards and bursaries, participated in international arts residencies, worked on commission, and exhibited from England to India.

“We are presenting high quality publications and editions, reflecting the breadth of practice in this area from handmade books, zines, newspapers, published and self-published issues, to the more traditional ‘photobook.’ Join us in our temporary photo-book lounge for the chance to see all this and more.” NEPN

Drop in Sessions:

Digital Photo-book presentation, 10.30-11.30am, Cinema Space

There will be a screening presenting new forms of digital publishing at 10.30-11.30 on both days in the Cinema space.

 

Photography Reading Group session, Saturday 16 June, 3-4pm, Cinema Space

Join us for a discussion around traditional and new forms of photographic publishing in our temporary photo-book lounge.  All welcome.

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair – Gloria Ceballos, Marie Marcano, Paper & Theresa Easton

“My work is a metaphor of fragility, reflecting about subtle things and the importance of
what is small, delicate, and many times imperceptible based in my personal experiences when in the
presence of nature or about human relationships. I express experiences that are not individual,
but universal and, therefore, common to all of us.
I render this thoughts on my work on paper, sewing all the information together taking
advantage of the fragility of the media, subtly working its surface, suggesting a feeling of stillness
and overwhelming,not only in the form of prints, but also in paintings and drawings,personal
interventions as installations.” Gloria Ceballos

Gloria Ceballos

http://www.spainculturescience.co.uk/events/gloria-ceballos-baltic-artist’s-book-fair

Marie Macano

Marie Marcano is a Venezuelan visual artist based in Miami, Florida. She received her BFA from The Corcoran College of Art & Design and her MFA from Miami International University of Art and Design. Her artist’s books have been exhibited in various galleries and museums including The Jaffe Center for Book Arts, The Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, The Corcoran Museum of Art, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and The Nobel Museum in Stockholm. Marie won the Florida Artists’ Book Prize in 2008 and 2011. She investigates the power of text in the visual arts. Her pieces including artist’s books, installations, art jewelry and multimedia art can be seen at http://www.mariemarcano.com.

Paper

PAPER is an artist run gallery based in Manchester focussing specifically on affordable work on paper, including originals, artist editions, and artist books. We represent around 25 artists based locally, nationally and internationally. PAPER is the brainchild of Liverpool John Moores University Masters graduates Andrea Cotton, David Hancock, Nicola Smith, who were joined this year by Simon Woolham. PAPER opened in August 2012, and has been included in Manchester Contemporary and Manchester Book Fair. For the Baltic Book Fair we would present new artist books by Lucy May Schofield, Jenny Steele, Simon Woolham, Oliver Flude, Naomi Lethbridge, and Julie Dodd.

Theresa Easton

Theresa Easton is a printmaker based in Newcastle and the organiser of Fabulous Books Fantastic Places. Easton studied Fine Art, specialising in Printmaking at the University of East London and completed an MA in Glass at Sunderland University.

Artist’s Books provide a platform for Easton’s printmaking skills and the opportunity to develop international projects such as The Sunderland Book Project.

Heritage interpretation and exploring cultural episodes play an important part in Easton’s practice using contemporary printmaking processes and artist’s books.  Easton’s interest in Artist’s Books began with an international project in 2007 with The Penny Histories, a project working in partnership with Newcastle’s Literary & Philosophical Society.

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair – Pink Parrot Press, Art Editions North, Joshua Cobbin & Off Topic Collective and Cindy Robinson Begg

Pink Parrot Press

The Pink Parrot Press, founded by Laura Little in 2012, is an independent publisher specialising in artists’ books and illustrated prints. Laura is researching a PhD in artists’ books at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. She holds an MA in Book Art from Camberwell College of Art and a BA (Hons) in Illustration with Animation from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Recent exhibitions include the Limerick International Publishers’ Salon (Ireland), in February 2013 and the Dublin Artists’ Book Fair in November 2012. Her artist’s books can be found in the Tate Artists’ Books collection and private collections across the UK.

Art Editions North

Art Editions North (an imprint of the University of Sunderland) is an independent publisher specialising in the production of artist’s monographs, exhibition catalogues and art-related publications. It was established by Peter Davies and is now run by Peter and Mike Collier as Co-Directors, and administered by Izzy McDonald-Booth from the National Glass Centre in Sunderland. Its books are distributed nationally and internationally by Cornerhouse. Art Editions North (AEN) has an extensive back catalogue of over 40 high quality books.

Joshua Cobbin

“My practice is concerned primarily with photography and its unique relationship with books. Photographic work naturally lends itself to the book form perhaps more than any other. My work explores aspects of human experience particularly within the boundaries of everyday existence, taking an explicit look at the overlooked areas of ordinary life. My current research is concerned with how photography is perceived through the book or ‘zine’, how sequencing influences the reading of photographs, and how the experience of a book is altogether and intimate one.

For the fair, I will be collaborating with other artists involved in various Book Apothecary projects. ” Joshua  Cobbin & Off  Topic Collective

Cindy Robinson-Begg

“Secret childhood dens and places of the imagination give inspiration to my work. Making prints and books using paper is my passion.

Screenprint and lithography are my favoured methods of image making and these are usually produced from combinations of mark making and photographic sources with references to works of children’s literature.

I work from my studio in Cullercoats and from Northern Print.” Cindy Robinson-Begg

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair – Homeward Bound Books, Lydia Wysocki & Brittany Coxon, Sara Wicks & The Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize.

Homeward Bound Books

These quirky books are made from collected, found and reused papers.  The books are already worn and provide an inspiring place to record important things.  Homeward Bound Books

Lydia Wysocki

Lydia makes self-published small press books that are humorous.  Some are laugh out loud, others are not.   Some have hand-stitched bindings and others have an ISBN.

Brittany Coxon

Brittany makes comics of varying sizes but really enjoys mini comics. She aims to have a papercut art book finished and ready to show off at the fair along with said mini comics. She also makes stationery and greetings cards and has contributed to a few Paper Jam Comics Collective anthologies.

Sara Wicks

“I make unique and limited edition books which are very handmade in feel through the use of layered papers and incorporation of drawing, collage, and mono-printed fragments. Recently I have been making photocopied versions of these to have an affordable component to my output but these still retain a tactile quality through the use of fragile papers and hand embellishment. Sometimes I make pieces which have a sculptural format but still utilize text and familiar narratives.

My work usually has a narrative structure and imagery inspired by things seen and imagined. Since 2008 I have exhibited at book fairs at the ICA, Whitechapel Gallery, and Handmade and Bound fairs in London and Whitstable, showing with colleagues from U.C,A. ”  Sara Wicks

Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize

The Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize is open to makers of artist’s books from anywhere in the world: it is free to enter, visitors to the exhibition vote for the main prize winner and all books submitted feature in the accompanying exhibition.

Participants are encouraged to donate their entries to our growing collection, which is available for research and touring to exhibitions and fairs.

Through the Prize, Exhibitions and Collection we aim to increase awareness of and access to this medium. 2013 sees the fourth edition of the prize – entries close 31 July – exhibition staged in October and November.

Rachel Gibson & Malcolm Gibson, Susan Davis, Michelle Holland &Aidan Moesby

Malcolm Gibson’s recent work is based on the construction, arrangement and recording of found objects on site.  The resulting ‘photoworks’ are photographic record of both place and artwork, produced in book form and other related methods.

Malcolm Gibson

Rachel Gibson’s work reflects an intuitive involvement with ideas that are central to the notion of memory, experience and sense of place.  Recent bookworks develop links between image and language which are influenced by poetic structure, in particular that of Haiku. Individually and as ‘Real Art’ both artists have produced limited edition artists’ books which are held in a number of major national and international collections.

Rachel Gibson

Susan Davis

“FROM COPTIC TO CONTEMPORARY USING TRADITIONAL BOOKBINDING SKILLS, MY AIM IS TO GET THE VIEWER TO INTERACT WITHIN THE PAGES OF THE BOOK, NOT JUST VIEW THE BINDINGS.

USING WOOD ENGRAVINGS, ILLUSTRATIONS AND ORIGAMI ALONGSIDE WORDS AND FOOTNOTES.

SOME TO MAKE YOU PONDER, SOME TO MAKE YOU SMILE. IT ENCOURAGES THE READER IN THE SPACES TO RECORD THEIR OWN THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

MOST OF MY WORK IS TO COMMISSION, SO THE PHOTOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATE MY SKILLS FROM BOOKS I HAVE ON HAND. IN JANUARY I RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE BUSINESS FACTORY AND VIEW THIS FAIR ALSO AS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY.”

Susan Davis

Michelle Holland

“I am working mainly in ceramics for my bookcovers, incorporating treasure picked up from the sea shore. Using Coptic stitching mostly in the bindings as I like to see how a book is held together.  I also love to experiment with metal and metal bindings, and creating books with discarded musical instruments.”

Michelle Holland

Aidan Moesby

I AM A SOCIALLY ENGAGED TEXT BASED ARTIST PRODUCING SITE RESPONSIVE INSTALLATIONS

 

MY WORK EXPLORES RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACE THROUGH THE DISTILLATION OF INTIMATE, OFTEN CONCEALED HISTORIES AND NARRATIVES –

PARTICULARLY WITH HOW WE ENGAGE PSYCHOLOGICALLY WITH OUR WORLDS AND THE  LANGUAGES OF SPECIFIC SPACES .

 

I WORK EXTENSIVELY WITH LETTERPRESS, LENDING ITSELF TO THE BOOK-FORM, THOUGH MY PRACTICE ALSO INCLUDES 

Aidan Moesby

BALTIC Artist’s Book Fair – North Tyneside Council Learning Alliance, Sarah Morpeth, AM Bruno & Sue Bennett

North Tyneside Council Adult Learning Alliance

This bookfair table will promote the work of the North Tyneside Council’s Adult Learning Alliance (Bookbinding) in keeping alive the processes and techniques of established and modern bookbinding as well as allowing the freedom to explore the world of book art in all its forms.  In doing so, it aims to attract the interest and participation of people from the local and wider community.  On show, and in some cases, on sale, will be a wide variety of books to reflect the work of the participants – traditional binding forms, Japanese binding, artists’ books eg concertina style, story/poetry books, notebooks, as well as an insight into restoration and conservation work.

Sarah Morpeth

Sarah  Morpeth is an artist living and working in Northumberland, making work inspired by the landscape around her. Her current projects include an ongoing series of books made in response to a 1945 film with which she has been obsessed for years, called ‘I Know Where I’m Going’; its story, setting and characters inspire her work and the form of her books. She uses a range of techniques in producing her pieces – printing the pages first, then working on them with hand and machine stitch, scalpel cutting, drawing and painting and finally binding the pages, often using traditional book-binding methods.

AM Bruno

AM Bruno is a group of artists who make books as part of their practice; they produce and show new works for exhibitions and fairs, and are invited on these occasions to engage with a given theme.  The subject for the current collection is 16.

Just as the individual members of the collective are brought together by their shared interest in books so the works themselves, gathered in varying combinations at different times, engender new conversations.

Sue Bennett

“I have been making and repairing books for many years. Basing my practice on traditional bookbinding skills, I make journals or albums using fine quality papers with a modern appeal.  I have more recently discovered the wonderful world of artists books and my practice is expanding to include creative interpretations of the book form and experimentation with different materials.  IN addition, I enjoy creative writing and am exploring the challenge of both making the content and the cover.  My submission will include examples of the range of books I make, with some for sale.”  Sue Bennett