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Title of Abstract:

The impact of the Artists? Book Movement on contemporary visual communications in the United States (Ref #213)

Date:
26-10-2006 14:53:44
Status:
Unsuccessful
Rating:
4
Details:
The Artists? Book Movement of the late 20th century provides design, craft, and art historians with a distinctive opportunity to explore the relationships among the arts, contemporary visual communications, and the process of creative innovation. A growing resource, artists? books comprise numerous special collections in both academic and public libraries through the country. Educators seeking to expand their curriculum in creative ideation process will find these collections invaluable. Experienced design/craft practitioners seeking fresh and innovative approaches to their work will discover a world unhampered by the commonplace obstacles of client deadlines, pre-existing guidelines, and budgets that preclude a multitude of creative solutions.

This paper analyzes dozens of artists? books located in the special collections of the Phoenix Public Library and the Hayden Library of Arizona State University. As the two collections jointly contain more than 500 specimens, created by book artists from all over the United States as well as Europe, the study is limited to a group of 100 books selected for their unusual and distinctive formats. This paper explores form, content, and concept along with their respective author/artist backgrounds.

The past few decades have seen fine book artists appropriating nearly every medium, tool, technique, and material found in the historic repertoire of graphic designers. Now the flow of information and ideas goes both directions, with practicing visual communications designers accessing artists? books collections for their wealth of visual language resources. The AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) online archive has numerous samples of this phenomena; one example illustrates the work of notable book artist Walter Hamady and his Perishable Press. Hamady has no less than seven award winning book designs in this highly influential design archive, yet he is not a traditional graphic designer. This paper will provide numerous examples of similar phenomena.

With the academic trend toward the separation of fine and applied arts, it is worth noting that many craft media bridge the space between them, not the least of which are artists? books. This paper will examine the many benefits of that connection for both academia as well as working artists and designers.

This paper analyzes dozens of artists? books located in the special collections of the Phoenix Public Library and the Hayden Library of Arizona State University. As the two collections jointly contain more than 500 specimens, created by book artists from all over the United States as well as Europe, the study is limited to a group of 100 books selected for their unusual and distinctive formats. These books are explored for form, content, and concept along with their respective author/artist backgrounds.

The past few decades have seen fine book artists appropriating nearly every medium, tool, technique, and material found in the historic repertoire of graphic designers. Now the flow of information and ideas goes both directions, with practicing visual communications designers accessing artists? books collections for their wealth of visual language resources. The AIGA online archive has numerous samples of this phenomena; one example being the work of notable book artist Walter Hamady of Perishable Press. Hamady has no less than seven award-winning book designs in this highly influential design archive. This paper will provide numerous examples of similar phenomena.

With the academic trend toward the separation of fine and applied arts, it is worth noting that the space between them continues to be bridged by any number of craft mediums, not the least of which are artists? books. This paper will examine the many benefits of that connection for both academia as well as working artists and designers.




Reviewer Comments:

Review #1 : Left on 30-10-2006 15:38:11 #
A very worthy piece of work which would make an excellent poster presentation, but not a paper submission.

4
Review #2 : Left on 08-11-2006 18:51:28 #
I concur with the first referee, perhaps an exhibit proposal rather than poster.

4