Fine art students at Monash Caulfield have
been experimenting
with books, and making their own.
This art form is known as the artist book.
The skills of visual artists, writers,
designers, printers and others are called upon in the
production
of work in this form. There is also a special
relationship between the production of an
artist book and the processes and technique of
Printmedia, including setting and printing type,
etching on copper plate, relief printing from lino
and wood blocks, and lithography printed from
stones and plates. These processes, originating in
commercial print processes, have been high-jacked
by artists to subvert conventional forms of the book,
drawing on a rich tradition of visual and literary
experimentation.
The artist book asks questions about sequence,
space and time, the relationship between form
and content,and about the generation of meaning
and its reception.These books are object as well as text.
These young artists follow in the footsteps of 1
9th century designer William Morris, who wrote in
1894 of the demise of the book. Book lovers in the
middle ages, he suggests, had before them
“a piece of beauty obvious to the eyesight”….
“a palpable work of art”.
In an era when reading itself is once again brought
into question, with the prevalence of digital technologies,
these young artists are reinvigorating the artist book and
embracing the idea of a book printed on paper rather
than the text read only on a screen.
