Transparency

The almost-nothingness of transparent backgrounds was the starting point for this work. Those grey and white chequered backgrounds that show transparency on graphics files, that are often left unnoticed, intrigued me. I wanted to make something with these overlooked backgrounds.

I like that transparent backgrounds describe a see-though plane by using an opaque pattern. And that they do so in virtual space. I wanted to transform this pattern by making it a material object that would occupy a physical space. I wanted it to unfold the way a map does, something that describes a territory.

Transparency is a map fold book to be held up to see the world beyond it.

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Transparency is part of a project made with members of the art collective Art Byte Critique. Responding to the theme Futuristic Illusion, this book belongs to a collaborative project with books by Arthur Huang, Patty Hudak, Yuko Kamei, Nick West, and Carlee Wolcott. It was first shared at Bristol Artist’s Book Event 2024.

Transparency is part of the collection of artists’ books at the UWE (University of West England).

To/Fro

To/Fro is a book assembled from 104 ping pong balls. Belonging to the Books From Things series are a cluster of orbs. I wanted to mirror the back and forth between the book and the reader, reading.

Blog: Book Forms

More Book Forms - hardback, dos-à-dos (back-to-back), zine, concertina, octopus, papyrus scroll, illustrated manuscript, guide book, carousel, choose your own adventure books, experimental books, manga, photobook, bunkobon, dragon scale binding, the anti-book, text books, audiobooks, microform film, and the book as sculpture (Robert The, Readers' Digest).

Even More Book Forms - Japanese stab binding, swatch book, crown binding, fan book, Bananote (by @pichikpachik), exploded book, digital sketchbook, flag book, exquisite corpse, Victorian peep hole, chapbook, passport, colouring book, smart phone book, scroll book (Ai Hashimoto), message in a bottle, dream journal, fish bone fold, altered book (Noriko Ambe), and the world’s largest pop up book.

Likewise

Likewise is a concertina book made from black and white keyboard keys. This book is part of the Books From Things series. To make this book, I dismantled a keyboard and then threaded it together with cotton.

Meat

Meat is a book made from several slices of folded beef. As part of the Books From Things series, these pages were sourced from a local supermarket. I wanted to make a book using the most fundamental of physical materials.

Blog: Artists' Books

What can a book be? How can the form of the book be used as an artwork in itself? Often published in small editions, or produced as one-of-a-kind objects, Artists’ Books came about as an alternative space to produce and/or disseminate ideas.

Generally speaking, Artists’ Books are interactive, portable, movable and easily shared but this genre is vast.

Here follows an all-too-brief selection of modern artists whom have reconfigured the mediavel invention:

Dieter Roth, ‘bok 4a’ (1961)

Lygia Clark, ‘Livro-obra’ (1964-1983)

Ed Ruscha, ‘Every building on the Sunset Strip (1966)

George Maciunas, ‘Fluxkit' (1966–67)

Augusto de Campos, Open (Abre), (1969)

Marcel Broodthaers, ‘Atlas’ (1975)

Sol Lewitt, ‘Brick Wall’ (1977)

Julije Knifer, ‘Hölderlin, Der Rhein’ (1984)

Yaacov Agam, ‘Rainbow Torah’, (1992)

Ettore Spalletti, ‘Salle de Fêtes’ (1998)

Peter Fischli and David Weiss, ‘Will happiness find me?’ (2003)

Christian Marclay, ‘Shuffle’ (2007)

Allan McCollum, ’The Book of Shapes’ (2010)

Sun Young Kang, ‘Memories Unfolded’ (2011)

Les Bicknell, ‘The Weight of Invisibility’ (2012)

Tauba Auerbach, ‘Stab/Ghost’ (2013)

Noriko Ambe, A Piece of Flat Globe Volume 34 (2013)

Valérie Buess, ‘Boycotting Its Original Content’ (2017)

Julie Johnstone, ‘The Sound of the Rain’ (2017)