Friday 3 February 2012

Book Art Object

is for books. Welcome to this first post on this new book blog.



I decided to join BookArtObject for 2012, a collective of artists working on an edition of artists books, you can read about it here. Members are based worldwide but mainly in Australia. I am joining the fourth edition based on Sarah Bodman's artists book An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen.
Sarah's book was a response to Kurt's artists book Exercises (2001) a book of performative texts, one of which was his suggestion to write 100 stories and bury them in a forest, which she did. Her book now lies decomposing in a forest in Denmark. You can read about it here. Each of the sixty plus artists who have signed up will work with one or two of the 100 titles in Sarah's book (with her permission). I really liked Sarah's book and this project with its referential nature. Sarah Bodman will receive a copy of the full edition.



I usually work with unique books or small editions of 3 to 5, so making an edition of 15 will be a learning experience for me and will require a much more organised approach. I'm working on two titles this year, #73 That Unbearable Lightness and #56 Unchartered Democracy. I've been taking advantage of all the wet indoor weather we've been having to start work on Number 73. I will post reports about the making of this book in the coming weeks.

9 comments:

ronnie said...

two titles? fantastic - I haven't heard about the grouping for the second title yet...... you never know - we may be put together for the second title!

Helen M said...

Thanks for your comment Ronnie. I'm hoping we may end up in the same group with our second title too.

jac said...

Hi, I'm in Group 5(and annother yet to be announced for a second title). I'm looking forward to seeing how your books develop

Helen M said...

Lovely to meet you here Jac. I have been following your progress with interest and I love reading about how people develop their work.

rObfOs said...

Hi Helen, I'm doing BAO for the first time too this year and am amazed how generous and supportive the BAO group is. Am impressed that you have jumped in for two titles. I am feeling a little overwhelmed with the idea of one title! I look forward to watching your journey. Best of Luck with the blogging and the creating.

Vicki said...

Hi Helen and welcome to the blog world. It is wonderful that so many of the BAO people are starting up blogs. It will be lovely to be able to keep up with what everyone is doing beyond Edition 4.

Helen M said...

Thanks Vicki, I've been inspired to start a blog after enjoying your blog and those of other BAO members.

Helen M said...

Thank you for your good wishes Robyn - I may be mad having taken on two titles, but it certainly will keep me busy!

pennypeckham said...

Hi Helen,
Thanks for your kind words about my Nude as Wallpaper book. I confess, I'm still finding my way with blogging, which is why my response is here. I received an email with your comment but it didn't appear on my blog, so I thought a reply there would look strange. By the way, we were both in the Palm Reader exhibition at Hand Held gallery in Melbourne 2 or 3 years ago. I thought your name sounded familiar!