From my collection - 'Cacophony' by Ed Hutchins

 

I was excited to receive a copy of this new sculptural book from Ed Hutchins recently, a new release in 2021 from Editions, his small press which publishes his artists book multiples.  

Cacophony is a first edition of 200 copies.  It is quite large, about the size of an A4 page.

  

It went on an unusual journey from New York via Tokyo on it's way to Australia.  Due to the pandemic there are not so many flights in and out of Australia but I guess there were lots of planes flying in and out of Tokyo during the Olympic Games!  It went off the tracking radar but fortunately it did arrive at my home eventually in perfect condition.

Creating sculptural books whose structure and form relate to the theme or content of the book is a characteristic of Ed Hutchins' work and something I've always been interested in.  Ed's work definitely influenced me to consider structure as an essential element I could use to visually complement the content and create added meaning in artists books.  

Cacophony has a complicated structure made up of two intersecting concertinas that fold down flat.  The concertinas have cut-outs and irregular cut edges, with words seemingly popping up at you from every direction.  

 The book is laser printed from Ed's artwork and as the different panels intersect with each other, it must have been a very exacting procedure to have part of the artwork at the intersection on one panel and the matching part on another panel.  Absolute precision would have been required. 

 The T D and P seen below are examples of letters printed on two separate sheets of card and meeting precisely.

The concertinas contain 127 words that express sounds and exclamations.  Their intersecting nature  allows all the words to mix and mingle inside and out and some of them pop up or out at you visually creating the idea of a cacophony.  

A card accompanying the book contains a list of the words included as the text. 

  

WOW was my first impression and a cut-out freestanding Wow has been inserted into slots in one of the cut-out circular areas on the front side of the book and takes the word count to 128! 

Ed has created a colourful, joyful masterwork that makes you smile.   

 

A video posted by Ed Hutchins on You tube displays the book moving in the round here.

You can also find a number of other teaching videos on You tube where Ed demonstrates how he worked on different aspects of this masterpiece of construction. 

Intertextuality

 Intertextuality is the juxtaposition of two texts which together create a new meaning that is not contained in either text when used alone.  The term was introduced by semiotician Julia Kristeva in the late 1960's.  It has much potential for use in artists books and I think it could and should be a method used by artist book makers more often.

I first used intertextuality as a means of creating meaning in an artwork I made in 1993.

The piece was a sculptural book made of calfskin vellum called In the Beginning Far off in the Dreamtime.  The form of the book is an icosahedron - a crystal shape created in nature.  This icosahedron carries excerpts from two different creation texts, In the beginning from Genesis in the bible and Far off in the Dreamtime, the story of the Rainbow Serpent.  By juxtaposing the texts, meaning and issues not contained in the individual texts were created, relating to Australian/Aboriginal cultural issues, reconciliation and belief systems.

This artwork was purchased by the State Library of Queensland in 1993 after being included in an exhibition at the State Library.  It is now held in its Artists Book Collection.  It was also included in a book by Kay Saunders Between the Covers: Revealing the State Library of Queensland's Collections, Focus Publishing NSW 2006 p. 147

Another example of intertextuality is the work of British digital artist and printmaker Phil Shaw who has used intertextuality in a series of digital prints he has been producing for over ten years called Bookshelves. When the viewer reads the titles of the books in sequence, they connect with each other and create a new text and meaning.

A recent print of his called Shelf Isolation 2020 utilises these book titles to create a new story about the pandemic.  

Image and text below Copyright Phil Shaw

The titles of the books read

The English Patient/Had/Caught/It/On the Beach/I should have stayed home/She said/Now/She was/in Quarantine/In the Dark/House of Splendid Isolation/Still/Hope Springs Eternal/With a little bit of Luck/Common Sense/And/Personal Hygiene/The Corona Book of Horror Stories/Must End Soon/Always Remember/Clean Hands Save Lives/And/When in Doubt/ Don't/Go/Out.

Phil Shaw has made a number of different Bookshelves in this series and you can read how he creates the prints and view others in the series on his website here or at the Rececca Hossack Art Gallery in London here.