Contemporary Artists’ Book Conference – 2

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Critical Convening on Terminology and Contextualizing Historic Material

 

Time: 26 February 2021
Organizer: Center for Book Arts, New York, USA

Artist’s Book Conference on “Critical Convening on Terminology and Contextualizing Historic Material” was part of the “2021 Contemporary Artists’ Book Conference” in conjunction with “Printed Matter’s Virtual Art Book Fair”.

How does inadequate, inconsistent, or unclear terminology limit our ability to write critically about artist’s books?  How can and should we recontextualize historical artist’s books? After a brief introduction, we invite you to join the founders of BAR and a group of international guests in this convening as we split into small breakout groups to explore these questions and work on developing recommendations.” https://centerforbookarts.org/cabc-2021-conference

The theme of the Artist’s Book Conference was not only interesting but also very important. Many times, I had to talk with art critics and press about “artist’s book” terminology.  I don’t know why, but this field of art for many art people is still unclear. And the first question always is: what does “artist’s book” mean? I never hear that somebody would ask, what does painting or installation mean?… The next question is why do you write “artist’s book”, but not “artists’ book”, or “art book”, or even “book art”?

So, I decided to attend the Conference, hoping to hear something new.

Like the organizers wrote, we had to join the group and discuss. The first short discussion had to be about terminology of “artist’s book”. And here, I am sorry, it was big “disaster”… not only in my group, but also among all Conference people from different fields: teachers, librarians, artists, designers & printmakers. Kind people. And they spoke American English very well. And that is all, I am sorry. So, for them “artist’s book” was the same as “art book” or “artists’ book”, or “book art”. No difference! Very sad – it was a very unprofessional talk.

But it made me wonder again why people, even in America, where there are so many creators of an “artist’s book”, don’t understand what an “artist’s book” is. And, thanks to this Conference, I think, I understood why.

More text and photos

 

© Artist’s Book Creators, 2021