Artist's book
work of art realized in the form of a book
Artist's books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.
Quotes
edit- The small scale, rough design, and coarse materials of Russian Futurist books mocked the luxurious journals produced by the Russian Symbolists, which were large, opulent, and sometimes adorned with gold leaf. The Futurist design, as well as the mix of hand-drawn forms and sound poems, embodies the concept of zaum (beyond the mind)—nonsensicality and nonlinearity, sometimes heightened with foreboding, lyricism, or eroticism. The most famous zaum poem, “Dyr bul shchyl”. Reading zaum books is a participatory experience: some pages require you to rotate the book to read the text; others invite multiple readings of the letters depending on whether your eye follows them across or down. The same poem can also reappear in different books, taking on a different character with a new page layout, script, and images and inviting the reader to interpret it anew.
- Nancy Perloff The World Upside Down / The Collaborative, Interactive Book Art of the Russian Futurists. Getty Museum News. May 10, 2017.
- One important area of activity within Russian Futurism was the creation of artists’ books. The production of books as unique works of art gave the movement a special imprint. This type of creativity did not stop in the 1920s, but is still developed by modern artists working in the field of the livre d’artiste. Some of the works created by the Russian Futurists became classics of the genre. This heritage had an impact on a great many contemporary Russian writers and has influenced practically all artists working in this domain.
- Elena Grigoryants Absorbing the Futurist heritage: Vasily Vlasov and Alexey Parygin / The Futurist Tradition in Contemporary Russian Artists’ Books // International Yearbook of Futurism Studies / Special Issue on Russian Futurism. Ed. by Günter Berghaus. — Berlin & Boston: Walter de Gruyter. Vol. 9 — 2019. — P. 269.
