Rhonda Ayliffe - Annotated bibliography
My life is saturated with books. It's not just that I have groaning bookshelves and sheds stacked with tonnes (literally) of tomes; my arts practice and artworks are based on books, indeed, my MFA project is titled 'codex infinitum – (the infinite book)'. Books are at the core of my work - they are its subject and object, its matter and material, its inspiration and conceptual realisation. My self-confessed bibliomania means creating an abridged yet apt bibliography is a distinct challenge. Thus this annotated bibliography will be focussing on research material that has informed the physical and conceptual aspects of my work as it relates to my MFA project as well as that ascribing an initial positionality of gestating works.
My arts practice is founded on the artisanal crafts of calligraphy and book arts so it will come as little surprise that my research interests have revolved around book arts. Artists books, art about books, art made from books, and art or texts contemplating the past, present, and future of books have occupied my reading. Initially my interest pragmatically focussed on craft techniques, and 'how-to' manuals devoted to the crafts associated with books and book arts (calligraphy, bookbinding, paper making, vellum production, illumination, gold work, letterpress, paper marbling) have provided an invaluable resource. As I have discovered more about structure and technique, I have developed a curiosity about the history and practice of book crafts and the work of contemporary book artists.
At the very beginning of his text 'Artists' Books', Stephen Bury defined artists books as:
“books or book-like objects … where the book is intended as a work of art in itself” and it has been this, rather than livres d'artistes that has captured my attention. Johanna Drucker's texts 'The Century of Artists' Books', 'The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination', and 'Figuring the Word' have been instrumental in increasing my awareness of pioneering contemporary book artists (including Ed Ruscha, Richard Minsky, Dick Higgins and most significantly, Dieter Roth) and in describing how art movements, such as Fluxus and Conceptual Art, have embraced, used and extended the structural and conceptual possibilities of the book.
Bookworks by prominent contemporary book artists such as Adele Otteridge, Dianne Fogwell, Tim Mosley, Peter Lyssiotis, Deanna Hitti, Clyde McGill, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Angela Cavalieri, Wim de Vos, Emily Martin, Alisa Golden, et. al continually informs the practical aspects of my art-making such as structure, technique and materials. Equally important in providing an overview of current trends in contemporary book arts are websites such as Book Arts Web and Artists Books Online which together are arguably the web epicentre of book arts activities/scholarship. In recent decades numerous academic and artistic centres devoted to book arts have emerged in (particularly) the UK and USA, all of these have correspondingly established a solid presence on the web - meaning that lovers of traditional or contemporary book arts are spoilt for choice: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, San Francisco Center for the Book, the Center for Book Arts, New York, University of Iowa Center for the Book, The Center for Book & Paper Arts (CBPA) at Columbia College Chicago, 'Book Arts' at the University of the West of England are just the tip of the iceberg. Apart from these more visible centres, a rapid trawl of the internet finds book arts courses and programs/ book artists websites/ blogs/ flickr sites/ ning rings/ web groups popping up around the globe (including within Monash University itself – with its Centre for the Book) creating a virtual warren of book arts potential study paths.
Whilst online information regarding book arts has granted me a convenient snapshot of what contemporary book artists are doing within the book arts field, the nature of online information removes the viewer from the essential qualities of books as tactile, dimensional, personal objects. I hope to address this problem by personally accessing book art collections held at Monash and other Australian institutions throughout the duration of my MFA project. To further my understanding of critical aspects of contemporary book arts field I have been gleaning information from publications devoted to book arts – JAB (Journal of Book Arts) Umbrella, Bonefolder, the Blue Notebook. I am keen to complete “A Manifesto for the Book' by Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden which posed the question 'What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the 21st Century?' and I anticipate an ongoing review of book art activities to maintain a critical framework for my book-based artworks.
Despite my research into contemporary book art activities, my interest in books is more general in its scope – I am interested in debates about the future of the book and find that I am generally more curious about what artists are doing with or about books than I am in finding the newest way to bind a book. I have been intrigued by the works such as Ann Hamilton’s 'Lineament' (Fig 1.), Richard Wentworth's 'False Ceiling', Xu Bing's 'Book from the Sky' and Simryn Gill's ongoing ‘Necklace’ series. I have enjoyed the playfulness of Nina Katchadourian's 'sorted books' projects and David Sequiera's 1997 and 2004 installation 'My Father's Library'(Fig 2.). Sequeira's work has provided an example of how an artist may engage in ordering information as part of the creative act. I was intrigued to read of his work that “... aesthetic order is just as valid as empirical fact”, as ordering according to aesthetics was a motivation behind my works 'serpens volumen' and 'serpens volumen – arcus pluvius' (figs 3-4). On a similar note, I have gleaned from Jane Dyer's book installations, or more particularly, her re-presentation of the installed work as editioned photographs, how working with books may hybridise into other art forms, and subsequently I have commenced editioning photographic prints of my book/site interactions (Figs 5 - 7)
One of the major developments in my work last year (2009) was my ongoing series 'codex incendium'(Fig. 8):ephemeral 'fire' book works that are presented, not as public performances, but are recorded as images (digital stills and video). This work shares certain aesthetic qualities with Tim Storrier's photographic works from the 1980s such as 'White Cliff Line' (Fig 9.) but in my series the artistic priority is the symbolism of burning books rather than aesthetics qualities of fire.
Biblioclasm, or the destruction of books, has a long and ignominious history: from the destruction of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, the book-burning purge of the Nazis, to the contemporary era's destruction of the National Library of Sarajevo and the burning and looting of the Iraq National Library and Archives The destruction of books continues to be a contentious act. Artists whose practice includes the destruction/radical remodelling of books, such as Cara Barer (Fig 10. ), Nicolas Jones, Kylie Stillman, Sue Blackwell, and Brian Dettmer with his 'book autopsies' (Fig 11.) are those to whom I feel the greatest affinity. Jones' commentary in particular strikes a chord:
“The idea of divesting a book of its utilitarianism and forcing it into the realm of the surreal and futile was confounding and enticing at the same moment. Books become objectified rather than useful and beautiful, rather than taken for granted.”
This bibliophillia/biblioclasm duality is a trend I anticipate continuing in my work. I intend extending my research of historical and contemporary biblioclasm. In my current reading pile are 'Burning Books' by Matthew Fishburn, 'The Holocaust and the Book' and 'Burning Books, Levelling Libraries' by Rebecca Knuth.
With this narrative's attention thus far on making and destroying books, it would be easy to assume that my work and interests reside exclusively with books, books, and ever more books. Books however are primarily the vehicle for my over-arching interest in issues of site, setting and sustainability. The challenge of my future research/art-making is in uniting these seeming the disparate elements and interests of my practice.
I was born, raised and remain in a small community on the far south coast of New South Wales. Generations of my family have occupied this same small territory. My work and life is firmly situated on my family's rural property and much of my creative impetus derives from a connection to this land and an active interest in permaculture and transition culture with their dual emphases on sustainability. Consequently much of the philosophical inspiration for my practice stems from extended readings in permaculture and involvement in the Transition Towns initiative (Transitions Towns is an open-ended, experimental movement that aims to prepare and transform communities in response to dual challenges of climate change and peak oil). Later this year, as an extension of my arts research, I will be undertaking an intensive 13-day Permaculture Design Certificate.
Aside from various activities with transition towns and permaculture, I have found the work of E.F. Schumacher, such as his 1970s text 'Small is Beautiful,' to be absolutely pivotal in forming the initial philosophical basis of my work. 'The Lure of the Local' by Lucy R Lippard has also proved critical in organising my thinking regarding site, society and environment. I have found essayist and poet Wendell Berry's approach to rural themes enormously valuable and intend to read or re-read more of his work in the near future. Additional future reading in this vein will be concentrating on new models for sustainable agriculture and agrarian society. These interests are naturally propelling my research toward artists and artworks that explore similar issues.
Sustainability has become a sexy if overworked term in recent years, and as it can take various forms, within future research I will be clarifying specifically what is meant by the word within my praxis. Essentially I envision my work as less akin to early environmental art, (such as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Michael Heizer or James Turrell) and more allied to work that is ephemeral or temporary, uses natural or found materials, and treads the earth lightly. As such I feel a kinship with artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, herman de vries, and environment/conceptual artists Richard Long and Hamish Fulton(Long and Fulton's work also often ventures into text and book form), but I am developing a greater interest in how contemporary artists are undertaking social and environmentally transformative actions as part of their practice. To this end, I found the text 'Ecoventions' and the green museum website and blog especially encouraging. As it hints at possible scenarios for my practice, one of the more inspiring artworks I've encountered in recent times is 'Breathing Soil' (Fig 12.) by Chaco Kato. and by extension I've been intrigued by the work of the Slow Art Collective(of which Kato is a member).
In my MFA proposal I stated that my desire is to create work that has multiple, even dichotomous meanings that allows an audience to consider the potentials of knowledge and the book in contemporary culture, and that with my rural location and interest in sustainability, I hoped to draw attention to (agrarian) site and environment. As these two elements, books and land, remain at the core of my life, it is only natural that they remain the material and conceptual heart of my inter-disciplinary, project-based arts practice. My future challenge will thus be to synthesise my art-making, permaculture sensibilities and research methodology into a holistic entity – and to keep the silverfish out of all my treasured books.
