I have completed another very very very loooooooong coptic bound book structure.....
This one is created from an entire (15 volume) set of childcraft annuals from the 1970s - the final book size is 2.7m (109 inches) 'long' (technically it's 2.7m WIDE..... but I'm not going to try explaining that to non booky people....) I started this piece back in June with this and have blogged in a general way about the whole piece at art and etc in a post title 'I think therefore... I bind'
I'm really pleased with this one.... I think it's the nicest one of my 'serpens volumen' or snake books.
In fact, I so enjoy the process of making these that I intend starting off another looooong book..... and as I like the colour gradation (an indication of my obsessive need to sort?) in this latest book, I think I'd like to find another collection of colourful pages to bind...... I rather like the idea of binding an entire set of encyclopaedias in this manner..... maybe it's time to check my collection for a contender....
I like the idea that I may be working on one or another of these loooong books for the duration of my research project...... (I can readily imagine the myriad ways these may be arranged singularly or together)
I've long appreciated the role these (and other obsessively 'crafted' objects) play in my practice - I am very much a process-oriented artist.... and now I'm understanding that I can use making as a sort of meditation.
I have been swamped over the last few months by research reading - most particularly with philosophy - and am currently trying to find my way through various ideas about Pragmatism (especially as espoused by John Dewey and then how his ideas have subsequently been interpreted and critically reviewed) I suspect somewhere in pragmatic philosophy is a way to move around my dissatisfaction with what I so nicely refer to as $%#@-french-deconstructionist-philosophers!
maybe its just wishful thinking, but I'm hoping that I may find a way of using pragmatism (be it from Dewey, or neo-pragmatism or Zen pragmatic philosophy) to connect the various parts of my project (books and land and permaculture and knowledge and...)
in the meantime I can see a lot of loooong books resulting from my loooooooooong time contemplating all this and more....
......
