Before I reveal what texts I will be discussing in this literature review, perhaps it would prove cogent for me to mention what will not be found in this document: This review contains no books of fiction, poetry or prose; you will find no references to post-structuralist, post-modern French philosophers; to Freudian, Jungian (or other-ian) psychologists; to cinematic, operatic, balletic, symphonic, or theatrical creations. Please don't mistake me – the purposeful exclusion of these text types is not meant as a critique of their potential to inspire visual art production – rather, it's an indication that they bear little relevance to my studio work and its theoretical schema. I was born, raised and remain in a small rural community where five generations of my family before me eked out a similar, simple existence on the land. My process-oriented arts practice is informed predominately by this personal, and arguably prosaic, relationship to site and community.
With this disclaimer firmly in mind, in this literature review I shall be concentrating on five non-fiction texts representing four key themes or areas of my project:
A Manifesto for the Book - Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden & The Artists Book Yearbook 2010-2011 - Sarah Bodman editor.
Burning Books and Levelling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction - Rebbecca Knuth
Blogging - Jill Walder Rettberg
Permaculture – Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability - David Holmgren
As each text is a different entity, in this review I will be dealing with each in a separate study. In each brief study I will attempt to explain the relevance and role of the text in the development of my artistic research. In the conclusion I will attempt to briefly explain the manner in which these different strands of thought may manifest in forthcoming studio work and limitations text holds in influencing my gestating work.
A Manifesto for the Book - Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden
& The Artists Book Yearbook 2010-2011 - Sarah Bodman, editor.
The combination of both 'A Manifesto for the Book' and 'The Artists Book Yearbook 2010-2011' may initially be interpreted as a sneaky two-for-one deal – but both books emanate from the University of the West of England Centre for Book Arts Research under the guidance of Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden and there is a certain degree of cross-published work in the two volumes. As such, the two volumes may be viewed together as forming a broad overview of global contemporary book arts activity and research, which assists in providing positionality for my emerging (book) works.
'A Manifesto for the Book' materialised from a global fact gathering and open-ended think-tank initiated by Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden in 2008, in which they posed the question:
'What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the 21st Century?' As this is relevant to my research project, I am understandably interested in the responses given by artists and others involved in the myriad activities loosely identified as book arts. 'A Manifesto for the Book' takes the form of a series of case studies – in which respondents explain their working methods, materials and experiences with books and book arts and finally to proffer an individual answer to the question – what is the future for the book? The answers from some respondents are illuminating. I was heartened to read book artist Monica Langwe's thoughts:
“In general I think traditional craft techniques will find a new place in modern artwork. We are getting further and further away from work done by our hands and I think there will be a time where we will bring it home again but in a whole new context, that is more artistic and non-traditional and based on a need of working with our hands.”
Within my project I have been experimenting with the interplay of old and new technologies and thus I also enjoyed Eriko Hirashima's observation: “New technology may help to generate new ideas but artists’ books are created by the artists. The future of the form is in their hands.”
I was particularly interested in Australian book artist, Tim Mosley's case study in which he ruminated on the state of book arts in Australia:
“Like elsewhere the book as a medium of creative practice (visual, literary or other) continues to attract attention in Australia; it still offers enormous potential to combine image and text, making it a particularly potent medium in our information rich cultures. In particular the book’s portability, ease of storage and its accessibility to the public continue to make it attractive to Australian artists... How the book develops as a medium in Australasia is an emerging story. Clearly the enormous status of books in European cultures, in particular the codex, has played a very key role in the development of artists’ books.”
Prior to reading this, I had not considered aspects of portability as pertinent or influential in my art making, but my experience of geographic isolation and minimal options for transportation of artworks has no doubt surreptitiously influenced my choice of form and materials.
In considering the future of book arts, Mosley offered the following opinion:
“Clearly artisans’ skills can be lost, can lose their relevance to culture, and the book’s significance in our culture(s) has shifted due to the digital resources that we now have access to. However I am very confident that the continued growing interest in artists’ books is directly related to the onset of digital media. This has been either as a reaction to the digital or, as I rather think, released from their “bonds” books have been identified as a potent medium in visual languages by creative arts practitioners.”
Indeed this eloquently summarises much of my attitude toward the future of (book) artwork that is both released from the bonds of tradition whilst retaining an attachment to the artisanal crafts that informed these traditions.
The Artists Book Yearbook (ABYB) is published every two years (commencing 1994-1995) and provides a global overview of activities within the book arts sphere. It does so through the inclusion of essays from a variety of authors, interviews with specific book artists/ critics, and a extensive listing of book artists, book arts events and institutions, interspersed with photographs of current artist book artworks (perhaps of greater interest than any written articles). Within the present ABYB is one article of special interest - Lina Hakim's 'What I do with Books'
Reading through Hakim's article on her art-making I was struck by parallels, not in our object making or style, but in our methods and manner of describing our arts activities and motivations. Akin to my own practice, Lino mentions she uses books and the book form as a way to document and preserve ephemeral actions, events and performances, so I was comforted and encouraged to read her following description of her working methods:
''I think of what I do as work/play: a composite of the notions of effort and recreation that renders them inseparable. In terms of process, I enjoy laborious tasks and/or elaborate systems and rules.... I paradoxically take as much pleasure in engaging inn effortless exercises or uncomplicated gestures, mostly when they hint at problematic matter or suggest challenging ideas... What I work/play with is the thoughts and things that furnish the everyday, a realm in which the book has featured in various roles.... I have always been an avid reader and collector of books, and have always been surrounded by them. I realised early on that I was as concerned with the materiality and architectonics of books as I was with their content.'
Although I wouldn't say I've been attracted to a book's 'architectonics' – I certainly recognise and share Lino's passions and opinions where books are concerned.
As much as I found the essays and case studies in both 'A Manifesto for the Book' and 'ABYB' compelling, from a studio viewpoint, perhaps what will prove the most valuable aspect of these texts are the photographic arrays of current book artworks and the comprehensive indexes – a treasure trove of artist book information resplendent with links upon links...
Burning Books and Levelling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction - Rebbecca Knuth
As my arts practice has ongoing biblioclastic tendencies, I feel it is germane that I contextualise my biblioclastic actions. I read Knuth's volume, 'Burning Books and Levelling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction', in conjunction with a variety of complementary texts examining contemporary and historical biblioclasm – its causes and effects, setting and symbolism. I was highly entertained by Marc Drogin's volume, 'Biblioclasm' with its tales of books lost and found (and lost again...) throughout the ages, but Rebecca Knuth's book, with its contemporary focus and more rigourous exploration of the historical destruction of books and libraries, is helping me to understand not only when, where and how books and libraries have been destroyed – but also why and to what effect, and thus I am beginning to be able to appreciate the multifarious readings of my biblioclastic actions.
Knuth's chronicle of contemporary biblioclasm - with events in the past 60 years ranging from the well-known, such as the Nazi book purges, to lesser documented/ reported cases - including destruction of books and libraries in South Africa and Nigeria, Romania and Albania, India and Sri Lanka; or the more ominous, such as the total social destruction by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the recent looting of the Iraqi National Library - all serve as a reminder that the destruction of books and libraries is neither an anomaly nor something to be easily dismissed as belonging to the annals of a distanced history. Knuth points out that the destruction of books and libraries has occurred not only during wars and revolution but is possible any time when the social and political environment is conflict ridden and when social groups become polarised and prone to extreme gestures,so that:
“ the vast majority of books destroyed in the last century were lost because of ideas and the extremism they engendered: ideas that rationalized internal violence and controlled the choice of wartime tactics, but also ideas that defined group and national entitlement, determined the path of civilization and even sought to clarify the nature of truth itself'
'Burning Books and Levelling Libraries' reveals the common motivations of historical and contemporary biblioclasm. Knuth explains that books are - “ part record, part artefact, and part symbol of forces or ideas that are taken by extremists to be dangerous or oppressive; when they are destroyed, they are symbolically standing in for something that cannot be so readily touched.” It is this difficult symbolism that I am keen to allude to with my biblioclastic works. Within my practice I have always understood that burning/ destroying books is a loaded action – uncomfortable both for myself as well as my work's audience.
Blogging - Jill Walder Rettberg
My interest in blogs and blogging is two-fold – on an analytical level I am interested in the way in which Web 2.0, in the form of blogs, wikipedia, and the electronic book is manifestly changing the role and reality of reading, knowledge and communication. I am equally interested in the creative possibilities of the blog as it may relate to my MFA project. The inclusion of this particular text (or indeed any text on or about the subject of blogging) is, by virtue of the ever changing nature of technology and the web, understandably incomplete and temporary - by far the best way to understand blogs and blogging is to participate. As such I will be discussing this text in relation to my ongoing blog projects.
Jill Walder Rettberg articulates what many of us are increasingly aware: that blogs are becoming an integral part of the fundamental shift in communication. From a culture dominated by mass-media (with one-to-many communication) to a culture of participatory media (or many-to-many communication): “Blogs can be seen as belonging to the post-Gutenberg era, a time after the dominance of print and of mass media.” Blogs are decentralised and relatively free-form; asynchronous (participation/communication readily occurs irrespective of the presence or otherwise of the original blogger) and archived (conversation/interaction can occur long after the original posting); they combine aspects of both dialogue and dissemination, and Rettberg asserts, are best understood when read over time. Likewise, Rettberg maintains that blogs cannot be read simply for their writing – but need to be understood as the sum of writing, layout, connections, links and tempo.
I am discovering that all of these qualities allow for tantalising creative possibilities.
As an artist, geographically situated a respectable distance from any major urban area, the web, and blogging in particular, has proved instrumental to the way I am now able to communicate, organise, and participate in wider arts activities. I was introduced to blogging in 2007 and set up my first blog in late 2008. Via blogging I've been able to connect with a diverse mix of artists, and last year this connection turned into an ongoing blog-initiated co-operative book art project – 'book art object' - http://bookartobject.blogspot.com/. The original idea of the project, initiated by blogger and book artist Sara Bowen, was that participants would create a book edition in response to a selected text – created books of the edition would then be posted to each participant. As the project unfolded it became clear how easily a blog could facilitate democratic decision-making and sharing. I became excited not just by the art objects being created, but by the community and friendships forming, and my speculations of the blog as a living document – a record of work and thinking in progress. This has influenced my decision to create a project specific blog ( http://codex-infinitum.blogspot.com/ ) where I will be testing ideas about how a blog may be incorporated in higher degree research and visual arts production. For as Walder Rettberg pointed out, the current manifestations of blogs and social network spheres may prove an early stage of something unimaginable yet to come.
My enthusiasm for blogs is tempered however by the reality of rapid technological redundancy; the dependence (both by audience and blogger) on expensive hardware, software and web accessibility; the problems of corporate control over digital content; the difficulty in navigating the personal or anonymous versus the known and public and the potential threats of copyright infringement, plagiarism, hacked web accounts, identity theft, death by spam et. al. I also ponder whether that 'something unimaginable yet to come' might end up as the whole-scale collapse of the world wide web.
Permaculture – Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability - David Holmgren
Most people who are aware of Permaculture generally and understandably relate it to sustainable gardening and agriculture (and why not - the word originated from a blend of 'permanent' and 'agriculture') Indeed, I first became aware of permaculture about two decades ago via Bill Mollison's early texts stemming from my interest in organic gardening. In 2002 David Holmgren, the co-originator of the permaculture concept, released his book 'Permaculture – principles and pathways beyond sustainability'. This text has proved pivotal in reorganising my thoughts about the philosophical, conceptual and creative possibilities of permaculture, and, as will become clear with the progression of my project, this text has become central to my arts philosophy and studio work.
On first glance, 'Permaculture – principles and pathways beyond sustainability' appears to reiterate previous and concurrent permaculture texts – as it likewise espouses the three maxims of permaculture: 'care for the earth, care for people, set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus' and extends these through twelve principles:
Observe and Interact
Catch and store energy
Obtain a yield
Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
Produce No Waste
Design from Patterns to Details
Integrate rather than segregate
Use small and slow solutions
Use and value diversity
Use edges and value the marginal
Creatively use and respond to change
A cursory glance down this list may allow one to imagine how permaculture principles may be incorporated into lifestyle choices and subsequently arts practice (use of 'green' energy, recycling, passive solar design studio area, non-toxic materials and cleaning agents, etc.), but it is perhaps less obvious how these may inspire studio work.
These twelve principles, in this their most basic representation, can be used as a simplistic checklist (of sorts) to guide or evaluate the consequences of any action – be it of a garden design, lifestyle choice or artistic venture. For example Principle 10 - 'Use and Value Diversity' - in garden design this can be interpreted as advocating species diversity and abundance; in a social setting, as encouraging multi-culturalism and pluralistic tolerance; and, as adopted in my arts practice, as promoting multi-disciplined approach to art-making.
This is of course a simplistic reading – and as Holmgren's text demonstrates - these principles can be understood not only as simple, practical directives but also as wholistic, inter-connected concepts – whose reach and potential far exceeds a utilitarian garden/agricultural project, for which most permaculture texts are renown.
Thus, a principle that initially appears fairly straight forward can become far more inclusive. 'Produce no waste' is a good example. This principle seems to be already integrated into mainstream consciousness (the widespread awareness and applications of 'reduce/reuse/recycle' springs to mind), and, like many others, I have simplistically adopted the the 'R's within studio/ household waste strategies. But Holmgren's definition stimulates a revaluation:
“This principle brings together traditional values of frugality and care for material goods, the mainstream concern about pollution, and the more radical perspective that sees wastes as resources and opportunities'
My research project can be seen as taking on this adage – rather than simply adding a recycling bin to the studio, I have radically re-evaluated the materials used in my arts practice, and my present work utilises used encyclopaedias as its primary material. These encyclopaedias have been sourced from charitable organisations (principally Rotary and Lifeline) and generally (due to a lack of demand for the old, useless volumes) are disposed of at significant cost to the charity. In purchasing this 'waste', I'm not only keeping them from going to landfill, I am contributing to the funding of each charity's social projects. I see this hidden economic and environmental cycle as integral to the work created.
Holmgren points out, wastage occurs not just with material goods, but also with social capital – whereby traditional (often rural) knowledge and skills is devalued and under-utilised. In using traditional bookbinding methods and techniques within my work, I aim to (partially) redress this devaluation. Therefore, in Holmgren's text, a simple principle like 'produce no waste' becomes a much meatier subject and concept - and it is these juicy areas that I am keen to keen to traverse.
Another example (pertinent to my present project and indeed to this literature review) is found in his expansion on ideas behind principle 9 – 'Use Small and Slow Solutions'. Holmgren wrote:
“The idea that faster is better in agricultural and industrial production, transport, communication and travel, eating and almost every aspect of life is deeply entrenched as a cultural norm. The information technology revolution has resulted in an enormous boost to the idea that speed is good, at the same time that the material and energetic limits to giantism are beginning to be realised.”
I keep these words firmly in mind as I'm tentatively exploring the potentials of information technology within my practice. Holmgren's call for slow and small solutions echoes the inspiring words of E.F. Schumacher in his seminal text of the 1970s 'Small is Beautiful' and Wendell Berry's repeated calls for a re-valuing of traditional rural communities and culture. I am aware of the hazards in proposing the trinity of Holmgren, Schumacher and Berry as the inspiration for my research project – not only because both Holmgren and Berry are highly critical of the limitations of higher education, but all three authors focus on the local as opposed to global, the small as opposed to mainstream, and (with Berry in particular) the rural as opposed to urban. With only 11% of Australia's population residing outside of our urban areas, and a statistically insignificant number of this small percentage living on a working farm – I don't need to complete the maths to know I'm already living on the statistical fringes of society. Holmgren, Schumacher and Berry allow me to imagine (however fancifully) that this affords me a privileged position rather than that of irrelevant, ignorant outsider.
As my project unfolds I expect I will be returning to different aspects of permaculture principles (and particularly Holmgren's text) to evaluate and/or elaborate on their relevance to my work. I will conclude this mini review with the words that I return in my practice - Holmgrens' parting words in 'Permaculture' – an extended definition and ebullient interpretation of permaculture:
“ Permaculture is a dynamic interplay between two phases: on the one hand sustaining life within the cycle of the seasons and on the other, conceptual abstraction and emotional intensity of creativity and design. I see the relationship between these two as like the pulsing relationship between stability and change. It is the steady, cyclical and humble engagement with nature that provides the sustenance for the spark of insight and integration (integrity) which, in turn, informs and transforms the practice. The first is harmonious and enduring; the second is episodic and powerful. The joyful asymmetric balance between the two expresses our humanity”
Conclusion
At this point, the selection of material for this literature review no doubt appears incongruous. As they all contain a certain degree of 'bookyness', my first three reviews shouldn't present much difficulty - their relevance to my project seems assured: 'The Manifesto for the Book' and 'ABYB' arguably provide a basis for positionality of my book-based work; Rebecca Knuth's 'Burning Books and Levelling Libraries' helps in the exposition of my biblioclastic book actions; 'Blogging' allows me to consider the artistic possibilities of the blog and to ponder the future of the book in a webby world. David Holmgren's 'Permaculture' however stands in isolation. This is not incidental, nor is it accidental that Holmgren's text received comparatively more attention. Whilst 'the book' is the subject and material form of my project, permaculture is the guiding philosophy and ethical framework of my practice and the conceptual basis for emerging works.
One of the challenges of my forthcoming work is to find the method or manner in which the separate strands of my project may be brought together in a wholistic manner. I suspect a solution may be in a melding of permaculture principles, arts-based research methodology and studio work. Discovering the extent to which this is possible is the core of my research project.
Postscript
One text that I hoped to include in this literature was the 'Oxford Companion to the Book' – The OCB – touted as “the first reference work of its kind covering the broad concept of the book throughout the world from ancient to modern times.”- was released in February this year. Its first printing quickly sold out and back-orders for the sumptuous 2 volume set are now into a 3rd printing scheduled for later this year. As I'm penning this review the Australian release of the i-pad (Apple computer's electronic book and so much more) is immanent. These unrelated yet simultaneous events surely mark a milestone in the future of the book.
We live in interesting times
