Wessel & Lieberman

Bookmobile 2.0

2008-07-18T13:17:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the all new Digital Bookmobile, the world's first bookmobile without books. This 18 wheeler is 69 feet long and packed with the latest digital technologies. It was created by Over Drive to be used as an outreach tool for public libraries to promote their digital offerings.

How it works:

"The Digital Bookmobile, developed inside a high-tech tractor-trailer, will present programs that promote the host library’s download digital media catalog and ‘virtual branch’ website. The vehicle is customized for each library event and equipped with broadband Internet-connected PCs, high definition monitors, premium sound systems, and a variety of portable media players. Hands-on learning stations demonstrate how to search the digital media catalog, use supported mobile devices, and download and enjoy eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video from the library."

It kicks off it's national tour August 10th at the main branch of the New York Public Library. Current tour schedule here.

Thanks to LIS for the lead

Previously Unknown Painting of Puget Sound by Emily Denny

2008-07-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

Denny, Emily Inez (1853-1918). Untitled. 51" x 37", framed; the image is approximately 38" x 14". Dated 1888, with the signature "E I Denny '88" faint but visible in the lower left hand corner.

The view is a maritime landscape of Puget Sound, appearing to be a view which looks south from the northern part of the Sound, somewhere between Edmonds and Bellingham.

Emily Denny was the first child of Seattle pioneers David Denny and Louisa Boren. In her 1909 autobiographical work "Blazing the Way; True stories, songs and sketches of Puget Sound and other pioneers", she states that she was "the first child of the first white family established at Elliott Bay."

As an artist, Emily Inez Denny's work is accomplished, and a few of her depictions of early days in Seattle have become iconic representations of the period. Her painting "Fort Decatur, January 26, 1856" relates a famous scene from the "Indian Attack on Seattle"; it is held at the Museum of History & Industry in Seattle, along with numerous other pieces of hers. Her painting "Indian Camp on Lake Union" has been recently restored and was a centerpiece for an exhibit titled 'Nature in the Balance'. As a result of several different donations, MOHAI has the largest collection of Emily Inez Denny work; a large number of pieces are also held privately by the family, and her work is rarely seen offered in the market.

This painting is a magnificent example from Emily Inez Denny's oeuvre, the work of a pioneer child from Seattle, and an accomplished artist of the region from this time. $42,500.00

People Reading

2008-06-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina recently opened the doors to its' new location with the powerful exhibition People Reading : Selections From the Collection of Donald and Patricia Oresman. The exhibit is perfectly curated by Thomas L. Johnson, librarian emeritus at the University of South Carolina, and consists of 60 works from the vast Oresman collection which consists of over 2,000 images.

Maurice Askenazy PIONEER, 1929 Ink and pencil on paper 2 15/16 x 3 11/16

We see people reading books, we see people reading newspapers, we see people reading alone and in groups, in bed and in the bath, at night and during the day, inside and out. The range and breadth of the images conveys both the power and the pain inherent in the act of reading.

Will Barnett SWING AT DUSK, n.d. Lithograph (edition unknown), 11 x 14 in.

In his introduction to the catalog for the exhibition Johnson mentions that one of the reasons he wanted to curate the show is because "he loves books and art" and "While I do not worship them, I do love them intrinsically-as wonderful and curious objects to be handled or images to be seen and enjoyed spontaneously-as well as for their power to communicate emotionally and intellectually at the deepest levels."

Johnson then goes on to ponder the question as to why such a collection has not be duplicated in the public domain. He offers us this:

"Why not establish a collection in the public domain that brings together these two themes and elements-these twin necessities of reading and artistic expression-in the phenomenal way in which the Oresman's have accomplished this in the private realm?"

Ah, the "twin necessities" for the masses - what a beautiful thought.

View the exhibit online

Catalog available here

Top image: Catalog cover Leo Meissner WAR BULLETINS, c. 1942. Wood engraving (edition of 50) 6 1/8 x 11 1⁄4 in.

The Enduring and Evolving Codex

2008-06-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Is the end of the book near? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer boldy claims in his talk with the Washington Post that "In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down" and there will be "no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network." Though talking particularly about newspapers and magazines there are many who would include the future of the book in his assessment. While I agree that newspapers in there current state are doomed, magazines less so, the book will continue its reign as a premier mode of content delivery. Yes, there is a good possibility that most book content will be available digitally in the next 10 years but this will simply be a complement to the printed book not a replacement.

Before we continue with the funeral arrangements Joyce at Bibliophile Bullpen reminds us that printed book is most enduring media element in the history of mankind.

Here is how it stacks up:

CD-ROMs are estimated to last from 30 to 200 years.
CD-Rs, before they are recorded, have an estimated shelf life of five to ten years.
CD-Rs, after recording, estimated 70 to 200 years.
CD-RWs are expected to last at least 30 years.
Photo CDs have an expected life of over 100 years.
Magnetic tape has a life of 30 to 100 years
Hard drives expected to last 114 to 170 years
A vinyl record has a life span of 100 years
Solid state drives last about 145 Years

while The Archimedes Palimpsest, written on parchment in the codex form, has survived since the second half of the tenth century!

For a comprehensive look at how the codex is evolving in today's world there is the newly published 500 Handmade Books : Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form from Lark Books.

500 Handmade Books is a visual journey through the world of contemporary book arts. The only requirement is for each piece to "function like a book." The books were chosen by Steve Miller who studied under legendary book artist and teacher Walter Hamady and teaches in the book arts program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The book is a stunning testament to the book form and to the artists who continue to find in the book a means to communicate.

Book Details:
500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form. New York: Lark Books, 2008. First Edition. 8" X 8". 419pp. Pictorial french-fold wraps. Illustrated in color. $24.95

Book available here

'The Writing's On The Wall' : Art Meets Language

2008-05-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

SHIRIN NESHAT -Rebellious Silence (1994)
Black and white RC print and ink, 27.9 x 35.6 cm.
Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.

The current issue of ArtAsiaPacific features an in depth look at artists who employ text in their work.

Articles include:

-A great piece on contemporary calligraphy in China, "Square Words, Round Paradigms" by Eric Wear.

-A look at Yoko Ono's embrace of online communities (Ono averages 200 new 'friends' on MySpace a day) by HG Masters.

-Gregory Galligan's looks at Islamic text-based art in his piece, "Architecture in Script: From Without Boundaries to Archive Fever," and includes Shirin Neshat whose iconic work appears above.

Also in this issue is Eliza Gluckman's profile of Sharmini Pereira and her publishing imprint, Raking Leaves, which focuses exclusively on artists using the printed book as the medium.

It is refreshing to see how widespread the use of language, and the book for that matter, is in contemporary art. These new avenues of textual consumption expand the boundaries of reading and offer us fresh ways to make sense of the world.

Related: previous Book Patrol post : "The Book Gods of Contemporary Chinese Art"

Pearl Jam Visuals

2008-05-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

"Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest" -Eddie Vedder

Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros brings together 229 posters created for Pearl Jam from 1995-2007 by the Ames Bros and Brad Klausen.

The book features over 80 comments on individual posters from all five members of Pearl Jam and running commentary from the poster designers -- offering insight into the inspiration, concepts and process of poster creation.

Details:

Bros, Ames and Brad Klausen. Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros: 13 Years of Tour Posters. Ames Bros Inc. / Ten Club LLC, 2007. First Edition. Quarto. 263pp. including index. Illustrated throughout in color with reproductions of over 200 posters. Green cloth lettered in gilt with 3 color illustration on front board. As New, issued without dust jacket.

Book available here

Pearl Jam Press Release

Gary Snyder Gets the Lilly

2008-04-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

What a great ending to National Poetry Month. Gary Snyder has been awarded the 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

“Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself. His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation.” says Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee.

The $100,000 award is one of the most lucrative out there and no one is more deserving. Snyder is a true American hero and has inspired many of us to live a more compassionate life, one in tune to the beauty around and within us.

Gary Snyder at Wikipedia

Snyder's November 2007 article at the Shambhala Sun, Writer's and the War Against Nature

One hour interview with Snyder at NCTV11, the public access station for Nevada City, in 2007.

Photo by Giuseppe Moretti, September 2005. It was taken in the Dolomites while Snyder was in Italy for readings in Rome and Florence.

Pop Surrealism Meets the Book

2008-04-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

"Dry All My Tears" 2008

Ink and acrylic on old book
Size: 27/29cm (10.5/7.5in)

Mike Stilkey is on a roll. On the heels of his amazing installation, "When the Animals Rebel" at Rice University this past summer comes "An Occasion of Wonder" his one-man show currently on view at at Milieu Gallerie in Bern, Switzerland.

From the exhibit intro:

Using ink, colored pencil, acrilyc, gouache and lacquer Mike Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. His work is reminiscent of Weimar-era German expressionism and his style has been described by some as capturing features of artists ranging from Edward Gorey to Egon Schiele.

"Man Trips and Falls In His Own Country" 2008
Ink, colored pencil and acrylic on old book
Size: 27/29cm (10.5/7.5in)

I can think of no better afterlife for these books.

Here is a neat video of Stilkey at work.

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Previous Book Patrol post, "The Book Painting of Mike Stilkey"

Side image: "The First Mortgage" 2008. Ink, colored pencil and acrylic on old books
Size: 77/29cm (30.25/11.25in)

Blood on Paper : Books in the Hand of Artists

2008-04-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

"At a time when the notion of the book is challenged by the advent of the screen and computer, this exhibition aims to show the extraordinary ways in which the book has been treated by leading artists of today and the recent past. Blood on Paper will focus on new and contemporary work, and on books where the artist has been the driving force in conception and design." --from the Introduction to the exhibit.

Most notable artists of the 20th and 21st century have used the book form as a vehicle. No matter what their primary artistic leaning (painting, sculpture, drawing, installation) is the conceptual framework of the book has drawn each into its grasp.

Anselm Kiefer The Secret Life of Plants

Many of the heavyweights of Modern Art are included in the show and the power of the book object shines through in works ranging from the grandeur of Anselm Kiefer's 'Secret Life of Plants' to the minimalist work of Edward Ruscha and Sol Lewitt to the remains of conceptual artist Cai Guo Qiang's piece 'Danger Book: Suicide Fireworks'

Cai Guo Qiang 'Danger Book: Suicide Fireworks'

The exhibit runs through June 28th at the Victoria & Albert Museum and is a must see for those planning to be or living in and around London.

The V&A's worthy online feature on Artists' Books.
Senior curator Dr. Rowan Watson's essay on the exhibit (pdf).
Michael Glovers piece in the London Times, "Blood on Paper: art goes under covers."

Selection of previous Book Patrol posts on Books and Artists :

'The Book Gods of Contemporary Chinese Art'
'Books to Be Desired : Penelope Umbrico's Private Residence'
'The Book That Didn't Get Built'
'Contemporary Artists Tackle Their Favorite Books'

Emory University Unleashes The Danowski Poetry Collection

2008-04-09T23:26:00.001-07:00

Emory University kicked off National Poetry Month with a bang. They had three Pulitzer Prize winning poets (Mark Strand, W.D. Snodgrass and Richard Wilbur) headlining a conference titled “A Fine Excess: A Three-Day Celebration of Poetry.”

It was during this event that Emory took the wraps off what some say is the most important collection of English-language poetry in the world.

It was the first public display of the fruits of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library which they acquired in 2004.

The 75,000 rare books, posters, periodicals and recordings that make up the collection is "a nearly complete record of all published English-language poetry in the 20th century."

I repeat "a nearly complete record of all published English-language poetry in the 20th century."

The library arrived in 1,500 boxes and tea crates, and is still being processed!

The exhibition is titled “Democratic Vistas: Exploring the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library,” and features 250 jewels from the collection including:

-A magnificent copy of the first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. (1855)

-Anne Sexton's annotated copy of Sylvia Plath's Ariel.

-one of 11 known copies of William Carlos Williams' first book, Poems (1909), which was never reprinted

-a first edition of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock and Other Observations" (1917), inscribed to his close friend Emily Hale;

Danowski has provided a 24-page handwritten introduction to the archive, titled “Anything you perhaps don’t recognize, please Google.”

Emory University Press Release

New York Times piece, Atlanta Sings of Poems Electric, Past and Present, by Brenda Goodman

New York Times slideshow of the exhibit

Barbara Hodgson: Trading in Memories and Other Ways of Seeing Books

2008-04-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

In her new book Trading in Memories: Travels Through a Scavenger's Favorite Places Barbara Hodgson takes us on an unforgettable trip around the world. From the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul to an ephemera show in Portland, Oregon we get a front row seat as Hodgson works her magic unearthing relics of material cultural. As the collector knows, the pursuit, in many cases, is as fulfilling as the acquisition.

The fruit of travel is in "collecting fragments of people's material lives" says Hodgson in the introduction; in Naples it was tearing posters off the walls, in Portland it was a mugshot, in Fez El-Djedid is was an portable Arabic typewriter, in France she was on the the trail of Pierre Loti (the image above is of an authentic Japanese pagoda Loti had installed in his house).

Hodgson "believes that it is in the streets, bookstores, and markets where the city tantalizingly and coyly unveils its real past and most intimate self" and she places each journey within the perfect amount of historical context that you wish she would keep on going; one more stall, one more city. In a world increasingly bent on the disposable Hodgson proves that value remains in much of what we leave behind. Move over Madonna we have us a new Material Girl!

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An exhibit of Hodgson's work, "Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books", runs through April at Wessel & Lieberman.

The exhibit features her recently released collaboration with Claudia Cohen The Temperamental Rose and Other Ways of Seeing Color which is undoubtedly one of the most beautifully executed fine press books of 2007.

For the exhibition, Hodgson has created a limited edition keepsake, "The Temperamental Rose: An Experiment with Light". Each copy is hand-colored with a selection of lightfast and fugitive watercolors. It is designed to be exposed to the sun over a period of a year to demonstrate the effect of light on pigments.

Hodgson has also designed seven unique dust jackets for Trading Memories each containing material found during her journey.

There will be a reception for Barbara Hodgson at W&L this Thursday night from 6-8pm.

Trading In Memories website
Brief interview with Hodgson

Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books

2008-02-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers is pleased to announce an exhibition of the work of Barbara Hodgson. “Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books” will run from March 6 through April 30, 2008. Please join us for a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 3, from 6-8pm.

Barbara Hodgson is a writer, book designer and photographer based in Vancouver, BC. She is the author and designer of four acclaimed illustrated novels; each a combination of good storytelling augmented with archival photographs, antique postcards, and rare engravings. Her non-fiction work includes her recent publication, Trading in Memories, 2007, an illustrated diary of her journeys as a world traveler, picking up bits and pieces of discarded material culture.

Her work has also been published in fine press limited editions by Heavenly Monkey Press in Vancouver, BC. Out of print titles include Good & Evil in the Garden and Expressed: Ten Philatelic Fictions. Her most recent work is The Temperamental Rose and Other Ways of Seeing Color, 2007, with noted Seattle bookbinder Claudia Cohen. This collaboration began during their first meeting in the summer of 2006, when they discovered mutual passions for color wheels and other systems for charting and codifying colors.

For the present exhibition, Hodgson has created a keepsake entitled The Temperamental Rose: An Experiment with Light. Each copy of the pamphlet is hand-colored with a selection of lightfast and fugitive watercolors. It is designed to be exposed to the sun over a period of a year to demonstrate the effect of light on pigments. The keepsake is available in a signed, limited edition of sixty copies.

The Cassidy 18: A Bookseller Reflects on His First Year

2008-02-18T14:14:00.001-08:00

A little over year ago Brian Cassidy took over the Cannery Row Old Book Co. in Monterey, California and set up shop.

His recent blog post 18 Things I've Learned This Year (Or: 2007, A Bookseller’s Year in Review) is packed with little nuggets of bookselling wisdom and is a must read (and comprehend) for anyone who thinks that the bookselling life might be for them.

The Cassidy 18:

1) I will never run out of books. Never. There are always more books to be bought.

2) A corollary: There are always more GOOD books to be bought. If I feel like I’m not getting many of them, I’m not working hard enough.

3) I will never catalog all the books I have. Never.

4) I will always be messy. Always. Piles of books and paper are my destiny.

5) People who haggle over a five dollar book were never going to buy anything anyway.

6) Books ain’t money. Books don’t even make me money. I make me money. My overhead, time, and expertise create value. Please keep that in mind next time you think I’m being unreasonable offering you $100 for a book I’ll sell for $300. If you would like to rent a space and buy a reference library and catalog your book and list it on the internet and drag it to book fairs and wait who-knows-how-long to sell it, please be my guest. But if you want money today, please don’t insult me by suggesting you’re somehow being cheated.

7) Note to self: never give estimates of what you might pay for books over the phone or via email. ALWAYS have the books in hand first. Related: an annoyingly high percentage of people who bring in their books to “sell” only want a free appraisal.

8) “No, you can’t leave the books I don’t want here. Please, I really must insist. Seriously, have you looked behind this counter?” (See #s 1,3, and 5)

9) A first catalog is like falling in love - everything about it seems easy and fun and exciting.

10) A second catalog is more like marriage - a lot more work and a lot less exciting. But done well (fingers crossed), a lot more satisfying.

11) I still get a little thrill at diving into a box of new acquisition. I doubt this will ever go away or get old.

12) Nor, for that matter, will the little pang of dread when I remember I have to catalog most of them.

13) Shelving books is oddly calming - almost meditative.

14) Book fairs are a lot more work than they look like - a friggin’ lot of work. Two days (at least) to pack, a day to set up, two days (usually) to exhibit, then break-down, maybe a couple of days of travel, and then unpacking all those books you brought once you return. Even one-day local fairs require about a full week of work. Even so…

15) I love book fairs. Being in a roomful of dedicated dealers and serious buyers is just about my favorite way to spend a day.

16) I can’t tell you how many people come into the shop and tell me how great it is that I’m here and how much they love bookstores and how awful it is that so many are closing. Then they leave without buying a thing. This happens at least a couple times a week. I will never get this.

17) Related to #1 and 2: More and more I understand this is a business about customers, not books. To a large degree anyone can get books (witness the explosion of people calling themselves “booksellers”). What separates the successful dealer from the one who bitches and moans all the time? One has customers, the other doesn’t. The question is not whether you have books or not, the question is do you have anyone to sell them to.

18) I love my job.

Earliest Recording of Ginsberg's Howl Uncovered in Portland

2008-02-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

The box was labeled "Snyder Ginsberg 1956" and it had been at the Hauser Library at Reed College for over 50 years waiting for someone to open it.

Finally, while at Reed researching his upcoming biography of Gary Snyder John Suiter opened the box.

What did he find in it?

A tape containing the earliest known recording of Allen Ginsberg reading Howl!

The reading took place in February 1956 predating Ginsberg's legendary, and until now presumed first recording of Howl, which occurred at the Town Hall Theater in Berkeley on March 18, 1956.

Gary Snyder, a Reed alumni (class of 1951), and Ginsberg were on a hitchhiking tour of the Pacific Northwest when they visited Reed College in February 1956.

During their two day visit Ginsberg gave a couple of readings one of which was recorded. "On it Ginsberg can be heard reading "Wild Orphan," "Over Kansas," "A Supermarket in California" and other poems before someone, presumably Snyder, asks, "Do you want to read Howl?"
Ginsberg replied:"I really don't...I don't know if I have the energy." Then Ginsberg went on to read the "first part of "Howl" in a steadily building rhythm but stops four lines into the second section and says, "I don't really feel like reading anymore. I just sorta haven't got any kind of steam, so I'd like to cut. Do you mind?"

"This isn't just any tape. Not only is it the earliest known recording of one of the most famous poems of the 20th century, but also the sound quality is excellent, and Ginsberg gives a strong, clear reading with enough textual variations in "Howl" and the other poems to keep literary scholars busy for years." says Jeff Baker in his piece in the Oregonian, Books news: Earliest "Howl" tape uncovered at Reed.

Though there are still some questions ( like who recorded the reading and where, and the tape was labeled 'Tape 2' begging the question what happened to 'Tape 1' and what was on it) unearthing the recording is a seminal event in Beat history and one that solidifies the role of the Pacific Northwest in the evolution of the Beat Movement.

Reed College Press Release

Short e-mail interview with Gary Snyder by Baker at the Oregonian, Gary Snyder on hitchhiking and "Howl" at Reed

The Library of Congress Hits the Jackpot on Flickr

2008-01-29T13:58:00.000-08:00

No one saw this coming.

The plan was simple enough. The Library of Congress teamed with Flickr for a pilot project called The Commons, which basically consisted of LOC opening a Flickr account and uploading a little over 3,000 images (the LOC houses 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials!)

The goal was to address two of the major challenges the library faces:
1. "how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and
2. "how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity."

The result was astonishing and could arguably be one of the greatest cultural achievements to date in the young world of social networking.

Here's what happened within two days:

• All 3,100+ photos have been viewed
• 420 of the photos have comments
• 1,200 of the photos have been favorited
• 392,000 views on the photostream
• 650,000 views of photos
• About 1.1 million total views on our account

In their wildest dreams no one at either the LOC or Flickr expected this kind of public response.

"Frankly, none of us could quite fathom how fantastic the response to the pilot has been." is how they put it at Flickr's blog.

And Matt Raymond of the Library of Congress responded by saying "I can tell you that the reaction to this two-day-old project has already vastly exceeded our expectations."

This is a watershed event. It is a solid web 2.0 victory and one that just might expand the boundaries of social networking, where people are interacting with places as much as with people.

For the Library of Congress, and all the libraries that are watching how this pilot turns out, it is a brave new world. Now the conversation must include the question - what are we doing to bring our collections to the public? Your collection strategy can longer be solely focused on having people come to you to see what you have or in loaning items to other institutions, museums etc.

The success of this pilot might also have an affect on the Google Book Search model that many libraries are endorsing. Maybe libraries need a more multi-dimensional Web 2.0 approach to their collections, one that encompasses more than just digitizing the contents of their books.

Image from the Bain Collection at the LOC

Books and History in the Work of Nicola Dale

2008-01-13T22:09:00.001-08:00

Time creates history and time changes history. From existing texts visual artist Nicola Dale painstakingly carves a new history, both for the texts themselves and for the those of us lucky enough to consume them.

A Secret Heliotropism, 2006. Hand cut found book; full color, 320 pages

Using a Walter Benjamin quote from his ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’ as a starting point Dale took a copy of “The People’s Century” and a very small pair of scissors and transformed the 320 page history book from a mass produced object to a unique piece of book art. Over the course of a year, each page was hand cut into a leaf pattern so that "the leaves (pun intended) stretch out from the book towards a source of natural sunlight, as though the book itself were growing and changing in the same way history does."

"The leaves I had created were a reminder of the book’s historical origins: trees turned to paper and symbolically back again. The work also has its own secret mechanism, as I created a pattern which allows the pages to be folded down flat and put back into their cover to transform once more into an ordinary looking book."

Telling the Truth About History, But Not About the Past, 2007
altered hardback book, book jacket measures 16cm x 21.5cm

Dale deals with time a little differently in this amazing work:

The Book That Reads Itself, 2007

10cm x 28cm x 15cm

"Once upon a time there will only be the book which reads itself.."

Here it is not so much history but the future that concerns Dale. Will time and technology continue its onslaught on the physical book? As readership continues it decline will books need to ultimately engage themselves to fulfill their mission?

"The artist's books I make (part of a wider artistic practice) deal with the themes of originality, authorship and repetition not because I think everything has already been said, but because there is always something to add to the conversation, by way of a little rearrangement to the order of things."

This is good stuff!

Dale at Axisweb
Piece in issue 5 of STATIC the web resource of the London Consortium
Dale at Artists Books Online
short Q&A with Dale at artselector

Catalogue 39: A Winter Miscellany

2007-12-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce the availability of Catalogue 39. The catalogue consists of 124 items in a variety of subject areas as well as an insert featuring 21 newer books.

Among the highlights are a stunning copy of the signed limited edition of Faulkner’s ‘These 13’; a fifty year run of the Royal Geographical Society journals from 1830; Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Ranch Life...’ in its original printed dustjacket; a rare 19^th century guide to the Yellowstone; and a 17^th-century map containing one of the earliest views of Manhattan.

View the catalogue online
View and download the catalog in PDF
View the insert online
If you prefer a copy of the catalogue mailed to you, please contact us at mailinglist@wlbooks.com

Thomas Wharton's 'Logogryph: A Bibliography of Imaginary Books'

2007-12-15T11:29:00.001-08:00

The book is "a sequence of variations on the experience of reading and on the book [as] a physical and imaginative object," and is packed with little gems like this one where Wharton humanizes the lingo usually reserved for a book's description.

"Corners bumped. Spine still straight, front part of head slightly faded and creased, with negligible hair. Endpapers missing. Minor damage to knees and ankles, stiff and inflexible in damp weather. Sporadic scribbling in margins throughout. Two-inch scar on stomach, some alterations to subtext. Several memories carefully excised, others foxed and unreliable. Otherwise fine."

There is also this timely nugget on condensed books: "For those readers with no time for relaxed, contemplative involvement in fiction, this novel offers a delightful alternative. The substance of its original nine-hundred page bulk has been judiciously plucked, abridged, pulverized, filtered, dried and re-constituted; then this concentrated version has been repackaged in a contemporary and easily acceptable form." I wonder if the folks at Orion Books, whose compact editions (pdf) of the classics which are billed as great reads “in half the time,” knew about this.

This is a book for the book people. A compilation of short fiction with the essence of books at its core. In each piece Wharton exudes a deep book sense and a clear appreciation of books and book lore.

Details:
Wharton, Thomas. Logogryph: A Bibliography of Imaginary Books. Nova Scotia: Gaspereau Press, 2004. Smyth-sewn paperback with a letterpress printed dust jacket. Housed in a printed sleeve. Text was typeset by Andrew Steeves in Caslon types and printed on Rolland Zephyr Laid paper. Illustrations by Wesley Bates.
Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award

'The Cedar Branch Chronicle' by Jocelyn Curry

2007-12-10T19:48:00.001-08:00

Seattle: 2007. One-of-a-kind. Sculpture, mixed media; Yellow cedar, watercolor and laser images on paper. Designed specifically for its location at Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers. // For 'The Cedar Branch Chronicle', Curry collected one natural artifact and one man-made artifact during her daily walk. Without any self-imposed rules other than scale, upon returning, a watercolor 'journal-entry' composition was created from these found objects on a uniform 3-1/2 x 7" card. The thirty-one daily paintings are suspended from a dramatic 17-foot long cedar branch found on the shores of Puget Sound near the artist's home. The finished installation is essentially an alternative book-form, the paintings/pages free to be touched, and turned by the viewer, allowing for a rather kinetic experience of the author/artist's 'illustrated diary' of her daily ritual over the course of July, 2007

An artist book, The 31 Journal Pages of the Cedar Branch Chronicle: A Book of Days by Jocelyn Curry, was published in an edition of 31 copies to accompany the exhibition.

'The Cedar Branch Chronicle' is a tremendous piece and one that clearly exudes Curry's deep sense of place. The combination of the man-made found object with the natural artifact is tastefully and elegantly presented. By pairing the found with the natural Curry skillfully transforms the negative weight of the human litter that populates our natural world into a digestible form. Magically, it somehow becomes something we can live with.

It's sure nice having this hanging around the shop.

Other work from the exhibit can be seen here.

Be sure to click on top and side image to enlarge.

Mary Randlett Photogravure

2007-12-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

Coinciding with her Tacoma Art Museum exhibition "Veiled Northwest: Photographs by Mary Randlett" and the publication of Mary Randlett: Landscapes by the University of Washington Press, we are pleased to make available this limited edition photogravure from the artist's original "Falling Waters, Snoqualmie Pass" silver gelatin print.

Selected by Randlett and produced by Master Printer Mark Callen at his Infinity Gravure studio in Seattle, this image captures her passion for the northwest's unique natural beauty - revealed here in her composition of falling light, stone and water. The 10-3/8 x 16 inch gravure image is printed by hand on a 15 x 22 inch sheet of Magnani Pescia archival paper.

Mary Randlett has been photographing the Pacific Northwest for more than fifty-five years. Her works are held in over forty permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution.

From one of Mary's letters, "I lived near water all my life...lived in that tossed light that came invisibly through the trees at sunrise and carried the dancing light of the rising dawn, sunlight of dancing waters light ..."

Binding the Booker Prize

2007-11-16T00:13:00.000-08:00

Binding: Lester Capon for 'Animal's People' by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster),

Designer Bookbinders was founded over 50 years ago to promote the craft of fine bookbinding.

Since 1991 their members have been creating beautiful unique bindings for the 6 shortlisted novels for Booker Prize.

Here's how it works:

"The binder...has only four to five weeks to read, design and bind their book (with a container). The books must be ready in time for the night of the final prize announcement, when each bound novel is presented to its author at the famous 'Booker dinner'."

Wouldn't it be great if we had something similar for our National Book Award?

Here are this years bindings which are on display at the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum through January 2008:

Binding: Rachel Ward-Sale for 'Darkmans' by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)

Binding: Faith Shannon for 'The Gathering' by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape),

Binding : Stephen Conway for 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)

Binding: Christopher Shaw for 'Mister Pip' by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)

Binding: Peter Jones for 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)

FUEL That's Good for the Planet

2007-11-06T11:13:00.001-08:00

FUEL is the London design firm of Damon Murray & Stephen Sorrell.

In 2005 they launched FUEL publishing and their latest title brings to print a selection of amazing images from the noteworthy blog BibliOdyssey. The book is titled BibliOdyssey: Amazing Archival Images From The Internet

"BibliOdyssey’s mission has been to search the dustier corners of the internet and retrieve these materials for our enjoyment. Thanks to the efforts of this singular weblog, a myriad of long-forgotten imagery has now resurfaced. Each of these fascinating images is accompanied by a commentary from PK, author and curator of BibliOdyssey, and a link to the source website."

Book Patrol puts it on the: Top Shelf.

The Book Gods of Contemporary Chinese Art

2007-10-27T15:48:00.001-07:00

"Read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles"

Liu Yi (1017-1086)

Xu Bing. Book From the Sky
1987-91
Mixed media installation / Hand-printed books and scrolls printed from blocks inscribed with ''false'' characters.

Huang Yong Ping The History of Chinese Painting and a Concise History of Modern Painting Washed in a Washing Machine for Two Minutes
1987-1993
Chinese teabox, paper pulp, glass

In the art world there are few genres as hot as Contemporary Chinese Art and in Chinese Contemporary Art there are few objects as important as the book.

The quote above from Liu Yi begins Wu Hung's introduction to the catalog of the seminal exhibition Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art which he curated for the China Institute and which is currently on view, albeit in a condensed form at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
through December 2.

Hung, who also curates the exhibit, is the Harriet H. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages & Civilizations at the University of Chicago, and his introduction is a must read for those who want to understand the importance of the book in Chinese cultural.

The exhibit is a who's who of Contemporary Chinese Art featuring over 20 artists, and their "book-related experiments," including work by Xu Bing, Cai Guo-Qiang, Huang Yong Ping, Song Dong, Hong Hao and Wenda Gu.

Many pieces are inspired by the traditional book materials like calligraphy, paper and ink, all essential materials of Chinese culture, and many are reactions to the power and potential danger inherent in the book object.

There is simply too much great stuff here to cover in one post. The two images included here are considered masterworks of the genre. Both began in the late 1980's as Cultural Revolution was fading. Neither artist still lives in China.

The curator Wu Hung will be a giving a talk at the Seattle Asian Art Museum this Thursday.
If you live anywhere near Seattle the exhibit is worth a visit.

Video of Wu Hung's talk about the exhibit at the China Institute
Review of exhibition by Bridget L Goodbody in the New York Times; Defending the Printed Page as the New China Stirred

Book Patrol will feature other artists whose book works appear in the exhibition in the coming weeks

Shaker Primal Books

2007-10-16T11:23:00.001-07:00

"There is a primal book as there is a primal voice, & it is the task of our poetry & art to recover it" says Jerome Rothenberg curator of the amazing visual ethnopoetic trip through history over at UBUWEB.

Rothenberg says that "while the initial focus of ethnopoetics was on orality and performance, the discourse turned as well to the visible aspects of language — writing & inscription — both as a persistent contemporary concern & as an often unacknowledged kingpin of a revitalized & expanded ethnopoetics."

The image above was done in the mid-nineteenth century and is attributed to Timothy Randlett a Shaker living in New Hampshire. In his 1940 book The Gift to Be Simple noted Shaker historian Edward Deming Andrews talks about the 13 years between 1837 and 1850 that were known as the "Era of Manifestations."During this time the Shakers composed, "or where the recipients of", hundreds of visionary drawings.
The caption at bottom of the image above identifies it as a song while the vertical writing seems to be comprised of either some sort of wordless text or musical notation.

Here is another Shaker visual piece done in the early 1840's. It is not hard to see Dada and Surreal elements though both movements were still more than a half century away.

Amazing stuff.

The book Heavenly Visions: Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs published by the Drawing Center is the monograph on the subject.

Thanks to Deeplinking for the lead

Book Madness in Seattle

2007-10-08T16:03:00.001-07:00

There is so much book related stuff going on this week in Seattle that Mayor Greg Nickels has designated it "Book Collecting Week."

Here's what's happening:

The premier non-new book event in the Pacific Northwest, The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair & Book Arts show, takes place the weekend of the 13th and 14th at the Seattle Center Pavilion. With close to 100 exhibitors from around North America and as far away as Germany you are bound to see some of the best books, manuscripts and ephemera currently on the market. The exhibitors this year are particularly strong with many being members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America.

Don't let the word "antiquarian" keep you away, you don't have to be a high-end book collector to enjoy this event. If there are books in your life on any level then this is a can't miss event.

The Miniature Book Society is holding its Grand Conclave in Seattle on the same weekend. The society, chartered in 1983 , is an international non-profit organization whose purposes are to "sustain an interest in all phases of miniature books, provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and to serve as a clearing house for information about miniature books."
This gathering is sure to set the Seattle record for the most people here at one time who have a love for books 3" or smaller!

Anne Bromer, a bookseller and co-author of the beautiful new monograph on Miniature Books published by Abrams in association with the Grolier Club, will also be giving a talk at the pre-fair dinner co-sponsored by the Book Club of Washington.

Also at this dinner the winners of the Fine Books & Collections Magazine 2007 Collegiate Book Collecting Championship will be given their awards. Did you know that three dozen colleges and universities host book-collecting contests for their students every year?

The subject matter of the top three collections this year are:
1."Landmarks of Classical Scholarship"
2. "Drama of Oceania"
3. "Mathematician Emil Artin"

In the introduction to the 1934 book New Paths in Book Collecting John Carter, who worked in the Rare Book Department at Scribner's for over 20 years, says:

The enterprising novice must be made to realize how infinite are the possible variations on the book collecting theme. A collection of "high-spots may sound the chord of C major...yet there are other and more subtle harmonies, the pleasantest are those we evolve for ourselves...By rearranging familiar books according to some constructive plan, a new significance is added to them and, which is more, the unfamiliar, the neglected books, will acquire significance by their context.

For over 70 years booksellers have been worried that there isn't a next generation book collector, that once this generation kicks it there will be hardly enough book collectors to sustain a trade. An event like this reminds us of the permanency of collecting. There will always be a healthy amount of collectors.

The Lewis Carroll Society of North America has also decided to visit Seattle this weekend for its fall meeting. The organization consists of Carroll admirers of all ages and interests and are interested in keeping Carroll, the creator of Alice in Wonderland, relevant in today's world.

There is also one ongoing book related event that is worthy of mention and that should be on the itinerary for all those coming to town and for all us book types that live in town.

The seminal exhibit Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art is on view at the Seattle Asian Art Museum through December 2. The show was organized by the China Institute and was curated by Wu Hung, a leading Chinese art scholar. The exhibit was originally held in two parts featuring over 20 artists; almost all are part of the post Cultural Revolution generation and for all books are an integral part of their work. It is a great opportunity to see the power of the book in all its glory. I will have a dedicated post on the show shortly.

There is a lot of book energy in this town.

Last photo of Yue Minjun's “Garbage Dump” by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times