Abstract
It seems inherent in the nature of contemporary artist’s book production to continue to question the context for the genre in contemporary art practice, notwithstanding the medium’s potential for dissemination via mass production and an unquestionable advantage of portability for distribution. Artists, curators and editors operating in this sector look to create contexts for books in a variety of imaginative ways, through exhibition, commission, installations, performance and, of course as documentation. Broadening the discussion of the idea of the book within contemporary art practice, this paper examines the presence and role of book works within the context of the art biennale, in particular the Venice Art Biennale of which the 58th iteration (2019) is entitled ‘May You Live In Interesting Times’ and curated by Ralph Rugoff, with an overview of the independent International cultural offerings and the function of the ‘Book Pavilion’. Venetian museums and institutions continue to present vibrant diverse works within the arena of large-scale exhibitions, recognising the position that the book occupies in the history of the city. This year, the appearance for the first time, of ‘Book Biennale’, opens up a new and interesting dialogue, taking the measure of how the book is being promoted and its particular function for visual communication within the arts in Venice and beyond.
Highlights
IntroductionThere is one thing that reading will never be and that is something new. From the prehistoric advent of image making, the development of handwriting into codices, volumes and manuscripts, and the revelation of the printed book, to e-books of the present, reading has provided a route in the development of visual language and communication
It seems inherent in the nature of contemporary artist’s book production to continue to question the context for the genre in contemporary art practice, notwithstanding the medium’s potential for dissemination via mass production and an unquestionable advantage of portability for distribution
The danger has always been to think about artists’ books as a medium in and of itself that should be understood in isolation from other modes of expression
Summary
There is one thing that reading will never be and that is something new. From the prehistoric advent of image making, the development of handwriting into codices, volumes and manuscripts, and the revelation of the printed book, to e-books of the present, reading has provided a route in the development of visual language and communication. How are these conversations initiated withinartwork the arena and objects different but in conversations—first between artist and artwork, and between and audience, and later between different publics (Rugoff 2019) How are these conversations what role does artist’s book play in this connectivity?. Audience, andthe later between different publics (Rugoff 2019) How are these conversations initiated within the arena and what role does the artist’s book play in this connectivity?. 15,000 entries describes people, places, objects, concepts, artworks, andprinted scientific phenomena not toare the Britannica, a personal re-writing of history, selected pages from which beEncyclopaedia found in the Encyclopaedia. In the form a book, this draws work draws the in, viewer in, towards sensory of pages, reading understanding. Blank pages on wooden bookshelves artist Belu-Simion Fãinaru (Figure 9).
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