The Haptic Touch of Books by Artists

Abstract

The book as a medium for creative practice proliferated during the twentieth century. The early stages of this period were marked by an engagement with visible language driven largely by poets and, to a lesser degree, artists. From the mid-twentieth century, a distinctive literature and discourse for these books began to emerge. It was not until the late-twentieth century and particularly through artists' conceptual engagement with it that the book as a medium was afforded recognition as a distinct field, termed ‘artists books’. Within the growing literature, a consistent tension relating to the multidisciplinary nature of the field is evident. It has led to concern that, until the discourse reaches the level of a critical field, the field itself is in danger of losing its identity. While this view has received widespread support, how to mature the discourse has proved contentious. At the turn of the twentieth century, when the West's privileging of sight began to attract critical attention, the haptic (pertaining to touch and materiality) was identified as a means to address the effects of that privileging. Together with a renewed interest in materiality, it informed the early-twentieth-century poets and artists' engagement with the book. In recent decades, the haptic has emerged as a disciplinary focus in many fields, particularly aesthetics. Within artists books discourse, the haptic nature of a book has now been raised as a potential focus for the field. Research into the literature of haptic aesthetics, as it is being termed, soon uncovers a wealth of significance for artists books relating to the sense of touch and its role in perception. With such an historical and a contemporary presence, the haptic warrants investigation as a focus for artists book practice and discourse. The research undertaken during my PhD candidature initiates such an investigation