Monster Supplies

http://www.monstersupplies.org/

I visited the shop Monster Supplies today set up the project based "Ministry of Stories", who use creative writing as a way of inspiring children and young people locally.

The shop is very unique, reminiscent of a pop up shop or a gallery, with poetic ready-made -like commodities available to buy, inspired by monsters of children's stories. For example their "Vile Valentines Preparation Pack".

I particularly enjoyed their series of paint like jars such as "A vague sense of unease", surely this is the kind of irony we need in everyday life.

Bookartbookshop

http://www.bookartbookshop.com/

I visited the bookartbookshop today in Old Street, very exciting! It was good to see a designated space for the work. The shop setting was nice in the way that you felt comfortable to browse through the books, the books also worked well as a whole collection of books.

I particularly enjoyed a very simple book called "Same Place, Same Time" where the artist had photographed Big Ben art 12:15 pm over pages of days. It captured the trees gradually covering the view of Big Ben throughout the book. Unfortunately I didn't note down the authors name, but I would encourage others interested book art to visit and also think about submitting work.

Centrefold Exhibition and Talk

I went to an exhibition and talk at the Zabludowicz Collection on 28/01/2012. The work was a collection of the copies of the 8th scrapbook "Centrefold" made by over 20 artists, one of the leading artists Reza Aramesh was also at the discussion.

The book is available online to view at http://www.centrefoldx.com/scrapbook/spread09.htm

Different pages were displayed out of all the copies, so that you could walk around and view the different pages without actually having to touch the book. The books were displayed easels and ladders in groups around the room. I found the display distracting and also quite confusing, as the easels made the pages appear as paintings. Reza defended the display explaining that because the book was a scrapbook,a form of collage, he was trying to follow the concept through in the display, using the objects in the room as a collage ( the room also being used a a life drawing room and therefore having an excess of easels).I was still not convinced as I felt it created a barrier between the usual intimate experience of the reader and book. However I think this is an interesting discussion; how can you display a book which is presented as a piece of art in it's own right?

How can books be exhibited in a way that they don't loose the intimacy ?

Where does book art belong, in the gallery, the bookshop, special collections, library?

Should they be handled with white gloves?

I would be interested to hear about other people's ideas about exhibiting book art and book art in general, especially as I plan to exhibit book art within my degree show this year. I will continue to address these questions in further posts.