dualityofwork

The folding has taken a new twist – focusing on duality and creating several pieces that make interesting noises whilst being articulated. There has been a lot of ‘art looking’ this year - rethinking some of the work I saw at Venice Biennale and Documenta15 after reviewing photographs last night.  Onto music - I saw Loula Yorke playing some extraordinary electronics to a lovely crowd in what was a thoughtful evening at Spill Think Tank. Onto screens – Three Thousand years of Solitude was slow, which really didn’t change but when buying into it enabled the mind to flow with ideas and a rich conversation ensued. The Resort was a well written and clever series, although the last episode felt rushed and if you watch it, you will never go down a small hole underground, whatever the reason.

siteformspecific

I have some images of work in a site-specific on-line exhibition at The Cut Arts Centre in Halesworth. http://newcut.org/sitespecific it's an Interesting exhibition and my work sits alongside a range of excellent people with some great work http://newcut.org/sitespecific/les-bicknell

meanwhile back in my studio I've been thinking about the fold, concealment, duality and the creation of narrative. The images are close-ups of the 17 new bookworks created for the upcoming Station show. The works are conceived as 3D objects, although to make the work a number of rules were followed, the main one being that all forms can be folded to 2D.

Although the actual work is abstract there are a number of narratives to be created in the mind of the viewer if the idea of the body and the book are considered, alongside the interrelationships between shape, structure and form in general.

atimeaplaceamoment

an invitation to an exhibition - MA Book Art at Camberwell - its the final cohort's online exhibition. There are many wonderful works in the show but more importantly the work demonstrates the breadth of the course in terms of book thinking, alongside the focus it offered the student when narrating their own lives.
It is said that the victors get to write the history. The restructuring of the MA offer at the University of the Arts (UAL) included the closure of the Book Art course at Camberwell. Does its demise within the restructure mean success? Does that make them the victors and therefore should they as successful instigators of this action write the history of the course?
The true history of the MA is embedded in the experiences of 100s of students who have enrolled on the course and experienced it. Many continue to make, exhibit and sell books, they run private press's, employ people, teach others to make books as technicians, educators and artists in community settings and within educational institutions as teachers, lectures and professors across the world.
Others have taken their experience of the course, recognised the transferable skills we have explored together and used them to build fulfilling creative lives. They continue to build the legacy of the course, I think they are the winners and there is no need to write the history as they are living its future.
On this the last day of the course I think of them all, of the learning we did together and wish them well.
take care - bye for now

foldedfoldscrushed

working on some new structures - or more like a new approach to the making or unmaking of work. crushing very tiny structures has obvious connotations at this moment in time, both for me personally and more universally. The final assessment of the Book Art Course at Camberwell has taken place, we just have the exam board to go and the course will cease to exist. The final cohort submitted some really exciting work that deserves to be seen beyond myself and Tanya. I hope that they get the chance soon, they and their work warrant it. meanwhile some films Family Romance LLC. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10208194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 oddly  strange yet very normal slice of everyday Japan. The True History of the Kelly Gang https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4844140/ starts off with brutal oppression and ramps up intensely to a devastatingly unhinged spectacle.

The Shivering Truth https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/303380455 is a wondrous thing - this is a good place to start, it will twist your mind inside out and take your sole to a dark yet glorious place.

housebecomeshome

This week on the Book Art Course at Camberwell the email project has been all about mapping home - where it starts and stops - I used the video the RIBA Suffolk Design Awards made when the extension that was designed by architects Kirkham Sheidow was up for an award (we won!) thinking about my mum and the idea of a house becoming a home and then a house. Adding time lapse films made of the site of the house I grew up in was a little too much and video of the last time I saw my mum was just too sad.

Above are some screen grabs.

Irresistible by Adam Alter is an addictive book about addiction, focusing on the screens that surround us - there are some truly frightening and instructive moments that will see me altering my behaviour. http://adamalterauthor.com/irresistible

Who you think I am - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7552686/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0  Juliette Binoche is extraordinary as a woman adrift from her sense of self, developing narratives within narratives to make sense of a/the world. Truth with Binoche and Catherine Deneuve https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8323120/ explores versions of truth within collective and individual memories. Days of the Bagnold Summer was so sweet, you feel for both sides until they become at one The King of Staten Island had great moments of thoughtfulness where you are taken out of your own soul to reflect on oneself https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9686708/  Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee's  latest is a long mixture of every film genre you have thought about and a few you haven't. there are some extraordinary moments worth watching.

endingsandmaterials

I was invited to a really interesting network meeting the other day - I gave a short presentation and took part in a Q&A session with the Cambridge University public engagement team, it was great to revisit my time at NanoDTC, to reflect on the work I did there and consider how it continues to fuel my thinking  within my practice. Meanwhile at Camberwell College of the Arts we are reinventing the final weeks of the Book Art course to really reflect on needs and wants of the students. Each week mini projects are being set by the students and shared through Zoom, it will make a great collective legacy. So far we have created posters - one based on Russian typography and another on Film titles. In the studio I have been photographing and filming some of the material experiments I have been working on.  

and onto films - Aniara - a twisted sc-fi dystopian tragic tale, Just Mercy - an oppressive tale of human ugliness, High Note - lovely but doesn't really go anywhere apart from a twist nobody will see coming, The Lovebirds - an interesting premise that should be funnier ditto Space force.  

floorceilingfloorcorner

I have been re-reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Calvino and thinking about the physicality of books - books that are not about reading - or roles other than reading - this has crashing into my thinking about solutions to mini projects that we are working on at Camberwell on the final weeks of the Book Art Course. What is the role of the book if not to be read?......floor ceiling floor corner

I went to see Julia Backwell last year talk and bought Time Song - Looking for Doggerland, just managed to get round to it this week - her thoughtful writing liminally slips through time and place through objects and moments - a thoroughly beautiful read.

I have just come across Prof. Scott Galloway - his refreshing honest around education and its costs is shockingly brutal -you might start with The Algebra of Happiness which covers a lot of ground - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfEjOgxBfI and is another strand of his straightforward thinking.

So onto some entertainment - two important films that you must see but are not an easy watch - Just Mercy was relentless and important Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a brutal suppression around women's bodies. An easier but another indictment on how we live our lives - this time capitalism re-watching doesn't make it easier to see the lessons within The Big Short. Two cartoon recommendations are the freaky darkness that is The Shivering Truth - season 2 is out https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6905458/  and the Quirkiness goodness of Central Park https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8129006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 Series include Snowpiercer (unsure if its necessary as the film exists) and Little Fires Everywhere (uneven and moments of overacting).

adayoutandsomework

a shout out to the most excellent show - Bit Rot by Bob Bicknell-Knight  (yes a relative). Its weaving of narratives in the digital and handmade, the real and imagined, on and off line are worth the trip to the Broadway Gallery in Letchworth.

https://www.broadway-letchworth.com/studio-gallery/whats-on/bit-rot-bob-bicknell-knight . Working at Kings in synthetic anatomy with the wonderful Celia Pym - it was a great workshop around the idea of narratives held within textiles. A day out in London with MA Book Art students to look at real examples of display, to talk about hanging work. It was interesting to check out a few things - the meaning of the screw, the role of text on the wall, what is available to take away, how we are treated by the staff. There was also some exciting work along the way Pi artworks had some beautiful clothes that incorporated text https://www.piartworks.com/exhibitions/location/2/ James Turrel at Pace was very James Turrel https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/james-turrell-9/ Fischli and Weiss was fun at Sprueth Magers  http://spruethmagers.com/exhibitions/511

Sadie Cole had work from the gloriously disturbing Jordan Wolfson if you get the opportunity see his piece Real Violence it is challenging in so many ways  https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/sickest-artwork-of-all-time-allows-viewers-to-watch-man-beaten-to-death/news-story/9492c9f143535d7aa69694f9c95ff736 - here he uses 3D holographic fans to good effect https://www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions/774/installation_shots/ The Science Gallery had an intriguing show about Gender https://london.sciencegallery.com/genders An interesting  space I have not been to before, the Celia Brunson Project, had a group show of Latin American artists which had a reading space that might be something to work with https://www.ceciliabrunsonprojects.com/exhibitions/58/overview/ and finally Cerith Wyn Evans No realm of thought… No field of vision at White Cube was an instagram opportunity with all the nice lighting and reflective surfaces.  https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/cerith_wyn_evans_bermondsey_2020 Stopping off along the way at the Materials Lab is always good for the soul. https://www.material-lab.co.uk/ Martin Creed performing at Toynbee Hall was superb - a blend of freeform, absurdist oddball, stand-up comedy - Tommy Cooper meets John Cooper Clark talking about not making decisions. If you get the chance go see his thoughts and observations on stuff you didn't know needed thinking about. The Steve McQueen show at Tate Modern is magnificent - for me there are a couple of gaps but there is a good spread of his work. The presentation of his work has been really considered - each space has a different set up - for the long films you have actual start points at the beginning and everywhere there is information about the start times and when films are ending - excellent.

speakinglisteninglooking

participating at Materials Research Exchange 2020 was an eye opener - as I walked through the stands promising materials that on first glance appeared to be closer to magic than reality I felt that my practice was one held together by string.... the talks around military and material research linked to concepts of strategic advantage were truly fascinating for so many reasons. The Biomimicry talk brought together by Ann Toomey was good - lots to reflect on all round.

For my talk brought together by MaDE through their connection to the Crafts Council I focused on work undertaken with NanoDTC in Cambridge and Kings robotics department at Kings with a little bit of bookness philosophy thrown in - lots of thoughts about the role of artists within so called non-art situations. In some ways it celebrated the lo-fi nature of the materials I use and concentrated on the creative process. I have in some ways already shifted the focus of what I do from galleries, although I have been invited to show work in the old sorting office in Saxmundham as part of The Art Station new space development https://theartstation.uk/. A further reframing of my practice from pure research and academia into industry is something to consider  

For the final final book art MA show at Camberwell college it looks like there will be an element of an archive show within the show - the students are working with Rosie of turn the page and Gustavo the man behind the special collection so it should be both thoughtful and through. There is also an element of celebrating the past - there is a proposal being created by a student for a call out to all previous Book Art Alumni - their responses will all be collated into a book. It will be intriguing to see how many can be found and how many will respond. The first 2 catalogues actually had physical addresses for the students so we shall see.  A weekend of films included Little women - charming and disturbingly precedent with a nice twist bringing together past and present, autobiographical and fiction. Jamanji: The Next Level was not as good as the last one but held its own and had some fun body swap moments with Danny Devito holding it all down. The Wolsey had The Ballad of Maria Marten a play about the Red Barn Murder cleverly spoken from the life and times of the dead women's perspective. Akram Khan at Dance East had Chotto Xenos a piece for families which was a little too illustrative for me but when the dancing connected to the projections it was very powerful and the child next to me was on the edge of his seat. looking forward to the next session of Synthetic Anatomy where I'll be reacquainted with anatomic models.

stricktlywrong

totally traumatised by watching 1917 - it truly is an extraordinary film - in part due to the glorious cinematography you are with them the whole way watching and feeling each and every tragic decision they have to make - a must see film. 2 Popes was a little dry but solid acting from Hopkins and Price elevated it. I've been invited to speak at Materials Research Exchange 2020 - the line-up and content for the two days is fairly awesome, luckily my job is to talk about how a maker makes sense of working within a 'science' context - something that I do know about. http://www.materialsresearchexchange.co.uk/speakers/  a day at Camberwell discussing how the final final show can in some way connect to the history of the course, the students are planning something with the Camberwell Book Art collection, working with Rosie Sherwood of Turn The Page. Making connections between their own individual practice and items from both The Camberwell and Chelsea Collection with a view to demonstrating the breadth of opportunity and possibility afforded by the format and concept of the book. the ending of the Book Art course has brought a degree of reflection enabling me to think about what we have been doing on the course alongside the value of the book as a creative tool.  the text for the last catalogue is swirling around my mind - The almost invisible reflective element of teaching enables reinvention, a constant rethinking, the experience of which inevitably feeds back into teaching. The process of creating presentations for seminars is a gathering of current transitory information and weaving it with established historical knowledge to form arguments, new 'truths'. When delivering presentations one cannot anticipate the students input and the subsequent discussion due to their wide ranging subject and cultural reference points. In that moment new hypothesis are born and new thinking established. This is what we did. This is the legacy of the course and the people who came, because it was their time to explore the book. This is the legacy that we created which they took with them...... meanwhile - popped into The British Library to see the new display of Artists Books within the treasures exhibition - really good to see books with Camberwell connections in the case.

beuysstolemyparentsidea

a busy week included the last catalogue conversation seminar at Camberwell for the MA Book Art Course - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/21-01-20-catalogue-conversation it was a little odd seeing 26 years of catalogues on a table - so many memories and stories - running a storytelling workshop at NUA as part of developing so called soft skills with the students - confidence is growing as they recognise their inherent skills deeply embedded within their internal file labelled transferable skills  - I have been invited to give a talk at Materials and Design Exchange 2020 by  MaDE  this has involved trying to find a headshot as I don't possess such a thing - see 70 images of me - odd I never realised that I looked so much like my mum - meanwhile in 1965 Joseph Beuys held a performance attempted to explain pictures to a dead Hare 'coincidentally' a year before the event in a street in Coventry that no longer exists young parents held a small child and filmed him stroking a dead rabbit so he could experience the feeling of fur before it was made into stew - can I claim copyright from the Beuys estate?  finally as part of my general 'get rid of it all' clear out I came across my notes from the first ever book arts conference - feel free to take a peek at the past here https://www.slideshare.net/secret/z5E5tJGV4wlC1A

makingalistofstuff

The catalogue for the book art exhibition in Wyoming - constellation has arrived - looking good.

meanwhile watching includes - Laundromat - not quite the Big Short but quite good in a sad we-really-are- all-f*#+ed kind of way.

Peanut butter Falcon was odyssey meets road movie which I guess are the same - the whole thing was charming yet blistering - the story, the acting, the landscapes - everything. The first 3 episodes of Morning Show were stunning, Jenifer Aniston stormed her role but now I have to wait for the next ones, which will be painful but there is always the gloriously parallel world of depressive nihilism that is the whirlpool of loss and pain that is Top Boy.

lookingtothefuturefromhere

Over the past month I have been contemplating the parable of the man, the child, and the donkey.

A man and his son were going with their donkey to market. As they were walking a man passed them and said, “You fools, why are you not riding your donkey?” So the man put the boy on the donkey, and they went on their way.

But soon they passed a man who said, “Lazy child, he rides while his father walks.”

So the man ordered his boy to get off, and got on himself.

But they hadn’t gone far when they passed a man, who said, “Shame on that idle man to let his child walk.” so they both got on the donkey and rode on.

But then a man passing by said, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey?” The man and boy got off and thought about what to do.

They had a great idea, they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them.

I'm looking forward to a break so it's good that the Summer has started - the Private View at Camberwell for the MA's was a full on experience - it was very hot and full of lovely people. I spent a lot of the time explaining to shocked individuals that this was the last but one show as the course is closing, all this whilst surrounded by some very exciting work that was embedded in the pursuit of exploring the book. oh well.

meanwhile - deep in series 3 Stranger Things at the moment - it really has turned into full on horror. Black Mirror was a more subtle and interesting experience, especially Ashley O - it was doing all the usual trapped rock start tropes and then became something else.....great writing. Years and Years was a little too close for comfort. Shoplifters has many lessons about what makes a family - beautiful and moving. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8075192/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

meaningfultext

on thursday it's my last day in London for this year with the opening of the penultimate MA Book Art exhibition at Camberwell on Thursday. OCA is on a break till September and I have 2 days to go at nua - I'm looking forward to a break and to work in the studio - started today by working on Transference for @halesworthgall - the small project has turned into a number of strands all connected with unknowing, the breaking down of text so that it loses its specific meaning but still talks of text, typography, words and the potential for communication.

teachingroundupandfolding

Planning towards the final show for OCA is well underway - the exhibition will be an eclectic affair which is what you would expect from an exhibition of international students from all over the world.  checkout the work at https://www.instagram.com/duodecimalart/  Year 3 at NUA is culminating in a few weeks - as ever it's that time in the education cycle where we have a graded engagement with the final process. The range is from people who have planned and are working through their lists through to those looking for a time machine to try and solve their issues. Camberwell starts again in a couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see what the students have been working on over the Easter 10 weeks of non teaching.  Meanwhile the work for the exhibition in Wyoming has been sent off. I am particularly excited by the editioning process and final outcome of one of the handheld pieces that started life with nanotech in Cambridge.

creativerangeanddisplay

some images from the shop at Japan House - it's so full of ideas. Meanwhile I have a piece of work in The PAGES exhibition  - it has started its short tour of three Yorkshire venues - ROAR http://rotherhamroar.com The Cooper Gallery, Barnsley www.cooper-gallery.com Doncaster Art Gallery & Museum www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/culture-leisure-tourism/doncaster-museum-and-art-gallery Interchange at NUA was a creative space without answers or direction - this was a challenge for some individuals but there was some  interesting learning. MA Book Art students have been displaying their altered books in a small exhibition in the library at Camberwell. I'm looking forward to a bonding session (in the technical not psychological sense) with year 1 at NUA - I have been working on the planning for this for a while and hope to demonstrate some of the technical lessons learnt whilst working at the Maxwell Centre Nanotech in Cambridge, the wonders of the heat press. Friday sees me in Leeds at The Tetley as a kind of book consultant attempting to support people exploring the book https://www.thetetley.org/whats-on/artists-book-advice-surgeries-at-the-tetley In terms of screens Stan & Ollie was a sweet and tender experience, Mary Poppins returns reminded me why I didn't enjoy the first one, all those jolly working people getting by and slightly too knowing children all within an Edwardian tweeness. After Life the latest Ricky Gervais work is worth watching if only for the wonderfully true to life use of swearing, but it also has something to say about grief.

timewritingtime

Thought it was time to update the list. all the titles of the dissertations submitted to the MA in Book Arts at Camberwell College of the Arts from the beginning of the course to now. This is the penultimate year that students will hand into the course before it folds. I have a weird relationship around responsibility to this large pile of paper - what is its value? To burn it or to spend time archiving....for what? It is the only intact set in existence but so what? Anyway.... Its interesting to note the interests of the students evolve over time, some of the content is so wonderfully specifically focused while some gloriously general but all born of thoughtful conversations, some still etched in my mind. I also note some the writing structures they adopt to cope with the task, that of comparison. Maybe the list is an artwork in itself?

Titles

1996

PERSONAL STATEMENT 

Notes and Fragments: The documentation of the development of an idea

Books: Public or Private objects?

WRITTEN STATEMENT

written statement

INTERVIEWED IN THE BOOK ART STUDIO

WRITTEN STATEMENT

STATEMENT

Written Statement

A METAMORPHOSIS AN ADVENTURE INTO BOOKARTS

1997

FRAGMENTS – PROCESS – SENSORY IMPRESSIONS

- JOURNEY WITH UNPREDICTABLE END -

An Unprecedented Event

Language as Art, Typography as Language

On Medieval Manuscripts

ABOUT BOOK ARTS

SEQUENTIAL ART or (The invention that is Art)

MA BOOK ARTS

A Projection. A theory

Book arts, Architecture, Space, Place, Paper and me

Mid-century Disjunction: the Fate of Early Modern Typography and the Evolution of Artists’ Books As Traced In the Work of Johanna Drucker

books as visual form for communication

1998

Memories of my food in the 1970’s, 1980’s

ESSAY: ART AND ECOLOGY

Low Culture, High Art

DOCUMENTING THE CITY

Time

Not At Home: in search of green ornaments – a collected narrative

Halfway to Inevitability

The Booked Block

1999

Judging A Book by it’s Cover: Questions of Legitimisation, Aesthetics, and Audience. A Catalogue Essay.

MA Book Arts

ROCK & ROLL an archive

- Found Words – The use of found words and objects in Book Art

Trivial Tales About Nothing At All

STRUCTURE

GIVER OF LIFE about rituals and metaphors, about domestic and the feminine in life and art.

Aspects of Exhibitions and Collections

UNDERGROUND

Thinking about reading

The narrative of London

2000

Silent Books

Towards Process as the work and Reading as the practice

Natural Mystic & Book

Personal Experience and the Book Outcome

IF YOU WOULD LIVE HERE YOU WOULD BE HOME NOW

(Space is everywhere open…We are in this place)

NARRATIVE AND CONCRETE SYSTEMS IN BOOK ARTS; through the book structure and content

The book: a psychosocial metaphor

SQUASHED FROG

CULTURE JAMMING; Its relation To My Work As A Book Artist

War, Art, and the artist as the recorder of History.

Are the contemporary pop-up books really that much better than the Victorian ones?

MA Dissertation Book Arts 2000

THE TRIAL AND CHANGE AS AN ARTISTIC FORM OF BOOK

2001

Approaches To Depicting Space

Books as Objects

A comment on repeat through artists books and multiples, form and process.

Time and the Artist

INTRODUCTION TO DOMESTIC PHILOSOPHY ABOUT ART, AUDIENCE AND THERAPY

on coming to book arts

Knock! Knock! Bang! Bang!

Public Space: Room for Authority or Art?

The influence of psychological theories on changes in representations of childhood in art since the Romantic era

‘Focusing on Studio Practice’

Alice in Wonderland

Opening the Text: The Book as a Hypertextual Object

An investigation into the Context of My Studio Practice

Evaluating House and Home

The True Nature of Conservation: Are Conservation Ethics Commensurate with Contemporary Art Practice?

2002

An Investigation into the “Disappearance of the Book”

The gap

The efficacy of the diary format in artists’ book.

Between Author and Reader exploring the notion of the writerly and readerly within the work of Susan King and Lygia Clark

Savouring the recipe book

The library of unpublished books: From fiction to reality

Visceral Passage: Reading the Book as Body

In/Outside Space: The shifting boundary between private and public…how it structures our homes

Un Coup de Des: Musique Meditation on a Musigram

Book as Box : Box as Book

ELUSIVE/ALLUSIVE: Book Arts and the Undermining of ‘Truth’ and ‘Reality’

A comparison of, and investigation into, Michael Landy’s break Down (2001) and Susan Hiller’s After the Freud Museum (1995), with reference to the role of research within artistic practice as compared to academic models.

2003

The Precious and the Processed: What are the implications for the status of the art object and the integrity of the artistic vision within the medium of artist publishing?

Man, Earth and Presence: Self-awareness in Floor-like Piece of Work

The System of (Book) Art

Description of Life a Users Manual

The Visible Word Concrete Poetry and Book Arts

Art, Therapy and the Artist’s Book: Inspiration from Eva Hesse and Lygia Clark

2004

How could language shape the future?

The Narratives of the Cabinet of Curiosities in 16^th & 17^th century Europe and Contemporary Book Artist Practice

To receive or not to receive: choice, the gift, and art.

The Surveillance of Everyday Life: Appropriating City Space/Book Space

The book as a space within contemporary curating

CLOTHES ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

Cultural shift in relationship to the significance of objects, as seen in British collections from the sixteenth century to the present day, with particular reference to the Enlightenment Exhibition at the British Museum, the Soane Museum and the Saatchi Collection.

The Visual Power of Language Language Play/Word Play

The Erotic and the Innocent: The role of the child/adolescent as seen through the role of Hans Bellmer and Dorothea Tanning

What is the role of a visual style and media in the development of the content of a visual book?

Magic Lantern

How the Viennese painter Gustav Klimt appropriated motifs from the Archaic Greek Art period in his paintings and in what way this engagement might have affected his formation as a mature artist in his career?

RELATING TO DISEASE: The Narrative Origins of Medical Artists’ Books

How do the books of Susan Hiller and Joseph Cornell differ in their presentation and revelation of an inner, emotional journey?

In relation to my own explorations of an empty three dimensional book space, how effectively have Rachel Whiteread and Johnathan Callan articulated negative space and to what extent in terms of the book?

This is me, this is you: Ubiquity of self

How do Joseph Cornell and the collaborative artists cris cheek and Kirsten Lavers (T.N.W.K.) use systems of objects to give a sense of implied narrative?

2005

An artists’ search for sense of self, time and place, reflected back through the Mother’s Gaze

Memory as a vehicle for self-exploration, or a gateway for others?

Revisiting the Sublime Through Mariele Neudecker and Alison Wilding

Exploration of inner and outer spaces in book: Through analyzing works of Richard Long and artist books of Telfer Stroke and Helen Douglas and Michael Snow’s, Cover to cover and Real Fiction, I will examine the ways of depicting spaces within book structure and spaces in nature.

When Craft Is Applied Into Book Art

Through the exhibition Body Worlds I will examine the relationship between art and science and the issue of consent in display of the human body within didactic institutions

Is the Use of Photography in Documentation of Ephemeral Art Inherently Contradictory?

What Role Does Freedom play in the work of Joseph Beuys?

Read me, Seymour! Considering Book Art worthy of analysis as ‘text’.

The influence of the “Duesseldorfer Schule” of Bernd and Hilla Becher ass seen in the works of their former students Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff and Andreas Gursky.

Art imitating life, Life imitating art

The presence of mental anxiety in the artwork of the displaced

Portraying the Stories: Paula Rego and Illya Kabakov’s visual-storytelling practices in art context

THE ART OF NOTATION: THE MUSIC DRAWINGS OF TOM PHILLIPS

2006

Extended Artist’s Statement: Shaping the Gathered Parts

ON COLLAGE

THE WAY OF TELLING A FAMILY AS A ROUTE FOR SEEKING AN IDENTITY

Visual Approaches of Reading sound and Listening image

Visual Sequences : speeds of reading

The Embodied experience of space: Michael Snow’s Cover to cover

The Container of Fixed Truths

Words of Comfort The Book As A Fashion Item

Alter-ed books. Alter-ed narrative? Two Famous Artists compared and an Emerged One takes her position.

The Journey in Book Arts

This paper is an examination of my own practise, compared and contrasted to “The Sleepers” by Sophie Calle and Martin Newth’s “8 Hours” I intend to explore the ideas of voyeurism in my work and where my practice stands in relation to book arts.

2007

FUTURISTS The roots of the controversies

Where the Art Lies

Feeling the book: The book in the digital era

The promotion of the moral and social development of the child through fairy tales

A Study on presenting the words on paper structure

The assumption of casualness and the discovery of intensity

Absence/Presence

MUSICAL SYNAESTHESIA

How Have Ideas Of Fiction, Theatre and Literature Influenced Ilya Kabakov’s Installations; ’10 Characters’, and ‘The Artist’s Despair, of the Conspiracy Of The Untalented’? How Do These Ideas Relate To His Thoughts On ‘TotalInstallation’ and What Effect Do His Concepts and Techniques Have On My Own Artistic Practice?

Deconstruction/Construction

HOME

2008

Touching as reading – When does touch make a reader become the content of a book?-

The book as a Document – Personal Statement and the audience Exploring the notion of documenting in Artists’ books and locating their audience by portraying and critically analyzing ‘Autobiography’ and ‘Break Down Inventory’, works by Sol Lewitt and Michael Landy respectively.

History and foresight of public libraries in UK

Shaping issues of personal verus global feminist issues through evocative memories within the context of book arts and particularly in consideration of book structure.

Existence of Book and Book Art

Semiotic Guerrilla War

Hunting Rabbit

What is the difference between a book and an artist’s book? What I pay special regards in creating my project?

Migration

The Aspects of Narration-Narrative relationships with the object.

Through comparing and contrasting three artists’ books: String Book, Mirror Book and Killing Book; this essay examins the physical structure and materiality of books in order to articulate a non-verbal sensational language, which is highly concerned in my book art practice.

2009

Does Unconventionality aid or constrict book art, or any form of artwork?

SEEKING FOR FREEDOM – THE INSTALLATION ARTS OF ESCAPING FROM THE SURFACE

The transitions of daily life in living spaces andpublic spaces.

A comparative evaluation and analysis on the works of Sophie Calle, Paul Auster and Michel DeCerteau in the context of the pedestrian self belonging to the urban life journey.

How everyday objects infused with personal/sentimental value are translated into artworks of public significance.

Future tense: Steampunk in Contemporary Art and Artists’ Books.

GREEN WORDS

Using Heidegger’s ideas on the nature of time and relating them to Keith Smith’s book 91, this paper will investigate book as a form of living art/live experience.

What would be the aim as an art practitioner by giving value to the collection of the disposal, the clutter, or the remnants of the ordinary, within the context of the scarce and the abundant in both Ilya Kabakov’s work The Boat of My Life and Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules.

MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA ART: PRACTICE AND EXPLORATIONS WITH INTERACTIVE MEDIA ARTWORK FOUR SELECTED ARTISTS

By using both visual and haptic methods I intend to investigate ‘Cover to Cover’ by Michael Snow and ‘In Between’ by Kate Farley. This paper will compare and look critically at the ways these artists create visual spatial experiences in their work.

HOUSE AS ART Monuments for memory – Vessels for living.

2010

Chance as an agent in art

To what extent does Marinetti resolve the apparent paradox in his work of achieving a spatial and temporal extension which allowed simultaneous communication and sensation?

Investigating connections between the objective and subjective systems of classifying found material, I will be comparing Mark Dion’s ‘Tate Thames Dig’ with Joseph Cornell’s ‘Planet Sex’ Tete Etoilee, Giuditta Pasta (dedicace), in order to establish how the ephemeral can become precious.

IN THE LIGHT, ONE IS AWAKE

Does a comparison of Walking and Sleeping by Richard Long and Seven Walks London 2004-5 by Francis Alys reveal the differences between urban and rural walking or merely the difference or similarities between two artists who walk?

Materials can speak for themselves without words in Book Arts

OUTLINE OF ROBOTIC AND MOSAIC ART IN EDUARDO PAOLOZZI ARTWORKS CHILDHOOD MEMORIES, TEXT, FORM AND IMAGE AND THEIR PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS

Is the future of comic Books related with that of the book?

“The availability of touch in art galleries and museums” A study of today’s defined values and a personal experience from two tactile exhibitions.

Typographic Expression in Visual and Concrete Poetry How can typography successfully convey ideas of the text and add expression to printed word in visual/concrete poetry.

Imposed Passive Participation. By contrasting specific artworks by Susan Hiller and Sophie Calle I will discuss how personal artefacts are made public in order to create and develop an intimate relationship between the artwork and the viewer elicit a personal response and place the viewer into an integral part of the work as a passive rather than a passive observer. 

The Art of Book Structure – Deconstruction Book Body

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ENERGY OF HANDWRITTEN TEXT IN COMMUNICATING EMOTIONS AND IDEAS IN VISUAL ARTS BY LOOKING AT VAN GOGH’S LETTERS, CY TWOMBLY’S DRAWINGS AND SOME CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS

2011

What else besides the body, could physical thinking look like? A discussion of the intersection between art and dance in response to Catherine Wood’s article The art of writing with people.

The book, socially collaborative art.

Reading in space – at what extent does language control the space that it is placed in or is that control dictated by the space in which the language sits?

Interpretation and Categorisation of Fired Books in Book Arts: Three Books by Yohei Nishimura.

Can and should all art be considered therapeutic to the artist and viewer, and in what ways can any therapeutic benefits be further exploited?

Destructive art and auto-destructive in contemporary art is based on the dismantling of forms to create new forms, Where, then does the value in such art lie?

Five senses of book

Journey to the centre. How do contemporary artists use the device of spots and circles as strategies to individualise elements of graphic culture within their practice?

In what ways has the use of language in art changed since the 20^th century movements of Dada and Surrealism, and what is its role in contemporary art?

Silhouette Art: the aesthetics of concealedness

In what ways have time and space been expressed by artists in relation to artists books?

HOW DOES THE EVERYDAY MANIFEST IN CURRENT ART PRACTICES? TECHNOLOGY, RELATIONAL AESTHETICS AND THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

Does fashion blur the boundary of gender or not? – from French fashion to Leigh Bowery’s Art

In what ways does the writer Vladimir Nabakov and artist Joseph Cornell approach the challenge of rendering desire in their works?

Might consideration of the artists’ book prove fruitful when considering the evolution of other topics, for example happiness?

Is the repetition of daily life really boring and meaningless? Which artists convince us the repetition is both enjoyable and therapeutic?

2012

Blank But Not Empty: The hidden information of the Blank

Difficulty of dealing with personal Memories; The gap between Hiding and Sharing

The page transition in inkless books of two artists (Ronald King & Keith A. Smith)

Cultural transmission & importance of ancient books study case sutra of Mountain and Sea case

HOW REBECCA HORN AND LIN TIANMIAO, REVEAL THEIR FEELINGS OF BEING BOUNDED UNDER THE TOTAL DIFFERENT CULTURE?

What is the use of repetition communication in the works of Kusama and Warhol, and What’s the difference between communication of their works?

How does the photography worth of Helen Douglas and Michael Snow build narrative without text?

How do some artists’ books of Ken Leslie, Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck and Ronald King express thinking of Samsara

The Imagined Reading Machine: In Bob Brown’s printed experiments in optical reading, does the reader become the Reading Machine?

Representation of weeds in the works of the artists, Kim Beck I Tracey Bush I Beverly Penn I John Dilnot.

The relationship between the structure and content in three artists’ books (A Maze in Book, Out of Sight, Daily Mirror)

ARTISTS’ TRAVEL BOOKS AND THE READERS AS TRAVELLERS How do artists manage to create journalistic travel book artworks with elements for reflecting both personal impression and objective awareness of the destination?

Interactive Aesthetic Experiences in Food-related Arts

Search for a reform consumer society

Can Tom Phillips’ ongoing art work A Humument provide us with clues as to the conceptual form of books in the future?

The Renaissance of Writing

Between mark and script: ambiguity

Healing the fabric of the universe : an imaginal approach to arts practice through the works of Atsushi Takenouchi and Louise Kenward.

How might the book function as a transformational object? Can the theories of D. W. Winnicott and Christopher Bollas help to determine the use of the book as a transformational object in works by Graham Rawle and Henry Darger.

2013

Material in book arts: exploring the relation between material and the body of artist books
Repetition in Artists' Books
How have the foundations of Collage influenced the Assemblage of Book Art?
Variable readings: A throw of the dice will never abolish chance.
"How frame and time work as a tool to depict the landscape"

FORGETFUL MEMORY, UNREADABLE BOOKS.

Diary as Art: exploring Dieter Roth’s diary works in relation to Fluxus

How are the formal and structural elements of the comic book utilised by creator and reader in the construction of time?

The interplay of movement and bookstructure: movements interplay with book structures in relation to readers by comparing Ed Rusha’s Every Building on the building on the Sunset Strip and Stephanie Ognar’s Flip Book Bath

The Physically of the Book, The Richness of Reading Experience

How the content of Keith Smith’s Snow Job and Susan King’s Lessons from the South are enriched by creating the text’s visual form on typography and book structure

Quality abstract in photography exploring the photos in Paris shot by William Eggleston regarding the notion of Geometric abstract painting

Memory and Memorial – an evaluation of their relationship with the textile object.

Paper Fanzines: Nostalgia for Golden Ages of Rock Music, or a Quest for Authenticity? What drives modern music fan to reach for increasingly obsolete tangible media forms?

How are the issues of ‘place, voice and subject’ more successfully communicated in Get Here (Imogen Stidworthy, 2006) through focusing on the participatory nature of the work?

How does the inclusion of text add to the narrative dimensions of photography? Looking at the work of Clarissa Sligh, Duane Michals and Shirin Neshat.

Marching Backwards into the future. Or why does McLuhan, Flore and Agels’s The medium is the massagefeel so now?

2014

The implication of Conceptual Art in books – Is a book could be a tool to convey the concepts as an art form to bridge artists and viewers

Examining spiritual experience as the purpose and function of art: Tracing numinous in the work of James Turrell and Giuseppe Penone

The relationship between artworks and environmental protection – How artwork as a tool to remind people of the environmental issues

‘Faceless self-portrait’

The possibility of book to represent place

How the places could change artworks display?

2014

How are the different interpretations of place and memory reflected in the imagery, design and structure of two different artists' books?

THE ART OF NOTATION: THE MUSIC DRAWINGS OF TOM PHILLIPS

Image: consciousness and bliss A play of Visual Perception and Meanings

THE INVISIBLE BOOKPRINT

How book artists represent memory of a place and how these memories are translated to communicate with the readers

Eastern Art Philosophies Influencing John Cage and Western art Influencing Huang Yongping Xu Bing: representing the characteristics of their time or acts of imitation

The work of Seance: How materiality affects absence in translation in Anne Carson's Nox and Christian Hawkey's Ventrakl

How do Kenneth Goldsmith and Simon Morris use compositional strategies of copying to produce new works within the context of a digital age?

2015

Nothing Matters: Situating the Audiences' Experience of Katrina Palmer's 2015 Artangel Commission on Portland

Behind the Line Comparing and contrasting approaches to Mathematics applied in the work of Agnes Martin and Cam Wong

What are the different aspects of Interactive arts, and is it still possible for artworks to be interactive without the use of technology?

RESPECT TO NATURE A brief analysis of land artists' Natural consciousness - take Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long as example

Haptic Communication of Imagination and Reality

Toys of Imagination: Exploring Joseph Cornell's artwork in relation to appropriation and the arrangement of collecting material imaginative interact with viewer

Mapping in the work of Victoria Brown, Zero Per Zero and Becky Cooper

Impermanence in the work of Helen Chadwick, James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson

Nothing, yet everything

An analysis of lines and lines movements, using ideas in Ingold's book on the line and relating it to Keith Smith's 'Book 91'and Sol Lewitt's book Circles & Grids' and how they explore this idea.

Reading in space, using the books as materials -Exploring Brian Dettmer, Georgia Russell and Guy Laramee's works.

Deconstructing Physical and Metaphysical Space: A structural investigation into humanistic metaphors applied to the use of Deconstructivist language within the spacial arts of Daniel Libeskind

2016

Compressing Multi-Dimensional Narrative into Two-Dimensional Plane: An Analysis of how time, space and movements have been illustrated into plane canvas by modern artist.

What can the use of Synesthesia in the work of Rachel Morris & Terri Timely tell us about the future of physical books?

How do the works of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton differ in the way that they replicate the experience of the natural world within the context of an art gallery?

CAN THE DOMINANT ART WORLD ENGAGE IN 'SOCIAL SCULPTING' AS A CRITICAL METHODOLOGY FOR ITS INTEGRATION IN THE SUSTAINABLE MOVEMENT? extracting effective strategies from artists Crawford & Cross and David Cross' work

Could photography be used as a tool to help improve memory and repress development of the disease dementia

The potential of space and its accessibility to the public

The Space in the Fold and Folding

How the Use of Thread Helps Artists Enhance Their Projects' Narratives

How does redaction increase reader participation in creating meaning? a comparison of reworkings of: Un coup de Des Jamais N'abolira Le Hazard and John McDowalls MASK.

2017

What is the relationship between text and page in the bookworks of Thomas A Clark?

Unconventional approaches to magazine editing - The role of two avant-garde magazines, 0 to 9 and Decoll/age in the 1960's -

A discussion of the coexistence of humans and surveillance, through the study of surveillance artworks.

Shhhh!: Investigating Bob Cobbing's Whisper Piece and the impact it had on the Artist's Subsequent Practice.Time as the subject of the artwork: Exploring the connection between time and artwork about time.

Found Objects in Sophie Calle's Works and the Building of Narrative Behind Them

In what way does the work of Jenny Holzer, Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries and Barbara Kruger disrupt reading habits and spaces within a specific medium and or place, making use of the medium's intrinsic meaning, and promote critical reading and thinking?

HOW BOOK AND PERFORMANCE ARE PRESENTED IN RELATION TO EACH OTHER, AND WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON THE AUDIENCE OF DOING THIS?

2018

How does the Materiality of the Artist's Book Help to Augment an Understanding With Respect to Creating a Narrative About Memory and Identity?

The Separated Hand  Comparing and contrasting how the principles of sign language and gesture have been used to create narrative and meaning in Propaganda Posters, the works of Wanda Bernardino and online advertiser/content creator, Gelcream

Between art and erotic: A Visual analysis of homosexual publications based on Queer Theory

Weaving Words Give some examples of the ways in which weaving has influenced the English language.

Optical Illusion

Investigating successful models of collaboration in the UK's art publishing activity.

How has control of process and outcome been given away from author to the audience in the contemporary book art?

Contradictory Thread

Misery as an inspiration for the creation of art Comparing and Contrasting the work of Tracey Emin and Louise Bourgeois