The Center is a great resource — they have a decent-sized Letterpress studio with several proof presses, an equally well-resourced Bindery area, an exhibition space (illustrated here in a photo from their website), and enough space left over for a small shop selling hand-bound chapbooks, broadsides, and exhibition catalogues.

But the main purpose of my visit was to see The Collaged Accordion — an exhibition of Star Black’s large-scale accordion books that merge found texts & photographs and ephemera.

Star’s  collaged accordion books are intricately layered with a fine sense of texture and the individual properties of the found images and materials. They combine echoes of Joseph Cornell’s boxes with a sensibility for the subtler textures and possibilities of paper.

I wish I could have spent a lot longer at the Center, but unfortunately I had to fly back to the UK that same day and had far too much to do.

If you get the chance to go to New York then the Center is definitely worth visiting.

Center for Book Arts: main website | Blog | Facebook Page | Twitter | Flickr | YouTube

Related Journal Entries

• Sunday November 8th, 2009 — Research in London
• Wednesday June 3rd, 2009 — Romilly Saumarez Smith
• Sunday May 3rd, 2009 — Research in New York
• Sunday January 17th, 2010 — Lino prints and woodcuts
• Monday December 21st, 2009 — Research on the Broadside or Broadsheet

Click on the thumbnails for larger images and to leave comments:

Related Journal Entries

• Monday December 21st, 2009 — Research on the Broadside or Broadsheet
• Saturday November 28th, 2009 — Letterpress video
• Friday December 11th, 2009 — Letterpress progress
• Wednesday October 28th, 2009 — Letterpress Update
• Saturday August 8th, 2009 — Title and Half-Title Page Proofs (part two)

The problem is that it doesn’t fit comfortably in any one area. It sits between art and craft, between bookbinding and book art, between mainstream and underground. It’s art made in the interstices.

Personally I find interstitial art to be more interesting, but as an artist it makes it very hard to find existing markets in which to promote it.

When you’re trying to sell or promote artwork (or indeed anything) the first thing you need to understand is your potential audience, because this usually dictates how and where you market your artwork. There are many existing routes you can use if your work fits neatly into a genre or discipline, but if your work floats between established definitions then it’s far more difficult.

This chain of thought led me to the Interstitial Arts Foundation, which was founded by a group of literary, visual, musical, and performance artists for the purpose of developing and promoting interstitial art. There’s quite a lot to digest on their website, and I’ve only read a fraction of it so far, but I recommend it as a very interesting collection of ideas.

However I’m still left with the problem of how to get The Book of the Erinyes “out there” — how to raise awareness of it so that I can sell some copies of the limited edition handmade book and of the various other related artwork (I’m planning an unlimited paperback print-on-demand version, and various limited edition postcards, not to mention a free ebook version).

My personal view (and, please, if you have a different view, leave me a comment below) is that The Book of the Erinyes might appeal to two key audiences:

1. Book Arts/Bookbinding Arts — a more traditional arts audience, albeit still in a grey area between the more fine-art area of Book Arts & Artist’s Books, and the more craft-orientated area of Bookbinding. And of course it also involves Letterpress printing, which is another separate area!
2. Arty & Weird — this is my working name for a sub-cultural strand that seems to cross various boundaries, but can be broadly defined as those people who have an interest in art combined with one or more of the following interests:
   • graphic novels (particularly those by people like Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman, and the Hellblazer series),
   • goth or alternative music sub-culture,
   • films by David Lynch or Terry Gilliam,
   • books by the likes of Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, and Jeff VanderMeer.

   I promise I’ll try to think of a better name for this imperfectly-defined audience  — if one already exists please let me know!

So, having worked out who I think might be interested in The Book of the Erinyes I now have to find ways to reach them.

And this is where you, dear reader, come in. I’m soliciting suggestions and ideas as to how to reach my target audiences.  Please leave me a comment below if you have any ideas.

EDIT: Thanks to the Interstitial Arts Foundation for citing & discussing this post.

Other Journal Entries

• Sunday July 12th, 2009 — Bookbinding Practice
• Sunday March 22nd, 2009 — Inspiration for Books As Art Objects
• Sunday August 23rd, 2009 — Marbled Paper
• Saturday August 9th, 2008 — Welcome to the Journal
• Saturday November 28th, 2009 — Letterpress video

Proof prints for chapters 6 and 7 below (click through to see larger versions & leave comments):

Related Journal Entries

• Wednesday October 28th, 2009 — Letterpress Update
• Saturday August 8th, 2009 — Title and Half-Title Page Proofs (part two)
• Wednesday July 15th, 2009 — Title and Half-Title Page Proofs
• Wednesday July 8th, 2009 — Letterpress Printing
• Monday December 21st, 2009 — Research on the Broadside or Broadsheet

At some point in the not-too-distant future I’ll put together something a bit better, but in the meantime:

Related Journal Entries

• Monday December 21st, 2009 — Research on the Broadside or Broadsheet
• Sunday January 17th, 2010 — Lino prints and woodcuts
• Friday December 11th, 2009 — Letterpress progress
• Wednesday October 28th, 2009 — Letterpress Update
• Saturday August 8th, 2009 — Title and Half-Title Page Proofs (part two)

Bookbinding at the V&A

First stop was the V&A in South Kensington to see a small display of Fine Bindings for the Man Booker Prize 2009 designed by the Society of Designer Bookbinders.

It’s only a small display (6 books) but it’s well worth seeing these bindings “in the flesh” as they’re great. The display can be found in Room 74 (20^th Century section) of the V&A until 21^st March 2010, and admission is free.

The binding illustrated here is by Rachel Ward-Sale. More information about all six bindings, their binders, and the techniques & materials used can be found on the Society of Designer Bookbinders website.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption

After the V&A I headed up to Soho to see Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption at the Lazarides Gallery in Greek Street — an exhibition of political comic book and graphic novel work by artists and writers including Dave McKean, Pat Mills, Peter Kuper, Janek Koza, Dan Goldman, and pop culture figures Lightspeed Champion and V V Brown.

I’m particularly fond of Dave McKean’s artwork—especially the magnificent Sandman covers—so it was great to see some of his larger-scale collages close-up.  His artwork on display was about the widespread corruption surrounding AIDS relief to villages in China.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption is on until 28^th November 2009 at the Lazarides Gallery, Greek Street, London.  Admission is free.

Related Journal Entries

• Wednesday June 3rd, 2009 — Romilly Saumarez Smith
• Sunday May 3rd, 2009 — Research in New York
• Wednesday February 10th, 2010 — The Center for Book Arts in New York
• Sunday March 22nd, 2009 — Inspiration for Books As Art Objects
• Saturday September 20th, 2008 — Book Bindings and Vine Leaves

As with all the parts of the book, I’m determined to make it all myself, so I bought myself a copy of Techniques for Marbleizing Paper by Gabriele Grünebaum.

First I made an alum solution, using 6 teaspoons of Alum in 450ml of water. The alum solution works as a mordant — it fixes the marbling colours onto the surface of the paper. After bringing the solution to the boil then letting it cool, I sponged it liberally onto a number of sheets of paper then left them overnight to dry.

The next day I prepared the marbling size, using 6 teaspoons of Carragheen Moss Powder dissolved in 4 pints of hand-hot water, and left it to cool before starting some experiments, following the patterns in Gabriele Grünebaum’s book.

I decided to use Acrylic Inks — they don’t require any dispersing agent to be added for marbling, and the pigments are strong enough to retain a good strong colour even when spread across the surface of the size.  The ones I bought come with pipettes in the lids of the bottles, which made the process even easier.

I was fairly pleased with the results, but I’m obviously going to have to get a lot more practice to control the process.

Nonpareil pattern:

Nonpareil pattern:

Wavy Combed:

Other Journal Entries

• Monday April 20th, 2009 — New Erinyes photographs
• Sunday May 9th, 2010 — On mammoth projects and future plans
• Monday December 21st, 2009 — Research on the Broadside or Broadsheet
• Saturday August 8th, 2009 — Title and Half-Title Page Proofs (part two)
• Sunday January 17th, 2010 — Lino prints and woodcuts

Obviously I was on the look-out for inspiration for binding the Book of the Erinyes, and Romilly Saumarez Smith didn’t let me down.

Romilly Saumarez Smith studied book binding and paper conservation at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts and went on to become the first female forwarder at Zaehnsdorf’s Bindery (Zaehnsdorf’s Bindery was taken over by Shepherds in 1998 and the bindery now trades under the single name of Sangorski & Sutcliffe.).  In the 1990s she began increasingly to use metal in her bindings, and gradually moved to making jewellery.

One of the innovative materials Saumarez Smith uses for binding is pillow ticking (the strong cotton fabric used to cover pillows and mattresses). The ticking is coloured with multi-layered washes of leather dye, backed with Japanese paper and rubbed with beeswax.  She also uses dye and wax resist techniques to great effect.

The exhibition at the V&A is on until 2^nd August 2009.  More details on the V&A website.

Related Journal Entries

• Sunday November 8th, 2009 — Research in London
• Sunday May 3rd, 2009 — Research in New York
• Saturday September 20th, 2008 — Book Bindings and Vine Leaves
• Wednesday February 10th, 2010 — The Center for Book Arts in New York
• Sunday January 17th, 2010 — Lino prints and woodcuts

The Morgan began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan housing his collection of illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints.

The main focus of my visit to this institution was to see—first-hand—a Gutenberg Bible (the Library owns three of them!) printed in 1455 by Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press and movable type.

The visit was a fantastic mine of inspiration, from the wonderful library itself (illustrated here — photo by machbel, found on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons, used with thanks), to the vast array of old books (including some great Books of Hours), the Gutenberg Bible itself, and a fantastic collection of artwork encompassing personal favourites such as Joseph Cornell, Egon Schiele, and Jim Dine, as well as preparatory sketches and drawings by old masters.

I left the galleries and went to the Library shop feeling very pleasantly overwhelmed, my head overflowing with ideas and inspiration for the Book of the Erinyes.

In the shop, in addition to a couple of postcards, I bought a copy of Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures — a wonderful, richly illustrated, book exploring the world of books that are less than 3 inches high.

I don’t actually have a huge interest in miniature books, but the bindings illustrated in this book are wonderful — I think the creators decided that they could have more fun with small books.

They range from traditional leather bindings to bindings made of mother-of-pearl (popular as a deluxe binding in the 19^th century), gold-thread on silk, tortoiseshell, copper, velvet, gold, silver filigree, palekh lacquer (a Russian folk craft), polycarbonate, and enamel. Some are plain, others gilt-tooled, embedded with emeralds, amethysts or pearls, embossed, embroidered, engraved, or decorated with tiny enamel portraits.

The wealth of creativity displayed in this book is amazing, and will certainly prove invaluable as inspiration for binding the Book of the Erinyes.

Related Journal Entries

• Sunday November 8th, 2009 — Research in London
• Sunday March 22nd, 2009 — Inspiration for Books As Art Objects
• Wednesday June 3rd, 2009 — Romilly Saumarez Smith
• Wednesday February 10th, 2010 — The Center for Book Arts in New York
• Saturday September 20th, 2008 — Book Bindings and Vine Leaves

Despite some problems with my camera (serves me right for being lazy and relying on the auto-focus when I was shooting in low light!) I managed to get some great photos, which I’m slowly and painstakingly mainpulating now.

I thought I’d share them:

(more on the Erinyes artwork page)

Other Journal Entries

• Wednesday July 15th, 2009 — Title and Half-Title Page Proofs
• Monday August 18th, 2008 — A Movie Trailer for an Artist’s Book?
• Saturday August 9th, 2008 — Welcome to the Journal
• Sunday July 12th, 2009 — Bookbinding Practice
• Monday December 14th, 2009 — On Promoting Interstitial Art