BonefolderVol2No1.pdf

Volume2, Number 1, Fall 2005

The Bonefolder: an e-journal for the bookbinder and book artist

Table of Contents

Reading by Hand: The haptic evaluation of artists’ books, by Gary Frost 3

Diagramming the Book Arts, by Johnny Carrera 7

Beyond Velveeta, by Johanna Drucker 10

All Shook Up: Interplay of image and text in the flag book structure, by Karen Hanmer 12

Molded Paper Spine, by Donia Conn 25

The Mystery of the Wire Loop: A query for investigation, By Eric Alstrom 29

Tying up with Velcro ™ , by William Minter 31

Practical Press, by Charles Schermerhorn 32

Terra Australis: The artist book as philosophical approach to the world, by Tommaso Durante 34

Edelpappband / Millimeter Binding Bind-O-Rama 36

Publication Review – William Anthony Fine Binder 43

Advertise in the Bonefolder 46

Submission Guidelines 47

On the cover, Karen Hanmer’s “Destination Moon,” 2003.

Editorial Board:

Publisher & Editor/Reviewer:

Full information on the Bonefolder, subscribing, contributing

articles, and advertising, can be found at:

Peter D. Verheyen: Bookbinder & Conservator / Special

Collections Preservation & Digital Access Librarian, Syracuse

University Library, Syracuse, NY.

< http://www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder>

To contact the editors, write to:

Editors / Reviewers:

< bonefolder@philobiblon.com >

Pamela Barrios: Conservator, Brigham Young University,

Oren, UT.

The masthead design is by Don Rash

Donia Conn: Rare Book Conservator, Syracuse University

Library, Syracuse, NY.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The Bonefolder (online) ISSN 1555-6565

Chela Metzger: Instructor, Kilgarlin Center for the

Preservation of the Cultural Record, School of information,

University of Texas at Austin.

Don Rash: Fine and edition binder, Plains, PA.

Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2005

Reading by Hand: The haptic evaluation

of artists’ books

skilled reader of this acrobatic format. Meanwhile, the work

of Susan Joy Share, featuring her brilliant performances of

mobile and audible book structures, continues to present an

immense challenge of understanding and assimilation for the

book arts. Susan is the avatar of reading as dance.

By Gary Frost

Johanna Drucker’s article, “Critical Issues/Exemplary

Works”, The Bonefolder , 1:2, 2005, has provided a great

environment for evaluation of artists’ books. She has

suggested models of critical review in related fields of

literature and art, mapped the taxonomy of types of artists’

books and used carefully chosen terms. Much of Johanna’s

attention is on the project set by the artist and measurement

of just how the work transforms, develops and presents this

project. She has also emphasized the urgent need to establish

methods for critical evaluation of book art.

The haptic concern also follows from the peculiar essence

of the book as hand held art. Books are only read at arms’

length and are notoriously intractable in gallery display. This

is a legacy of writing as a picture of speech and its early use as

a handheld prompt. (1.) And the codex echoes its own legacy

as a folded letter inviting unfolding and re-foldings. (2.) The

whole environment of this experience is tactile, manipulative,

confined, tricky and surprising. If critically pursued, the

consciously hand investigated book could induce a greater

appreciation of artists’ books.

Are there any additional approaches that will assist

evaluation of artistic works in a book format? I suggest that

there is an additional topic that could propagate additional

tools.

Models of review

A community of specialists should be acknowledged when

considering the description of haptic and kenetic attributes

of artists’ books. This is the community of book conservators

and other taxonomists of collections of material culture.

George L. Stout, pioneer of descriptive terminology for art

conservation, categorized the book as a “corporeal, built”

object. (3.) This primary corporeal nature, both as an analogy

to human anatomy and as a hand-held object, provides a

primary descriptor of the physical book. The “built” qualifier

is useful as well. Book making is highly sequential in accord

with Johanna’s emphasis on process.

This topic is the aesthetic consequence of a work of

book art in the hands of the reader where tactile qualities

and features of mobility are appreciated. This is a haptic

[pertaining to the technology of touch] domain where the

study of touch as a mode of communication is at work.

Such evaluations call up deeply embedded perceptions and

sensory skills where the hands prompt the mind and where

the reader’s understanding can be far removed from the

intentions of the artist.

With all books, a large portion of the meaning is

downstream. Each reader wishes the book to act out a bit

of personal theater and I suggest that book art is special in

this regard. This personal possession of the book experience

would help to explain the persistent, low threshold of entry

to the practice of making artists’ books since the reader is

well equipped to qualify anything quickly. Twenty six million

people making hand made scrapbooks with artistic intentions

know how to read an artists’ book.

Entrancing descriptions of the anatomy, built nature,

mobility and mortality of books are provided by book

conservator Chris Clarkson. His descriptions achieve a

level of critical appreciation of books and convey the deep

historical perspective that Johanna recommends. Who

would imagine that the graceful actions of early archival

long-stitch binding could be expertly qualified as an artistic

achievement or that any violation of its exemplary mobility

could be expertly dismissed as a crippled pastiche? (Modern

book artists using non-adhesive long-stitch structure should

be challenged!) And who would imagine that much of the

aesthetic attribute of the early archival long stitch book

derives from tactile qualities?

But how can we provide effective description for a more

critical experience of the corporeal book? We can lift it, open

it and turn a page. Is it docile or springy on opening, solid

or tentative on closing? Is there a live transmission of forces

through the structure or is it crippled? What instigates the

reader’s ergonomic of comprehension and how are haptic

features consequential to the evaluation of book art?

“A large measure of the very pleasant handling

qualities of this limp vellum long-stitch binding is

supplied by the supple character and velvet finish of

the manuscript fragment used for the cover. The ease

and good flowing action of this volume has much to

do with a superb long-stitch technique. This is not at

all easy to achieve…” Chris Clarkson (4.)

It follows that haptic features are consequential for

considering the often unconventional and experimental

formats of artists’ books. After thirty years of distribution

of her flag book format, Hedi Kyle is still probably the only

Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2005

The Bonefolder: an e-journal for the bookbinder and book artist

Mapping taxonomy

can twirl. We should have special regard for books that move

and tumble on their own. A self moving book exploits the

leverage that the reader applies to the boards of the cover.

This transmitted board leverage is at work to open and close

the book. An excellent book artist will not waste this energy,

but transform it and, so, intervene in the actions of reading.

Knowing that the critical regard is out there is reassuring,

but let’s suggest some further steps. To profile the haptic

nature of artists’ books perhaps we should first focus on a

fundamental shared orientation of the body and book. This

first feature is a curious simultaneous bilateral symmetry and

asymmetry; a fantastic attribute that is deeply embedded in

both book and body.

The haptic legibility or manual readability of book is

evaluated by touch, force and dwell. Some book surfaces

adhere to the skin and feel warm producing an immediate

pre-reading. Some books expel air on closing, others will not

expel air between the leaves. Such responses can be subtle.

Meaning is conveyed by the sigh of a closing Bible as well

as by the yawn of a pop-up pictorial. Some artists’ books

provoke a quick manual inspection while others impose

a longer dwell. Pace of manual reading is linked to haptic

legibility with meaning in both quick and slow passes.

Our unique right or left handedness is the progenitor our

crucial neural asymmetry of the brain. (5.) The asymmetry

of the symmetrical codex is just as fundamental, but with

a special twist. As the leaves change places with each other

the right page becomes the left page as the clock of content

goes forward. Two hands, each acting alone, hold the book

and turn the page. This initially simple circumstance of

symmetry/asymmetry of the body and book is opened to

endless permutations of artists’ books.

Ultimately, there is a question if artists’ books can be read

primarily as works of pliant sculpture. I suggest that some

artists’ books can be read that way and most will benefit from

such a reading as an accessory to overall evaluation. Evaluating

overall legibility of artists’ books is a challenge. It can be

difficult to assess them as literature and it can be difficult to

assess them as art and many readers despair before trying.

If artists’ books are not particularly or critically regarded as

literature or art, they should at least make statements and

perform the somersaults that make them a book. A book is

the one art object known to everyone.

I want to position features of simultaneous bilateral

symmetry and asymmetry of the book at the start.

Asymmetries of the weights and pliancies of inner and

outermost components of the book are sometimes striking

and occasionally disconcerting. I would measure proportions

of bilateral symmetry and asymmetry in books to tag classical

types and eccentricities of artistic production. I would

observe the asymmetrical fingerings of small books and

the symmetrical arm’s length approach needed for a large

lectern book. I would particularly admire artists that engage

both body and book and I would highly regard books that

consciously interplay symmetries and asymmetries.

Clear terms and tabulation

Clear terms improve the description of artists’ books.

But this truism may not fully apply to crucial evaluation of

haptic features of book art. In fact the hands prompt the mind

using nonlinguistic data. Historians remark on the lack of

documentation of the hand skills. The needed realization is

that dexterity itself is a medium of information.

Next I would address and qualify mobilities. Many artists’

books have a rag doll mobility that does nothing to inform

the curiosity of the hands and most artists’ books lack the

engineering that provides direct response to the leverages

of handling. Especially likely to be crippled is the cover-to-

text attachment. Have you ever encountered a book quick

to open its covers, but reluctant to open its contents? This

haptic conflict says something. What about a docile, flat

opening almost defying the book’s presence, or the possessed

springiness of a vellum or polypropylene cover, or the stately,

deep drape of a truly thick, fluffy book? Handling alone is a

great way of reading books with such qualities.

Imagine perceptions that can exist without words attached.

This is equivalent to reading books which lack words or

pictures, which, of course, we can. At a further stretch it is

saying that books predate reading, which, of course they do.

But the real shift here is that all books are art in a world of

subtle and critical manual evaluation. If we could delineate it,

a manual evaluation or haptic criticism would lay out a physics

for book art criticism, using words.

The range of mobilities can be considered, from the

motions needed for a single sewing stitch to the trajectory

and impact of a thrown book. Is the book really portable?

How does it act in a high wind? Does the book move

extremely slowly as adhered materials cup, warp and torque?

The immobility of libraries is striking. Only the artist’s book

has the opportunity to overcome conventions of the stacks. It

To tabulate haptic quality and evaluate given works a

standard recording card is needed. This provisional card

has three sectors; anatomy, action and handle. Anatomy

describes the corporeal structure , action describes qualities

of performance and mobility of that structure and handle

describes evidence of haptic fabrication, use and function. The

Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2005

check-off boxes can be marked to document the observed

presence or the observed absence of any given quality.

References

(1.) Chapter two, “The Written and Spoken Word”,

Martin, Henri-Jean, The History and Power of Writing ,

discusses this relationship.

(2.) The conjecture here is that circulation and copying

of epistles among sectarians of late Antiquity is associated

with the development of the papyrus codex. The

impositions and securing ties of folded papyrus letters is

suggestive of the early, single quire codices. See Papyrus ,

Parkinson, Richard and Quire, Stephen.

(3.) I recall this characterization of the book from a 1972

lecture. It is in early AIC PrePrints.

(4.) “The Conservation of Early Books in Codex Form”,

Clarkson, Christopher, The Paper Conservator, Volume

3, 1978. This graceful manifesto of the early book as the

exemplar of past craft skills and sensitivity provides a

basis for haptic evaluation of any book.

(5.) This precept of connectivity between asymmetrical

use of the hands and subsequent neural distinction of

the hominid brain is presented in Wilson, Frank R.,

The Hand , Pantheon, 1998 and Calvin, William H., The

Throwing Madonna , McGraw-Hill, 1991. “Of all the known

lateralizations, sequential muscle control seems most central to

the others, such as language. And what could have resulted in

sequential muscle control residing primarily on one side of the

brain? Well, an important muscle sequence involving primarily

the opposite side of the body, rather than both sides equally or

alternatively. Say, hand writing or throwing or grooming or tool

use. Surely handwriting wasn’t the first.” William Calvin

(6.) Taxonomies exist that organize the structure of

books, but these will lap other metadata entries and

interrupt the receptive state of mind needed for haptic

evaluation.

(7.) The tools here could possibly be augmented

by models from choreographic notation or dance

description.

(8.) One strange evaluation of mobility involves toss

testing in which the book must be thrown. This method is

deeply embedded and goes all the way back through the

hominid series where it is associated with the behavior of

projectile predation since the book is a projectile thrown

across time and cultures. “In the 1970’s and 1980’s I often

demonstrated the essential strengths and character of limp vellum

bindings, and how vulnerable parts of the book were protected,

by throwing model structures high in the air and letting them

bounce on the floor.” Introduction to 2005 Reprint of Limp

Vellum Binding , Chris Clarkson. (9.) No artists’ book is as

rich in handle as the demonstration copy that the artist

uses in explanation. Think of a carpet salesman’s swatch

book or a limited edition binder’s dummy. This charm has

little to do with the bibliographic topic of the “materiality

Anatomy (6.)

Symmetry/Asymmetry: [ ] static, mostly symmetrical [ ]

balanced [ ] falling over, mostly asymmetrical

Structure: [ ] classical [ ] hybrid [ ] experimental

Folds: [ ] crease [ ] set [ ] jut [ ] yawn

Stitch tension or fan splay: [ ] consistent [ ] erratic

[ ] broken

Action (7.)

Mobility: [ ] stiff [ ] mechanical [ ] tumbling and wily

Transmission of leverage: [ ] inert [ ] crippled

[ ] gymnastic

Opening: [ ] docile [ ] cranky [ ] springy

Leafing: [ ] syncopated [ ] sporadic

Closing: [ ] conclusive [ ] tentative [ ] given to gape

Tossing: (8.) [ ] bounce [ ] no bounce

Handle (9.)

Evidence of hand craft: [ ] lean [ ] moderate [ ] rich

Evidence of use: [ ] pristine, un-touched [ ] read,

habituated to use [ ] possessed, consumed by

passionate use

Evidence of function: [ ] bewildered [ ] vernacular or

liturgical [ ] poised, practical

The use of such a card must be validated with many

recordings of actual books. It will also be necessary to

monitor manipulations associated with each measurement.

The books must be actively read as the hands prompt the

mind. An elegant expression of this process is provided by

Adrian Johns. (I have inserted the term (artists’ books))

“The reading of a book is no less skillful, and

no less local, than conducting an experiment. To

understand the transformation of science (artists’

books) into an apparently universal culture, then,

we need to create a history of the reading practices

surrounding scientific books (artists’ books) as

detailed and intricate as the appreciation we already

have of the experimental practices surrounding

scientific instruments.” Adrian Johns. (10.)

Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2005

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