Book Works: London, England
Catalogs in the mail box are like pretty girls in New
York City, they come a dime a dozen flaunting their glossy wares. So when
one catalog stands out from the rest, intrigued is a good word to describe
how I feel. I like to think of myself as an educated consumer and the
Book Works catalog is geared for the educated consumer, the reader. Beautifully
printed and designed, the catalog is the perfect representation of the
product; thought provoking and carefully rendered text based artists’
books. Founded in 1984 by a group of freelance printers, printmakers,
and book binders as a gallery, Book Works has now moved its focus to commissioning
and producing the work of artists interested in using the medium of the
artists’ book.
Being a sucker for books, I immediately ordered two.
The first was world-view by Emma Kay. Detailing from memory the history
of the world from the Big Bang to the year 2000 in 214 pages—complete
with an index, Kay has created her own revisionists’ history, and
in doing so, probably pretty accurately has put her pen on the state of
the human consciousness in these jumbled times. The second, called First
I Was Afraid, I Was Petrified, is the account of the author, Harland Miller,
discovering in the storage room of his sister’s house a shoe box
full of Polaroids, all taken of the knobs on the same stove. When Miller
confronts his sister about the photos, she explains that for over a year
she became terrified when out that she had left the gas burners on. The
situation became so inflamed that she needed to continually check that
they were off before leaving the house and even resorted to returning
in the middle of the day. To remedy this, she started taking a photo of
the stove each time she left, so she could then, later look at it, whenever
she found herself questioning whether the burners were indeed off. This
narrative, accompanied by the reproductions of the Polaroids, offers the
reader a first hand look at Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the nagging,
constant doubt that accompanies it.
Each title is printed in a limited edition, usually of
about 1500, so that feeling of the art object or multiple is not lost.
The Book Works’ projects pin point and bring to the printed form
original notions about Contemporary life, the day to day rituals and the
debris that comes with them in unusual, subversive, and wonderful ways.
Laurel Broughton
Brooklyn, New York
2001