BOOK SHOW
Eastside Projects
Exhibition continues 3 July to 4 September 2010
Nina Beier + Marie Lund, Ulises Carrión, Daniel Eatock, Martino Gamper, Nina Katchadourian, Moritz Kung + Richard Venlet, Kelly Large, John Latham, Fraser Muggeridge Studio, Rollo Press, Katerina Šedá + Radim Peško, Yann Sérandour, Simon Starling, Werkplaats Typografie, Keith Wilson
Curated by James Langdon and Gavin Wade
‘Book Show’ is an exhibition of artworks, objects and structures that address the physical form of the book. The starting point for the exhibition is Ulises Carrión’s provocative series of aphorisms ‘The New Art of Making Books’ (1975). Carrión was the founder of Other Books and So in Amsterdam, a gallery and bookstore that during its short life (1975 to 1979) became the first major centre for the flourishing international artist-led publishing scene.
Carrión’s text establishes the specific conditions of the book as a display device:
A book is a sequence of spaces.
Each of these spaces is perceived at a different moment—a book is also a
sequence of moments.
A book is not a case of words, nor a bag of words, nor a bearer of words.
A writer, contrary to the popular opinion, does not write books.
A writer writes texts.
Carrión’s perspective on the form of the book de-emphasises any inherent union between the material form of the book and its printed contents, and implies that each body of material to be made into a book must somehow be addressed to the display conditions that the book offers.
BOOK
Åbäke, Vito Acconci, Tauba Auerbach, Bedford Press, Ulises Carrión, Melissa Dubbin + Aaron S. Davidson, Daniel Eatock, Will Holder, Jeremy Jansen, Kelly Large, Fraser Muggeridge Studio, OK/RM, Simon Starling, Werkplaats Typografie
‘Book’, functions as a mobile extension to the exhibition. Including a facsimile reprint of Ulises Carrión’s ‘The New Art of Making Books’ as it originally appeared in the journal Kontexts; an illustrated text by James Langdon and additional works, both existing and newly commissioned.
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Keith Wilson, Library 1998, Kelly Large, A photograph of four people who helped the artist request all the low usage, YK category books whose abstracts contain the word artist in the British Library collection. Their combined weight, plus a shopping trolley filled with 33 kg, equalled the total weight of all the books requested. This weight was temporarily applied to the British Library piazza; which forms the roof of the high usage collection storage spaces underground. The image size equals the surface area of all these YK category books when placed front cover up in a rectangle. 2009
John Latham, Distress of a Dictionary 1988
Nina Beier and Marie Lund, The House and the Backdoor 2007
Fraser Muggeridge Studio, Designed by Fraser Muggeridge Studio (detail) 2010
Martino Gamper, Untitled 2010, Katerina Šedá and Radim Peško, Der Geist von Uhyst 2010, Ulises Carrión, Self-portrait 1979
Martino Gamper, Untitled 2010, Katerina Šedá and Radim Peško, Der Geist von Uhyst 2010
Katerina Šedá and Radim Peško, Der Geist von Uhyst 2010
Katerina Šedá and Radim Peško, Der Geist von Uhyst 2010
Rollo Press, Xerox Book Bootleg 2010
Werkplaats Typografie, Library Amnesty (Wanted: All missing, lost, found, overdue, borrowed, stolen, hijacked publications from the Werkplaats Typografie library. Items should be sent to Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, B9 4AR, UK between 3 July and 4 September 2010. Read or Alive.) 2010
Yann Sérandour, Incomplete Open Cubes 2010
Yann Sérandour, Inside the White Cube (expanded edition) 2008
Daniel Eatock, Display Book Shelf 2010
Ulises Carrión, Self-portrait 1979