SHOW
‘Book Show’ is an exhibition of artworks, objects and structures that address the physical form of the book. The starting point for the exhibition are the provocative theories of Ulises Carrión’s found in ‘The New Art of Making Books’ (1975). 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
‘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.