pdf of article, with presentation images & quotes
Presented paper:  Institute for Paper Conservation [UK], July 2006 International conference.

On Artist's Books : Why artist’s books?

A presentation in conjunction with the
completion of the M.A. degree,
West Dean College, September 2004.

A convenient prism for the exploration of other phenomena related to both books and works of art on paper, including:

• twentieth century materials
• manufacturing methods of the post Industrial Revolution
• modern and historic scientific methods
• the effects of World Wars I and II on manufacturing, distribution, and creation
• relationship to art movements
• relationship to literary movements
• variation in material artefacts as important in collections in both private and public sphere
• tensions between creators, conservators, collectors, curators
• tensions between book conservators and works of art on paper conservators
• conservation of contemporary art as a developing discipline within the larger context

The first half of the twentieth century saw a vast amount of change in the political and social arenas: in England alone, Queen Victoria died, soldiers were sent out to two world wars, a depression fell, and the empire was drastically restructured. The field of bookbinding and book production suffered similarly, and both trade and commercial bindings have gained a reputation for a continued degradation of materials and skills which began with the Industrial Revolution. A typical example of the attitude towards recent productions can be summarized thus:

“I’m still surprised that things do change. I can’t believe it, quite. Some of those stories are 50 years old. My old paperbacks are all yellow and crumbly. Am I that yellow and crumbly, I ask myself?”

Reflected in the above quote we see the major thread which will run through any discussion about the longevity of twentieth century products: the fact that consumer products aging in one’s own lifetime is a constant source of surprise, as they force the person to directly confront their own changes and mortality. Without spending an undue amount of time considering the philosophy of mortality, it is worth acknowledging that observing any change in a product of one's own lifetime (or one’s community memory) causes a reaction often out of proportion to the actual amount of observed change, as the benchmarks for comparison are too recent, too new, and it is impossible to rationally distinguish between the product which is aging from the ‘brand new’ product currently available.

Instead of viewing the period from 1900 to 1950 as a stream of loss and decay, a survey of literature contemporary to the early twentieth century as well as that written in later years reveals that this time was a period of consolidation from the rapid changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution and Victorian economic boom. The turn of the century saw the wide-scale cooperation between manufacturing, academic, and craft disciplines actively researching and discussing their consumer inheritance from previous generations, with beneficial results from these discussions observable through the published reports, monographs, and journal articles; the establishment of schools with lasting reputations; and the standardization of government regulations and industry standards as pertained to both the trade / manufacturing and collections / museums aspects of book production.