Books as [old] artefact

Saturday 27th August 2011
We're not going to be able to make it to the session this afternoon with Des Cowley on State Library Rare Prints  (at 3 pm) but we were able to catch up with Des earlier in the week and find out about this session and the Fine Impressions exhibition and the Curator's talk for that on Sunday 4  on Sunday. You know how Miriam is about books!  She goes on and on recently about eBooks and print books and what's going on and blah blah blah. I think somebody at the Jonathan Franzen endless introduction session on Thursday said it perfectly. Paraphrased, "I'm sick of talking about it and sick of hearing about it. The book will not die."

Des Cowley - mid-chat with me and Miriam's notebook

But I digress. Just one coffee into the day, and heading out to the festival in a little bit... and Miriam is doing a few loads of washing so I've managed to sneak onto he computer.

Des Cowleyis the Rare Printed Collections Manager at the State Library of Victoria.  He was happy to sit down and give us some info.

An artist's book, Des tells us,what happens when a print-based collaborates with a writer to create individual or very short run works of art in book form. It's a growing area and links in with the idea of where a physical book might go. Some artists even do print books as their main thing. The Fine Impressions exhibition shows work by 23 Melbourne artists spanning 11 years. It's a timeframe that crosses the millennium. Apparently significant. Note to self. I've got one of those timeframes that cross the millennium things going on too. Why isn't there a Noam session at the festival? 'Blogging Noams through the ages'  How about that for an idea! I like it!

Digressing again.

So, Des is a mine of information about artists books. He told us about William Morris, printmaker, writer, artisan and champion of the artists book 150+ years ago, with Kelmscott Press and his dream to make the ideal book. Miriam was pretty impressed and she's been Googling William Morris and Kelmscott ever since. Whatever keeps her off the streets, I say. And then a kind of rennaissance of the Artists Book that happened in the 1950s as artists began to get all excited and creative with the form. So it's an interesting area of discussion and there's and exhibition at the State Library until 16 February next year. Even after the MWF is finished you can take a look. Might see you there!

They had to put me in a special plastic bag to make
sure the book was protected. Humph.

Lucky for me, Des was generous enough to let me look at a couple of very old Artist Books. He explained that they need to be very carefuly looked after. He wasn't joking. Listen to this... when he showed me the book, he put it on a pillow. A pillow! Softer than my sock!  I'm going to start hanging out with the rare manuscripts!