Pique your Interest!
Shades by Robert Rauschenberg
"Rauschenberg had long worked with printed matter when he made Shades, his first "book. But he redefined the basic book - an object filled with a sequence of elements - by taking new materials and using old ones differently." - Riva Castleman
Introduction
Artists' Books
In this guide you will find library material which covers the subject of Artists' Books. This is a genre of making which analyses the book as an artefact and interrogates how it can communicate formal qualities as well as ideas between the pages!
The library has a wide selection of books that document the making and history of artist books, while the NIVAL collection of Artists Books is comprised of more than 1000 titles by artists born in Ireland and by non-Irish artists living and/or working in Ireland. The works are made by individual artists, groups of collaborating artists, or artist and writer partnerships.
As Riva Castleman writes of the artists' book:
“The difference between ‘illustrated books’ and ‘artists’ books’ is what makes them modern: the artist augments the text with images that do not necessarily define passages in the text. In this way, the reader-viewer may form personal responses to the images as well as to the text, thus broadening the experience of the book.… The intention of the illustrator is to clarify the text, while the intention of the artist is to create Images that extend and/or enhance the text.” from 'A Century of Artists' Books'
You can find her book 'A Century of Artists' Books' in our library collection along with many other titles that help define and explore the elusive object that is the Artists' Book.
Dieter Roth (1970) Daily Mirror. More information on this object available here