Reaper
Pigmented archival inkjet on French Paper, hand-bound Turkish-fold book. Cloth spine on boards with inset title text.
Since 1979, Zimmermann has made many innovative artists’ books integrating photography and printmaking within provocative bindings. This book, with its Turkish map pop-up pages, uses texts to refer to the relentless cycles of war, rebuilding, and destruction. Akin to the book by Luke Stettner, language is a focal point to depict antagonism between belief systems. “Reaper is a meditation on the destructive cycle of violence and war, followed by rebuilding and reconstruction, then war again. … the primary texts of four specific belief systems. ...[It includes] the Rig-Veda, the oldest sacred Hindu text; the Torah (Genesis) from the Jewish faith (the Old Testament); the first lines of the Christian New Testament Bible; and finally, the first ten lines from the Qur’an from Islam.” Description from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers.
Philip Zimmermann
Spaceheater
2015, no. 22 of an edition of 25
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Physical Object
Tucson, AZ
A Cookbook of Invisible Writing
Based in Rotterdam, Amy Suo Wu is an artist, designer, and teacher who wrote, designed, and illustrated A Cookbook in collaboration with the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. Wu’s use of language results in an inventive and artistic array: “A Cookbook of Invisible Writing … is an introduction to analog steganography, a type of secret writing that is hidden in plain sight. It is an invisible ink coloring book, recipe book, puzzle book … with a wide variety of invisible ink recipes and other communication techniques that may be used to subvert surveillance, bypass censorship and make visible the struggles of minorities and other marginalized culture.” Publisher’s website.
Amy Suo Wu
Onomatopee
2019
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Physical Object
Eindhoven, NL
A Dictionary Story
Three single-sided folded accordions in silkscreened plastic slipcase.
Akin to the books created by Johanna Drucker, Sam Winston’s works focus on the alphabet and its legacy. His artistic practice includes works on language executed through typography in his books, drawings, poems, and performances. Originally written in 2001, the Dictionary Story Book is a re-imagined version of the dictionary as concrete poem. ”…Each of these separate accordions plays with the connections between each word and its ‘wordy’ definition, with the words questioning their order in the dictionary, and then spinning out of control with their individual letters spilling haphazardly across the page creating a crazed kind of visual poetry.” From Accordion Publications.
Sam Winston
Arc Artist Editions
2013, second trade edition of publication by Circle Press 2005
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Physical Object
London, UK
Rosetta Stone Studies: SHAPES, BEHAVIOR, INTUITIVE
Offset printed edition of 500, with framed prints of three studies for Rosetta Stone Studies: SHAPES, BEHAVIOR, INTUITIVE (2013).
Michael J. Winkler
SignalGlyph Press
2013
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Physical Object
New York, NY
The Book of Spells
Along with several artists in this exhibition, I have long followed the career of Winkler, a conceptual artist focused on language with an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform, and Mayan glyphs. In his work he explores abstract imagery, revealing hidden patterns in the signs of language. “This process-based work of visual and conceptual art explores ‘spelled-forms’ merged with images of writing on the Rosetta Stone. Spelled-forms are created using a process that translates the spelling of words into abstract images. … These process-generated abstract forms map the choices made by our cultural ancestors when they created the signs for words.” From Printed Matter.
Michael J. Winkler
SignalGlyph Press
2014. Offset printed edition of 500, with framed prints of three studies for Rosetta Stone Studies: SHAPES, BEHAVIOR, INTUITIVE (2013)
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Physical Object
New York, NY
History Database
Luke Stettner explores a range of experimental techniques in his photographic and sculptural works. Here he creates a visual language through this compilation of photographs, drawings, xeroxes, and pictograms drawn from books, archives, and the Internet. This photobook is a visual splintered treatise on the destruction and preservation of culture as captured in this image of a still frame taken by a video made by ISIS documenting destruction of a cultural heritage site in Iraq.
Luke Stettner
SPBH Editions
2016, no. 320 of an edition of 500
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Physical Object
London, UK
Language Möbius
Möbius strip constructed of Somerset paper, with letterpress text in Korean and English, presented in cloth covered box with acetate slip on band.
Korean book artist Jana Sim created this trade edition with one Möbius strip (a loop with a half-twist in it) to illustrate and symbolize the difficulty of learning another language. ”The most difficult part of learning another language is everyday conversation where an immediate response is needed. Language Möbius is about my conversation process. The loop in my brain goes like this: hearing English, thinking in Korean, translating, then speaking in English.” Description from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers.
Jana Sim
Self-published trade edition
2011, edition of 15
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Physical Object
Chicago, IL
Le Livre des Mille Nuits et Une Nuit, volet IV
Printed by Marc Moyano, Julien Torhy, and Michael Woolworth (lithographs and woodcuts). Photogravure by Vincent Fardoux. Embroidery by Carmen Vassal’lo. Based on the 1910 edition of The 1001 nights, translation by J. C. Mardrus (Fasquelle, Paris).
Based in Paris, Woolworth is a printer who works with other artists to create books and prints. This artists’ book incorporates lithography, photogravure, woodcuts, and embroidery and is an intervention of a volume of the Fasquelle edition of One Thousand Nights and a Night (also known as The Thousand and One Nights). On view is one volume in a series published by Woolworth that examines the Fasquelle multi-volume edition. The images come from Spanish artist Sicilia’s research in the visual rendering of sound.
José Maria Sicilia
Michael Woolworth
2015, no. 10 of an edition of 20. Signed by the artist
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Physical Object
Paris, FR
Codex Seraphinianus
Serafini, an Italian architect, artist, designer, created this visual encyclopedia drawn from his imagination written in an imaginary language known as asemic. Very much a product of the “Information Age,” the book addresses coding in genetics as well as in literature. The volume is filled with surreal hand-drawn illustrations of fantastic images ranging from flora to history to physics. In this image of the Rosetta Stone, the script leads to another unknown language without any decipherment.
Luigi Serafini
Rizzoli
2021. 40th anniversary revised edition, first published in 1981 by F. M. Ricci in Milan
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Physical Object
New York, NY
The Library
David Schulz is an artist, graphic designer, and teacher who has created many artists’ books. The Library “is a meditation on realization and loss through the practice of reading. … A fugue-structure assembles photographs of books from his father’s library alongside the author’s prose-poems which respond to his reading of those books. … The multiple voices and narrative perspectives encountered in the books from the library expose a series of formative events within and surrounding the father’s life …” From the artist’s website, December 2023.
David Schulz
Light Rail Works
2019, edition of 100, signed by the artist
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Physical Object
Walla Walla, WA