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| Artists create book that turns black as it is read | |
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| It's not how one would usually want to read: artist Camille Leproust and collaborator Andres Ayerbe have created a book printed on thermal paper, which heats and slowly blackens as it is read, giving the reader around four hours to finish before the text fades completely into black. | |
| Leproust's project will be part of an exhibition opening later this month at the London Art Book Fair. Nine artists have been commissioned to investigate "the future possibilities of the book as a printed object" and to "push the boundaries of how books can be experienced". Her art work, in which the poem Anastylosis by Alissa Valles will disappear into blackness, will sit alongside a version of TS Eliot's poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock which the poet is unlikely to have ever foreseen. | Leproust's project will be part of an exhibition opening later this month at the London Art Book Fair. Nine artists have been commissioned to investigate "the future possibilities of the book as a printed object" and to "push the boundaries of how books can be experienced". Her art work, in which the poem Anastylosis by Alissa Valles will disappear into blackness, will sit alongside a version of TS Eliot's poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock which the poet is unlikely to have ever foreseen. |
| Artist Vince Koloski has turned the cover of the book into a small chest of drawers, with the drawers themselves containing the clothes Koloski imagines Prufrock might have worn ("I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled ... I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach"). The clothes are covered with clear acrylic sheets, each of which is etched with the glowing text of the poem. | Artist Vince Koloski has turned the cover of the book into a small chest of drawers, with the drawers themselves containing the clothes Koloski imagines Prufrock might have worn ("I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled ... I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach"). The clothes are covered with clear acrylic sheets, each of which is etched with the glowing text of the poem. |
| "The text appears to float above the accoutrements of Prufrock's life," said organisers. Koloski himself, who is also a rare book dealer, has said that "the cabinet with clothing and other accessories all a bit worn, bit tarnished, a bit dusty, suggest or illustrate an emotional tone". | "The text appears to float above the accoutrements of Prufrock's life," said organisers. Koloski himself, who is also a rare book dealer, has said that "the cabinet with clothing and other accessories all a bit worn, bit tarnished, a bit dusty, suggest or illustrate an emotional tone". |
| "I've always read the poem as the expression of a man who didn't quite make it, was in the background, was a best friend but not the leading man," he has written about his project . "He has settled before a life as a secondary character and while he seems to accept it, there is a great deal of sublimated regret. In the piece that I've created, perhaps the background illustrates a bit of that." | "I've always read the poem as the expression of a man who didn't quite make it, was in the background, was a best friend but not the leading man," he has written about his project . "He has settled before a life as a secondary character and while he seems to accept it, there is a great deal of sublimated regret. In the piece that I've created, perhaps the background illustrates a bit of that." |
| Leproust said that her own artwork stems from discussions "about the value of the book as an object in itself regardless of its contents, how the very activity of reading transforms it: how the marks and traces of our engagement with the book render the mass-produced object something unique and personal". | Leproust said that her own artwork stems from discussions "about the value of the book as an object in itself regardless of its contents, how the very activity of reading transforms it: how the marks and traces of our engagement with the book render the mass-produced object something unique and personal". |
| "From this conceptual groundwork we came up with the idea of a book that destroys itself while being read – an effect achieved with a combination of thermal paper and heat," she said. "While there were a variety of inks and chemicals that we could have used to make the text disappear, we really liked the aesthetics and some of the conceptual implications of having the book slowly burn out." | "From this conceptual groundwork we came up with the idea of a book that destroys itself while being read – an effect achieved with a combination of thermal paper and heat," she said. "While there were a variety of inks and chemicals that we could have used to make the text disappear, we really liked the aesthetics and some of the conceptual implications of having the book slowly burn out." |
| Other projects to be shown at the Whitechapel Gallery later this month before travelling to San Francisco and New York include Callum Copley's version of collaborative reading, one strand of which sees a book with a 180-degree rotated page on each spread, allowing the text – a short story by Edgar Allan Poe – to be read from two opposite sides of a table. The readers must share the information they gather to fully understand the story. | Other projects to be shown at the Whitechapel Gallery later this month before travelling to San Francisco and New York include Callum Copley's version of collaborative reading, one strand of which sees a book with a 180-degree rotated page on each spread, allowing the text – a short story by Edgar Allan Poe – to be read from two opposite sides of a table. The readers must share the information they gather to fully understand the story. |
| A book which is also a working radio is supplied by Margaret Hall, in which the pages of the book are held shut by copper nails, connected to form a transmitter circuit through which words flow "in an eternal loop", said organisers, adding: "the text awaits the listener who is tuned to the right frequency". | A book which is also a working radio is supplied by Margaret Hall, in which the pages of the book are held shut by copper nails, connected to form a transmitter circuit through which words flow "in an eternal loop", said organisers, adding: "the text awaits the listener who is tuned to the right frequency". |
| The exhibition, Unbinding the Book, is sponsored by independent publishing platform Blurb, and arts studio Jotta. Blurb's chief marketing officer Brenda Van Camp said the company was moved to set up the exhibition because "despite the fact that self-publishing has … allowed authors to take control of their books, we weren't quite seeing them really challenge the concept of what a book could be – they were still mostly imitating the books they have seen published by the institutional publishers". | The exhibition, Unbinding the Book, is sponsored by independent publishing platform Blurb, and arts studio Jotta. Blurb's chief marketing officer Brenda Van Camp said the company was moved to set up the exhibition because "despite the fact that self-publishing has … allowed authors to take control of their books, we weren't quite seeing them really challenge the concept of what a book could be – they were still mostly imitating the books they have seen published by the institutional publishers". |
| "So we wanted to do something that would create a public conversation about what a book could be. We wanted people to question some of the conventions and preconceptions that have become 'the norm' for books: Does it have to be written by one person? Why should an ebook be a replica of the printed version instead of an extension? How could we expand the actual reading experience? How can we introduce more visual ways of storytelling in books for adults?" she said. | "So we wanted to do something that would create a public conversation about what a book could be. We wanted people to question some of the conventions and preconceptions that have become 'the norm' for books: Does it have to be written by one person? Why should an ebook be a replica of the printed version instead of an extension? How could we expand the actual reading experience? How can we introduce more visual ways of storytelling in books for adults?" she said. |
| "To do that, we decided that we should ask some truly creative people to really take the concept of what a book could be to the edge. It wasn't about creating commercially viable projects. It really was about creating ideas that would challenge our preconceived ideas of what a book can be." | "To do that, we decided that we should ask some truly creative people to really take the concept of what a book could be to the edge. It wasn't about creating commercially viable projects. It really was about creating ideas that would challenge our preconceived ideas of what a book can be." |
| A mix of practising artists and recent graduates, the other contributors to the exhibition are Aymee Smith, Carlin Brown, Helen Schell, Kate Morrell and Laura Jouan. The show will run between 26 and 28 September at the Whitechapel Gallery, as part of the London Art Book Fair. | A mix of practising artists and recent graduates, the other contributors to the exhibition are Aymee Smith, Carlin Brown, Helen Schell, Kate Morrell and Laura Jouan. The show will run between 26 and 28 September at the Whitechapel Gallery, as part of the London Art Book Fair. |