Editing Artist's book (section)

==After World War II; post-modernism and pop art==

===Regrouping the avant-garde===
After [[World War II]], many artists in Europe attempted to rebuild links beyond nationalist boundaries, and used the artist's book as a way of experimenting with form, disseminating ideas and forging links with like-minded groups in other countries.

{{Blockquote|In the fifties artists in Europe developed an interest in the book, under the influence of modernist theory and in the attempt to rebuild positions destroyed by the war.|source=Dieter Schwarz<ref>Lawrence Weiner : books, 1968–1989 : catalogue raisonné, Dieter Schwarz. p120</ref>}}

After the war, a number of leading artists and poets started to explore the functions and forms of the book 'in a serious way'.<ref>The Century of Artists' Books, Drucker, Granary Books, p12</ref> [[Concrete poetry|Concrete poets]] in Brazil such as Augusto and [[Haroldo de Campos]], [[Cobra]] artists in the Netherlands and Denmark and the [[Lettrism|French Lettrists]] all began to systematically deconstruct the book. A fine example of the latter is [[Isidore Isou]]'s ''Le Grand Désordre'', (1960), a work that challenges the viewer to reassemble the contents of an envelope back into a semblance of narrative. Two other examples of poet-artists whose work provided models for artists' books include [[Marcel Broodthaers]] and [[Ian Hamilton Finlay]].<ref>The question of the relation between avant-garde poetry and artists' books is dealt with very well in the chapter entitled "Poètes ou artistes?" in Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, ''Esthétique du livre d’artiste, 1960–1980'' (Paris: Jean Michel Place; Biliothèque nationale de France, 1997), 60–95.</ref>

Yves Klein in France was similarly challenging Modernist integrity with a series of works such as [[Yves: Peintures]] (1954) and [[Dimanche]] (1960) which turned on issues of identity and duplicity.<ref>Yves Klein, Sidra Stich, Hayward Gallery, 1994</ref> Other examples from this era include [[Guy Debord]] and [[Asger Jorn]]'s two collaborations, ''Fin de Copenhague'' (1957) and ''Mémoires''' (1959), two works of [[Psychogeography]] created from found magazines of Copenhagen and Paris respectively, collaged and then printed over in unrelated colours.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Collaboration between Guy Debord & Asger Jorn from 1957–1959 |first=Christian |last=Nolle  |url=http://virose.pt/vector/b_13/nolle.html |publisher=Virose.pt|access-date=2015-07-15}}</ref>

===Dieter Roth and Ed Ruscha===
Often credited with defining the modern artist's book, [[Dieter Roth]] (1930–98) produced a series of works which systematically deconstructed the form of the book throughout the fifties and sixties.<ref>''The Century of Artists' Books'', Drucker, Granary Books, p73</ref> These disrupted the codex's authority by creating books with holes in (e.g. ''Picture Book'', 1957), allowing the viewer to see more than one page at the same time. Roth was also the first artist to re-use found books: comic books, printer's end papers and newspapers (such as ''Daily Mirror'', 1961 and ''AC'', 1964).<ref>Dieter Roth, Books + Multiples, Dobke, Hansjorg Mayer 2004</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5042&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1&artistFilterInitial=V |title=Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY |publisher=Moma.org|access-date=2015-07-15}}</ref>  Although originally produced in Iceland in extremely small editions, Roth's books would be produced in increasingly large runs, through numerous publishers in Europe and North America, and would ultimately be reprinted together by the German publisher Hansjörg Mayer in the 1970s, making them more widely available in the last half-century than the work of any other comparable artist.

Almost contemporaneously in the United States, [[Ed Ruscha]] (1937–present) printed his first book, ''[[Twentysix Gasoline Stations]]'', in 1963 in an edition of 400, but had printed almost 4000 copies by the end of the decade.<ref>{{cite book |title=Artists Books and Beyond |first=Ekdahl |last= Ekdahl |url=http://www.ifla.org/VII/d2/inspel/99-4ekja.pdf |publisher=Ifla.org|access-date=2015-07-15 }}</ref> The book is directly related to American photographic travelogues, such as [[Robert Frank]]'s ''The Americans''' (1965), but deals with a banal journey on route 66 between Ruscha's home in Los Angeles and his parents' in Oklahoma.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Ruscha: Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1962 – photographer |publisher=Artforum |first=Dave |last=Hickey  |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_n5_v35/ai_19225277 |date = January 1997|access-date=24 November 2010}}</ref> Like Roth, Ruscha created a series of homogenous books throughout the sixties, including ''Every Building on the Sunset Strip'', 1966, and ''Royal Road Test'', 1967.
[[File:Edward Ruscha display 2018.jpg|thumb|Ed Ruscha's exhibition Double Americanisms at the main hall of the SECESSION showcases altogether fifty-seven mainly recent works—conceptual digital prints and an extended series of painted language pictures as well as handmade book objects and artist’s books in display cases.]]
A Swiss artist worth mentioning is [[Warja Honegger-Lavater]], who created artists' books contemporaneously with Dieter Roth and Ed Ruscha.

===Fluxus and the Multiple===
Growing out of [[John Cage]]'s ''Experimental Composition'' classes from 1957 to 1959 at the [[New School for Social Research]], [[Fluxus]] was a loose collective of artists from North America and Europe that centered on [[George Maciunas]] (1931–78), who was born in Lithuania. Maciunas set up the AG Gallery in New York, 1961, with the intention of putting on events and selling books and multiples by artists he liked. The gallery closed within a year, apparently having failed to sell a single item.<ref>Mr Fluxus, Williams, Noel, Thames and Hudson, 1997</ref> The collective survived, and featured an ever-changing roster of like-minded artists including [[George Brecht]], [[Joseph Beuys]], [[Davi Det Hompson]], [[Daniel Spoerri]], [[Yoko Ono]], [[Emmett Williams]] and [[Nam June Paik]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Fluxus Archive |url=http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/archives-alpha.html |publisher=Artnotart.com |access-date=2015-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902020035/http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/archives-alpha.html |archive-date=2013-09-02 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Humphrey, Jr.|first1=Thomas MacGillivray|title=The Fluxus File|journal=BroadStrokes|volume=II|issue=6|url=http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/fluxus_broadstrokes.pdf|access-date=21 August 2014}}</ref>

Artists' books (such as ''[[An Anthology of Chance Operations]]'') and multiples<ref>The term Multiple had first been used by [[Daniel Spoerri]] to describe his ''Edition MAT'' mass-produced sculptures in 1959</ref> (as well as [[happenings]]), were central to Fluxus' ethos disdaining galleries and institutions, replacing them with "art in the community", and the definition of what was and wasn't a book became increasingly elastic throughout the decade as the two forms collided. Many of the Fluxus editions share characteristics with both; George Brecht's ''[[Water Yam (artist's multiple)|Water Yam]]'' (1963), for instance, involves a series of ''scores'' collected in a box, whilst similar scores are collected together in a bound book in [[Yoko Ono]]'s ''[[Grapefruit (book)|Grapefruit]]'' (1964). Another famous example is ''[[Literaturwurst|Literature Sausage]]'' by Dieter Roth, one of many artists to be affiliated to Fluxus at one or other point in its history; each one was made from a pulped book mixed with onions and spices and stuffed into sausage skin. Literally a book, but utterly unreadable. Litsa Spathi and Ruud Jansen of the Fluxus Heidelberg Center in the Netherlands have an online archive of fluxus publications and fluxus webslinks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/publications.html |title=Fluxus Heidelberg Center – Overview Publications |publisher=Fluxusheidelberg.org |access-date=2015-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803232754/http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/publications.html |archive-date=2012-08-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Artists' books began to proliferate in the sixties and seventies in the prevailing climate of social and political activism. Inexpensive, disposable editions were one manifestation of the dematerialization of the art object and the new emphasis on process.... It was at this time too that a number of artist-controlled alternatives began to develop to provide a forum and venue for many artists denied access to the traditional gallery and museum structure. Independent art publishing was one of these alternatives, and artists' books became part of the ferment of experimental forms.|source=Joan Lyons.<ref>quoted in ''The Century of Artists' Books'', Drucker, Granary Books, p72</ref>}}Additionally, critical to the Fluxus and The Multiple movements was [[Johanna Drucker|Drucker]]'s term "democratic multiple" (46).<ref name=":3" /> Democratic multiple refers to the creation of artists books in high edition numbers to make them more publicly available for the everyday consumer. This coincided with the rise of the Fluxus and The Multiple movements and enabled broader participation in the creation and dissemination of artist's books.

===Conceptual art===
The artist's book proved central to the development of [[conceptual art]]. [[Lawrence Weiner]], [[Bruce Nauman]] and [[Sol LeWitt]] in North America, [[Art & Language]] in the United Kingdom, Maurizio Nannucci in Italy, [[Jochen Gerz]] and [[Jean Le Gac]] in France and [[Jaroslaw Kozlowski]] in Poland all used the artist's book as a central part of their art practice. An early example, the exhibition ''January 5–31, 1969'' organised in rented office space in [[New York City]] by [[Seth Siegelaub]], featured nothing except a stack of artists' books, also called ''January 5–31, 1969'' and featuring predominantly text-based work by [[Lawrence Weiner]], [[Douglas Huebler]], [[Joseph Kosuth]], and [[Robert Barry (artist)|Robert Barry]]. [[Sol LeWitt]]'s ''Brick Wall'', (1977), for instance, simply chronicled shadows as they passed across a brick wall, Maurizio Nannucci "M/40" with 92 typesetting pages (1967) and "Definizioni/Definitions" (1970), whilst Kozlowski's ''Reality'' (1972) took a section of Kant's [[Critique of Pure Reason]], removing all of the text, leaving only the punctuation behind. Another example is the ''Einbetoniertes Buch'',<ref>{{cite web|author=Hubert Kretschmer |url=http://www.artistbooks.de/suchen/suchen-verlag.php?wert=Edition%20Howeg |title=Archive Artist Publications – KatalogSuche-Ergebnisse |publisher=Artistbooks.de |access-date=2015-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716100646/http://www.artistbooks.de/suchen/suchen-verlag.php?wert=Edition%2BHoweg |archive-date=2015-07-16 }}</ref> 1971 (book in concrete) by [[Wolf Vostell]].

[[Louise Odes Neaderland]], the founder and Director of the non-profit group [[International Society of Copier Artists]] (I.S.C.A.) helped to establish electrostatic art as a legitimate art form, and to offer a means of distribution and exhibition to Xerox book Artists. Volume 1, #1 of The I.S.C.A. Quarterly was issued in April 1982 in a folio of 50 eight by eleven inch unbound prints in black and white or color [[Xerography]]. Each contributing artist's work of [[Xerox art]] was numbered in the Table of Contents and the corresponding number was stamped on the back of each artist's work. "The format changed over the years and eventually included an Annual Bookworks Edition, which contained a box of small handmade books from the [[International Society of Copier Artists|I.S.C.A.]] contributors."{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} After the advent of home computers and printers made it easier for artists to do what the copy machine formerly did,  Volume 21, #4 in June 2003 was the final issue. "The 21 years of The I.S.C.A. Quarterlies represented a visual record of artists’ responses to timely social and political issues," as well as to personal experiences.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Ashley Miller|author2=Seth Thompson|title=The International Society of Copier Artists (I.S.C.A) Quarterly|url=http://fauarchon.fcla.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=52&q=Mitzi+Humphrey&rootcontentid=14467|access-date=20 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822010821/http://fauarchon.fcla.edu/index.php?p=collections%2Ffindingaid&id=52&q=Mitzi+Humphrey&rootcontentid=14467|archive-date=22 August 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The complete I.S.C.A quarterly collection is housed and catalogued at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at the [[Florida Atlantic University]] library.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/isca/index.php |title=Jaffe Center for Book Arts |publisher=Library.fau.edu |access-date=2015-07-15 |archive-date=2017-08-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802164246/http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/isca/index.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Proliferation and reintegration into the mainstream===
As the form has expanded, many of the original distinctive elements of artists' books have been lost, blurred or transgressed. Artists such as [[Cy Twombly]], [[Anselm Kiefer]] and [[PINK de Thierry]], with her series Encyclopaedia Arcadia,<ref>Perrée, Rob ''Cover to Cover – The Artist's Book in Perspective -'' N.A.I. Publishers, Rotterdam 2002</ref> routinely make unique, hand crafted books in a deliberate reaction to the small mass-produced editions of previous generations; [[Albert Oehlen]], for instance, whilst still keeping artists' books central to his practice, has created a series of works that have more in common with Victorian sketchbooks. A return to the cheap mass-produced aesthetic has been evidenced since the early 90s, with artists such as Mark Pawson and Karen Reimer making cheap mass production central to their practice.

Contemporary and post-conceptual artists also have made artist's books an important aspect of their practice, notably [[William Wegman (photographer)|William Wegman]], [[Bob Cobbing]], [[Martin Kippenberger]], [[Raymond Pettibon]], [[Freddy Flores Knistoff]] and [[Suze Rotolo]]. Book artists in [[pop-up books]] and other three-dimensional one-of-a-kind books include Bruce Schnabel, [[Carol Barton]], [[Hedi Kyle]], [[Julie Chen (book artist)|Julie Chen]], [[Edward H. Hutchins|Ed Hutchins]] and [[Susan Joy Share]].

Many book artists working in traditional, as well as non-traditional, forms have taught and shared their art in workshops at centers such as the [[Center for Book Arts]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://centerforbookarts.org/about/ |title=About |publisher=Center for Book Arts |access-date=2015-07-15}}</ref> in New York City, and the Visual Arts Studio ([[VisArts]]), the [[Virginia Museum of Fine Arts]] Studio School, the [[Virginia Museum of Fine Arts]] Statewide Outreach Program, and the no longer extant Richmond Printmaking Workshop, all in [[Richmond, Virginia]]. Other institutions devoted to the art form include [[San Francisco Center for the Book]], [[Visual Studies Workshop]] in [[Rochester, New York]], and [[Women's Studio Workshop]] in [[Rosendale, New York]].