Mary Tasillo, “Context is King”
“Context is King,” a presentation by Mary Tasillo, will reevaluate the democratic multiple through the lens of those books that directly disseminate information acting as tools for artists/activists as well as documents of performances and interventions. Tasillo will question the rationale for books in a culture of political activism that increasingly relies upon internet networking and the digital realm for communicating widely to an audience. Tasillo will look at modes and methods of production, economic and physical properties, all of which provide the context for understanding the current role of democratic multiples as material books in society.
Mary Tasillo is a book, print, text, and paper artist based in Philadelphia, PA. She is also a teacher, writer, and independent scholar. She balances limited edition work with the democratic multiple to ensure the broadest possible audience. Mary holds an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA and is currently completing an MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia.
At the Fair “Democratic Organization”
To supplement Tasillo’s presentation there will be a display of books made for wide and inexpensive dissemination. No jurors, no curators, just books sent directly by those who made them. In the spirit of democracy, attendees of the fair will be asked to perform their civic duty and vote for one of the books to receive 1 of 3 Best Book of the Fair Awards and along with it, an artists’ page spread in The Blue Notebook, a journal devoted to artists’ books published out of the UK by the University of West England, Bristol.
Steve Woodall, “Book Artists at a Research Center: Experiments in the Future of Reading at Xerox PARC”
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is a legendary research center, known for its innovations in the 1970’s leading to the birth of the personal computer. In the 1990’s a group called Research in Experimental Documents (RED) was formed at PARC including a unique artist-in-residence program, matching artists with research scientists. In 1999-2000, the San Francisco Center for the Book consulted with RED to build a studio where book artists-in-residence could work using electronic technology supplied by PARC. Steve Woodall managed the project for the Center for the Book and participated as an artist along with Michael Bartalos, Jocelyn Bergen, Kathleen Burch, Ann Chamberlain, Julie Chen, Charles Hobson and Brian Janusiak. The project was incorporated into an exhibition RED designed called “XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading” at San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation. Woodall will present, “Book Artists at a Research Center: Experiments in the Future of Reading at Xerox PARC,” in order to further questions on the nature of literacy promoted by artists’ books.
Steve Woodall, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Center for the Book, has been with the Center since its founding in 1996, and is responsible for the Center's educational programs and exhibitions. In the course of its short history SFCB has become one the most active book arts organizations in the United States, with over 350 workshops and public programs annually.
At the Fair Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden, “The Future of Publishing”
Several conference presentations focus on effects of digital technology on the field of artists’ books. Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden, Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of West England, have a research project focused on advances in digital technology concerning the history and future of artists' books funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (www.ahrc.ac.uk). They will have a table at the fair discussing examples of new and theoretical formats for artists' publishing. Their aim is to survey those artists, educators, researchers, students, publishers, librarians, curators, dealers, collectors and readers of artists' books at the fair. Their findings will be eventually published as a manifesto on the state of artists' publications and support a directory for artists and academics to engage in future discussions and collaborations.
Sarah Bodman is Research Fellow for Artists' Books at the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. Bodman is the editor of the Artist's Book Yearbook, bi-annual publication on contemporary book arts, and The Blue Notebook, journal for artists’ books. She is the author Creating Artists’ Books (A&C Black/Watson-Guptill). Her artists' books are included in numerous international collections.
Tom Sowden is the AHRC Research Fellow in Artists’ Books at the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Sowden is the Art Editor for the Artist’s Book Yearbook and The Blue Notebook and co-curator of the touring exhibition of artists’ books, “Sitting Room.” Sowden’s current curatorial project, “Follow-Ed,” is a study of Ed Rushca imitation in contemporary artists’ books. Sowden’s artists’ books are in a range of public collections and private collections around the world.
Jana Harper, “From the Dérive to the Digital”
Jana Harper’s presentation, “From the Dérive to the Digital,” will address issues of speed as it relates to the act of walking and moving through the city. She will use the collection of artists’ books at Washington University, particularly the Urban Books Collection as the basis of her discussion. Included will be walking books, books discussing mapping and navigation of place and books by artists addressing subversive activities, particularly those who seem to have been influenced by the Situationists, Social Practice and Relation Aesthetics. Harper will be looking at the relationship between these walking, course-plotting and dissident works and the act of navigation on the web. Her talk will explore changes in print and internet technology, questions of “aura” in digital terms, and how these changes relate to and affect the role of artists’ books.
Jana Harper is a multi-disciplinary artist who teaches in the Kranzberg Illustrated Book Studio at Washington University in St. Louis.
Chris Burnett, “Speed Reading: Road Literature and Artists’ Books”
Since the mid-1980's Chris Burnett has used hypermedia, virtual reality environments, net art, and generative literature in conjunction with artists' book to question how we actively use language and text in the landscape and space. Recently his work has focused on sprawl, as much an existential condition of language as a messy form of land-use. He is also interested in myths and images of the road as they impact our sense of text in the world as a dynamic phenomenon of encounter, travel, and motion. “Speed Reading: Road Literature and Artists’ Books,” will extend Burnett’s interests in a presentation on the numerous intersections between road literature and artists' books. According to Burnett, road literature paves the way for artists' book that open up visual literature for our times as dynamic textual phenomena of wandering and speed.
Chris Burnett has worked intermittently with artists' book for over two decades in conjunction with image-text projects involving photography, digital imaging, hypertext and visual reality software. Before coming to the Center for the Visual Arts, University of Toledo, he taught new media at the Kansas City Art Institute and was Executive Director of the Visual Studies Workshop from 2001 to 2007. He is currently co-editing a book titled Image Process Literature on new directions in visual literature.
