Yes, I've made a book. Not actually made as in handmade crafted bound nicely with pretty string etc but made by professionals who bound it and printed it (and I can't help wondering what they thought as they checked it over) but conceived and designed by me. You knew?
It's a total concept, as in full bleed...er...whatever. Talking about the thing isn't so bleeding easy. It's in the tradition of artist's books not made by 'known' artists, by which I mean really 'known' (to whom?) and those known to a few gallery owners, perhaps. No. Artist's books made by virtually unknown artists, of whom there are thousands; known to a few people online. Some of them make books.
It's in the DIY tradition, save for the actual DIY making part, but still, that's how I see it. I see myself in the mirror and wonder how the hell I got to look like that! Then I peek inside my head at the chronological memory of creations (fanzines, a book on Jazz, prints, drawings, music mixes) and zip back in time to 1977 when I made a few little zines...hmmm...something of that spirit still resides in this ageing body. I hesitate to use the term 'Spirit of Punk'...it conjures up Xerox, staples and more importantly for me intense frustration at the prospect of being a dead end kid...forever! What else could I do but suffer in the factory and drink myself stupid watching The Clash, Ramones etc?
No, this book wasn't made with the express purpose of selling but yes there are a few spare to purchase, as always. The button is at the bottom. Prices include shipping.
All pages were made on the Remington Portable over the last three months. Typed on A5, hence the size of the book. Should you wonder about how some pieces are placed on the page, I left them pretty much as they were created rather than cropped and centered. I wanted the look of the pages as made.
Yes, the reproduction of originals is not always 'true' yet something in the secondary vision makes the book 'other'. Walter Benjamin probably said something clever about art in the age of mechanical production but I'm not looking it up. Magritte said something about a pipe, didn't he? Should I say 'this is not a concrete poem'? No, that wouldn't make sense. Since these works were originally on paper and paper is the medium here they're almost 'real'. Mostly we see all works as reproductions and these days, the quality is extremely good. The quality of my book is the quality of the book. I have sold one original piece, but that's another matter. Naturally they were only created as originals to start with but after a couple of months I knew they would be a book. The black and white (on grey) ones at the start are the earliest pieces. I included them because I'm happy with them and couldn't leave them out because they didn't fit. That said, you'll notice colour variations in the paper. It was never intended to be totally holistic in appearance. Details are below should you be interested.
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