Welcome!
This month we take a look at the world of Book Arts. Marina Vaizey, art critic, collector, and Chairman of the Trustees of the ACE Foundation, provides a personal introduction to this wonderful but lesser known art form, and we are grateful to Sarah Bodman of the Centre for Fine Print Research for contributing the second in our series of Insight articles, in which she examines the nature of artists’ books in the 21st Century.
Over the past ten weeks we have been running our own introductory course on Book Arts, directed by ACE artist-in-residence Candida Bradley. The artworks created during the course will be on display at the exhibition Between the Books at Cambridge Central Library, see the link on the right for more details. Candida is creating an art book of her own using raw materials collected by participants on ACE Cultural Tours, extending the now century old tradition of Found Art, originating with Duchamp and the Dadaists, with an interesting juxtaposition of the local and the exotic.
For musicians, we are pleased to announce five new music playing days for 2011, all available to book online now and catering for clarinets, saxophones, strings, flutes and bassoons, with even more to come soon!
The Art of the Book
Some of the greatest artists in the world have invented and contributed to the evolution of the art of the book. In the histories of civilisations, as the current Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum so brilliantly exemplifies, from Asia to India to Islam, the book as manuscript is among the most marvellous and meaningful of art forms. Each culture has an imprint, leading to striking diversity from illustrated and narrative scrolls, pages and leaves of intricate, elaborate and significant calligraphy to the exquisite miniature.
In the West our visual history moves from the monastery scriptoria which painstakingly illuminated medieval Books of Hours, missals and other devotional books, to such modern masterpieces as Matisse's Jazz, 1947, with 20 paper cutouts reproduced in what Matisse regarded as a 'chromatic and rhythmic improvisation'. And the art of the book has a fascinating amateur history: it was a particularly beloved pastime and artistic outlet for those upper class ladies who were so heavily socially restricted in the 19th century. In the 21st century you don't necessarily need elaborate materials, just an unfettered imagination and some manual skill (the first can be energised, and the second can be learnt).
Contemporary artists' books can take many guises and be priced, for the collector, at many levels: affordable runs and more costly limited editions, and of course unique one off objects too. Book as object is an inspiration to the artist, both as illustrator and inventor, and there are specialist shop outlets and publishers, beyond the gallery and museum, not to mention exploring the internet for examples world wide. Book as object can also be literally stupendous: contemporary and world famous sculptors such as Anish Kapoor and Anselm Kiefer have made book objects which need whole galleries to themselves. The range is extraordinary, the spectrum enormous.
For the domestic collector (and I have been one) the delights are many, but the most relevant perhaps is the replication of the physical relationship you have with a book: sitting, turning the pages, pausing, moving on, matching text to image or simply enjoying all the kinds of amazing things from origami-like folding to cut outs-and-ins that inventive people can do with paper, and divers other materials from cloth to plastics. The artists' book is handheld, in which the spectator has an active role: a work of art like no other.
Marina Vaizey
Chairman of the Trustees of the ACE Foundation.
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Artists' books as we understand them today have emerged from a rich history of publications by artists and writers from around the turn of the 20th Century. They became popular in a more democratic form in the USA and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s when artists started to produce works outside of mainstream galleries, often printing or photocopying editions of their books to distribute cheaply or give away. These works were often social or political in content, and allowed artists to distribute their ideas to a wide public audience. A seminal artist Ed Ruscha was a huge influence at that time, and continues to inspire other artists today. Ruscha's Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963) was published under his own imprint in an edition of 400 as an affordable artwork at $3.50, today a copy of the same, very sought after book costs around $37,000. Ruscha has inspired a whole generation of artists who produce books in his very recognisable style. The UK artist 
With the rise of publish on demand (POD), audio and e-books, text works for mobile phones, hypertext works and applications for i-pads already being produced by artists, the artist's book is constantly adding new variants to its appearance and formats, for example, the US artist EF Stevens's free text mobile phone book Awaiting Transmission in 2008. This is not to say traditional artists' books are being forgotten or marginalised. There is a healthy and continued practice of traditionally printed books made with letterpress, etching, lithography, screenprint or woodcut, and an array of beautifully produced livres d'artistes, fine press books and design bindings.
Artists also make book works as sculptural works, altered books, large-scale installations such as Tina Hill's Excavating Babel - a tower built from over 2000 discarded books - even wearable books and badges; the winner of the Sheffield Book Arts Prize in 2008 was Katherine Johnson's Make, a knitted and embroidered book with a conversational request to knit a jumper, and artist 
The artist's book is also often used as a form of visual, narrative documentation of experiences, travel or place. Imi Maufe, a UK artist now living in Norway spent a year in Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland, 2007-2008, for a VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities) residency for artists to work with the residents of this remote rural community. Over the year events were organised by the artist and the culminating show was an exhibition of artists' books packed into a custom-made display suitcase which the artist toured through the valley on her bicycle. These books visually document highlights of the year such as The Great Pie Challenge, Norway Knits and Animals Around Highgreen.
These are just a few examples of how artists work with the book in the 21st Century. If you are interested in seeing more examples there is an energetic book arts scene in the UK, with many artists' books fairs, exhibitions and events running regularly around the country from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool to Walsall, Solihull, Bristol, London and Cardiff. The beauty of visiting these book fairs and events is that you often meet the artists, can talk to them about their work and handle the books. Artist Books 3.0 is a free network site for artists working in this medium and interested parties, and is also a good place to start viewing examples of artworks in an