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Freedom of the Presses
Artists' Books in the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Marshall Weber. Text by Kurt Allerslev, Tia Blassingame, Sarah Kirk Hanley, FLY-O, Karen Eliot, Richard J. Lee, Florencia San Martín, Ganzeer, Suzy Taraba, Stephen Dupont, Bridget Elmer, Janelle Rebel, Marshall Weber, Anton Wurth, Xu Bing, Deborah Ultan, Aaron Sinift.
The artist's book as activist tactic: a toolkit
Freedom of the Presses is at once a textbook and a toolbox for using artists’ books and creative publications to further community engagement and social justice projects.
Far from being a staid survey of an art historical practice, Freedom of the Presses intervenes in an ongoing discussion about art and activism in the present day by considering the place of the art book in the 21st century. The publisher, Booklyn, has been involved in this conversation since 1999, when a group of six artists decided to band together to promote contemporary artists’ books and publications. Booklyn’s focus has always been voracious, encompassing street art, punk and activist culture alongside more conventional artists’ books.
This restless energy is present in Freedom of the Presses, which brings together a provocative mix of humorous, intimate and scholarly writing in order to expand how we think about the concept, content, design, production and distribution of artists’ and activists’ publications today. Aimed at a global community of librarians, publishers and readers, it offers models of how to reimagine contemporary artists’ bookmaking as a socially engaged, political practice.
With essays by Kurt Allerslev, Tia Blassingame, Sarah Kirk Hanley, FLY-O, Karen Eliot, Richard J. Lee, Florencia San Martín, Ganzeer, Suzy Taraba, Stephen Dupont, Bridget Elmer, Janelle Rebel, Marshall Weber, Anton Wurth, Xu Bing, Deborah Ultan and Aaron Sinift, Freedom of the Presses enacts the dialogue it calls for, inviting artists and activists to weigh in on the place of artists’ books in the most pressing social, political and cultural issues of our time.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Freedom of the Presses.'
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Photographed by Marshall Weber, this page from the unique artists’ book Wounded Knees by Ian Cozzens, Tim Page, Sara Parkel, Isabelle and Marshall Weber, is reproduced from Booklyn’s highly sought-after compendium on twenty-first century artists’ books, Freedom of the Presses, back in stock at last. “In the twenty-first century, contemporary artists’ books have finally been acknowledged as a stand-alone fine-art medium,” Karen Eliot writes. “Artists’ books are now free from serving other media, free from a fetishized craft practice, and free from the linearity of narrative text and typography. And they are free from publishers, editors and most so-called ‘free’ market influence. Most importantly, in the optimum situation, they are free from the ‘don’t touch’ rules of fine art. Artists’ books are enigmatic, provocative, and confrontational in and of themselves. The art world and some librarians are not yet sure how to exhibit, monetize or catalog them. The expanding audience for artists’ books greatly appreciates the same characteristics of the medium that make it difficult to program: the intimacy, the tactile nature and the form’s resistance to commodification. It’s hard to invest in a piece of art that actually must be touched and worn out as part of the aesthetic experience. And it’s even harder to invest in a genre that primarily resides in public educational institutions and thus has no substantial secondary market. From the most conventional and ubiquitous of cultural forms, the book, comes the twenty-first-century artists’ book, challenging every aspect of its own lineage and tending to be radically challenging in both form, function and theory. The artists’ book is an esoteric and enigmatic anti-spectacle.” continue to blog
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FORMAT: Pbk, 6 x 9 in. / 236 pgs / 60 color / 20 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $25.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $34.95 GBP £22.00 ISBN: 9780692166789 PUBLISHER: Booklyn AVAILABLE: 1/22/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Freedom of the Presses Artists' Books in the Twenty-First Century
The artist's book as activist tactic: a toolkit
Published by Booklyn. Edited by Marshall Weber. Text by Kurt Allerslev, Tia Blassingame, Sarah Kirk Hanley, FLY-O, Karen Eliot, Richard J. Lee, Florencia San Martín, Ganzeer, Suzy Taraba, Stephen Dupont, Bridget Elmer, Janelle Rebel, Marshall Weber, Anton Wurth, Xu Bing, Deborah Ultan, Aaron Sinift.
Freedom of the Presses is at once a textbook and a toolbox for using artists’ books and creative publications to further community engagement and social justice projects.
Far from being a staid survey of an art historical practice, Freedom of the Presses intervenes in an ongoing discussion about art and activism in the present day by considering the place of the art book in the 21st century. The publisher, Booklyn, has been involved in this conversation since 1999, when a group of six artists decided to band together to promote contemporary artists’ books and publications. Booklyn’s focus has always been voracious, encompassing street art, punk and activist culture alongside more conventional artists’ books.
This restless energy is present in Freedom of the Presses, which brings together a provocative mix of humorous, intimate and scholarly writing in order to expand how we think about the concept, content, design, production and distribution of artists’ and activists’ publications today. Aimed at a global community of librarians, publishers and readers, it offers models of how to reimagine contemporary artists’ bookmaking as a socially engaged, political practice.
With essays by Kurt Allerslev, Tia Blassingame, Sarah Kirk Hanley, FLY-O, Karen Eliot, Richard J. Lee, Florencia San Martín, Ganzeer, Suzy Taraba, Stephen Dupont, Bridget Elmer, Janelle Rebel, Marshall Weber, Anton Wurth, Xu Bing, Deborah Ultan and Aaron Sinift, Freedom of the Presses enacts the dialogue it calls for, inviting artists and activists to weigh in on the place of artists’ books in the most pressing social, political and cultural issues of our time.