CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/21/2019

'Freedom of the Presses' presents the twenty-first-century artist's book as esoteric and enigmatic anti-spectacle

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.”