Book History: Book Arts

A print is a pictorial image that has been produced by a process that enables it to be multiplied, and many of the best-known works by some of the world's greatest artists are prints. Yet little is understood about this popular art form. Now Antony Griffiths provides an excellent introduction for anyone who wishes to acquire a basic understanding of prints and printmaking. In succinct and lucid language, he explains the different printmaking techniques and shows both details and whole prints to demonstrate the effects that can be achieved. Woodcuts, engraving, etching, mezzotint, and lithography are among the many processes explained, illustrated, and placed within a historical context. This fully revised and updated edition of the highly praised 1980 British publication is available for the first time in the United States. With its complete glossary, index, and helpful illustrations, Griffiths's book is the essential foundation for an intelligent appreciation of the printmaker's art.

Essays discuss the ways contemporary artists are using and redefining the book format and examine specific works.

Artists' books have emerged over the last 25 years as the quintessential contemporary art form, addressing subjects as diverse as poetry and politics, incorporating a full spectrum of artistic media and bookmaking methods, and taking every conceivable form. Female painters, sculptors, calligraphers, and printmakers, as well a growing community of hobbyists, have played a primary role in developing this new mode of artistic expression.The Book as Art presents more than 100 of the most engaging women's artist books created by major fine artists such as Meret Oppenheim, May Stevens, Kara Walker, and Renee Stout and distinguished book artists such as Susan King, Ruth Laxson, Claire Van Vliet, and Julie Chen. Culled from over 800 unique or limited-edition volumes held by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, these books explore the form as a container for ideas. Descriptions of the works are accompanied by colorful illustrations and reflections by their makers, along with essays by leading scholars and a lively introduction by the most famous book artist in our culture, best-selling author Audrey Niffenegger. The exquisitely crafted objects in theThe Book as Art are sure to provoke unexpected and surprising conclusions about what constitutes a book. The Book as Art accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., beginning in October 2006.

- Cutting-edge idea - Titles on altered books are topping sales charts - Packed with valuable artists' resources--galleries, bookstores, Web sites, book fairs, exhibitions Famous artists from David Hockney and Andy Warhol to Gilbert and George have created their own books--distinctive bound collections of work, sometimes variations on the popular altered-book craze. Now any artist can follow in the booksteps of these well-known muses, with the help of Creating Artists' Books. Author Sarah Bodman, an expert on artists' books, gives wonderful inspiration and practical guidance on printmaking processes for making books, digital output and computer-based books, assembling books with limited resources, and creating altered books. An invaluable appendix lists bookstores and galleries that sell and exhibit artists' book; book arts collections, archives, and organizations; book fairs; related Web sites; and more. Creating Artists' Books is packed with ideas, inspiration, and information from cover to cover.

Zines are the maverick inhabitants of publishing's Wild West, where the obsessional, the idiosyncratic and the wilfully obscure roam free across pages unbounded by the constraints of mainstream agendas. This book offers a highly-visual analysis of this phenomenon, assembled with expert fanaticism by the team of Pop theorists who created Highflyers and Scrawl. It showcases a huge, international range of current zines, put into context by historical examples from the hoardings of die-hard collectors.

With names like The East Village Inky, Mend My Dress, Dear Stepdad, and I'm So Fucking Beautiful, zines created by girls and women over the past two decades make feminism's third wave visible. These messy, photocopied do-it-yourself documents cover every imaginable subject matter and are loaded with handwriting, collage art, stickers, and glitter. Though they all reflect the personal style of the creators, they are also sites for constructing narratives, identities, and communities. Girl Zines is the first book-length exploration of this exciting movement. Alison Piepmeier argues that these quirky, personalized booklets are tangible examples of the ways that girls and women 'do' feminism today. The idiosyncratic, surprising, and savvy arguments and issues showcased in the forty-six images reproduced in the book provide a complex window into feminism's future, where zinesters persistently and stubbornly carve out new spaces for what it means to be a revolutionary and a girl. Girl Zines takes zines seriously, asking what they can tell us about the inner lives of girls and women over the last twenty years.