Bookmarks X: Infiltrating the Library System

Please join us on Saturday October 13th for a reception for the exhibition BOOKMARKS X: Infiltrating the Library System. Initiated by the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK, the Bookmarks projects series aims to encourage appreciation of work in the format of the artist’s book. Participating artists each produce an edition of 100 signed and numbered bookmarks to give away through distribution boxes at venues around the world. Each bookmark has the website address which brings visitors to the gallery of artworks online.

Over the last nine years, the Bookmarks series of free artwork distribution has visited 93 venues in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey the UK and USA.

356 artists have contributed 35,600 bookmarks to the ten projects to date. Editioned bookmarks are collated into sets; one full set being sent to each of the contributing artists and the rest divided and sent in distribution boxes to participating galleries, bookstores and libraries around the world, for visitors to take.

See the complete online catalogue here: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/bookmark.htm

Check out these books in the Reading Room!

above:
& they all fell down is a zine by A. Cassidy. It is one of ten and is the first zine she has made. After talking to her in store she mentioned that each of the 10 zines are hand drawn, each slightly different from each other, purely due to this hand drawn aspect. The inside cover has an intricate and beautiful illustration and the overall zine conveys a sense of whimsy and delicacy.

above:
C.A. Hiley has three little books in the Reading Room, each hand drawn and hand printed. Each book is from an edition of 40-50 and are printed in 3-5 colours. The three titles are In The Silks, On the Trapeze, and Rope, all focusing on a different form of acrobatics. The illustrations are simple but stunning and the use of spot colour is extremely successful.

above:
The Secret Order of Space, Time & Circumstance: No. 1 Circumstantial Evidence is an edition of 20 zines. This entire zine is cleanly printed and very crisp looking. The imagery is simply, but there is a lot of it, filling the pages well. I really like the simple colour pallet of this zine and the paper choice is well thought through.

above:
Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me: Connecting The Dots To The Death of Orion by Mimi Li (2011) is an aesthetically pleasing zine containing illustrations from various sources dating back between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Each page has a hand-sewn constellation in red thread over a red and black image and text, printed on cream paper. The zine is beautifully bound using the same red thread.

Interview with Broken Pencil

These photos are from an interview with Broken Pencil by Melissa Luk.
Check it out here: http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/the-vancouver-chronicles-assembly

New Additions to the Reading Room

First up:
God Mad, Good Grub by Daniel Penn (dansgoodgrub.blogspot.com)
Not only does Dan’s publication include numerous tasty recipes, but it also comes with it’s very own soundtrack to give readers (and listeners) a taste of the experience Dan had as a Canadian cooking in Copenhagen.
Along with the recipes, there are photographs of the food – showing just how delicious everything looks. The fact that each recipe has been hand written speaks to the hands on process of cooking and really works with the aesthetic of the book.
One of the recipes that looked especially appealing was the Pinwheel Cookies.
Here’s a look at the recipe:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up:
Anne Emberline’s Pinch: a tiny zine of tiny stories
This publication packs quite the punch for such a little zine. As the title states, it includes five short stories that Anne has written. Each story is different from the previous and each deal with different characters and scenarios. The content is mainly written, with small illustrations scattered throughout its 14 pages.
Here’s a look at the cover image:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third in line is:
Portrait Service Presents: Kevin Pan by Jimmy Liang and Dominic Giasson-Garcia
This specific zine is just one of the zines from their on-going series. Each Portrait Service presents someone new to the readers; this issue features Kevin Pan.
The zine contains stats and facts on Kevin as well as questions and answers about his personal interests. Each issue of this series is always comical and sometimes pokes fun at the featured someone.
The guys’ Portrait Services provide a fun way to get to know people I may or may not have already met.
Take a look at Kevin Pan’s Portrait Service:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last, but not at all least:
Christie Lim’s wallet book titled F.S.
This is one of my favourite books. Christie has hand made a wallet along with all of it’s contents, to create a one of a kind work of art. Each item within the wallet has been hand printed to look almost exactly like the original item.
The wallet includes:
– bus pass
– library card
– classy cats membership card
– doodles on scrap paper
– photos of “Boo” the cat
– hair sample from Boo’s first trim
– to-do lists
– coupons
– a recipe card
– fortune cookie paper
– pouch of carrot seeds
– letter to mom
– appointment card
– library receipt
– used bingo sheet
– explanation card
Come check out Christie’s book in the Reading Room to closely inspect each and every awesome part.

Notes about Notes

We recently took down our summer display of  sketchbooks, notebooks and workbooks in the lowercase reading room. These books contained writing, sketches and reflections as unique as the owners themselves. Here’s a quick review of a few books from the show, in case you didn’t get to see it.

This little school journal was from 1978, containing the precious and humorous thoughts of a seven-year-old boy. I found this particular page quite funny. It says,

“Dr. Glasglow showed us a slideshow. When children are 7 they lose their teeth. I should always brush my teeth”.

A few of the sketchbooks and diaries contained glued-in objects, keepsakes, recipes, and photos. Some items were collected for sources of inspiration and others were keepsakes from personal life events. The page above is from Lisa Cinar’s diary. She humorously stapled an old nose ring to the side of a page, as “a reminder of man’s cruelty”.

The page above is from Rebecca Dolen’s sketchbook. This book contained creative and humorous illustrations, mini-stories and ideas for projects. Some of the books and cards at the Regional Assembly of Text can be traced back to the pages of this sketchbook. It was fun to get a look into her creative process.

“Bringing to my attention” is a page from Allison Chamber’s sketchbook. This one scan doesn’t do justice to the dozens of beautiful paintings, portraits and bits of text that were in there. The pages in her book were thick and heavy, so that they could be painted on without any tearing or curling.

Owen Plummer’s sketchbook contained dozens of intricate black ink drawings, like the one above. Owen’s invented creatures and designs are all unique from each other, and yet treated with the same energy and attention to composition, detail and line quality. As a result, I found his sketchbook to be quite captivating.

This is only a small sampling of many great findings in the sketchbook show. Thanks to all the individuals who participated in the show!

New Show in the Reading Room!

 

 

 

We receive so many beautiful donations wrapped up in wonderful mail art that we decided to

make a show of the books with their wrappings. Come check it out!

Recently arrived is a package from Kevin Nickerson who has donated a beautiful selection of Mail Art from his own collection. World Art Post is a stunningly beautiful  catalogue of artist’s stamps and stamp images from all over the world. Published by Artpool in Budapest. There is no publication date to be found but one essay is dated 1982.  I suspect this book is at least 25 years old.  Each page of stamps is offset printed in a different colour. Kevin also sent a number of other Mail Art items. Come and hunt for them in the reading room!

Melanie Coles’ zine, Peggy Marshall’s Bat Brew and Mystic Pizza,is a tour-de-force piece of photocopy/collage art. The image above is part of the accordion-fold cover.

Laura Kenins sent us a number of  volumes of her comics Tales of Modern Tragedy and Birch Control. The image above is of the cover Laura printed on the letterpress at the Dawson Printshop.  We have Tales of Modern Tragedy volumes 1, 3, and 4 as well as Birch Control volumes 1 and 2 and a single copy of Russian Roulette.

From Lindsay at pit.of.ennui we’ve received two new zines. This fascinating cover wraps around a story of  women, the land and animals, and relationships. A great deal of content packed into 20 pages.

New Arrivals Update

A, is a small book with screen print cover and inside black and red screen print pages by T. Doran. There are three books by Doran in the reading room collection, all screen printed and all beautiful and mysterious.

One of two new books by UK artist, Stephen Fowler. Black and white portraits drawn in pen and ink. Inspirational work!

Canadian Artist Jonathan Wolferstan has sent us Map and Memory, nine short pieces about memory illustrated with details of maps from Canada, France and the U.S. Which came first? The map or the memory? For instance, the map that illustrates a memory of Bowen Island, BC is illustrated with a map from Ransgate UK. A lovely little book well worth looking for and sitting down with.

Node Pajomo is a “node in the network”, published in Bellingham, Washington that lists international mail art projects you can submit work to. Also lists mail art exchange projects, tape traders, artists stamp info, distros and zines looking for your submissions. An excellent pocket-size reference.

Three new visual poetry chapbooks by Reed Altemus’ press, Toner Works. These are beautiful publications! Be sure to look for them in the reading room the next time you’re visiting.

Alfonso de Anda has written and drawn this zine El gran ataque, a book of urban pirates with “no course and no mission”.

Thanks to everyone who has sent us their books and zines. These scans are just a quick survey of the wonderful things that arrive in our mail!

New in the reading room

We’ve received some wonderful publications recently from Reed Altemus of Toner Works in Portland, ME.  A rich collection of collaborative visual poetry including the three chapbooks above. Altemus has donated a wide ranging selection of work he’s published and we’re very pleased to have his publications in our collection.

Anchor Archive Regional Zine Library at The Roberts Street Social Centre

Anchor Archive is housed at the Roberts Street Social Centre in Halifax. I visited the Centre on a sunny Sunday afternoon in February. Every Sunday, Amanda and Zak, two librarians who are working on cataloguing the 2000+ books in the collection, can be found sitting on the couch hard at work on their computers. They have kept a blog about the process of creating the catalogue at http://blog.anchorarchive.ath.cx/. Sarah Evans, one of the founders of the library is at work reshelving returned zines.