Category: Review
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Asemic Walks: 50 Templates for Pataphysical Inspections
Asemic Walks: 50 Templates for Pataphysical InspectionsHartmut AbendscheinTimglaset Editions2020 8.25 × 6 in. closed108 pagesPerfect-bound softcoverLaser printing If the title of Asemic Walks: 50 Templates for Pataphysical Inspections seems somewhat opaque, the book itself is transparent – literally. Fifty sheets of translucent drafting vellum, each with a printed route, are bound between a few solid…
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The Artist’s Novel
The Artist’s NovelDavid MarotoMousse Publishing2019 Part I: A New Medium8 × 6 in. closed284 pagesPerfect-bound softcoverOffset Part II: The Fantasy of the Novel8 × 6 in. closed292 pagesPerfect-bound softcoverOffset Spanish artist/theorist David Maroto’s two-volume work of fictocriticism, The Artist’s Novel, is not an artist’s book in the traditional sense (if we can say there is…
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The Circus
The CircusTara HomasiPinsapo Press / Publication Studio2019 9 × 12.25 × 0.7 in.190 pagesPerfect-bound softcoverDigital printing Tara Homasi coaxed The Circus out of an existing book, The Circle of Life: Rituals from the Human Family Album. If Tom Phillips’ seminal redacted book, A Humument, is impressive because the original book is mediocre, obscure and visually…
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Public Collectors Police Scanner
Public Collectors Police ScannerMarc FischerPublic Collectors2021 8.5 × 11 in. closed90 pagesSide stitch and fabric tape bindingRisograph and digital printing Proponents of the “thin blue line” assert that the police are the only thing preventing society from descending into violent chaos. A coyote in an alley, a bank robbery, missing children, and reckless driving: chaos…
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Witness 001
Witness 001Parker Bolin, Armando Diaz, Zachary Estes, Mmuso MatsapolaWitness Studios2021 8.5 × 5.5 in. closed40 pagesPerfect bindingOffset printing The inaugural issue of artists’ publication Witness invites readers to do just that: to not only look at Louisville’s racial justice movement in the summer of 2020, but to experience it more intimately. The photographs, from multiple…
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Terra Nullius
Terra NulliusChristopher Kardambikis2020 7.5 × 10.25 in. closed50 pagesBinding: Plastic strip fastenerRisograph I try not to talk about William Blake. I love his work, but I find his outsized role in the genealogy of artists’ books to be of little use for contemporary criticism. So, when I opened Terra Nullius by Christopher Kardambikis, I shuddered.…
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Convalescence
ConvalescenceGrant EvansAdversary Editions2020 6 × 9 in. closed110 pagesPerfect-bound softcoverDigital offset Convalescence is the first book by musician and visual artist, Grant Evans. It is far from the only artists’ book about grief, yet it stands out as particularly dark and gritty. Not only because it grapples with addiction and murder, but because Evans metaphorizes…
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This Land is My Land
This Land is My LandThad Higa2021 5.5 × 8.5 in. closed100 pages and two multi-page foldoutsCoptic binding with uncovered boardsDigital printing Thad Higa describes This Land is My Land as “a fictional narrative from the imagined headspace of current day white supremacists.” Artists rarely approach such a project with the required radical empathy, attempting to…
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Object Objects
Object ObjectsShana KaplowDesigned by Matthew RezacSelf-published with support from TITLE Collective2019 10.625 × 8.375 in. closed112 pagesSmyth-sewn softcover with French flapsOffset printing “I can’t unknow the impact of these massive systems,” interdisciplinary visual artist Shana Kaplow writes on the front flap of Object Objects, referring to the underpinnings of capital and exploitative labor that gird…
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Copy, Tweak, Paste: Methods of Appropriation in Re-enacted Artists’ Books
Copy, Tweak, Paste: Methods of Appropriation in Re-enacted Artists’ BooksRob van Leijsen2020 Éditions clinamen5.5 × 7.875 in. closed223 pagesPerfect-bound paperbackOffset printing Plenty of artists’ book practitioners and scholars have a background in graphic design, but for Rob van Leijsen graphic design is not merely an entry point into artists’ books; it is a place to…
Artists’ Book Reviews 