Oxford Exchange Bookshop The race for finding the right mix to compete in the ever changing publishing / bookselling world of the 21st century continues as both Rizzoli and Phaidon make moves to extend their reach. Rizzoli has announced that it is partnering with the upscale Tampa, Florida bookshop the Oxford Exchange. The new "Studio" site will occupy half of the shop's floor space and feature only Rizzoli publications. As the online space expands and the retail avenues shrink it becomes imperative for publishers like Rizzoli to find ways for people to interact physically with their books. Look for more of these...
Future Library: Publication date 2114
Scottish artist Katie Paterson is a patient women. Her current project Future Library will take 100 years to consummate! You heard right; a century from inception to completion. Here's the deal: A forest has been planted in Norway, which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in one hundred years time. Between now and then, one writer every year will contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until 2114. The texts will be held in a specially designed room in the New Public Deichmanske Library in Oslo. Tending the forest and ensuring its...
Norman Mailer does Picasso
Who knew that Norman Mailer had a drawing side. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and literary legend also had a penchant for drawing and one of his major influences happened to be Pablo Picasso. A gallery of Mailer's Picasso-inspired drawings is now on view at POBA, a new online platform devoted to "preserving, showcasing, and promoting the work of artists who died without recognition of the full measure of their talents." Taking its name from the phonetic pronunciation of the Tibetan word "phowa," which refers to the transfer of consciousness at death to a new life, POBA plans to digitally preserve works...
Books in art help tell the story
‘Madame de Pompadour’ by Francois Boucher, 1756, As many of you who regularly check in with Book Patrol know, the representation of the book in art is one of the cornerstones of our foundation. Over at the British Library's Collection Care blog Christina Duffy looks at the value of books depicted in art as it relates to the history of bookbinding. Fueled by her week of studying European Bookbinding (1450-1820) at the London Rare Books School Duffy shows us how the "keen eye of the artist has captured precise details when depicting books throughout history, showing sewing structures, stitch types, supports, covers and even how...
Picturing Haruki Murakami’s Women
Portland-based artist Johnny Acurso celebrates some of Haruki Murakami's most memorable female characters in his triptych painting 'Murakami's Women'. "Granddaughter" from Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World "Sumire" in Sputnik Sweetheart ' "May" from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle The originals were painted in oil on illustration board. Prints are available here