They have been in business for 65 years and have almost 2,000 titles under their belt. They produce some of the most beautiful and well-made books on the planet. They work with the leading illustrators in the world. Yet the Folio Society remains far from a household name. Why? Their business model stinks. They operated exclusively as a membership book club and didn't spend any energy actively promoting their titles until two years ago! Focusing on high-quality production values centered on packaging, typography, and illustration should not automatically negate attention to distribution, marketing and building brand awareness. It is the age...
Ruth Beale’s Bookbed
'Bookbed' was an installation that tapped "into the idea of the book and library in the collective imagination." The work was made up of three giant books and invited reading and writing groups, classes and workshops to book the space while also programming events that "explored learning, imagination and the book-as-symbol alongside current thinking in culture, education and public space" The three giant books were: The bed - complete with mattress and duvet cover pages, the bed featured an index of story titles culled from the series of creative writing workshops with young people held at the Peckham Library in London; A...
Good Morning Mr. Orwell Redux
The satellite's amplification of the freedom of the strong must be accompanied by the protection of the culture of the weak or by the creation of a diverse software skillfully bringing to life the qualitative differences in various cultures. – Nam June Paik, Art & Satellite (1984) On January 1, 1984 Nam June Paik celebrated the first day of the year that George Orwell predicted humans will finally be controlled by mass media by unveiling his piece Good Morning, Mr. Orwell. The installation, which gave birth to video art, was a satellite TV compilation showing the positive utilization of mass media...
Nicolas Grospierre’s Infinite Library
The Never-Ending Corridor of Books The Never-Ending Corridor of Books and the Never-Ending Wall of Books are two components of The Library project by Nicolas Grospierre. Both are installations comprised of photographs placed in light boxes and shown in mirrors to create the illusion of endlessness. The Library project is not the representation of a specific library, but rather an attempt at representing the very essence of the idea of a library. It is loosely inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ novel The Library of Babel, where the author describes the universe as an “infinite and cyclic” library. The project is thus an attempt...
Exposed: The work of Jody Alexander
from the installation - the lone arranger - a collaboration with laura laura Jody Alexander is an artist, bookbinder, librarian and teacher working out of Santa Cruz, California whose work celebrates "collecting, storytelling, and odd characters." Working with fabric and found and discarded books Alexander binds them up and then combines them with found objects to create sculptural works and installations. from the sedimentals series detail from a sedimentals piece miss sook's dropsy cure drawer remained unbeknownst to most exposed spines worthy - a collaboration with laura laura - installation at the Pajaro Valley Art Gallery, Watsonville, California...