Last night the first issue of The Coelacanth Journal was launched in London by its editors, the artists Phoebe Blatton and Susan Finlay. The venue was Shipley Art Booksellers on the Charing Cross Road, where earlier in the day I had acquired an unparalleled haul of works by my favourite author, Margery Allingham (but that’s another story).The Coelacanth Journal is of interest not just because it’s witty and provocative. It is one of a number of brilliant new ventures which illustrate an increasing tendency by artists engaged in the book form to become editors, merging the model of art production...
Ann Muir: ‘Ebru by the sheet’
Ann Muir was a skilled craftswoman whose marbled papers gained her an international reputation. Ann, who died last month, worked for many years from her studio at St Algar’s Yard, in Frome, Somerset. Ann's skill in reproducing historical designs and patterns was remarkable. In cases of sympathetic repair work or rebinding, Ann was able to receive a scrap of old paper through the post and return it with two or more full sheets in the same style and colourways, often within a couple of weeks. As Ann's reputation grew, opportunities for a more imaginative use of her talent flourished; she...
Harrell Fletcher’s "American War"
In 2005 Harrell Fletcher spent a month in Vietnam as part of an international artists retreat.While there Fletcher spent a lot of time at The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, a memorial museum for what is referred to in Vietnam as The American War. The Museum used to be called The Museum of American War Crimes, then it was The War Crimes Museum then we got friendly with Vietnam again and it was renamed The War Remnants Museum.He says "I was so affected by what I saw at the museum that I went back several times and...
Book Patrol Welcomes Nancy Campbell
We are pleased to announced that Nancy Campbell has joined the Book Patrol team where she will be covering the wide world of Book Arts.Campbell studied English at Oxford University and fine press printing and bookbinding at Barbarian Press in British Columbia. After working for several years in print studios in Britain and America she landed in London where she now runs the book arts department at Bertram Rota Booksellers.She has also published three books of poetry and her writings on book arts and illustration have appeared in a variety of journals.We are delighted to have Nancy on board and...
AbeAzon. Amazon’s Acquisition of AbeBooks : The Day After
or Godzilla buys Frankenstein. Throngs still waiting for Superman.It will be a long time before the dust settles on this seismic event but here are some initial thoughts on the acquisition.First - How much did it cost?The folks over at TechVibes venture a guess that Amazon paid between $90-$120 million. Since Boris Wertz, former COO of AbeBooks, is on the Board of Directors of both TechVibes and AbeBooks, I'm going to believe the number is somewhere in that ballpark.Winners:AbebooksHits a home run. They have been steadily building their offerings through there own acquisitions preparing themselves for a potential buyout. Many...