Censored BookBarton Lidice Benes26.7 x 20.3 12.71974Book Tied in Rope, nailed, gessoed and painted"I was once on a train to Philadelphia reading a biography of Nixon, and I started scratching it out as I read it, and by the time I got to Philadelphia I had scratched the whole book out. After that I started nailing books shut and tying them up."The piece appeared in the 1990 traveling exhibition Book Arts in the USA curated by Richard Minsky.Thanks to Deeplinking and his post Book Art All-Stars
Recycled Underwear and the Spread of Literacy
"And when the underwear was worn out, it provided a steady supply of material used by papermakers to make books."That's the word out of the recently held International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds in Northern England.Marco Mostert, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who is was one of the conference organizers goes on to say:The development of literacy was certainly helped by the introduction of paper, which was made from rags...These rags came from discarded clothes, which cost much less than the very expensive parchment which was previously used for books. In the 13th century, so it is...
The Shelfari Climb
The big news in the book social networking world this week was Shelfari's announcement that it has created a branded application for Facebook.Facebook is the don of social networking sites and for Shelfari to implant their application in their playing field is a huge step in gaining market share.The recent Publisher's Weekly's article on book social networking sites placedShelfari a distant third in the marketplace behind Goodreads.com and way behind Librarything who were first in.This deal will close the gap considerably. Since the press release Shelfari has already seen record traffic and a record amount of new registrations.And while Shelfari...
Fine Presses and the Bookseller
That is the title of the article I wrote for the new issue of Amphora the publication of the Alcuin Society.For those unfamiliar with the Alcuin Society it is a "voluntary association of people who care about the past, present and future of fine books" based in Vancouver, British Columbia whose two main goals "are to promote a wider appreciation of books and reading and to support excellence in book design and production."Hard not to support that.This particular issue is also the inaugural issue in what will be an ongoing series featuring original wood engravings. This issue features artist Jim...
Wilde Times
image Chris Ketchell "The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands." - Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism Aside from his success as an author and playwright Wilde was also a major celebrity in Victorian London. In many respects his celebrity mirrors the path of many of today's celebrities (Martha Stewart and Paris Hilton immediately come to mind) where the prevailing culture hoists them up then tears them down with no mercy. My Wilde phase took place in England in the...