Is the end of the book near? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer boldy claims in his talk with the Washington Post that "In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down" and there will be "no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network." Though talking particularly about newspapers and magazines there are many who would include the future of the book in his assessment. While I agree that newspapers in there current state are doomed, magazines less so, the book will continue its...
The Bookselling Dilemma of the Modern Age
This is the cover of the current issue of The New Yorker. It's called “Read-Handed” and was done by Adrian Tomine.He is about to open the bookshop, she is about to receive the book she ordered on Amazon. Who feels worse?It is a spectacular graphic representation of the independent struggle; the struggle that both the independent business owner and the independent-minded consumer face in todays book marketplace.To get a get a better view of the image, and to see Tomine's other book-themed illustrations click here ("Read-Handed" is the 5th image on the first row).
The Artist’s Library
Joseph Kosuth. On the Phenomenon of the Library, 2006The Artist's Library, currently on view at the Centre international d'art et du paysage de l'ile de Vassiviere, features work by 9 contemporary artists whose work centers around the book."The Artist’s Library represents a ‘Library of Babel’ like that born in the visionary mind of the great Argentinean writer J. L. Borges. Artists and spectators become its librarians"This seminal exhibition is curated by Carrie Pilto and consumes all of the Aldo Rossi designed building. The bookshop, the theater, the reading room, the cafe have all become part of the "library."The artists featured...
The Cabinet National Library
In 2004 on a desolate desert tract on the outskirts of Deming, New Mexico Matthew Passmore, and other members of the San Francisco arts collective Rebar, built a library."The Cabinet National Library takes the form of a circle with a radius of twelve feet—viewed from the south, the cabinet is situated at the top, or "12 o'clock" position on the circle. At each of the positions representing three, six and nine o'clock, we have set a solar-powered lantern into the earth to help guide you around the library grounds should you find yourself there after sundown. Each lantern is also...
The Legacy of Tom Phillips’ HUMUMENT
In 1970, artist Tom Phillips published the first edition of his now-classic altered book Humument with London's Tetrad Press. "A Treated Victorian Novel," Phillips himself has described the project as combining "medieval illumination, experimental poetry and non-linear narrative with the procedures of modern art." As seen in this gallery of images from the first edition or this slideshow of the fourth (Phillips continues to expand and revise the project), the results can be breathtaking. The book's first trade edition in 1980 established it as a cult fave and it remains in-print to this day. Indeed, it is probably the most...