It has been a decade since Roberto Bolaño's first work, Night in Chile, appeared in English. Translated by Chris Andrews and published by New Directions the book first introduced the Chilean novelist to America. It was also the year Bolaño died. The Bolaño express has been going full speed since. His work has been translated into 35 languages and at least 10 works have since been published in English including Savage Detectives and 2666, which one National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2008. The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) takes us inside the life of this literary rock star with an exhibit titled...
DIY: Print-On-Demand and the Rise of the Photobook
Much like the changes to the book trade that took place with the advent of online bookselling; the photobook world has exploded with the introduction of POD technology. In both cases technology has greatly reduced the barriers to entry and opened up the floodgates, which in turn has redefined the trade.Desiree Edkins (American, born 1974). Offset lithography; 16.9 x 17.1 cm (closed), 2009. Courtesy of the artistNedejda, from Grodekovo series, 2009 (featured in Why Was I Born in Russia). Yury Toroptsov (Russian, b. 1974). Digital offset printing; 19.69 x 24.77 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Copyright © 2010–2011From what was a...
Overstock as Art: The Reading Room at the Berkeley Museum of Art
Installation view. Photo: Sibila Savage “Somewhere to begin, with the most available of formats, the book. At times merely polemical or critical, using such availability as comment on itself — an intimate object in public space.” — Simon Cutts, forward to Some Forms of Availability"Museums are asking the same questions bookstores are...I mean, why go to a museum if you can just look at pictures online in high resolution? It's about the experience." says Lawrence Rinder, the director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.So when Ramsay Bell Breslin, an editor at Kelsey Street Press, conveyed her dilemma of having to either...
Springing to Life: An Exhibit of Movable Books and Mechanical Devices
Currently on view at the University of Rochester's Rush Rhees Library Rare Books and Special Collections Department is "Springing to Life," an exhibit of over 50 pop-up and moveable books spanning nearly 500 years.These are books "that spring to life before our eyes" and showcase the amazing work of paper engineers. David Carter's "One Red Dot: A Pop-up for Children of All Ages" (2005) Exactly what is the difference between a "pop-up" book and a "moveable" book?Well, a "pop-up" book features collapsible paper devices that elevate off the page into three dimensional structures, while the "movable" book contains mechanical paper devices...
Making Books in California: Five Contemporary Presses on View
"During the last 50 years, the conception and production of the book has evolved into an art form that exceeds all former standards for the book as object. Book arts have become a mature medium, and California artists and printers are leaders in the fine arts of the book," - Roberto G. Trujillo, head of Stanford Library's Department of Special Collections.Currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University is the exhibit, The Art of the Book in California: Five Contemporary Presses. Featuring nearly 50 books the exhibit highlights some of the amazing book art and fine press work...