Foreword

Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books

Just over half a millennium ago the first wagonload of Gutenberg Bibles arrived in Paris.  Because the world had not yet seen a typographic book, French authorities marveled at the identical “manuscripts”.   Only witchcraft could have produced such miraculous sameness, they concluded, and arrests quickly followed.

Today a unique new wagonload of books is being sent into the world, Monumental Ideas In Miniature Books.  The magic of this exhibition is the incomparable variety and miraculous ingenuity of these one hundred seventy (?) books by artists from around the world.  It is as though Gutenberg’s revolution happened in some other universe, and we find ourselves again to be a public that is thirsty for the handmade, the tactile object, the book as art, and we have suddenly discovered a whole generation of artists ready to deliver.

These are visual voyages, painterly poems, worlds in microcosm, experimental excretions, microscopic realms made monumental.  The artist may build the book like an architect, assemble it like a garment, narrate it like cinema, or use it to showcase their images, gallery-style.  The approaches are beyond limit.

If art is the last aristocracy, as Clyfford Still believed, then the artist’s book is the aristocrat’s limousine.   It is a perfect means to travel one’s artistic ideas from hand to hand, mind to mind, and even from nation to nation, unencumbered by the physical constraints and economies associated with traveling shows of painting and sculpture.  We are in the position to accept the free dialogue with these aristocrats of art because of the vision and leadership of our colleague, Hui-Chu Ying, Professor of Art, at The University of Akron.  In the finest tradition of faculty/student collaboration, Prof. Ying has united a team of Myers School of Art student designers, photographers, and artists, to help her manage the MIMB project and produce its catalog.  This is higher education in it finest form, boldly shaping young careers, and achieving art of lasting significance.  I thank Professor Ying, our students, and these extraordinary artists, for expanding our minds and horizons, and for the pride and privilege of being associated with this grand endeavor.

Del Rey Loven

Director
Mary Schiller Myers School of Art
The University of Akron

Curator's Statement

As soon as the Southern Graphics Council (SGC) announced that the SGC 2009 conference would be hosted at Columbia College in Chicago, I had an exhibition proposal in mind for the SGC artists: Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books (MIMB). I thought this could be the perfect project to suit the program at Columbia College, Chicago, The Center for Book and Paper Arts. I asked artists to create more than 5 editions of miniature books for the MIMB project. I will do my best to organize a traveling exhibition for the books to different educational institutions.  This has been accomplished thanks to many universities’ printmaking faculties and students, all of whom have been willing to help me bring the MIMB exhibition to their own universities. I appreciate Alicia Candiani from Buenos Aires, Argentina, the International Representative of SGC for recommending that I expand the project into a global traveling exhibition. Currently, we have a total of 35 traveling exhibition hosts both nationally and internationally. The MIMB.ORG was born.

Organizing the MIMB project has turned out to be the most adventuresome experience in my professional career. I thought we would be lucky to have 20 artists participate in the project. In the end, 140 artists sent their books to the Myers School of Art, The University of Akron, Ohio. I want to thank each of the MIMB artists who gave us 5 amazing artist books. We were so thrilled when we opened your packages. We were like kids opening our Christmas presents. All of them are astonishing books. The range of MIMB books’ ideas and mediums are incredible from complicated structures, beautiful poems, humorous texts, intricate drawings, and some of the greatest ideas one could imagine. Many of the books use unconventional materials and innovative bookmaking techniques. These include the best samples of printmaking techniques ranging from traditional relief, intaglio, lithograph, silk screen printing, to the newest digital printing processes. We received books not only from the USA, but also from Korea, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Spain, India, Pakistan, the UK, Canada, Mauritius, and Argentina. 

We know we have a huge responsibility to promote the MIMB after having 140 artists giving us 5 extraordinary books apiece. We are determined to work very hard to place them on flickr.com, youtube.com, designing website MIMB.org and a catalogue. I am so grateful to a group of faculty and students from The Myers School of Art, The University of Akron for their assistance and support of this project. I would like to thank our MIMB team: Eun Jin Park, Erica Thompson, Jeff Dumire, Tanner Young, and Andrew Lopez. These 5 dedicated students spent hundreds of hours photographing 140 artists' works, designing the catalogue/website, and coordinating the project. It was a monumental task for them to do so. I am also very grateful for our faculty’s contribution. It would have been impossible to do MIMB project without their support. Christopher Hoot did the cover design and supervised the design team. Charles Beneke wrote an incredible essay for the catalogue. Mandy Books did the web design and supervised the website team. Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books Traveling Exhibition is a collaborative project. “It takes a village to raise a child.” We did it together and will continue to work on it together. The traveling exhibitions may take 3 years to finish. In the end, all MIMB books will be sent to the permanent collections of the Southern Graphics Council, Columbia College, Chicago, and to the University of Akron. We are working with several international educational institutions to house the remaining 2 collections.

I wish to express my gratitude to all MIMB artists and to the collaborative team. My goal is to continue making artists’ books and to teach others to make such books. Our mission is to use the MIMB project as an educational tool to encourage everyone to make books. We plan to have MIMB II, III, IV, V …              If you make it, we will show it!

Hui-Chu Ying, Professor

The Myers School of Art
University of Akron
Akron, Ohio
USA

Limitless Beginnings

When considering the exhibition Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books, I repeatedly asked myself how it was even possible to discuss an exhibition of nearly 150 miniature artist’s books. The Latin phrase Multum in parvo, or “much in little,” that is often used to  describe the value of small things, seems beyond the pale.

Opening the pages of a miniature artist’s book, we venture into a foreign world and soon find ourselves lashed down like Gulliver in the land of Lilliput. Alone and shipwrecked on a distant, unfamiliar shore, the hero falls asleep only to wake the prisoner of a miniature people. Like Gulliver, we take the book, unexpectedly small, in hand and are suddenly its captive. Our movements are controlled by its structure and our imaginations are engaged by its form and content in surprising ways. Whether the narrative is one of words or images, whether its tone is loud or quiet, the physical world disappears in a vertigo-like rush as we retreat to a place within its pages and inside our minds.

Small things are captivating. And when a small thing carries meaning that transports us beyond the confines of our everyday world, we are utterly consumed. Our relationships with small things, however, are fraught with complexities. We cherish them and overlook them. We discard them and place high values upon them. We are taught not to sweat the small stuff, but we wish on stars, the tiniest points of possibility. We demean or belittle small things, but the little ones are often the archetypical heroes of our parables —David and Goliath, Hans Brinker’s Dutch boy and the dike, ants moving a rubber tree plant.

The word small itself seems to be simply a descriptor of scale, but its definitions imply insignificance through the inclusion of words and phrases like “less than normal,” “not great,” “lacking,” “modest,” “low,” and “inferior.” A miniature is not just small, but refers specifically to something that has been copied and is reduced in scale or made small. It is an active reduction of a forms scale as a means of taking control of that form’s function or meaning. The object is denuded of its value or power. It is debased.

In On Longing Susan Stewart discusses this idea in the context of micrographia pointing out, however, that “a reduction in dimensions does not produce a corresponding reduction in significance.” It seems, in fact, to be the inverse; the reduction in scale that renders a book miniature infuses it with power. “The gemlike properties of the miniature book and the feats of micrographia make these forms especially suitable “containers” of aphoristic and didactic thought.” 1* The reduction in scale of the book creates a necessary reconsideration of text and image. The pairing down of text in the miniature book places a high value on each word. Imagery is treated similarly. The resulting narrative becomes one laden with meaning instilling further significance in the completed work.

The culturally constructed value and magnitude of the artist/author’s words and images within miniature books transports us to the intimate space of our imaginations. With our focus directed to the interior of the book our relationship with the exterior world narrows, but we can always see our hands holding the book and we are physically aware of how we must move to navigate its form as well as its narrative. Interacting with these objects activates all of our senses. When presented with a miniaturized object, we assume the pretense of control. But with the miniature artist’s book, our physical movements are dictated by scale and structure. We handle delicately, we fumble awkwardly, we play happily. As readers of miniature books we become subservient despite our initial notion of superiority. We at once hold and possess the book and are possessed and held by it.

Reading miniature artist’s books transforms space to place. And because that place is fostered by such personal interaction, it is not just place, but an intimate place. In his book Space and Place Yi-Fu Tuan describes intimate places as those that are not necessarily dependent upon space. Sometimes the most intimate places happen within the temporal space of a moment or an encounter. Tuan describes intimacy between persons as interaction that is not about the details of life, but instead of “glow[ing] moments of awareness and exchange.” 2* He goes on to assert that there are as many possibilities for intimate places as there are potential interactions between individuals. The same could be said for miniature artist’s books. As readers we connect with their feel in our hands, the images and the words on their pages, the worlds within their covers. These connections become a part of who we are.

The works presented in Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books underscore these notions. In books that vary in scale from miniature to miniscule and narratives that range from glimpses to epic tales, we find works that carry us on journeys and lead us into the limitless worlds of our imaginations. We are aware of our bodies and lost in our heads. The places they take us do not end with the end of the book; they begin with the beginning of their reading. Susan Stewart states that “the closure of the book is an illusion largely created by its materiality, its cover. Once the book is considered on the plane of its significance, it threatens infinity.” 3* The works in Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books present readers with limitless beginnings.

Charles Beneke

Associate Professor of Art
Mary Schiller Myers School of Art
The University of Akron

El libro como pretexto

La dimensión de cualquier objeto siempre podrá ser grande y a la vez pequeña, tan solo su contextualización lo redimensiona.

De igual forma, la intensidad acumulada en el, puede ser diametralmente opuesta a su tamaño, como puede apreciarse en esta exposición.

Esta exposición de pequeñas piezas, tiene una  gran capacidad de atracción, fácilmente reconocible si nos fijamos en como es observada por el público, se acercan a descubrir algo que intuyen, y que tiene que encontrarse en ese pequeño objeto, y es en este momento, de aproximación del espectador, cuando la redimensión se produce, pues es entonces cuando se desvelan un sinnúmero de significados, mas o menos explícitos, es el punto en el que confluyen un montón de conocimientos, referencias y percepciones, por un lado, las volcadas por el autor en el objeto, y por otro las que aplica /posee cada observador en su propia lectura.

En esta extensa muestra de pequeños “libros” podemos encontrar una amplia gama de formatos, de procesos y de materiales. Dentro de la variedad de formas podemos observar desde los que contienen páginas, secuencia lineal de texto e incluso encuadernación, hasta los que tienen ausencia de texto,  los que la letra, como icono, es el elemento desencadenante y genera las imágenes, los que en apariencia son pequeños mientras están cerrados y al abrirlos despliegan un sorprendente volumen, como si de arquitectura en papel se tratara, con una clara vocación de tridimensionalidad escultórica. En definitiva lo que se entiende por “libro objeto”, muy alejados del carácter clásico narrativo propio del libro, o mejor dicho aportando un nuevo tipo de narración visual, plástica, donde la experiencia táctil, el significado de los signos gráficos, de las  formas, de las imágenes y su tratamiento adquieren más importancia que el discurso escrito,  conformándose como discurso per-se  capaz de generar múltiples y abiertas lecturas.

Cada uno de estos libros nace como un proyecto creativo de dimensión intima,  su materialización se ha abordado desde múltiples planteamientos procesuales: serigrafía, aguafuerte… fotografía,  collages, fotocopias, impresión digital.  Se han utilizado diversos e incluso sorprendentes materiales, como telas, plásticos, parafina, porcelana, cartón, metal, maderas y papeles de muy variadas texturas y procedencias. Y aunque en la mayoría de estas piezas los materiales, el proceso y su diseño adquieran un destacado peso, es, desde mi punto de vista, en su capacidad de transmisión simbólica donde radica su mayor importancia.

Cada uno de estos libros encierra un mundo, ordenado y conformado para ser descifrado con unas claves propias y diferenciadas, sin embargo cualquier elemento es susceptible de ser interpretado, algunos marcan claras pautas de lectura e incluso discurso narrativo, otros proponen lecturas más oníricas, dispersas, lúdicas, divertidas que demandan una aproximación más abierta. En cualquiera de los casos nos encontramos ante una  forma de contar sutil e inabarcable,  todo es posible y  todas las formas son posibles; así mismo el reducido espacio que cualquiera de ellos ocupa en nuestras manos, nos permite una comunicaron muy directa con el objeto, en la que, mas allá de la vista, las percepciones sensoriales, como el tacto, olor.., expanden sus potencialidades comunicativas

Todos estos “libros objeto” tienen la capacidad de transportarnos a muy diversos espacios de forma casi simultánea, ya que a primera vista es difícil centrar la mirada en uno, sin percibir los de su entorno, es como si nos encontráramos en una conversión cruzada entre varias personas, en donde escuchas a todas pero solo es posible entender a una si le prestas la atención debida.

Chema Eléxpuru

Artista y Profesor de Bellas Artes,en la Universidad del País Vasco.

English Translation:

An object's dimension has the potential to be large and at the same time small. It is the context in which it (exists/stands) that reshapes it. Similarly, the intensity accumulated in an object can be diametrically opposed to its size. Both exchanges can be appreciated in this exhibition. 

This exhibition of small pieces, has a great capacity of attraction which is easily recognizable through the observation of the public's interaction and reaction. Individuals  are attracted in an almost instinctive manner, to discover something that needs to be found in the small object.  It is at this moment of close inspection by the spectator that endless meanings are unveiled through the influx and convergence of varying backgrounds, references and perceptions.  

In this varied sample of small "books" we can find an extensive range of formats, processes and  materials.  Within the variety of forms we can observe some traditional examples that contain pages, lineal sequence of text and binding, as well as others that lack text and are purely illustrative. All these approaches redefine the classical character of a book  and contribute to  a new type  of  visual narration  where the tactile experience; the meaning of the graphic signs, forms, images and their processing  acquire more importance than the written speech and allows for multiple and open readings.

Multiple procedures have been implemented in the creation of these books:  silkscreen, etching, photography, collage, photocopy, digital impression, etc. Also a wide and surprising variety of materials have been used that include  fabrics, plastics, paraffin, porcelain, cardboard, metal, woods and papers of  various textures and origins. All these pieces are made unique through the individual materials  processes and designs, but it is my point of view, that their true and greater importance is situated in their  capacity of symbolic transmission of ideas. 

Each one of these books is a world of its  own, each organized and accommodated to be deciphered  through the use of a unique and differentiated set of clues. With clear reading guidelines and a more narrative speech, some of these books are of a more straightforward nature in the delivery of  their messages. Others, more indirectly propose amusing, playful, dispersed and dream-like readings that require  more open interpretations. In either case, we find ourselves in front of narrative methods that are subtle and vast as well as ancient and at the same time technologically current. The miniscule proportions of these books  allow  for  handling that encourages  a more direct communication with the object in which other sensory perceptions such as touch and smell further expand their communicative potentials.

With 141 books being displayed in one space at the same time, at first sight it appears difficult to focus attention on just one piece without perceiving the remaining others – as in a conversation amongst a crowd, where you listen to all but are only capable of understanding one at a time.  Once focus is achieved and  each book is appreciated individually, the experience becomes a journey through a diversity of spaces and ideas. 

Chema Eléxpuru

Artist and Professor of Fine Arts, in the University of the Basque Country.

Morgan Conservatory launches a seminal show
by Douglas Max Utter

What is a book exactly? It enjoys its own mixed status among man-made things as both a matter-of-fact object and a portable altar for the manifestation of mind. The deceptively slight treasures called artists' books embody this contradiction, bundling the limitless range of words with the talisman-like fascination for finely wrought, hand-held things. At least since the 1876 publication of Stéphane Mallarmé's "L'après-midi d'un faune," with its wood engravings created by Édouard Manet, artists and poets have concocted such potent, essentially pre-modern objects, through all the technological and aesthetic revolutions of the past century and a half.

The 137 contemporary small works of art at Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books (MIMB as it's called at flickr.com where the whole show is documented), painstakingly assembled by Hui-Chu Ying, associate professor at the University of Akron's Myers School of Art, constantly surprise the viewer with innovative combinations of materials, presentation and subject matter. Pinned to Morgan's walls, arrayed on long shelves, spread over tables and perched atop pedestals, these "books" (many of them are more like folded drawings or origami-inspired sculptures, sometimes consisting entirely of images, or combined with stories, captions or phrases) display the wit and poetic power of intimate statements, outweighing most monuments on the scales of emotional impact.

 Images vary from the horrific to the delightful; deadly serious subjects rub shoulders with whimsy. Relatively conventional fold-out formats predominate, seeming a little fusty (though often exquisitely well-constructed) next to the delicious funkiness of a piece like Leticia Bajuyo's "A Wonderful Toy," with text handwritten along the curls of a fuchsia-colored Slinky. Another unusual work by Rabeya Jalil is made of half-inch-wide stitched-cloth "tag rolls" unspooling from a box pierced with a small square window crisscrossed with thread, like an amorous whisper in an ancient alleyway. Then there's Jessica White's "The Bad Sparrow." About three inches high and nine feet long, it shows opposing armies of squirrels and rabbits, a raccoon, a ferret, several deer, an emu, an elephant, camels and a catapult, drawn in outline as if to be colored. It's a story (a little like The Iliad) of offense and incommensurate response, and about the questions asked of justice by accident and fate.

There's no shortage of large questions here, nor of small ones that burrow into the understanding, ultimately carrying an outsize wallop. War and love and getting through the day are represented by artists from 14 countries, including a number of well-known Ohioans. Each produced five copies of a work slated to appear at venues around the U.S. and, so far, in nine other countries (including Sweden, Japan, Spain, Italy and Mexico) over the next three years.

Two other excellent shows, also on view in Morgan's massive ground-floor factory space, feature work by Zygote Press artists and a selection of masterful artists' books made by members of ABC (Artists' Book Club). Don't miss any of it.

arts@clevescene.com

141 entries from 12 different countries on display at UA's Emily Davis Gallery

By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art and architecture critic

Published on Sunday, Aug 02, 2009

The Art Newspaper recently reported that many buyers at the recent Venice Biennale were looking for work that has a labor-intensive quality, because in these cash-strapped times, they wanted to make sure they were getting their money's worth.

As naive as that might seem, it's still a good indication of where things are headed, artistically speaking.

For years, young artists were advised to keep the craft-like qualities of their work to a minimum because too much handiwork made it look labor-intensive, and that sort of thing was relegated to the crafts. Those of you who were smart and/or stubborn enough to ignore that advice can now feel justifiably smug.

As the crafts have experienced a resurgence

in recent years, they have brought with them a renewed interest in how things are made and a growing appreciation of things that are superbly made.

It also doesn't hurt that shows such as PBS's Antiques Roadshow have made the public increasingly aware of what it takes for an object to become collectible and how superb craftsmanship almost always has a hand in that.

It's with that in mind then that we consider Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books, on view at the University of Akron Emily Davis Gallery through Sept. 5.

The idea for the exhibit came from Hui-Chu Ying, professor of printmaking at the Myers School of Art. She thought about having a traveling show of miniature books, and while at the Southern Graphics Council in March, issued an invitation to everyone there and asked them to pass the word.

''I thought of doing something small because with big things, you have to think about the cost, and we're having an economic downturn right now, so in order to make it affordable, the weight had to be small so we could ship it to as many places as possible,'' Hui-Chu said.

''The invitation asked printmaking teachers at colleges and universities to make a handmade book in an edition of six, and give me five and I will travel those five all over.

''This is one set here at Emily Davis Gallery, and four other sets are traveling nationally and internationally,'' she added. ''Currently, they are traveling to 40 venues, so it worked out pretty good.''

Thanks to Alicia Candiani, director of Pryecto'ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, who is the international coordinator for the touring exhibit, Hui-Chu was persuaded that the show could also be sent to international venues.

''When the international artists submitted their books, I asked them if they thought they could find a place to show them, and they said, 'Of course!' '' Hui-Chu said. ''It spread by word of mouth and through the Internet. I had 141 entries from 12 countries, and they are going to travel to 10 countries.

''The entire show fits in one little box, and weighs only one pound,'' she added. ''To ship it by UPS is only $50. So for that little fee you can have a show.''

Each artist paid a $30 entry fee, and for that, they received an exhibit catalog, put together by students and faculty at the Myers School of Art. The catalog, after its initial run for the artists, is printed on demand for each person who orders one.

The variety of the handmade books is seemingly endless, but the common denominator is superb craftsmanship.

''Some did a collaboration, some did printing, some did writing, some did a combination,'' Hui-Chu said.

And every single one of them is both beautifully made and fascinating to behold.

Letitia Bajuyo of Hanover, Ind., created A Wonderful Toy, a book consisting of wooden covers that open up to reveal a bright pink Slinky, onto which she has written an essay.

Christopher Hoot, associate professor at the Myers School of Art, created a bunny book with various adorable rabbit images folded between faux-fur covers.

Michael Loderstedt, associate professor at the Kent State University School of Art, created an exquisite screen-printed folded book, Bird Song, whose covers are isosceles trapezoids, which means that in order to fold the pages to fit neatly between the covers, the pages had to be cut on a curve.

Neermala Luckeenarain, an artist from Mauritius, off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, somehow heard about the show and sent in a beautiful folded book called Multicultural Society. It has a handmade embossed cover containing folded pages of black, white, blue, yellow and red filled with wonderful relief prints.

Iman Mahmud of Munich, Germany, entered an impressive book dedicated to Herman Hesse's 1922 novel Siddhartha. Abstracts from the novel are overwritten with calligraphy, and some of the pages are structured with gypsum. Her Web site (http://www.iman-mahmud.de/english/index.htm) contains examples of her work in books, calligraphy and paintings.

Some artists made pop-up books, others made books whose pages open up to create three-dimensional shapes, still others made books from unconventional materials, such as wax or hair product packaging. One artist created pages of hand-quilted bridal veil material into which she inserted tiny objects.

This is an entrancing exhibit, the only drawback being that visitors can't handle the books, because some of them are too fragile.

But to make up for that, Gallery Director Rod Bengston and his assistants have made a video showing the books being opened and explored by a trained conservator, so that visitors can see all their wonderful mysteries and revelations.

All in all, a great effort by Hui-Chu and the artists who submitted books, an innovative approach to organizing an exhibit and circulating it for wider appreciation, and a wonderful way to while away an hour or two taking in these small marvels.

The exhibit also can be seen online at the gallery's Web site (http://art.uakron.edu/exhibitions/mimb-monumental-ideas-in-miniature-books/) which has a link to the catalog's Web site (http://mimb.org/). The original exhibit at Columbia College in Chicago is also online at Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimborg/).

Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.