The Blue Notebook, Volume 12, Number 1, Autumn-Winter 2017 / Edited by Sarah Bodman

Identifier:REF.SE.2378.17

Dimensions:8.125 x 11.75 in

Publication dates:2017

Description:No More Happy Ever Afters. Lyn Ashby writes about his time as a Siganto Research Fellow at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia in 2016 and his thoughts on the narrative in artists’ books. Artists’ books, he concludes, present readers (and makers of these books) with a storyform without prescription or conclusion, that sidesteps the usual limitations and conventions of traditional narrative. In doing this, he suggests, they offer an honest and contemporary template of sensibility.

The Small Publishers Fair – A Community. The Small Publishers’ Fair (est. 2002) is an annual celebration of books by contemporary artists, poets, writers and book designers, held in the UK. Organiser Helen Mitchell reflects on the community of exhibitors and visitors that bring a unique identity to the event.

The Polar Tombola. Over the last seven years Nancy Campbell has researched Arctic cultures during residencies at Upernavik Museum and Ilulissat Kunstmuseum in Greenland and elsewhere in the region: My understanding of Greenlandic culture has been enriched by my tentative steps in learning Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic), designated a ‘vulnerable’ language in UNESCO’s Atlas of World Languages in Danger. This article describes some of the issues I have encountered while working with Greenlandic that are relevant to my own work as a book artist and poet, and describes my approach to representing the challenges facing contemporary Greenlandic speakers through The Polar Tombola, a participatory art project.

Opening Times: Carrión’s The New Art of Making Books as Creative Stimulus. Jim Butler of Anglia Ruskin University, UK considers different ideas of time and space within the book form. These are examined in relation to other artists’ books and considered in relation to creative stimuli for some of his own bookworks. Butler is particularly interested in how theoretical ideas and texts can be used as creative stimuli. One text he frequently returns to is Ulises Carrión’s 1975 essay, The New Art of Making Books.

Artists’ pages by: Phyllida Bluemel (UK), Deirdre Pretorius (South Africa), Same Same Press (Leonie Bradley & Catherine Cartwright, UK), and Cathey Webb (UK).

Cover, badge and sticker designs Rebecca Weeks.