Week 31: 15th – 21st April
Despite all the hard work researching, writing and making, there are still lots of opportunities to explore and travel which come out of the PhD. This weeks adventure came courtesy of the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, who’d put a call out for exhibitors for their third Artists book Fair. Throughout the day, the gallery would be transformed into a market full of stalls, workshops and talks by artists from all over the world.
Fruitmarket Gallery
I’d first become acquainted with the gallery the previous summer after travelling up to the Edinburgh Fringe. There was an excellent exhibition of Dieter Roth which covered both floors of the gallery, and contained a bank of monitors detailing each of the artist’s working days. Upstairs was an archive of rubbish collected and catalogued by the artist, alongside a video of him discussing occasions of being stopped by customs with suitcases full of rubbish.
I found the curation and architecture of the space very inviting and well laid out. However, the thing that really impressed me was walking back through the bookshop part of the gallery and realising that they had a section especially for artist books! A short conversation later and I found out that not only were they planning an event for the coming year but they knew my supervisor too. Small world!
Artist Book Collective
I’d previously had the idea to create a new artist book exhibition around the theme of instructions, to explore how the audience might be incentivised to interact with the artwork. I approached the gallery with the idea and they told me that they couldn’t accommodate an exhibition, however they were really interested in having me curate a stall for the Artist Book event.
I set to work putting the call out to my networks and had a good response, which resulted in finished works from 8 artists, as well as a further one which didn’t make it in time. This work was by Heather Matthew, who I wanted to mention even though her work wasn’t on show, due to her extraordinary efforts to create and send the work all the way from Australia. (I’ve promised her another project in future so hopefully I can make that happen soon).
The artists in the show were Craig Atkinson, Black Dogs, Manya Donaque, Alex Hetherington (Modern Edinburgh Film School), Benedict Phillips, Louisa Parker, Archie Salandin, and myself. The curatorial brief was inspired by Fluxus, mail art and relational practice, so each artist provided book works which were loosely based on the idea of a guide, almanac or puzzle. A full list of images and text can be seen on the ABC archive page.
Artist’s Book Market
The Saturday arrived and, having travelled up the day before, I was refreshed and raring to go. There was the usual mix of artist books, fine press, handmade journals, independent publishers and poets. However, it took me a while to realise that a couple of stalls next to me was Alec Finlay. This might not mean much to you if you’re not an artist or a poet but I have been in awe of his work since I first saw it in the Northern Art Prize in 2010. I have to admit, I got a bit starstruck but he was very friendly and even agreed to discuss his work with me for my future research.
Artist talk
The other contribution I made to the Book Fair was a talk about the history of the Artist Book Collective. I’d previously delivered a similiar one in Leeds, and though I was a bit nervous, I soon felt able to relax. The room was comfortable, and even though it was a fairly small audience, everyone seemed to enjoy it and asked questions afterwards. I definitely felt that it was a good way to develop my presentation skills.
All in all, it was a successful weekend, with sales and new contacts made, and books purchased. I’m looking forward to the next one. Plus, at the same time that I was up in Edinburgh, my work was also down at BABE in Bristol courtesy of the fantastic AMBruno group. Artist books are definitely a good way of distributing your work.
