book art
The book format is already loaded with meaning and expectation. Any artistic manipulation is then actively counter defined by the format. Appropriations stream back and forth and intentions and unintended consequences mix together. This circumstance of a third agent acting between art and artist distinguishes book arts.
The bungee like connections of intended and unintended consequence provokes other questions. Why is the classical reflex between manuscript and print or reformation and counter-reformation or textual and visual literacy so dynamic and so persistent? Is print determinacy at work to provide an underlying continuity of all cultural, religious, and scientific change? What keeps the book wedged among other media? Will the book subsume its own latest side effect of combined print and screen delivery?
bonefolder
“What set the Bonefolder apart was that from the outset it was designed to be open access and freely available to any and all online. It was the online only nature that allowed us to reach the audience we did with over 250,000 downloads over our 8 years and a presence in just about every library’s catalog.” Peter Verheyen
We now have the last issue of BoneFolder and it is a wonderful example of the series. This journal has provided an Ellis island of all the cultures that would make-up a nation. The relations of the diversity of features would still be difficult to chart as it required the whole sequence even to appreciate their scope. It is larger than book arts. The scope is closer to the qualities of physical books as depicted on-line.
Qualities of physical books depicted on-line is some kind of editorial paradox but the staff and Peter grappled directly with the challenges. The clean design and attractive two-column layout provided the perfect, conflicted, visual experience. We can also be appreciative of the energy and production of the authors.
BoneFolder is in the league of Fine Print and BookWays but it also enlarged the legacy. Now the momentum is handed off to the forthcoming journal of the Collegiate Book Arts Association. That larger organization will probably take more possession of its journal. Perhaps it will wish to take possession of the discipline of artists’ use of book formats. PDF?