This is my year long MA research on the conceptualisation of the Book, and subsequently its composing elements, i.e the page, a piece of paper and its spatial and material qualities.
My research was initiated by my interest in notions of presenting and exhibiting, as well as the display mechanisms that are employed in both two and three-dimensional space.
My understanding was based on literary and philosophical theories about the Book as a literature container and abstract form. I was thus inspired to follow a conceptual approach on the treatment of spatial and temporal qualities.
Adopting, appropriating, and iterating techniques introduced by the genre of ‘Artists’ Books’, I explored the role of design. The Book as an object, tool, carrier of ideas and an alternative exhibition space, is realised in its most poetic sense. The Designer becomes Researcher, Author, Producer and Reader.
My research was initiated by my interest in notions of presenting and exhibiting, as well as the display mechanisms that are employed in both two and three-dimensional space.
My understanding was based on literary and philosophical theories about the Book as a literature container and abstract form. I was thus inspired to follow a conceptual approach on the treatment of spatial and temporal qualities.
Adopting, appropriating, and iterating techniques introduced by the genre of ‘Artists’ Books’, I explored the role of design. The Book as an object, tool, carrier of ideas and an alternative exhibition space, is realised in its most poetic sense. The Designer becomes Researcher, Author, Producer and Reader.
Visual Experiments
GALLERY SPACE → THE PAGE → THE BOOK → THE WORLD → THE BOOK
Using the space of a page as the gallery space, and the paper as the subject of display, I employed various tools to deconstruct and analyse connotations of the page (as structure, material and object).
I experimented with different techniques and means to alter its texture and form, create visual rhythms and give depth to the paper while testing various display arrangements.
The page as a structure for display
“A book is a sequence of spaces.
Each of these spaces is perceived
at a different moment.”
Ulises Carrión, 1975.
Studying aspects, characteristics and attributes of the book, such as its performative nature, the physical form actualising its space-time sequence and the act of reading as performance, I tried to highlight the importance of the haptic experience and the advantages of the book as a display device.
“The birth of the reader
must be ransomed
by the death of the Author.”
Roland Barthes, 1967.
This experiment is a reflection on how one holds, goes through, and turns the pages of the book. It is about the feeling, the form of the book, and the relationship between reader and book. How the book is transformed into a work of art itself and the context becomes the content.
Issues of authorship, interpretation, identity, performativity, and presentation are raised. The author, the designer, consequently the producer, sees his reflection in an infinite reiteration and redefinition of one’s self. A mise en abyme, a play of signifiers, of readership and authorship, of reality and impression.
“To make a book is to actualize
its ideal space-time sequence
by means of the creation of
a parallel sequence of signs,
be it linguistic or other.”
Ulises Carrión, 1975.
The structure of the book, recto-verso, left-right, top-bottom, front-back, and notions like before and after, the self-reflection of the process and of the codex form are found in the everyday. The structures of the surrounding environment are then transferred back to the space of the book. The narrative follows a spatial sequence, the order with which I am entering or exiting a space, starting from my house to end up in the outside world.
It requires more than one reading, requiring to go back and forth, turn the book around, and as a result to perform its reading. Exploring the dynamics between the content and the form, both physical and conceptual, that is highlighted through the exposed spine, the viewer is invited to rediscover the book and its use.
