Book Arts of a Different Cover
A review by Susan Mowery
The Delaware Art Museum, worth the trip if only for the inviting Copeland Sculpture Garden, the Chihuly glass bridge, Hopper’s Summertime, or the Peale family of illustrators; provided recently an exhibit appealing to librarians and to all book and art lovers alike. The special show focused on the work of Brooklyn-based artist, Nina Katchadourian, entitled, Once Upon a time in Delaware/ In Quest of the Perfect Book which traces the history of the book and its illustration at the end of the nineteenth-century and early twentieth.
The exhibit is set off in a small room painted in a regal red and gold that mirrors the look of several books in the collection. The artist worked with books from the museum’s newly-acquired M. G. Sawyer Collection of Decorative Bindings. As one walks along the wall one sees the grouping of books which could be in sets of 3 or 5 books that tell a story simply by the selection of book titles. What also makes it artistically pleasing are the colors of the books as chosen, sky-blue, bright red or forest green. The grouping is also as delightful to read as a poem. For example, three books grouped together read:
1. Somewhere in France 2. The Anglomaniacs 3. Meet the Germans.
Or another example:
1. An Unsocial Socialist 2. Adrift on an Ice-Pan 3. At the North Pole (by Jules Verne)
Or another example:
1. The Gentle Reader 2. The Curved Blade 3. The Literary Guillotine
This books arranged were digitally photographed and encased in plain black frames. The two real books encased at the entrance to the exhibit read:
1. Once Upon a Time in Delaware 2. In Quest of the Perfect Book
From her own words Nina Katachourian discusses her method of the art of “sorted books.”
“The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves, shown on the shelves of the library they were drawn from. Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library's focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library's holdings. At present, the Sorted Books project comprises more than 130 book clusters.”
To see examples of her work go to her webpage and refer to the "language" link.
The exhibit highlights the art of the book which has recently gained interest and also which is particularly fascinating since there appears to be a paradigm shift in the move away from the printed page to the world of the e-reader. From a primary source perspective, these are all first edition books from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century when artists were commissioned to decorate the cover cloth to advertise the work. This particular form of illustration would then change to a depiction of the book on a dust cover jacket that later had its own style and appeal.
The books in the exhibit, although mostly fiction, display the historical interests of the time in the areas of travel, the “West,” science, Native American life and the “new” automobile. Katachourian says that she also despaired when reading of the “romance” of the Indians in light of the reality of their violent demise. There were also stories of knights, kings and of European history. As a librarian, I found the show to be fascinating, poetic, colorful and respectful of the book as an art form. What was missing for me was the tactile experience of handling the book, opening the old sepia pages and smelling the antique perfume of aged pulp. Perhaps in some way adding a 3D factor would heighten the overall effect by incorporating all of the senses.
The Library of Congress has many digital prints of the book illustrators of this time including the works of Maxfield Parrish, Edward Penfield and Jessie Wilcox Smith (or sometimes Jessie Wilcox). There are considerable prints, photographs and documents under “Edward Penfield. “ There is also an entire digital collection entitled, Cabinet of American Illustration.
This is a one-of-a-kind exhibit that I hope will inspire more artist-booklovers. The show runs through September 16, 2012. Nina Katachourian discusses her process of "sorted books."
