Bookwork : medium to object to concept to art

278 Pages·2011·9.672 MB·English

by  Stewart, Garrett

B O O K W O R K
K R O W K O O B
B O O K W O R K
M e D I U M t O O B J e C t t O C O N C e P t t O a R t
G a R R e t t S t e W a R t
The UniversiTy of ChiCago Press Chi Cago and London
Garrett Stewart is the James O. Freedman Professor of The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Letters in the Department of English at the University The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
of Iowa. He is the author of numerous books, including © 2011 by The University of Chicago
The Look of Reading: Book, Painting, Text; Framed Time: All rights reserved. Published 2011.
Toward a Postfilmic Cinema; and Novel Violence: Printed in the United States of America
A Narratography of Victorian Fiction, all published by 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5
the University of Chicago Press. He was elected in 2010
to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77391-9 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-77391-4 (cloth)
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Stewart, Garrett.
Bookwork: medium to object to concept to art / Garrett
Stewart.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77391-9 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-77391-4 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Artists’ books. 2. Altered books. 3. Books in art. 4.
Conceptual art. I. Title.
N7433.3.S74 2011
709.04´082—dc22                                         2010032666
For two Susans—
M. Bielstein and J. Wolfson
—who make bookmaking
an art
C O N t e N t S
list of illustrations viii

frontmatters xii

Prologue/Catalog: an exhibit in mind 1
1
the thing of it is 16
2
readybound 54
3
demediated means 94
4
objeCt lessons 128
5
anarChives 150
6
PolitiCs and the Bi BlioBjet 184

endPaPers 218
notes 234
index 245
I l l U S t R at I O N S
0.1. Wolfgang Nieblich, Buchweizen (1983) xvi
0.2. Wolfgang Nieblich, Der Lügendetektor (1990) xvii
1.1. Guiseppe Arcimboldo, The Librarian (ca. 1566) 18
1.2. Brian Dettmer, Tab aka The Boy Who Knew Too Much (2005, detail) 19
1.3. Wolfgang Nieblich, Still Life, Bookobject (1987) 20
1.4. Doug Beube, The Arena: White over Black, or The Secret Wars of the CIA (2002) 22
1.5. Doug Beube, Paris (1994) 23
1.6. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Torn Notebook (1992; fabricated 1996) 24
1.7. Steve Wolfe, Untitled (This Is Not a Pipe) (1987–88) 27
1.8. Byron Clercx, Purification (1993), 21st Century Edition (2002) 28
1.9. Adam Bateman, Rubbing: The Flesh (2005) 33
1.10. Matej Krén, Gravity Mixer (2000) 37
1.11. Adam Bateman, Untitled (2004) 38
1.12. William Drendel, The Starr Report: Beat Yourself Up, America! (1998) 40
1.13. Ann Hamilton, lineament (1994) 47
1.14. Ann Hamilton, lineament · book/ball (1994) 48
2.1. Robert The, Duchamp (2008, detail) 58
2.2. Robert The, Duchamp (2008, detail) 59
2.3. Robert The, Reader’s Digest (1998) 60
2.4. Robert The, Reader’s Digest (cake book) (1998) 61
2.5. Helmut Löhr, Faucet (1989) 62
2.6. Jonathan Callan, Mass (2003) 71