The Visual Book

Scrutiny in the great round

Tennessee Rice Dixon. Scrutiny in the great round. New York, NY: Granary Books, [1992-93].

Ruth Antrich Ely. [Jungle vein]. [New York]: Ruth A. Ely, [1992].

Tracy Honn. What was found: after the storm. Madison, WI: the Artist, 1989.

Mary Hood. Tax and title not included. [Madison, WI: M. Hood, 1994?].

JoAnna Poehlmann. Eggs under glass: (2 dozen). [United States]: J. Poehlmann, 1984.

Joan M. Soppe. Mother x child. [Cedar Rapids, IA?: J. M. Soppe, 1994?].

“…artists’ books are best understood within a wide context nurtured by several lineages and as such they show up, in our time, in a vast array of proliferating forms, quickly changing guises as soon as any one definition seems certain.” -Steven Clay, publisher of Granary Books.

Among the most challenging of works in the field of book arts are those that have little or no text, and those which don’t function as traditional books, but are sculptural book-like objects. Here are examples of artists’ books that rely on their visual elements to carry the reader through the work. Scrutiny in the great round by Tennessee Rice Dixon is bound and has standard page sequence, though the contents of collaged, painted and photocopied art are purely visual.

The surface of Ruth Ely’s Jungle vein is painterly and direct. In Tax and title not included Mary Hood’s line work is extended with actual black threads that project the drawing into the viewer’s space. Each book is a one-of-a-kind work. The fact of multiples is so basic to the idea of book production that unique books such as these are striking.

Eggs under glass and What was found both reference natural history specimen collections. JoAnna Poehlmann’s egg paintings are presented in a lidded, see-through box. Tracy Honn’s miniature box holds a real embryonic bird.

Joan Soppe’s Mother x child is an alteration of a found book. The idea of a book’s containment, its vessel-like qualities, are being used by Soppe in this sculptural work.