What is a book exactly? It enjoys its own mixed status among
man-made things as both a matter-of-fact object and a portable altar
for the manifestation of mind. The deceptively slight treasures called
artists’ books embody this contradiction, bundling the limitless range
of words with the talisman-like fascination for finely wrought,
hand-held things. At least since the 1876 publication of
Stéphane Mallarmé’s “L’après-midi d’un faune,”
with its wood engravings created by Édouard Manet, artists and
poets have concocted such potent, essentially pre-modern objects,
through all the technological and aesthetic revolutions of the past
century and a half.
The 137 contemporary small works of art at Monumental Ideas in
Miniature Books (MIMB as it’s called at flickr.com where the whole show is
documented), painstakingly assembled by Hui-Chu Ying, associate
professor at the University of Akron’s Myers School of Art, constantly
surprise the viewer with innovative combinations of materials,
presentation and subject matter. Pinned to Morgan’s walls, arrayed on
long shelves, spread over tables and perched atop pedestals, these
“books” (many of them are more like folded drawings or origami-inspired
sculptures, sometimes consisting entirely of images, or combined with
stories, captions or phrases) display the wit and poetic power of
intimate statements, outweighing most monuments on the scales of
emotional impact.
Images vary from the horrific to the delightful; deadly
serious subjects rub shoulders with whimsy. Relatively conventional
fold-out formats predominate, seeming a little fusty (though often
exquisitely well-constructed) next to the delicious funkiness of a
piece like Leticia Bajuyo’s “A Wonderful Toy,” with text handwritten
along the curls of a fuchsia-colored Slinky. Another unusual work by
Rabeya Jalil is made of half-inch-wide stitched-cloth “tag rolls”
unspooling from a box pierced with a small square window crisscrossed
with thread, like an amorous whisper in an ancient alleyway. Then
there’s Jessica White’s “The Bad Sparrow.” About three inches high and
nine feet long, it shows opposing armies of squirrels and rabbits, a
raccoon, a ferret, several deer, an emu, an elephant, camels and a
catapult, drawn in outline as if to be colored. It’s a story (a little
like The Iliad) of offense and incommensurate response, and
about the questions asked of justice by accident and fate.
There’s no shortage of large questions here, nor of small ones that
burrow into the understanding, ultimately carrying an outsize wallop.
War and love and getting through the day are represented by artists
from 14 countries, including a number of well-known Ohioans. Each
produced five copies of a work slated to appear at venues around the
U.S. and, so far, in nine other countries (including Sweden, Japan,
Spain, Italy and Mexico) over the next three years.
Two other excellent shows, also on view in Morgan’s massive
ground-floor factory space, feature work by Zygote Press artists and a
selection of masterful artists’ books made by members of ABC (Artists’
Book Club). Don’t miss any of it.
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2009.