“A Book Ought to Be in the Hand of the Reader”

CARRIÓN, Ulises, & AGIUS, Juan J., curators.

Kunstenaarsboeken: twaalf benaderingen [Artist Books: Twelve Approaches], 3 February – 7 March.

Many black & white illus. Two large folded sheets (299 x 212 mm. folded), unbound. Purmerend: Museum Waterland, [1981].

An uncommon exhibition flyer for a display of bookworks at the Museum Waterland, co-curated by Ulises Carrión and Juan J. Agius. Both featured their own works, along with those of François Bouillon, Axel Heibel, Diderick van Kleef, Federico Sanguinetti, Ben Sleeuwenhoek, Ad Gerritsen, J. H. Kocman, Tom Ockerse, Gèza Perneczky, and Pawel Petasz. Several examples of each artist’s work are pictured. All the works displayed were drawn from Agius’s and Carrión’s personal collections. This catalogue’s text, written by Alex A. M. de Vries, is in parallel Dutch and English.

De Vries pointedly notes, “Two book-artists curated and arranged this exhibition in such a way that you will not see much of the usual mania for conservation which is being practised in most of the musea. This means that you will be able to take the books in your hands…This exhibition proves that artists’ books deserve to be shown more often and on large scale. And, in an adequate way. The actual treatment, like that of conservators in musea who like to take care of books as if they were dealing with radio-active material, does not satisfy. A book ought to be in the hand of the reader.”

Fine and fresh copy.

❧ U. Carrión, Quant aux Livres (2008), p. 210.

Price: $500.00

Item ID: 8078