The Coleman Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the opening of “Create and Communicate” an exhibition of self published magazines by the student of Art Club, exhibited with selections from the Nexus Press artists’ book collection. The event will take place on Tuesday, December 10 at 6 PM in the Coleman Center gallery. Refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public!
Over the last semester Art Club students explored grassroots publishing and do-it-yourself design and media as they learned how to make their own zines, posters and artists’ books. The work explores their passion for food, cooking and culture, and is accompanied by a collection of artists’ books from the former Nexus Press in Atlanta. Students worked with Art Club instructor Boo Gilder to curate the selection, which includes student written descriptions of the works.
At the beginning of the semester students were introduced to various aspects of self-publishing including book structures, history, design, creative writing, and popular culture. For the remainder of the fall, students took what they learned and put it to work with the help of visiting instructors and community members. Weekly lessons moved between cooking, designing, and production as students explored their relationship to food and its relationship to cultures near and far. Using recipes, documentation, and personal experience, Art Club has created a series of zines true to the long tradition of self-expression, resourcefulness, and accessibility that defines self-publishing.
In 2005, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center gifted the Coleman Center for the Arts the collection of Nexus Press artists’ books. Using the collection, Art Club was able to expand their study of self-publishing to this unique medium. Each student chose a book from the collection and used that artwork as a jumping off point to discuss the the tools and techniques of the individual artists and authors as well as the language of the book form and its place in contemporary art and historical art movements. Students were encouraged to share their findings with the each other and the community in the form of the written responses displayed alongside artists’ books featured in this exhibition.
An artists’ book is, at its simplest, an artwork in book form. Generally, artists’ books employ the modes of production, visual language, and/or structures of the book. But other characteristics, such as shape, content, materials, imagery, and text are endlessly variable. Today, artists’ books cross artistic disciplines and techniques ranging from unique one-of-kind objects to numbered limited editions to unnumbered open editions. They can be fine press printed and hand-bound with specialized equipment or digitally designed and printed on-demand from your average computer.
While some consider poet William Blake (1757–1827) to be one of the first book artists, the field is generally considered a 20th century phenomenon. As printing became more accessible and affordable with the rise of industry and advancements in technology, artists from various disciplines and movements found books and publishing to be an effective and exciting mode of making, communicating, and reaching an audience. The medium particularly flourished in the 1960’s as artists sought to bypass normal institutions, such as museums and galleries, and create work that was cheap to produce and easy to distribute. In the 21st century, artists’ books take many forms as technology inspires some artists to explore digital incarnations and others to reacquaint themselves with the most traditional tools and techniques.
For decades, Nexus Press played a special role in the book making arena, funding and publishing hundreds of artists’ books and acting as one of the few institutions dedicated to the medium. From conception to print, artists were given the resources and support, namely access to a commercial offset press and the talented artists and printers who ran both the press and the center, to create work and a safe environment to experiment with the book form. Growing out of a grassroots coalition of Atlanta artists in the late 1970’s, the press eventually became an arm of what is now the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. Although the press closed its doors in 2003, its influence is lasting and the work it produced can be found in public and private collections across the globe.
From zines as a creative tool for local youth to artists’ books as a contemporary art medium this exhibition represents self-publishing and the book form as continually relevant and endlessly adaptable modes of expression.
– Boo Gilder
Art Club is made possible by funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of West Alabama, the Americorps VISTA program and the generous contributions of supporters of the Coleman Center for the Arts. For more information please contact the Coleman Center for the Arts at 205.392.2005, colemancenter@gmail.com or visit www.colemanarts.org.