Exhibition: Artists' Books from the Ginsberg Collection


Intro |  Contents |  Floor plan |  Jack Ginsberg's essay |  David Paton's essay |  David Bunn's opening address
Jack Ginsberg's opening address |  Catalogue of books |  Source List


Chapter 9. Artists' Books as Auratic Object


There is no doubt that certain books have an auratic quality, generating, in the words of Johanna Drucker, a: "Mystique, a sense of charged presence. They seem to bear meaning just in their being, their appearance and their form through their iconography and materials." Drucker directs attention at the critical interplay between the fundamental characteristics of a book and implies that when a certain balance between these fundamentals is struck, that book will generate an aura or presence. We have chosen a few works which we believe have such a quality. Of note is Pamela Spitzmueller’s British Museum Memoir (Cat: 143) chosen for the exhibition poster and entrance, and Timothy C. Ely's Chart 6 (Cat: 40).



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