Image by Marina Camargo. More here. (Found on swiss miss.)
Month: January 2009
Maps Everywhere
After my post about Nigel Peake’s maps, I got several emails about other interesting map sites and blog posts.
- Strange Maps, a blog about, you guessed it, odd maps. A recent post is about accidental maps, such as the cloud shaped like the UK, to the left.
- That lead me to Making Maps: DIY Cartography, subtitled “Resources and Ideas for Making Maps”. It includes posts on one of the oldest maps known and lots of fascintating map symbols. And that’s just on the first page!
- Over on my friend Cathy’s blog about bookmaking with kids, she has a recent post about “Me on the Map” books where kids draw maps of what’s important in their worlds.
Book Collecting: Math Curse
What’s an artist’s book? Does it have to be handmade? A small edition? Wikipedia has this (rather convoluted) quote from Stephen Bury (Artists’ Books: The Book As a Work of Art, 1963-1995)
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“Artists’ books are books or book-like objects over the final appearance of which an artist has had a high degree of control; where the book is intended as a work of art in itself.” | |
I’d argue that many children’s books are artist’s books. Especially Math Curse, by writer Jon Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith, with their inventive type treatments and illustrations (you can see more pages from the book here). Two more that I have in my collection are The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales also by Scieszka and Smith and The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers.
Atlas Landscape
Last week I saw the exhibit “Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes” at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. I knew I was going to see Lin’s large-scale installations that interpret natural topography — one was the geological surfaces of a mountain range. But I didn’t expect smaller works, like altered books made from old Rand McNally atlases. She’s cut into the book’s pages to form a precise and detailed topographic view into the map (although it doesn’t appear that the result has anything to do with the map on the top-most page). The smaller works were a good balance to the large ones, although the installations cried out to be seen outdoors and from above as well as at ground level. The photo is a detail from one of the altered books, Atlas Landscape. There’s a nice overview of the exhibition with photos here.
Adhesives: War and Paste
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“Making paste is a lot like making polenta — superstitions about always stirring in the same direction included.
Of course you have to stir twice as long & as hard to make the paste. Who knew it was so hard to make paper stick together.” |
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That’s a quote from Mary Tasillo‘s zine “War and Paste.” I bought a copy at Pyramid Atlantic back in November. She works in a paper conservation lab and is the official pastemaker. Mary gives several paste recipes and ruminates on paper conservation including “Mending Paper 101” where she explains how to fix tears. And I thought I had issues with glue — at least I can buy mine pre-made in a bottle!
Mary also edits the Book Arts Classified website which summerizes all sorts of book arts news, including calls for entries, exhibitions, new bookworks and periodicals…
More Glue, More Diaries
Over the past month or so, I’ve finished up quite a few little half-done projects. One was completing a new set of my food and exercise diaries. It’s a little 3″x5″ pocket-sized book with a glued spine, giving me an opportunity to practice my gluing-up skills!