Livres d'artistes

Livres d'artistes or artist books in English, are exactly what they sound like: books crafted by artists. Artists are drawn to this type of medium as it gives them full control to conceive, create and publish their own work.

What are Livres d'artistes?

An artists' book is artwork created by an artist and presented in the form of a book. Artists have been involved in the creation of books for centuries; providing illustrations, printed works and sometimes even text to compliment the work of an author. The artist book wasn't considered a viable form of art until the 19th century, when the books were the result of collaborations with poets [1]. The earliest work that began the rise of the livres d'artistes is considered to be Charles Cros' poem Le Fleuve (The River) which is illustrated with lithographs by Edouard Manet.

Dragonfly, plate 1 from Le Fleuve, 1874 [2]
Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Manet's accompanying illustrations did not exactly compliment Cros' poetry; they were further interpretations of the text. In the lithograph you see above, Manet uses a dragonfly to represent the titular river from Cros' poem. It is that artistic interpretation that began view the creation of artists' books as an art movement. This led to other artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse in the 1930s, to produce early artists' books with poets Max Jacob and Pierre Reverdy, respectively [3].

However, it wasn't until the 1960s that the artists' book became popular. Artists began to examine new ways to reach people through different mediums like performance art, happenings and conceptual art. They found they needed a way to document their work, and many began creating artists' books as a result [4]. 

There is not any one definition of what an artist book is to include as it varies from artist to artist. Some books have fold-out pages or scenes, original watercolors or drawings, written text or ephemera, often using quality paper and materials. Because of this, artists' books are expensive to produce. For this reason, they are published on a limited basis and are often signed by the artist. Technology plays an equally important role in their creation as artists are keen to discover new ways to release and manipulate their work. Computers were especially significant to the development of an artist book as they allowed artists to begin exploring computer design as well as to have more of a hand in the publication of their work [5].


Why are Livres d'artistes Important?

Artists' books give artists more liberties than any other medium. Publishing artists' books, while expensive, is a way for artists to explore their craft in a way that shirks museums or galleries. The format ensures that their work for the book will not be separated and disseminated, making it easier to relay ideas. How does one interact with these ideas, these explorations? By coming into contact with the book. Artists' books are meant to be handled and studied, making them far different than their contemporaries in galleries or museums.

Livres d'artistes and Art Libraries

Art libraries are the best places for artists' books. Libraries allow patrons access to the books in letting them use and handle these works of art. Similar to rare books or manuscripts, artist books are used by students, researchers, other artists, and those with an interest in art.

While artist books have been around for decades, art libraries are still facing challenges incorporating them into their collections. One such problem is their size, which, like their mediums, vary. Libraries with space restrictions find it difficult to house the larger books, as well as those books which have grown beyond the typical boundaries of a book, or do not resemble books at all. Art libraries in which only librarians are allowed to enter the stacks often house their materials in archival boxes, folders or envelopes which are designed to protect and preserve the items. Others have open stacks, allowing patrons to browse and discover the books. These libraries place restrictions on what patrons can and cannot have in the stacks. The preference of closed versus open stacks causes some contention between art librarians, as many believe that being able to visually experience the books on shelves is an important facet of the books as works of art; this is what makes them unique and different from art hung on a wall or sitting behind glass [6]. In order to combat some of these issues, art librarians look to rare book departments, as they also contain a variety of different materials of varying size and access issues.

Art libraries must also take care when cataloguing artists' books. Deciding the format can make this difficult as the books often do not fall in just one category of item. Many artists' books purposefully omit titles or creator/publisher information, or are based off of and use text from already published materials. In these cases, it has been suggested that the creator is whomever proposed the creation of the artist book.

Subject access terms also provide complication to an art librarian cataloguer. Library of Congress' Subject Headings are often not descriptive enough to fully encompass a work. In these cases it is often recommended that other controlled vocabularies be introduced, such as Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus or RBMS Controlled Vocabularies. There is further debate among cataloguers regarding subject headings as many find subject headings can misrepresent the work itself, compromising its integrity. In this respect, it is important to create a union between artists and art librarians to ensure correct descriptive cataloguing [7].

Tobacco Project: Red Book, Xu Bing, 2000
Image courtesy Reed College Digital Collections [8]

Artist Book Collections
These three institutions have interesting collections of artists' books- MCAD's flickr page has some great images!

Smithsonian Libraries Artists' Books
Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) Library
Centre des Livres d'Artistes



Bibliography

1. Adamowicz, Elza. "The Livre d'artiste in Twentieth-Century France." French Studies: A Quarterly Review 63, no. 2 (April 2009): 189-198. MLA International Bibliography, EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2015).

2. Image URL: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/191513

3. Graimprey, Sonja, sonja.graimprey @univ-montp3.fr. "Cultural heritage and creation: acquiring, cataloguing and promoting livres d'artistes in French public libraries." Art Libraries Journal 38, no. 1 (January 2013): 20-26. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2015).

4. White, Tony. "The (r)evolutionary artist book." Book 2.0 3, no. 2 (December 2013): 163-183. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2015).

5.Drucker, Johanna. "Concepts of Production." Afterimage 42, no. 1 (July 2014): 2-5. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2015).

6.  Herlocker, Annie1, aeherlocker@gmail.com. "Shelving Methods and Questions of Storage and Access in Artists' Book Collections." Art Documentation: Bulletin Of The Art Libraries Society Of North America 31, no. 1 (Spring2012 2012): 67-76. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2015).

7. Myers, Ann K. D., and William Andrew Myers. "Opening Artists' Books to the User: An Example with Potential Approaches." RBM: A Journal Of Rare Books, Manuscripts, & Cultural Heritage 15, no. 1 (Spring2014 2014): 56-67. Library & Information Science Source, EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2015).

8. Image URL: http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/artbooks/bing.php