Shifting Borders/Breaking Boundaries: the artist’s book as primary medium

In this illustrated talk, artist, curator and publisher Chris Taylor will explore the creative, social and political potentials of the ‘artist’s book’.

Chris will look at the origins of the artist’s book, what it is, how artists have exploited and utilised the book structure, and where the future of the genre lies within the broader art canon.

Chris Taylor is Professor in Fine Art Practice in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. Over the past three decades, Chris has collaborated on numerous projects with artists including Karen Babayan, Nicky Bird and Craig Wood, where the book format has been pivotal in the development of ideas and centre stage in the works’ final outcomes and presentation.

This familiar object — the book — remains as important a vehicle for visual communication as the white cube space might be to the contemporary exhibition or the proscenium arch is for opera.

Beyond our everyday experiences of the text book, the novel or the technical manual, artists’ books in their many guises can be intimately accessible containers of creative thought — providing a platform for words, images or sounds, or a combination of these, in which we can immerse ourselves as artists and audience.

Chris Taylor’s talk is hosted by the Armenian Institute.

An artist’s bookworkshop with Karen Babayan will take place earlier in the day.

Find out more about Chris’s talk and the workshop on the Armenian Insitute website.

Venue

Armenian Institute
1 Onslow Street
London EC1N 8AS

Image

Chris Taylor in conversation with commissioned artist Sufea Mohamad Noor during the New Voices touring exhibition, Cooper Gallery, Barnsley, 2019. Artists books are by: Les Bicknell, Julie Johnstone, Déirdre Kelly, Sophie Loss, John McDowall, Jo Milne, Carla Moss and Chris Taylor. Photo credit: Jan Hopkins.