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Publishing: The Craft Of The Book And Other Art-Based Practices

Peta Carlin

3 Deep Publishing explore the book as a conceptual work.

This article is part of the series commissioned for Artlink as part of the issue Handmade: The New Labour (see forums for discussion)

‘When art does not any longer depend upon its physical presence, when it becomes an abstraction, it is not distorted and altered by its reproduction in books. It becomes PRIMARY information, while the reproduction of conventional art in books and catalogues is necessarily (distorted) ‘SECONDARY’ information’. When information is PRIMARY, the catalogue can become the exhibition’.

With the advent of Conceptual Art in the 1960’s, the page and its confines became the site of work for numerous artists, including Lawrence Weiner, Douglas Huebler, Stephen Kaltenbach, Dan Graham, Ed Ruscha, Joseph Kosuth and Mel Bochner to name but a few. Each artist sought in their own way to critically investigate this form as a viable medium for the speculation on and presentation of the idea.

Contemporary art publishing draws much from this model, engaging with and departing from the premise of the publication as a location and an experience, whether it be, a gallery space, a work of art, a travelling exhibition, curatorial practice, or a collaborative event. Three publishers whose works acknowledge this legacy include Book Works, Lukas & Sternberg, and Revolver: Archiv für aktuelle Kunst (archive for contemporary art).

This year Book Works celebrates its 20th anniversary, and has since its inception, been commissioning books by contemporary artists and writers, including David Shrigley, Susan Hiller, Tacita Dean, Liam Gillick, Jeremy Deller amongst many others. As part of their celebrations Book Works have recently released Put About: A Critical Anthology on Independent Publishing, which was launched with a symposium at The Tate Modern. This was ‘a timely discussion on independent publishing and publishing by artists, focusing on books where the makers control every aspect of production and distribution. The symposium (explored) why publishers and artists feel compelled to deliver such materials, together with the economic models and audiences that can ensure their cultural presence’ .

Caroline Schneider, publisher of Lukas and Sternberg, was an assistant curator at the Centre Pompidou, and extend her curatorial practice, liberating the concept of the exhibition, through the establishment of this critical imprint in New York and Berlin. One of their latest titles, Fundamentalisms of the New Order, produced in association with the Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall and NIFCA, (the Nordic Institute For Contemporary Art ), is a testament to this approach. Originally an exhibition at the Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall in Copenhagen, in late 2002, Fundamentalisms of the New Order offers more than simply existing as an appendix. The title has resources of its own that continue the discussions and processes initiated by the exhibition. These provide a multi-faceted context for the deconstruction of fundamentalisms.

"By being relatively autonomous from the exhibition, the book is different from the conventional catalogue and points towards an alternative approach to the archiving of art exhibitions"

Apart from documentation of works, projects and events, it includes interviews with all participating artists, and theoretical as well as experimental texts by Bülent Diken & Carsten Bagge Laustsen, Jean-Charles Massera, Sabine Strasser and Slavoj Zizek.

Established in 1999 by Christoph Keller, Revolver: Archiv für aktuelle Kunst (archive for contemporary art) operates at the nexus of publishing, gallery and curatorial practice, seeking to ‘find new ways of distributing and communicating contemporary art’. Starting out with a series of artists’ books, providing a platform for a new interpretation of the genre and functioning as a 'gallery in printed format’, Revolver has since broadened its publishing activities, to include a writing series and documentary readers, exhibition catalogues and source books on contemporary art, focusing in particular on new and innovative practices in contemporary art production.

Between 2002 and 2003 Revolver operated an exhibition space in a small shop in Frankfurt, where exhibitions, lectures, film screenings and events extended the role of the publication and the means of engagement with the project. Further to this Keller established Kiosk—a travelling archive of independent publishing. Approximately seventy independent publishers, alternative magazines, audio and video projects—have provided their full programme for this archive which has been touring since the year 2000. The goal of this undertaking is to present and discuss the different strategies, motivations and goals of the people behind these distributed multi-disciplinary projects, showcasing their results and solutions in the context of a significant bandwidth of contemporary publishing and editing activities.

3 Deep Publishing distribute Book Works, Lukas & Sternberg, and Revolver in Australia and New Zealand, along with a number of other international publishers, and are currently organising for Kiosk to tour here in 2006.

While a relative newcomer, 3 Deep Publishing seeks to define Australian publishing in terms of this expanded field. As a publisher, each of our titles is considered and detailed, the form and production values,serving to extend and highlight the artist’s/designer’s conceptual premises and approach to their work.

Bird our first title, by young illustrator, Kat Macleod, and Amplification by photographer Jeff Busby, clearly exemplify this approach, and constitute the event, the exhibition in itself.

Our latest title, Formation and Form: 10 Years of West Space, operates as a retrospective survey, but also as a guide book, a critical departure point for continuing action in independent artist-run endeavours. While taking stock, this title moves beyond the limits of the catalogue, existing as a site of expanding dialogue, sourcing writers and texts to extend this series of important projects. In doing so, Formation and Form engages a broader audience and introduces other participants into the sphere of its activity.

A number of initiatives outside the traditional scope of publishing are currently in planning, and in February, 3 Deep Publishing launched their new publishing website www.3deep.com.au, an online gallery of art and design in print, the proceeds of which will go towards supporting our publishing programme. Unlike Europe, there is virtually no government or established private support available for art and design publishing in Australia.

"In the context of art, publishing
has often been referred to as a democratic medium, the affordable mass-produced object being able
to be shared by the many, rather than collected and hoarded by the few. Its power lies in its capacity
to be distributed beyond the immediacy of the event and
its originary siting."

This has particular ramifications for Australia. Despite greater ease in travel, and advances made in modes of communication, the book remains to a large extent, how we come to know the world and immerse ourselves in, and contribute to it. Publishing, in addition to the internet, is fundamental to the dissemination of ideas, creating opportunities for cultural exchange and critical engagement.

Peta Carlin is Publication Manager of 3 Deep Publishing

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official policy of Craft Victoria. Please log into the online forums to discuss the content of these articles.