Richard Minsky Book Art Exhibit
Book Artist to Visit Oberlin September 9th, 2002
Oberlin College students and local residents are in for a treat during the month of September — returning students will be greeted by a temporary exhibit in the Main Library by Book Artist Richard Minsky. Minsky has been both thrilling and upsetting the bookbinding establishment ever since 1973, when, as a 25-year-old disciple of Brown University's bookbinding classicist Daniel Gibson Knowlton, he suddenly "started going in a different direction," beginning with an 1834 copy of Pettigrew's History of Egyptian Mummies repaired and wrapped by Minsky in binding sheets of mummifying linen emblazoned with one single small turquoise scarab. In 1974, Minsky founded the nonprofit Center for Book Arts in New York City. Since then, the Center has since held hundreds of exhibitions, lectures and workshops, as well as offering a variety of extended classes taught by the most creative craft bookbinders in the world.
"Artists' Books" are primarily works of visual literature and may not resemble our usual notion of what a printed book should look like. In some cases there is no written text. Reading a visual book is not altogether different from reading one with text. We bring to it our own literacy — not one of language and words, but of images we have seen and digested. Artists are thus free to explore the concept of the "book" and the results can be provocative and humorous. In his edition of Minsky in Bed, Richard Minsky reveals the (mis)adventures of his love life. The text and commentary are highlighted by the author with historiated, hand colored and gilded (and inhabited) initial letters. As with the books of the 15th century, methods of production evolved with the edition and no two copies are the same. Buyers then commissioned unique bindings; the Victoria and Albert museum in London ordered a binding in Minsky's bedsheets.
The copy in the collection of The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry in Miami has a binding of purple calf with eight Vermeil copulating couples, brass chain and handcuffs.
"Book Art" has grown from an esoteric medium with a few dozen practitioners and no audience to a field with thousands of artists, a wide audience, and a developing K-12 curriculum. The act of "publication" for many of these authors is to produce a single copy rather than an edition, and to place it in an exhibition. This also happens because many Artist Books are not entirely original; a large group of artists do not create their own texts from blank pages, but alter existing texts. For instance, Minsky took a copy of punk rocker Patti Smith's Babel and rebound it in ratskin and goatskin, the binding held together with safety pins.
Since 1993 Richard Minsky has been working on a series about the Bill of Rights. The current offering is a edition of 25 sets of 10 bookworks. Minsky has found a way to exemplify the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution as artworks. For each amendment he has chosen a text that either directly addresses the issue, is an example of what happens when that Right is violated, or makes us think about the Right in a new way. For the First Amendment protecting freedom of expression, for example, he burned a copy of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses and placed the charred volume in a stained-glass windowed reliquary. The Fifth Amendment, guaranteeing due process of law for criminal defendants, is illustrated by a novel in the form of an epic novel, Branches by Mitch Cullin, about a sinister Texas sheriff who takes the law into his own hands. Minsky bound the book in khaki, added a sheriff's badge — and "painted" the cover with real bullet holes. For the Sixth Amendment, guaranteeing a speedy and public trial, Minsky glued a black glove (including fake blood) onto a copy of Jeffrey Toobin's best seller The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson.
September is a particularly appropriate month for the exhibit as "Constitution Week" falls in September. As well, the exhibit offers an opportunity to observe the anniversary of September 11th by reflecting on our civil liberties. The Oberlin Art Department and the Library will also be hosting a gallery talk at 4:00 PM, followed by a lecture by Mr. Minsky at 4:45 on September 9th in the Main Library. You can get an advanced look at the exhibit by visiting Minsky's website.