The Book in Bookmarks
August 22, 2010

At the Centre for Fine Print Research (part of the University of the West of England), the results of the eighth annual project, Bookmarks VIII, will be made public at the end of September. (The link is to the most recent, Bookmarks VII.) The reason I mention this now is that last week a fat package arrived from Sarah Bodman filled with bookmarks that we will be giving away beginning September 26. (Up through the seventh year, 29,200 bookmarks made by 292 artists have been given away in the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Croatia, South Korea, Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. But anyone can see the bookmarks that have been produced on their website (linked above) and clicking on the different numbers to see the archived bookmarks.

The project has attracted international attention, and for good reason. It’s purpose is to widen appreciation for artists’ books. Entrants are required to produce 100 copies of their individually-designed bookmarks. Bookmarks VIII was titled “Escaping the Library System 2010-2011m” and the twist this year was that only librarians were allowed to enter their work.

What came out of that restriction are some of the most “bookish” bookmarks I’ve seen for a while. While I can’t display them yet—we will have images of all of them when we can—I can tell you that it is a pleasure to see books in bookmarks.

As a collector and owner of more than 1,300 bookmarks one of the things I noticed early on was that many of the bookmarks have nothing to do with books—other than to hold your place when you close the book. That is, they lean toward advertising consumer items, promoting businesses, acting as practice needle craftwork for young women of the nineteenth century.

Today, more authors are making them up to advertise their books. Unfortunately, they tend to be made cheaply on the computer and have little if any collectible value, and are therefore of no interest to collectors. But in this project, they are art—literary art in miniature, particularly this year because they are made by librarians. One, for example, is a folded page from a book. But it is folder in a particularly interesting manner (and the only thing I can tell about book from the page is that it had to do with Souix City, Iowa). Stamped on one side, in pretty purple ink is “Imagination takes flight” and on the other side “at the Library.” The font is attractive and unusual, a lovely counterpoint to the stark black-and-white sensible font of the page.

Another is a folded envelope from Carleton College’s Gould Library. It contains what appears to be a microfiche film strip in dark blue just inside the top where it is folder over. On the backside is a stamped “Received” mark with the date “June 9, 1993.” The front, done all in blue and white, is titled “The Traveling Penguin” and has a quote from Neil Gaiman.

Then there’s one that’s part of an old “Due Date” card, and one that has a “Librarian’s Button” attached to it (off an old sweater perhaps?), and another that was put together rather cleverly using both a book flap from a James Michener novel and several parts of old catalog cards.

This year for the first time, I am proud to announce, BiblioBuffet will join the venues that give away the bookmarks. We are the only online site to do so, and we intend to live up to the desire of the project’s directors that as many people as possible have access to them. For the most part these are eminently usable bookmarks, as many of my older nineteenth-century ones—either because of fragility or weight/size—are not. I am excited as get out to share them, and I hope you will be here when we do begin to give them away.

Upcoming Book Festivals:
Unfortunately, there are no book festivals coming up this week or next weekend.

The Pub House:
Mark Batty Publishers specializes in books on the “visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all its varied poses.” What does that mean? An eclectic selection of books. For those who admire book art and especially typefaces, there’s Retrofonts, a luxurious book of 400 fonts that were designed between the middle of the nineteenth century and the end of the twentieth. They are arranged chronologically and include historical, political, and cultural contexts for each presented in the style of old type specimen books. Plus, there’s a CD  of copyright-free ones. Urban Iran takes a look at contemporary life in that country through the work of photographers, writers and visual artists. From facial hair trends to housing, from the underground music scene to publishing, the country’s diverse culture is opened up in a rare display. Paper War is an unusual approach to understanding the dynamics of propaganda and it does so by highlighting the use of paper propaganda during wartime. On May 11, 1944, a British soldier who was serving as a liason officer in the Indian Army was in Cassino, Italy. He collected leaflets that the Nazis had bombarded them with—a total of fourteen different leaflets in a succession of four languages: English, Polish, Urdu, and Hindu. Each message used different graphics and they are reproduced here in full size with translations.

Imaging Books & Reading:
I think it’s worth cutting up an old dictionary for this, don’t you? In fact I am so enthralled with this that I am going to seek out-of-date but not old dictionaries in poor physical shape (perhaps starting with those for college students) to practice my skills on. I own a massive Webster’s Third International Dictionary (unabridged) and I would love to have it look like this!

Of Interest:
Better Book Titles is a blog that offers what it views as titles that are better than the originals—tongue-in-cheek, of course.  The titles are . . . interesting, but you know he’s read the books. It’s good for a grin.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren