Cirrus@Austlit

'In this paper, I want to consider the possibility that when we read artistsbooks and their curious kind of literature, we are participating in a new kind of literacy, and that, in honor of the quietly evolutionary nature of this new literacy, we might call it 'postliteracy.'' (Introduction, 6)

'The book form inherently has within it the notion of the archive. Books have the capacity to serve as records - "either reproducing a record of experience and information or serving as the document themselves." As Tim Guest suggested over thirty years ago in his introduction to Books by Artists, the documentary function is one of the main thematic elements of artists books. Books that document categorize larger elements to create order and meaning, The book, therefore, is a natural vehicle for the documentation of architecture and, more broadly, spatial practice.' (Introduction, 13)

In this essay, Caren Florance discusses the definitions attached to artists' books and poetry.

'In 1967, Ad Reinhardt wrote: "Words in art are words, Letters in art are letters, Writing in Art is writing." This statement can be borne out by how we "read" text and image differently. Alfred Yarbus's eye-tracking research in the 1950s and '60s showed that the observer's eye repeatedly returns to the same elements of a painting when examining it. Thus, additional time spent on perception is not used to examine the secondary elements, but to re-examine the most important elements.' (Introduction, 29)

[Tim Mosely's] 'concern within this essay is aesthetics' engagement with the haptic, and the application of this engagement to an emerging critical field of artists books.'