Livres d'artistes
These works use an existing text and high production values, characterised by fine papers, hand set and printed texts, and small editions.
In 1900 Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard began to commission artists such as Pierre Bonnard and Pablo Picasso to illustrate texts that he had chosen. These livres d'artistes were the earliest twentieth century precedent of the artists' book. They were sumptuous works using an existing text and high production values and were intended for the art market, rather than the book market.
Works in this tradition continue to be produced today. Often large format works, they are characterised by fine papers, hand set and printed texts, and small editions, hand bound or boxed. They may contain the work of only one artist, such as Graeme Peebles' Monologues, or several. The Raphael Fodde edition Carnival songs includes etchings by William T. Wiley, Mimmo Paladino and Jorg Schmeisser.
While the images are most often prints, they can also be suites of identical or near identical individual works, as in Andrew Christofides' Passage: a book of drawings.
Tate Adams (b. 1922)
Gesture
Melbourne: Zimmer Editions;
Townsville: Lyre Bird Press, 2005
Edition: 1 of 15 copies
Australian Library of Art,
State Library of Queensland
ALAAB ADA
Lorenzo De' Medici (1449 – 1492)
William T. Wiley (b. 1937)
Mimmo Paladino (b. 1948)
Jorg Schmeisser (b. 1942)
Anthony Oldcorn (b. 1935)
Carnival songs
New York: Raphael Fodde Editions, 2001
Edition: 29 of 60 copies
Australian Library of Art,
State Library of Queensland
ALAAB SCH
Katharine Nix (b. 1940)
Garth Nix (b. 1963)
The garden
Canberra: Editions + Artist Book Studio, 2003 Edition: IV of XX copies
Australian Library of Art,
State Library of Queensland
ALAAB NIX
Last updated: 25th August 2009
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