Vehicles & Volumes

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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.

A book is an object, which binds together by fastening its contents to a hinge on one side. Within its frame the pages of a book carry words, sentences, and photos; which pass on knowledge, thoughts, poetry or literature to its reader. One of few, a book is an object that can travel through time and across the world as it continues to carry itself onwards from one generation to the next. As we evolve over time, so do the forms in which we communicate our ideas and experiences. Books continue to expand outwards, creating limitless opportunities for its readers to interpret them. Artists' books and multiples are books or art books, often published in small editions, or produced as one-of-a-kind objects. The spectrum of such books can include printed books of poetry, conceptual books, sculptural and visual works, and magazines. Unique in its medium, a book may only perform its function if the viewer interacts with it. Artists' books are above all, a physical object with which we interact with the physical world. Vehicles & Volumes beckon a special interaction, which invites you to look deeper and broaden your creative mind in what encompasses the makeup of a book.                                                                     

Untitled sc/ab/102/2001, Sophie Coombs, 2001, From the collection of: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Immersed in process-based works, "Untitled sc/ab/102/2001" demonstrates Coombs' obsessive and detailed drawing practice in which she works out the imaginary and material world. Reproducing personal thoughts into patterns, her drawings evolve into a form of writing, similar to a journal.
Book of Forms, Aiha, Martti, 1987, From the collection of: EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art
Interested in formal elements such as line, Aiha manipulated each page of "Book of Forms", a Russian medical book. In highlighting the shape of each new page, attention to form and line becomes the major focus. In addition, through cutting away at each page, and removing text in the process, the work begins to circle ideas of censorship.
Omar Khayyâm, Abdullah Benanteur, 1965, From the collection of: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Removing the majority of the pages in "Omar Khayyam", Benanteur only offers a small glimpse at what the context of the book could be. Similar to "Book of Forms", Benanteur investigates form through cutting out shapes from the book, leaving large spaces of white contrasted against text and images.
Abecé, Johanna Calle, 2011, From the collection of: Museum of Latin American Art
"Abece" contains the exact reproduction of a series of drawings by Calle. Drawing each letter of the alphabet and repeating each letter across the page while changing the orientation of the letter express' how a sign can be manipulated without changing or removing its linguistic meaning. (Sample of Calle's drawing is visible under Details).
The photo book of Mu Mu Dao, Tang Kwok-hin, 2009, From the collection of: Hong Kong Museum of Art
With a growing ease of accessibility and information sharing through social media platforms and search engines, Tang used Google as a tool in searching for images worldwide. Keying words such as, 'sea', 'landscape', 'human', etc. into the search engine he adhered printouts onto glass plates, carved the images and assembled a photo album of the world as created by Google search.
Book-Real, Kim, Do Myoung, 2004, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Considering influences of the media, and an age of information overload, Kim seeks the answers to questions surrounding the authenticity of messages and material delivered to the public at large.
The End of the Avant-garde, Martin Kippenberger, 1989, From the collection of: MoMA The Museum of Modern Art
Drawing on popular culture, art, politics and his own life, Kippenberger worked with everyday objects and materials in creating multiples. In working on "The End of the Avant-garde" he addressed the end of the period and the impossibility of producing anything authentic or original.
Collected Nam-jun Back article No. 1, 2, 3, 4 1. Nam-jun Back Sueddeutsch Zeitung 01.30.2006.2. Art in Culture(Feburary, 2006)3. The Art Magazine Walganmisul (Bill Violla Interview "Remember Nam Jun Baik", Feburary, 2006)4. Art in America "Nam June Park 1932-2006", Koh, San Keum, 2006, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
After regaining sight, Koh began transcribing text and news articles of particular meaning using artificial pearls to represent the alphabet on panels. Through the process of grouping beads together to symbolize words and sentences, they became a codified language. With only the title as an indication of the context, legibility is replaced by simple form.
A book from the sky, Xu Bing, 1987-1991, From the collection of: Hong Kong Museum of Art
"A book from the sky" works to bring together both Chinese and Western elements of art. Bing carved square-block characters designed to look similar to traditional Chinese anagrams but are are linguistically meaningless in function, and patterned them after the classical style used for printing.
Negative Exposure, Kang, Young Min, 2005, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Completely deconstructing the form of a book, Kang created a collage using every figure and frame in a Spiderman comic book. Connecting the composition, Kang composed a life-sized spiderweb according to the narrative depicted in Spiderman.
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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.
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