KALEID; Folded Dictionary, Sam Winston
Contemporary artists’ book publisher Kaleid presents a group show dedicated to unique books created by artists and selected for their originality and conceptual response to the traditional book form. The exhibition is entitled The Grand Plasto-Baader-Books and runs until December 24 at the KALEID gallery, Shoreditch.
KALEID curator Deeqa Ismail has chosen the title The Grand Plasto-Baader-Books to reference the Dada artist Johannes Baader’s text and collage tower installation Das Grosse Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama and aims to bring to life its description as ‘the aftermath of an accident between a trolley car and a newspaper kiosk’ by US art historian Maud Lavin. Ismail, a graduate of the Book Arts and Design BA (Hons) course at the London College of Communication, aims to challenge the viewer to consider not what a book is but what a book can be.
Sam Winston’s Folded Dictionary is one of twenty volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary that have been transformed by folding every page differently – making more than 80,000 folds over the twenty books.
KALEID; Samantha Huang
The show includes both well-established artists and students still at college. For example, Samantha Huang is a student at the London College of Communication and has three pieces in the show – using varied techniques to work into the pages and covers of second hand books, such as punching out tiny colourful circles or cutting in horizontal lines to create ribbons of paper.
East Dulwich Dictionary, Finlay Taylor; Continuous Defence/Map 09, Mark Harris
Finlay Taylor, MA Printmaking Subject Leader at Camberwell College of Arts has displayed his East Dulwich Dictionary. Buried for six months, this decomposed and subsequently exhumed book has been transformed into a unique piece by Taylor’s use of worms and mollusks to burrow paths through the pages. Continuous Defence/Map 09 by Mark Harris is a piece made up of triangular section of old hardback book covers.
Aunt Bell, Evy Jokhova; Stille Nachte, Redchurch Idler
Aunt Bell by Evy Jokhova sees butterflies cut out and fluttering away from an old mildewed book. Redchurch Idler’s Stille Nachte is a seasonal piece made up of an overworked painting, light bulb and fan booklet.
12ft Tower, Pete Williams; Book Tower II, Wayne Chisnall; Reading, Haddock and Chubb
Pete Williams’ 12ft Tower, an installation made from rescued scrap wood and woodcuts, has been assembled as a focal point in the gallery; its ledges, nooks and crannies sheltering the table of unique books. Book Tower II (Nostalgia For a Childhood That Wasn’t Mine) by Wayne Chisnall is an installation made from interlocked second-hand children’s books – classic middle-class books such as the Ladybird series that reflect a nostalgia for a 50s/60s childhood. Reading by Haddock and Chubb is a black and white installation designed to be read with the eyes.
The Grand Plasto-Baader-Books runs until December 24 at the KALEID gallery, Shoreditch.
KALEID
Sam Winston
Evy Jokhova
Mark Harris
Wayne Chisnall
Haddock and Chubb
