A New Cultural Sector: BOOKS AS SCULPtURE

A New Cultural Sector?

BOOKS AS SCULPTURE

Books as sculpture were introduced in 1989. Resulting from another ‘eureka moment’. It was – ‘Some books have HARD backs (card). Most hard material can be SCULPTED. Ergo – hard backs of books can be sculpted’. So, when considering the exterior presentation of a novel (Title – Whiteheat) I designed/created upright boxes with sculpted sides. The Mss slotted into the boxes, were taken out to be read, the sculpture left on the table. As with Book-Decos I varied the units, retaining titleand author’s name. Whiteheat was a novel about novelists writing, discussing, thinking about novel writing. Overall, an examination of the novel form which changed the form radically. The sculptural exterior wasn’t the only level of change

The manuscript was printed on A4 paper, single sided, in response to the standardisation of text layout in novels (rectangle of printed matter on white paper, same font, page after page - which is not what I’m doing here. Font changes). NIL thought given by publishers, internationally, to novel form lay-out, bar initial font selection. It must rank as the most banal dimension of our culture and has been virtually the same for centuries. Publishers think it’s enough to lay out the text clearly. There isn’t a work of ‘major’ fiction that hasn’t been ‘killed’ in this way. Why submit Mss to such creatures? Have work laid out in a deadly manner and packaged in a form cliché? Wow! The consumers don’t know any different, it’s all they’ve ever been offered. Certainly they read some books (skipping many chapters probably) but what choice do they have? NONE! Across the board they get the same boring form of lay-out/package. A cliché layout in a monopoly form cliché. These publishers determine Western Literature? What is/is not readable? Wow!

With Whiteheat, I devised a different lay-out theme for each writer in chapters concerning them. For A) A single column widening from the left, page after page. B) A single column in the centre widening and narrowing. C) Two columns of variable widths on each page. So, each page was, on turning, a different visual experience. This on the understanding that ‘repetition bores’. All novel manuscripts have been laid out in a repetitive manner. The same size black rectangle on white paper, in each unit, publication after publication. Readers are ‘slugged’ by subliminal repetition. In my estimation, this repetitiveness counters the ‘colour’ in the writing. I call it ‘the publisher’s sludge’ floating on the ‘clear water’ of the writing. I often fall asleep after two/three pages reading ANY kind of book. Bored of seeing virtually the same text image, ink colour, font and font size on every page. This standardised lay-out originated CENTURIES ago. Generations of readers slugged by the ideas of the long dead. It might be convenient for the publishers, it’s a tiresome (literally) bore for me. In my estimation, it could have had a long-term serious impact on both literacy rates and interest in study among the young, DECADE ON DECADE! Why read when everything you read bores you? But don’t know why ‘cos you ain’t perceptive enough? You think it’s the content, in fact it’s the lay-out! As a result you get turned off school, all subjects being boring. Reading such ‘sludge’ presented subjects is akin to being taught by someone who drones on in a flat tone of voice. Boredom and sleep would result.

In Whiteheat, the ‘colour’ of the writing was offset by the ‘colour’ of variable lay-outs. Lay-outs that were more exploratory than in the Book-Deco (bar the first). A4 sized paper necessitated quite large pieces of sculpture. (large in relation to other table works). I worked with painter’s mounting board. This is quite thick, easily shaped, stands upright. Different designs were created. I include two designs here. Only about five were ever realised, due to T.B. An illness that needed 9 months treatment on enervating, drugs (Le mec au camelias). I wasn’t in any position to complete the project. Had I retained my health I might have gone on to create a Limited Edition and found exhibition space.

Just as well it wasn’t, the concept is ahead of its time today. This project is already receiving the usual ‘English Boot down on art innovations’ response from the art superstructure (A Mr Harker of ‘Talks Dept.’ at the I.C.A. Art Centre, being one suppressive person/venue approached. The I.C.A. – a supposedly progressive art centre. Ha!). It would have been further ahead in 1990 and, no doubt, kicked from establishment pillar to post, eliciting the disapproval of the conformist arts aparchiks with their adoration of the Monastic/Caxtonian Mss packaging cliché. Quite funny, the western world went from the worship of God to the worship of art clichés (publishing, theatre, painting, sculpture, pottery) at about the same time (renaissance) and therein continues. In the main, all The West has in these areas is ‘superficial permutations on archaic hackneyed forms’. Museums/libraries packed with ‘em. SUCH a rich and strange heritage (well strange, anyway).

Should you wish to try your hand at a sculptural form of printing/packaging, you’ll be up against the ‘disapproval for deviating from the cultural norm/tradition’ widespread in the U.K.. Innovation in weapons of war, technology, fashion, home gadgets, cars, transport, health approved, but when it comes to the Arts it’s usually ‘more of the same please, with slight variations – that is a DICTAT!’ The inhabitants of The Arts in the U.K. being, mostly, akin to primitive tribesmen endlessly dancing their traditional dances in their grass skirts – as the rockets take off for Mars. There is also the ‘Neo-Apartheid mind set’ (WITH art college qualifications = WHITE/work acceptable; WITHOUT qualifications = NEGROE/work unacceptable) also prevalent. I’m a painter, sculptor, potter, illustrator, novelist, playwright, poet, short story writer, avant garde publisher but ‘ain’t got no qualifications’ and so the suppressive boot descends year on year. (Also disabled – Petit Mal epilepsy, undiagnosed and treated for 40 years until recently. Ain’t life a bitch! Those graduate quacks really know their medical garlic!) But, if you can find a market segment that welcomes innovation, and isn’t discriminatory – if you’re not a graduate - because of ‘educational ‘colour’, the cost shouldn’t be too high. If you have an art college degree, well, you’re quids in, one of the Aryan art elite.

Give thought to – A) lay-out. With the new technology it is possible to – differentiate fonts (size, density, shape) on EVERY LINE, or, less radical, every paragraph/page. With tab stops you can also differentiate column width. With the column facility, by numbers of columns per page. All this adds ‘colour’ to the ‘colours’ of your text. B) You could also think in terms of TEXT IMAGES. If you keep these simple it shouldn’t slow the creating of a master copy. You could differentiate page colours on each unit. Perhaps vary printing – single side and double side – thematically. Bind at the top or the left. Size? A5 or A4, unless you want to ‘work large’, then go for A3. Or, vary the sizes along with the designs of the sculpture.

Materials - The pieces I made in 1990 were of shaped card. This is inexpensive, obtained in art material supply shops. One coloured sheet should be enough to make two pieces of A4 sculpture at a cost of about £2. You might get 4 A5 size out of one sheet – 50p per work + glue, design materials (paper block, pencils, rubber, cutter, ruler) say £2 each unit spread out over 25 pieces = £50. No large sum of money. You could keep the pieces ‘minimalist’ or add further effects in other materials. The title of the work and author’s name needs to be included. You can ‘cut and paste’ from printed words, each unit using different fonts. Stick title/name on in different places. You could also be more elaborate with materials. Make a container out of wood and incorporate sculpture in wire, metal, wood, leather, wool. Basically, all you need is – A) The Manuscript (which could be bound in different materials – leather, wool, linen, wood, card); B) The container into which the Mss slots when not being read. C) Sculptural effects around the container. I’ve made some more designs for pieces I might make if I bring out Whiteheat again in this form. They are attached to this article on www.londoncomedywriters.com. The images with the heads are basically the kind of work I produced in the ‘90s. The other group of images (3) is the type of piece I might create today, working up variations on it.

Marketing – Books as Sculpture are a new art form. If people buy sculpture it is in the form of commercial figurines or one-offs by ‘graduate’ sculptors. You would be producing something different from both. Mss in sculpture, a hybrid of two arts. You have the same exhibition choices as you have with Book-Decos + galleries who specialise in sculpture. If they’re not caught on the Neo-Apartheid mindset, they might let you display - for people who, hopefully, have a certain taste for THE NEW in the arts. As far as the writing is concerned – if you’ve been working at this for several years and think your work is good enough to publish, it IS. Publishers have proved themselves incapable of discernment, having visited a cliché on the world for several centuries. If you go for the sculptural option, it won’t cost much. If you hold exhibitions in your area, you’ll create a stir, being the first to have done so in this form, unless total indifference to the new in arts prevails, which is possible. In sculpting the containers give consideration to – size, shape, line, 3-dimensionality, materials, cost per unit. When binding the Mss, consider how it looks in the container and when being read. Leather bindings are attractive, but you could also bind in linen, wool or silk.

The results? True works of literary and visual ART, as opposed to standardised products. In the U.K. you might not make much moolah on the project, since ‘big sales’ are not what it is about. If you have a day job, does it matter? You certainly aren’t going to lose any great sum if the public fails to respond to your particular break with a creaking tradition. Their preference being for the hackneyed. And though the literary/art/theatre worlds operate in manners similar to the Soviet Union (The BOOK/The PAINTING/script in PERFORMANCE are equivalent to international PARTY LINES to which writers/painters HAVE to conform) they won’t bang you up in Siberia!

Tony welcomes your feedback and he can be contacted here.