Book Iceland Reports

Land & Texture: Exploring Iceland for Content in Artist Books

The directors at the Gullkistan Center for Creativity in southern Iceland invited me to teach a workshop on “something related to books and texture”. The invitation prompted me to reflect on my travels and experiences there, and my impressions & thoughts about its landscape of unique textures and colors not seen elsewhere on this earth. The two words, books & texture, guided me in shaping the workshop.

Last summer I returned to Iceland to teach the workshop, Book Iceland. On April 2nd, I will report back on it in a talk entitled, Land & Texture: Exploring Iceland For Content in Artist Books at the San Francisco Center For the Book. Book Iceland was inspired by the natural energies that shaped Iceland’s landscapes. Participating artists explored materials, tools, and processes — forming content for their artist book projects.

The talk is one of several public programs offered during the exhibition, Posted/Unposted, an exhibition of artist books, letterpress & printmaking from the Nordic collective Codex Polaris of the greater Scandinavian book arts community.

Date:
Tuesday, April 2, 6 - 8 pm (Talk @ 6:30 pm)

Location:
San Francisco Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street
San Francisco, CA

SFCB is open to the public 10am to 5:30pm every day

ath'wart press at Codex 2019

A rhythm of weather effects—light blinding rays offset by gray belting hail and rain. A spectacular and felt side show as my table was located on the aisle closest to the industrial sized windows of the Craneway Center in Richmond at the Codex International Book Fair.

I enjoyed every minute of this event. Where else can one experience a gathering of book artists from all over the world? Over 200 exhibitors from more than twenty-five countries shared their quality books along with engaging conversations on their creative processes.

The international focus this year was Codex Nordica and artists from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland were represented. Special to me as I have been traveling to Iceland for artist residencies since 2012. Last summer I taught Book Iceland at the Gullkistan Center for Creativity and met two of the artists as they presented the work of Airkir (www.aikir.wordpress.com), to the class. Eight from the group came to Codex. I invited them up to the NBLA shop in Sebastopol after Codex. They accepted. So, two days after the closing, we hosted what mushroomed into a delegation of ten artists: six from Iceland, three from Norway and one from Sweden. The whole afternoon was charmed. There was a lunch next door, then a showing of each other’s books, and finally sitting down with coffee and cake to talk about how we might collaborate or at least stay in touch. It was a wonderful ending to a week of non-stop conversation and contemplation on the medium of artist books.

The San Francisco Center for the Book is currently hosting the Nordic letterpress collaboration exhibition, Posted/Unposted. The exhibition opened before Codex and will run to April 29th.

I have been invited to present a talk during this exhibition on Book Iceland, a class I taught last summer at Gullkistan Center For Creativity in Laugarvatn to artists from the United States, England, Germany and Iceland. I will report back on my experiences there in the talk I have titled, Land & Texture: Exploring Iceland For Content in Artist Books. Inspired by the natural energies which shape Iceland’s landscape, the participating artists explored materials, tools, and processes, forming the content for their artist book projects.

The talk is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2, 6–8 pm at the San Francisco Center For The Book on 375 Rhode Island Street in
San Francisco, CA sfcb.org

Mark your calendars.

post:unposted002.jpg