How to Read Artist Books

This dissertation explores how artist books are read with a focus on works published during the 1960s. The argument is based on how the three artists I foreground expanded on the format of the book to disrupt conventional notions of reading and perceiving. The dissertation studies artist books as artworks formatted as books and how these artist books modify, change, challenge or enhance the perceptual experience of language and images. The premise is: What happens to art works when organized in the form of a book? This dissertation reflects on the effect of treating an artist book not as a book that has been developed into something more, but as a grouping of art works that have become something different. This way of looking at my case studies provides more insights into what images and text can achieve or create when put together and treated as one complete artwork. The dissertation provides a reading of three artist books, beginning with 21 Etchings and Poems (1960) by Peter Grippe, a portfolio that combines 42 artists working in a variety of styles in different periods, published in New York. The second art book I consider is Cent mille milliards de poèmes (1961) by Raymond Queneau, first published in Paris by Gallimard. The book is made up of sonnets, but each page has been cut into fourteen strips, horizontally, so that each line of the sonnet is printed on its own piece of paper. The third and last chapter discusses 1¢ Life (1964) by the Chinese American artist Walasse Ting, edited by Sam Francis and published in Bern, Switzerland. The work combines 62 lithographs by artists including Enrico Baj, Reinhoud d’Haese, Jim Dine, Kimber Smith, Bram Van Velde, Alfred Leslie, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, alongside poems by the author.