The overall project for which these books were editioned included a series of watercolors and other studies that were exhibited in Charlottesville, first at the Off-Grounds Gallery in December, 2005, and the second time at Les Yeux du Monde as part of the Compicit Codex! exhibit in August-September 2006. The books are meant to provide a catalogue of the smaller pieces from those exhibitions and also offer a text stating the premises that underlie the works. In many ways, these pieces and the publication continue a project that has been ongoing for several decades that addresses organic process and form through drawings and watercolors.
The smaller watercolors from the series were put on the scanner. Files were produced in InDesign to add plate numbers and other texts. Prints were made on folded sheets, thus causing some mis-feed. Sheets were pulled into a single gathering and sewn into a Jacquonnette binding.
typographic: Humanistic font (Caslon or Garamond) for the text. Clean and very straightforward in design
imagery: Watercolors from organic and inorganic matter.
graphical: Simple layout to create the sense of a nature album.
openings: Pages are printed on a single side only.
textual: Scientific in presentation and tone.
The book is an album, with an essay, "The Aesthetics of Decay" that outlines the principles that underlie the works. The book is about the ways in which deterioration and wear reveal structure and form, registering these as an aesthetic process.
Johanna Drucker
type: initiating
role:
artist
author
designer
printer
publisher: Druckwerk
dates:
production: 2005-00-00
publication history: Two editions of this were issued, one in summer 2005 and one in summer 2006, each to accompany exhibitions.
movement:
conceptual (AAT)
subject:
ecological Art (AAT)
artists' books (LCSH)
themes: The aesthetics of decay.
content form:
Exhibition catalogue
publication tradition:
catalogue (AAT)
artists' book (local)
album (local)
illustrated book (local)
inspiration: Natural objects and cultural decay.
related works: Experience of the Medium, Graphical Investigations, Events/Particles, and Subjective Meteorology
other influences: Nature drawings and the tradition of scientific illustration
manuscript type: texts
location: artist's archive
manuscript type: mockups
location: artist's archive
manuscript type: other
location: artist's archive
note: Paintings and drawings are in the artist's archive.
edition type: editioned
publisher: Druckwerk
place: Charlottesville
dates:
production: 2005-00-00
edition size: 6 copies
note: This is the first of two editions, the second done in 2006 to accompany another exhibition.
horizontal: 9 inches closed
vertical: 12 3/4 inches closed
production means:
digital inkjet (local) Epson RX 500
binding: case binding (AAT) Jacquonnette
substrate:
bookBlock: paper Mohawk superfine
other materials: Silk
general description: The volume has the general look of a nature album, but without any hint of parody.
format: codex (AAT)
cover: Paste papers over boards, with a pattern that has the look of weathered suede, bound with black silk on the spine.
color: yes Inkjet
pagination: unpaginated 18
numbered?: numbered
signed?: signed
An edition of six copies (one archive, one artist's proof, three for sale, one for who) were produced for an exhibition at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in fall of 2005. The original watercoors were scanned and printed on an Epson Stylus RX 500. This project was produced at the hot end of summer in Charlottesville, Virginia.
manuscript type: texts
location: artist's archive
note:
manuscript type: other
location: artist's archive watercolors
note: Framed, matted, and exhibited, some were sold or given away, but the drawings remain more or less in the archive.