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A Manifesto for the Book

The publication, A Manifesto for the Book, co-authored by Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden, is the principal outcome of an AHRC-funded project: ‘What will be the canon for the artists’ book in the 21st century?’(May 2008 - February 2010). Through a series of interviews with curators, artists, librarians, bookmakers, gallerists and educators, the project, for which Bodman was the Principal Investigator, analysed the current context and the future of artists’ books, exploring the concepts that inspired their creation and scrutinising the debates that attend their production. Through a series of fourteen case studies, the project, responding to American art critic Johanna Drucker’s call for a revised terminology for artists’ books in the twenty-first century, significantly extended awareness and understanding of what now constitutes an artist’s book, spanning traditional production methods to contemporary digital technologies. Bodman’s individual outputs consist of conducting and writing seven interviews and three case studies.

The research was presented by the co-authors at two seminars and a conference and through three exhibitions (2008-2010). A Manifesto for the Book was made available virtually on the project’s website (www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/canon.htm) and has been downloaded by over 19,000 visitors to the site. It was translated into Portuguese in Pli Magazine (Spring 2012), an arts design criticism quarterly, at the invitation of the editor José Bartolo. Bodman was invited by the Tate Research Department to present the project’s findings for the Tate Britain/UAL AHRC research development network ‘Digital Transformations: Transforming Artists’ Books’ (May 2012), and commissioned to write ‘What Do You Want to Make Today?’ for the Tate (August 2013). Articles and interviews from the project have been published in Printmaking Today and The Artist’s Book Yearbook (2011-2012). David Paton has reviewed the project for On Making: Integrating Approaches to Practice-led Research in Art and Design, University of Johannesburg (15-16 October 2009).