Special Call for Bookbinders and Paper Artists

Along with the other types of visual art in the gallery exhibit, there will be a section dedicated to complete, bound copies of the (love open hand) collection of one-line poems. Book and paper artists are still welcome to sumbit work that uses just one poem, and if accepted, it will be hung or placed with the paintings and sculptures. But for artists who want to bind the whole collection, they will have their own section in the exhibit. Books will be sold at "gallery" prices, meaning that you would be selling it as a unique piece of art, not necessarily the price range of a handmade blank book. I will be announcing the cash contest soon. It will be called "50 Books About the Same Thing" with $50 to the winner, but all entires submitted* will be shown and available for sale at the gallery exhibit. The due date for complete, bound collections is Feb 1, 2004. With permission, this date can be extended to Feb. 16.

Also keep in mind that when I describe a "bound" collection, I mean that in a very loose sense of bookbinding. Along with traditional bindings, I am looking for bookbinding that is completely radical as well - "books" that cross the line between sculpture and books. The nice thing about the poems being so short is that the book can be something that would be burdensome and impractical if someone had to read thousands of words. But the whole collection of 38 poems is less than 300 words, so it really allows some creative freedom. Hopefully.

There are a few rules I ask of all bookbinders who are working with the 38 poem collection:
1. Please keep the line breaks (or lack of) intact.
2. Do not change the punctuation in the poems, or add any additional words.
3. If you are going to bind the collection, do all the poems, from the title page poem (love open hand), the dedication - "here are three poems.." - and ending with "and that, as they say, was that." Do not add the letter at the end in which I invite artists to use the poems in their own work. That letter was added as promotion for the gallery show.
4. I am open to changes in line justification, but if you want to do a pure version, with the same layout I used, see the .pdf version on this site, not just the .html version where you have to click page by page. Email me if you need help.

More news soon. K


* To submit a book for the contest, send a digital picture through email, the book open and closed, with a description of the materials and binding techniques. For special cases where the artists wants me to see the book "in person", we can schedule a time for artists to come to the gallery and meet personally.