Book art – Working with hand, mind and heart

"In book art, there is a relation not only for the parts of the whole but of the whole to the purpose so that the result is an artistic production, a creative integration of form and content. Book art takes the narrative structure of books in innovative and unexpected directions."

Books have played a significant role in the advancement of human knowledge. The book History Begins at Sumer by anthropologist/Sumerologist Dr. Samuel Noah Kramer, for example, describes how the beginnings of man’s history are recorded in the earliest books. In 1902, 3,000-year-old tablets of stone were unearthed from the mounds in the ancient city of Shuruppak in Mesopotamia. Inscribed with strange, wedge-shaped marks, the tablets record the story of an ancient and forgotten civilization.

The use of papyrus for books was undoubtedly a revolutionary development. Instead of the unwieldy stone tablets that took forever to chisel and inscribe, paper was a much easier medium to work with. With ink from various plant and animal extracts, writing became a less tedious exercise.

However, it was not until the advent of the first printing press that more people had access to the written word. The Guttenberg Bible (named after Johann Guttenberg), printed in Mainz before 1456 is regarded as the first large work printed from movable type.

We have come a long way since then. Printing technology has advanced to a remarkable degree and access to the written word has become affordable to the general populace. The plethora of titles and authors has made us knowledgeable about a variety of subjects, and has exposed us to a whole spectrum of viewpoints. The only downside to this abundance and mass production is that there is a tendency for some to take the craft of bookmaking for granted.

The Ensembles – Collage and Book Art exhibit in Baguio’s Sanctuary Gallery allows us to rediscover the book as an artform. Like scribes of old, participating artists have created one-of-a-kind works that are a visual, tactile and intellectual delight.

Consider, for example, UP Professor Delfin Tolentino’s Dumeraria – The Lecherous Woman, a conflation of two variants of an Isneg tale transcribed and translated by Marice Vanoverbergh. It is an amusingly graphic accounts reflective of the matter-of-fact attitude adopted by the indigenous peoples. Or Cabinets of Curiosities, which takes a post-colonial stab at "civilization":

"...Thanks to the foresight of traders, Christian zealots and those hardy bureaucrats of the Empire, these artifacts of barbarism were preserved, reminding us today that once upon a time in some benighted parts of the world, men severed head, drank blood..."

Sanctuary Gallery curator and independent publisher Erlyn Ruth Alcantara writes In Other Words, Say What? – Enjoying Fractured English and Lessons in English, Part 1, witty volumes, which chronicle the non-native speaker’s amusing forays into a foreign language.

Famous artist Bencab explores this medium with EENT, a volume of photographs on handmade paper, while Clemente Delim presents us with a beautifully embossed volume of paintings.

Book art, as a creative medium is not new. This, in fact, is the fifth exhibit that deals with the subject. Of the original group of book artists, only Alcantara, Bencab and Tolentino have representative works included in this show.

What is the future of book art? It seems to me that despite the popularity of the computer medium, books are here to stay. Reading a book, after all, is also a sensual experience. There is no substitute to lying down in bed and savoring the words written in the dog-eared pages of one’s favorite book during a lazy day.

In these modern times when living spaces are increasingly becoming more cramped, collecting book art makes a lot of sense. Milton writes: "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on a purpose to a life beyond life."

Exceptional book art is that triumphant distillation of form and content.

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Ensembles – Collage and Book Art runs until June 20 at Maryknoll’s Sactuary Gallery, Baguio City. Artists included are Roberto Acosta, Ged Alangui, ER Alcantara, Ronald Bay-an, Bencab, Clemente Delim, Nida Dumasig, Jojo Elmeda, Jordan Mangosan, Ysel Martinez, Rishab, John Frank Sabado, Mark (Dungaw) Tandoyog and Delfin Tolentino.