Looking Forward. Ivorypress at Twenty-Five
The special edition box set of Looking Forward: Ivorypress at Twenty-Five has been conceived as a pack to house the three books. It includes an open top through which the coloured edges can be seen and unfolds into a display device once opened. The books can also be acquired separately.
Words, Books, and Stories consider the many facets of Ivorypress activity as a means of reflecting on the history of the artist’s book as a medium and of generating new ideas in art publishing for current and future generations of creators, historians, and students. By critically examining these materials, engaging in a series of interviews, and developing scholarship on past exhibitions, publications, and curatorial activities, these volumes seek to amplify the scholarship on the medium of the artist’s book.
These three volumes chronicle Ivorypress’s history since 1996 using a variety of primary sources and diverse perspectives that range from oral histories and archival documents to pictorial records and texts. It is a research tool for current and future generations of creators, historians and students as well as an opportunity to look back at the people, texts, images, artists’ books, and works of art that have shaped Ivorypress.
Words (buy here) is a selection of sixty texts out of the hundreds published by Ivorypress since 1996, ranging from artist statements and essays to poems and narrative texts. Many of these writings were previously only available to a relatively small audience, and thus Words seeks to democratise these texts by making them accessible to a wider public.
Books (buy here) foregrounds the primacy of the artist’s book as an artistic medium at Ivorypress. Introductory essays explore the conceptual underpinnings of the Ivorypress Artists’ Books Collection and the history of the artist’s book. Through sixteen richly illustrated entries, Books chronicles the complex, varied, and often laborious production processes for each of the artists’ books.
Stories (buy here) presents the voices of some of the leading figures in the visual arts and in the field of artists’ books. Through dialogue, Stories seeks to unpack the recent history and current issues surrounding the artist’s book, a medium that has been historically embraced by artists yet has only recently gained the recognition of museums and collectors of contemporary art.