“That is how the literature I have read presented the development of and reason behind artists’ books. While I understand the reasoning behind the democratic/antiestablishment desire, I do not feel it is bad to create unique objects of art (of any medium). The point of certain creations is their uniqueness as the vision of an individual. However, it would be ideal if that vision could be easily shared with a large audience. I also have no problem with art being highly valued, as that communicates the worth of pursuing and presenting a personal voice or vision. But hoarding of these creations as status symbols or prizes defeats the purpose of any artist’s desire to communicate through making a physical representation of ideas and thoughts in his/her mind to share with a larger audience.”

Yale Library, The Term Artists’ Books

This particular passage is from the Yale Library’s resources on artists’ books. The author here is giving a picture about the history of the development of the artists’ book and the sentiment behind it. The artists’ book, as defined in the resource, was created to be a specifically anti-establishment and anti-capitalist means of art distribution by hand printing and binding and not utilizing market means of publishing. The author is mainly using a combination of ‘arguing the other side’ and ‘dissenting’ to discuss the artistic value of artists’ books as a whole. Phrases such as ‘While I understand… I do not feel…’, ‘However…’, and ‘I also have no problem… But…’ are key markers of these types of dissent. The author is using the previously cited text to explore the limits of the arguments and disagree with some of the lines drawn around what an artists’ book is and what it’s historical purpose served.

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In the texts I am looking at, they all look at artists’ books as a mass distributed, self-made piece. I personally want to push the bounds of mass-distributed. With the amount of love and care that goes into crafting a book, I believe there should be some level of uniqueness to it- otherwise it is less distinguishable from the corporate counterparts. While I do agree that art should be accessible and affordable, some of the key tenets of artist book making, I also believe that an artists’ book should have some level of individuality to it, whether it be printed in a small set or completely one of a kind handmade.