Book Arts

I didn't know that book arts were so philosophical and complicated. For something to be considered book art, does the artist have to do everything involved in making the book, i.e. binding, printing, etc.? Are book arts a form of uncreative writing? What is a book? When does a book stop being a book and become something else, like a sculpture? I think book arts and uncreative writing go hand in hand and that there are strong arguments on both sides if book arts are or are not a form of creative or uncreative writing.

I enjoyed reading Johanna Drucker's book about artist's books, it introduced me to a lot of questions that I never would have asked about artist's books if I hadn't read it. I think that book arts, just like a dance performance that uses somebody else's music is considered creative and not uncreative writing. By altering a book's appearance I feel you are making something entirely new and drawing inspiration from already existing texts to create your own piece of work--which is why at times, I got a little bored with Drucker's really in depth questions about the technicalities of what consitutes a book and if book arts are in fact art.

This week, for our group presentation I had a blast making humuments. While I do think that altered books are a form of creative art, I can see the argument for why something like a humument or a book art that uses somebody else's words could cross the line into uncreative writing. Even so, the words are rearranged in a different way to create new thoughts and ideas, which technically is what authors do when creating books. The words don't belong to anybody, and using them in the same space that they are already in, though picking and choosing which to use is a form of creative expression.