Course title:

The book as a work of art

Course description:

The idea of the “book as a work of art” is more successful today than ever before. Books are constantly being redesigned as art objects. They are exhibition catalogs, illustrated books, or graphically extraordinary documentations of artistic concepts. But what is so special about books by artists? Who collects such books? On the first day of the workshop, the graphic collections of the Kunstbibliothek (Art Library) in Berlin will be presented, with examples of old and new books from its long collection history spanning 150 years. These are books from the first centuries of European book printing with woodcuts to the copperplate-illustrated books of the Enlightenment, the books of the industrial age, and modernism with lithographs and etchings. On the second day of the workshop, artists will be presented with their books from the period after 1945, such as Hanne Darboven, Marcel Broodthaers, Gerhard Richter, or Dieter Roth, for whom books played a central role in their artistic work. Just when people were talking about the “end of the book,” artists reinvented the book as a work of art. The focus is on their conceptual ideas, the media translations, and the material characteristics. On the last day of the workshop, current artist books will be discussed, with their trends and ideas between conceptual art and graphic design. What is the book as a work of art today, and where is the current development heading?

Bio:

Michael Lailach (b. 1969) is curator and research staff member at the Kunstbibliothek - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Art Library, Berlin State Museums). Since 2002 he administers the Rare Books Collection with about 100,000 books and proof prints and the extensive archive of the Marzona Collection. His research interests include the history of typography and book illustration, as well as artist's books and conceptual art of the 1960s. He has published on many contemporary artists and their books, as well as on historical topics such as European master scribes' books. At the Art Library, his exhibitions include Poetry Intermedia (2002), Based on Paper (2007), High Fidelity – Artists’ Records (2008), World of Writing (2010), Avantgarde! (2014), Jean Dubuffet (2015), Busoni Freedom for Music! (2016), László Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography (2019), and Gerhard Richter Artist Books (2022). Michael Lailach obtained his doctorate in art history at the Universität Tübingen, after which he completed a traineeship at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.