BAR Issue 2: Hidden Parts of Publishing

Issue 2:

Features

• “Something Else Press vs. the Mimeo Revolution” by Matvei Yankelevich
• “Economics of Publishing” by Paige Landesberg
• “Interview with Claudia de la Torre on the occasion of Palimpsest” by Oscar Salguero

Reviews

• Jennie Hinchcliff on Radha Pandey’s Deep Time
• Katy Nelson on Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s Utopia Myopia
• Philo Cohen on Shala Miller’s Tender Noted
• Vivian Sming on Alfonso Santiago’s Separadores/Bookmarks
• Allie Haeusslein on Daniel Gordon’s Houseplants

WELCOME TO ISSUE 2 OF Book Art Review and thank you for your continued interest and support. While we have encountered a few obstacles in the production of the print edition of the magazine, we are greatly encouraged by the response we have received to the initiative and to the contents of Issue 1 online. We continue to see enthusiasm for a platform to engage with the artists’ book as an object and discuss how and why it works as an object—and for building and expanding a community with whom to share the excitement and fun of such conversations. 2022 has seen the return of in-person book fairs and the opportunity to come together to look at and talk about artists’ books along with questions of social responsibility, sustainability, and ethics. These topics are important parts of BAR and we hope you will join us in this dialogue. Add your voice and let us know what you think of our direction, design, and ideas and pitch us with your writing.

With Issue 2, we examine the “Hidden Parts of Design and Publishing.” How do the decisions that unfold during the process of bringing an artists’ book from conception to delivery reflect tradeoffs between an artist’s ideas and practical constraints of design, materials, and production? How do discussions between the collaborators impact the book? And how do the economics of the book shape the content and form? We are excited to have a range of writers exploring these questions across a broad spectrum of codex and non-traditional forms of the book.

For Issue 2, we have partnered with Clifton Meador and his students at Appalachian State University to work on the design and production of this issue and are including their thoughts on going through this process with us. Finally, thank you for your patience as we smooth out our processes and settle on a more regular semi-annual cadence.

Sincerely,

The Editors

Book Art Review (BAR) is a semiannual magazine dedicated to providing a forum for critical writing about book art and artist books.

Book Art Review publishes two issues per year, with the first issue launching in Fall 2021. We want to raise the bar for book art criticism! BAR is our plan to make book art criticism more visible and more valuable, and to engage with a diverse group of writers and readers. Our launching manifesto calls for “New Book Art Criticism,” and in building that, our magazine will showcase a new kind of writing about artist books, one that focuses on the material, paginated, object qualities of the book.