Thesaurus Genre Terms
Term Unique books
Hierarchy [Conditions of publication]
SN Use for books conceived and produced as one-of-a-kind.
UF Books, Unique
BT Artists’ books
HN Candidate term 07/2007; At the BSC meeting at Midwinter 2008, it was suggested that “Artists’ books” be added as a Related Term. The term was tabled at Midwinter 2008. It requires additional research and additional warrant.
Warrant “It is time to embrace: the painted book, the unique book, the comic book, the graphic novel, the digital book, the book performance, the hybrid book, the library project, and the zine, as necessary components of a mature field of study and production.”
Weber, Marshall. Justice is Beautiful: Expanding the Paradigm of the Artists Book. http://www.artspacemackay.com.au/artists_books?p=5356
“The conceptual framework for artists books now had two routes. The first rejected the finely crafted book in favor of unlimited multiple edition; the second framed the book as sculpture, a single unique object. ... The debate ignored unique books, it demanded they be criticized as sculpture. Yet by the mid-1980s bookmakers created more unique objects, or scultpure. This was reflected in exhibition reviews: unique books were easier to write about than books retaining the codex, appearing very much like ordinary books, but considered art." Klima, Stephen. Artists Books: A Critical Survey of the Literature. New York: Granary Books, 1998: p. 45.
Comments
Having conducted additional research and located additional warrant following Midwinter, the Subcommittee proposed adding this new Genre Term. Final version approved, with the addition of the UF term.
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Post your comments to the editor
Original Workform:
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Term
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Unique books
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Thesaurus
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Genre terms
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Submitted by
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Ryan Hildebrand
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AAT (mandatory)
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N/A
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GMGPC (mandatory)
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N/A
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GSAFD (mandatory)
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N/A
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LCSH (mandatory)
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N/A
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MeSH (mandatory)
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N/A
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MIGFG (mandatory)
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N/A
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Webster’s 3rd new int’l dict. of the English language (mandatory)
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N/A
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Random House unabridged dictionary, 2nd ed. (optional)
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N/A
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Term as found in source/hierarchical displays/definitions, other sources, &c.
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"It is time to embrace: the painted book, the unique book, the comic book, the graphic novel, the digital book, the book performance, the hybrid book, the library project, and the zine, as necessary components of a mature field of study and production."
Weber, Marshall. Justice is Beautiful: Expanding the Paradigm of the Artists Book. http://www.artspacemackay.com.au/artists_books?p=5356
Johanna Drucker. The century of artists' books. New York: Granary Books, 1995.
p. vii: "I only wanted to write about books I had actually seen and handled myself. Since availability and familiarity were determining criteria many unique books were eliminated."
p. 94: "Timothy C. Ely, an artist who has made mainly (but not exclusively) unique books, has produced works which have a distinctly auratic character to them."
p. 95: "Most of Ely's unique books are drawn in india ink, hand-colored with watercolor and iridescent paints and gold leaf for points of emphasis."
p. 96 "Ely handpainted the pages of each copy of this edition, so that each had some of the character of his unique books."
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Comments
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Editorial team member & date
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RH 7/2007
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Original Term Record:
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Thesaurus
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Genre terms
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Term
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Unique books
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Hierarchy
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[Conditions of publication]
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SN
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Use for books conceived and produced as single copies.
Or
Use for books conceived and produced as one-of-a-kind.
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UF
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BT
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[Conditions of publication]
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NT
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RT
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HN
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Candidate term, 07/07
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Warrant
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"It is time to embrace: the painted book, the unique book, the comic book, the graphic novel, the digital book, the book performance, the hybrid book, the library project, and the zine, as necessary components of a mature field of study and production."
Weber, Marshall. Justice is Beautiful: Expanding the Paradigm of the Artists Book. http://www.artspacemackay.com.au/artists_books?p=5356
"The conceptual framework for artists books now had two routes. The first rejected the finely crafted book in favor of unlimited multiple edition; the second framed the book as sculpture, a single unique object. ... The debate ignored unique books, it demanded they be criticized as sculpture. Yet by the mid-1980s bookmakers created more unique objects, or scultpure. This was reflected in exhibition reviews: unique books were easier to write about than books retaining the codex, appearing very much like ordinary books, but considered art."
in
Klima, Stephen. Artists Books: A Critical Survey of the Literature. New York: Granary Books, 1998: p. 45
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Current status [as of May 19, 2008]
At the BSC meeting at Midwinter 2008, it was suggested that "Artists' books" be added as a Related Term.
This term was tabled at Midwinter 2008. It requires additional research and additional warrant.
Comments (5)
Nina Schneider said
at 9:01 pm on May 19, 2008
I don't think adding Artists' Books as a RT is a good idea. Although many artists' books are designed as one-of-a-kind creations, this is not part of the current (or proposed) SN, and I think introducing yet another aspect of artists' books is asking for trouble.
Ryan Hildebrand said
at 1:14 pm on Jun 18, 2008
I agree with NS.
Nina Schneider said
at 9:26 pm on Jun 18, 2008
Another warrant:
"The conceptual framework for artists books now had two routes. The first rejected the finely crafted book in favor of unlimited multiple edition; the second framed the book as sculpture, a single unique object. ... The debate ignored unique books, it demanded they be criticized as sculpture. Yet by the mid-1980s bookmakers created more unique objects, or scultpure. This was reflected in exhibition reviews: unique books were easier to write about than books retaining the codex, appearing very much like ordinary books, but considered art."
in
Klima, Stephen. Artists Books: A Critical Survey of the Literature. New York: Granary Books, 1998: p. 45
Nina Schneider said
at 9:34 pm on Jun 18, 2008
I just realized that this warrant I provided from Klima's book is dealing specifically with artists' books. Carter, in his ABCs, relates the term to copies, such as those with annotations or inscriptions. Some of the other warrants I've seen are much more closely tied to artists' books, e.g. "Unique artist's book" by Yani Pecanins, entitled Los dos lados.
Perhaps if we want to venture down the artists' book route, we could make Unique books a BT and someone would have to propose Unique Artists' Books to describe those a.b.'s that are one of a kind. But I'm not going to recommend this unless someone really needs to be that specific.
Nina Schneider said
at 4:15 pm on Jun 27, 2008
6/27
SN: Use for artists' books conceived and produced as one-of-a-kind
BT: Artists' books
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