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“and what
is the use of a book” thought Alice “without pictures
or conversations”
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
It’s true a book without pictures just doesn’t have the
same appeal. The best bits of a biography are the shiny picture
pages and children’s books nearly always have them. I always
loved the covers of low brow romantic fiction, constantly refering
back to their delicately painted heroines. So I’m very happy
that novels are getting in on the picture act. Both W.G Sebald’s
Austelitz and Mark Hadden’s The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Nightime have pictures and it makes them more
accessible and almost three dimensional.
When I first started planning this Books issue of Arty I decided
to ask all the contributors for a list of their top five books which
I intended to compile into a chart of Arty’s top fifty books.
Well of course it didn’t quite work out. Some contributors
named three books, some named six and no two named books were the
same. So that put paid to that.
The original idea for the Books issue came from Tanya Peixote at
Bookartbookshop and she along with Kelly Wellman contributes an
article about the possibilities of artists’ books. There are
also interviews and loads of other irreverant book stuff and of
course Arty is as usual packed with both writing and pictures
Oh and by the way here are my favourite five books;
Austelitz – W.G Sebald
Looking Awry – Slavoj Zizek
The Sea The Sea – Iris Murdoch
The Magic Toyshop – Angela Carter
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley – Peter
Guralnick
Cathy Lomax |
