I'm now pretty sure I'm doing artists books (which will cover some small presses). But who should I make the website aimed toward? Probably not professional book artists. They will already know anything I could come up with. But at the same time, I wouldn't want to explain why this is important/interesting to people with no interest in books or publishing. People in between -- those open to the idea of learning more about books, maybe those who aren't used to thinking about possible variations on the book form, but who are generally fond of books -- would probably be ideal.
Maybe librarians?
Perhaps if I refine the topic to highlighting "what a book can be" -- including different bindings, different publishing techniques, etc. -- I will find that middle audience.
By the way, for people interested in seeing some examples of private press books in your spare time, the Drexel University Archives and Special Collections has some. Contact them to find out more (it'll probably be me finding them for you).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Strictly off-the-cuff: anarchists; the incarcerated, and comic-book artists (many of the comic/framed narrative drawing people I've known have loads of sketchbooks bursting with original drawings, but they're notoriously sloppy folks - if I may make sweeping generalizations)
ReplyDeleteLibrarians seem like a good audience...Along with booksellers, used book collectors, curators, teachers, editors, etc. These seem like folks who either like to "show off" books or who like to see books "shown off" by others, but who (other than some of the curators or editors) might not yet consider themselves experts at the field. It would seem that they all could benefit from learning more about book arts and book theory.
ReplyDelete