| Description |
Artists' books represent a field of inquiry open to new investigation and exploration by visual artists, book artists, and literary scholars. This dissertation examines the link between artists' books and literature from Latin America - in particular, what happens when an artists' book incorporates the work of canonical writers from Latin America. A history of books and artists' books is given to provide context for the remaining dissertation. The importance of multiplication and what happens to art and literature when mechanically reproduced is examined employing Walter Benjamin's theory of aura. The combination of literature and book artistry is then examined in a several works that include the written work of several canonical authors from Latin America. The first work inspected is an artists' book that uses the writings of César Vallejo. This book demonstrates how literature and visual art are combined in an artists' book to create a new work of art that is neither strictly literary nor visual. Variations of book artistry produced from a single work of literature are explored using the writings of Pablo Neruda. Next, a collaborative work between a book artist and writer Jorge Luis Borges is examined to reveal how collaboration, curation, and reorganization can produce a work that represents an original constellation of thought and rumination on language. Finally, the examination of a unique book object produced by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, in collaboration with many other artists including book artist Felicia Rice, considers the ways that this transgressive and groundbreaking work indicates some directions that are available for the future of artists' books. The medium of the book and its path to becoming an artists' book is one that has had a long evolution in art. It is also one that has evolved to be used by many visual and book artists in diverse ways. This work parses out the connections between literature and visual art, and the nexuses that associate and contribute to the linkage and development of both mediums, in conjunction with canonical authors from Latin America. |
