“The Book Arts: Artist’s Books Exhibition”,
held at Art on Paper at 44 Stanley in November 2014, provided a perfect
opportunity for displaying my most recent work, read peep reap (Figs. 1-13).
Consisting of three separate components, read peep reap could be understood as
an artist’s book installation that includes a drawing of an iris, a sculptural
book and a ‘visual label’.
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Fig.1. Eugene Hön, “Iris Troiana”, detail of read peep reap. 2014. Ballpoint pen drawing |
Its first component, a drawing (Fig1), is
an interpretation of Albrecht Dürer’s
Iris Troiana (1508), which is rendered in blue, red and pink ballpoint pen ink and depicts a bruised flower. The iris also makes reference to the 1970s
feminism movement as it features in Judy Chicago’s work and is associated with
her endeavours to elevate “craft” to the status of “art”.
The second object, the “Visual Label”,
consists of a series of digital prints on acid free paper, folded concertina
style as a sequential explication. It includes mind maps and reference material,
including photocopies of the watercolour and ink drawing by Dürer.
The final component takes the
form and shape of a sculptural book set between two transparent extruded plastic bookends. The spine is handcrafted
and bound in dark brown leather. The title “read peep reap” (a Dewey decimal
classification number) and my name as the artist/author are embossed and gilded
in gold leaf.
The individual pages are dye-cut into shapes of hundreds of
blinds which are strung together with thin cotton ropes, simulating the mechanism
of a set of blinds while also emulating the thread used to stich the individual
pages together in the craft of bookbinding. The digitally printed and dye-cut
pages allude to the codex of a book, a title page, preliminaries, a colophon, frontispiece,
dedication and epigraph.
In her
introduction to Navigating the BookScape: Artists’ books and the Digital Interface,
Robyn Sassen (2006) asks: “is the Artist’s book about reading, about looking,
about thinking, or about all three?” The title of the installation, read peep
reap, prompts the viewer to consider the death of crafts and the handmade in a
digital age.
Celebrating
the art of drawing and fine craftsmanship in bookbinding, it pays homage to the
ultimate ‘artisan’, Dürer, who was not
only a painter, printmaker and engraver but also a mathematician and
theorist.
And, to use the words of Sassen (2006) in regard to artists’ books, it is about my “sense of wonder and exploration in creating an interactive thing that brings the audience as a collaborative participant in the experience of the work”.
And, to use the words of Sassen (2006) in regard to artists’ books, it is about my “sense of wonder and exploration in creating an interactive thing that brings the audience as a collaborative participant in the experience of the work”.
Reference
Sassen, Robyn. 2006. Introduction. In Navigating the
Bookscape: Artists’ Books and the Digital Interface, edited by David Paton.
Online publication.
