1. Cerritos Library Book Arts Collection
Video Script
VIDEO AUDIO
Cerritos Library exterior: MUSIC: (Optional)
Library montage: Exterior, Main
Street, Children’s, Old World Reading
Room, Teen Studio, Skyline
The Cerritos Library provides an
experience where spatial elements and
material collections stimulate curiosity.
Shots of artwork located throughout
the library: Main Street, World
Traditions, 21
st,
Third Floor
When planning the world class facility,
City officials gave special consideration
to building a collection of artwork to
bridge learning and creativity. Upon
entry, visitors are able to view numerous
works of art throughout the building’s
themed spaces.
Footage of some of the Arts books
collection: Old World, Areas of Skyline
In order to further demonstrate the
importance of art and learning, a special
book arts collection was developed for
the Library in 2002.
More examples of art books from
Skyline
Art books are specially designed, bound
and crafted works that are often created
as single editions or as limited series.
Continued Art books have a variety of forms
including scrolls, fold-outs, concertinas,
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and other varieties.
Book arts group interacting with the
collection
Selections from the Library’s rotating
exhibition include several of these forms.
The Cerritos Library’s book arts
collection features works by various
local artists.
Question 1: What interests you about
Book Arts?
These artists were recently interviewed
to speak about their art.
Answer Sue Ann: What interests me
about book arts is that they are a very
intimate art form.
(OS) Shot of Sue Ann’s book from the
collection
Answer Sue Ann: They’re really intended
to have a viewer and the artist, that’s a
hand-held object. I found working in
museums, and I’ve worked in museums
for a long time, that people will scan the
gallery, they’ll look at a painting
for maybe a few minutes, at most,
whereas with a book, people are ready
to hold it, look at it, spend a little time
with it.
Interview footage of Sue Ann And I think that’s the thing that’s most
important for me. That people have a
time and place for contemplation. Other
than that, it’s the idea of handling things
and the texture of the paper, of the
cover, I think there’s a real important
quality and tactile, sensual experience
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with books.
I was in graduate school at Columbia
and I came across this book, “An
Annotated Topography of Chance”. It
really represents the thing I love about
the possibilities of the book arts. All this
is, is a schematic of his breakfast table
and each object is numbered, and then
he writes about it. The whole book is just
based on these objects and I realized
that the whole notion of the innocence of
objects, the whole notion of collections
of things we attach stories to them. That
was one way of moving into the book
arts.
Question 1 Answer Charlene: I got started
accidentally, I was taking classes in
book repair. I do fix and repair books, I
love book repair. (jump cut) I am self
taught. I took classes but I’m not trained
by anybody. When I started there really
wasn’t anything around.
(OS) Shot of Charlene’s book I get to make all of these really cool
books. Once in a while I even sell one.
It’s incredible. My book art is like a whole
other side of me, it’s like a whole other
person. It’s actually a way to go
somewhere else, be someone else.
Question 1 Answer Sybil: I began working in artists’
books I guess it was about twenty years
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ago. I began making hand-painted quilts.
When my eldest son went to college
someone told me about a course called
artists’ books that was being offered at
the local community college. Although I
had no idea what it was, I thought that I
could learn how to archive my photos.
When I went I found out there was an
incredible world out there that I had no
idea about called artists’ books. That the
art is in the form of a book. I realized this
world of artists’ books was a culmination
of all the things I was doing in my life. All
of a sudden there was this receptacle for
all the things that had occurred in my
life.
Question 2 How do you begin a
project? Give viewers a sense of the
process.
Answer Charlene: I generally see
something or read something or
someone says something to me beyond
the normal. I have the tendency to
photograph weird things and clip out
weird sentences. I start putting things
into a box. The first thing I do is make
the insides of the book. That means I’ve
got to cut up some pictures and write
something.
Question 2
(OS) Overlay images of her and her
boxes.
Charlene cont’d: I usually start in the
middle of the book and expand out.
When I think I have the gist of the book I
start to think about the covers and what
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kind of binding to make. Then I start
collecting bits of cloth and pieces of
things and putting them in my box. Then
I sew up the book.
Question 2 Answer Sue Ann: Quercus Psalter,
which is in the Cerritos Library collection
is a good example of how to begin a
project. I work usually in series, so I’ll
find a theme that I’m interested in and
that usually builds into a number of
projects. In this case I was
commissioned to do an insert for the
Hudson Valley News, in New York. It
was just a one page thing to put in the
newspaper and I thought, what do New
York state and California have in
common?
Question 2 (OS) Overlay images of
Sue Ann in her studio making paper
as well as one of Quercus Psalter.
Sue Ann cont’d: I realized in California,
in 1990, it was the year of the oak. So I
thought oak trees, everybody knows
what an oak tree is. So I did a one page
flyer that was inserted into the paper and
as soon as I finished that, I realized
there was a lot of information. So then I
was commissioned to do an installation
for the National Forestry Association in
Los Angeles. And by then I had a lot of
information so I thought maybe I can get
a whole book out of this. And that’s
when I did this.
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Question 3 Do you have a preferred
method, if so what is it?
Answer Sybil: I think each book dictates
the structure. Sometimes the story will
present itself then you know you can do
it in soft colors and fabric which will
dictate how the book is made. It’s hard
for me to say if I have a favorite method
because each book I do requires it to be
translated by the content. Of course I
enjoy painting so I’m going to move
toward the visuals.
Question 3 Answer Sue Ann: I really enjoy making
one-of-a-kind books. I like to use paint, a
lot of paste papers, collage. I’ve made
books without any text to speak of but
I’m also interested in the relationship of
text to image. And I’m very inspired by
illuminated manuscripts because they do
such a good of job of intertwining the
text with the imagery. I’m always trying
to get the two entwined with each other.
Question 4 What do you feel is the
value of book arts?
Answer Sybil: I feel that arts books gives
people a place to put their inner spirit,
their thoughts, it’s a very intimate form. It
creates a world that is private yet the
personal can become universal. I think
that is very valuable to society for people
to have a form to express themselves
that’s accessible. You don’t have to go
get a foundry to make brass, pour brass
and make sculpture. You can do it quite
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easily at your kitchen table.
Question 4 (OS) Overlay more
images from the book arts group that
visited the library.
Answer Sue Ann: I think an artist’s book
and book arts in general provide a place
for viewers to stop and contemplate.
Contemplation is looking with continued
attention which I thought was an
interesting definition. I think a lot of time
we feel like we’re going very fast, at top
speed all the time. The book arts require
you to stop and spend time with the
book even if you’re just turning the
pages, that’s a little more time. The
difference between a sequential art form,
like the book, and movies and television,
which are also sequential time-based art
works, is that the producer controls the
time. You as a viewer, very rarely would
you pop into the middle of a film, you’re
going to go from the beginning to the
end and the producer or the film-maker
is controlling that. But with a book it’s
really up to you. You can start in the
back if you want, you can start it, put it
down. You’re controlling it. And you’re
also having a much more active
engagement with the contents.
Question 5 How would one get started
in this medium?
Answer Charlene: I personally feel that if
you seriously want to make some really
incredible books, you need to know book
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Overlay images of her in the
workshop with her machines.
repair. Every book is different and if you
understand how book structure works,
why you so a certain way, why the
weight of something is this, how all the
components work together, you’re going
to make some amazing books. But you
don’t have to know that. In fact most
people don’t go that route. But if you
didn’t want to take book-binding classes,
you just wanted to jump straight into
book arts, you’re going to go buy
yourself a photo album and start filling it
up. First you’ve got to make your insides
and then once you get the photo album
filled up, then you figure out how to
make a book. You can get online. You
can take classes, all that stuff’s going
on.
Question 5 Answer Sybil: I think it’s good to look
around your local community and see if
there’s some kind of class. It can be
something like print making or
something in the arts. There are lots of
little groups that are forming more and
more. The San Diego book arts, I think
there’s one in Long Beach and L.A.
there are different book arts groups and
they offer courses and the community
colleges and art institutes. Now you can
go online and find endless wonderful
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‘how to’ make books and there’s lots of
journaling and different formats online
that are very satisfying.
Question 5 Answer Sue Ann: I think in almost all the
major US metropolitan areas there are
centers for the book arts. There is one in
New York, which I am going to visit next
weekend. Minneapolis, Wisconsin is a
very active book arts community.
Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, San
Diego. So I think if you’re close to a
large urban center you can sign up for a
workshop, go see an exhibit. The best
way to get started is to go take a
workshop. But there are so many
varieties, so many entries into this. You
can do paper-making. You can study
calligraphy. You can learn how to bind
books.
Question 6 How do you think this
medium will evolve going forward?
Answer Sybil: Having done this now for
eighteen years or longer, people asked
at the beginning what is an artists’ book?
Or what are you talking about? I think
now there is much more of an
awareness of artists’ books. One of the
areas that I see artists’ books going is
what’s called altered books which is
taking discarded books and turning them
into works of art. There are some
extraordinary work coming out now of
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cut-outs. A few years ago Maya Lin, the
architect, had all these atlas
encyclopedias of earth that she had
carved into and made beautiful
topographical pieces. But there’s so
much going on in that world of altered
books that’s quite new. And I think even
more and more attention is in that area
of book arts.
Question 6 Answer Sue Ann: There are quite a few
people who have speculated on the
relationship of the book to new
technology and the world wide web. My
experience is that the sensual, tactile
quality of the book is going to remain
important. So I don’t think that the book
is going to be eliminated. I think people
will go to books for various reasons and
to the Internet for various reasons.
What’s interesting to me about libraries
and museums is that you often go in with
the idea that you are going to look for
something but you come across so
much else in going there. In the case of
looking up something on the web, you
may or may not find those same points
of contact with other subjects. The other
interesting thing about the web is, like
early scrolls, it’s a scroll format, whereas
with a book you can jump around in it
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fairly easily. It was one of the major
inventions of humankind to move from
scroll to codex form. It made retrieval of
information so much easier. I think that
the use of the book for retrieving
information may lessen, but the use of a
book for pleasurable reading, I don’t
think that is going to go away.
Question 7 Where would you
recommend people to go see artists’
books?
Overlay images of other books that
the Library has on display.
Answer Sue Ann: The Cerritos Public
Library. Really I think that that’s very true
to see artists’ books. Because they’re
not easy to see all the time. There are
increasing numbers of exhibitions in
museums and libraries but I like the idea
that at the Cerritos Library you can come
across artists’ books in various places in
the library and people have the chance
to make those discoveries. It’s a very
nice thing. In Southern California the
other major places, the Guild of Book
Workers, which is a national
organization, lists a lot of exhibitions.
The Huntington has a wonderful
collection of books by William Blake.
Blake is actually in some ways the
precursor to contemporary artists’ books
because he did everything.
Final shot: World Traditions artists’
books
Audio Sue Ann: I think as long as story-
telling and poetry exist, there will be
artists’ books.
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