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Penguin English Library.
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Is there a way of ensuring that a work of art or literature won’t survive? Shelley Jackson thinks there is, and is out to prove it with SKIN, a project she calls A mortal work of art.
In the summer of 2003 Jackson put out a quiet call for volunteers. Each volunteer would agree to have a word from her 2095-word story tattooed somewhere on his or her body. The story is a closely guarded secret and the volunteers are able to read it only after they’ve been inked.
Jackson encourages potential volunteers to read her other works, especially her short stories, but if she has her way, the complete text of SKIN will never be made publicly available, in print or online.
The first tattooed word (SKIN, the story’s title) is on Jackson’s own wrist and subsequent words are slowly being issued in story order, based upon applications Jackson feels speak to her.
Over 10,000 volunteers for her project have poured in from all around the world. Mothers and daughters have requested words together as a bonding experience and groups of friends have asked for words in sequence to form a sentence. Thus far, Jackson has accepted 1875 applications, has received a total of almost 22,000 emails and has proof of 553 inked words.
Once a word has been tattooed, the person then “becomes” the word and Jackson refers to her “words” as someone else might speak of their own children.
Jackson isn’t fussy about the final incarnation of her work. She says if she doesn’t find enough participants, the incomplete version will be considered definitive. If she hadn’t received any volunteers at all, the call itself would have been the work.
To attempt to define exactly what her work is begs some interesting questions. Is it literary? If this story were printed on paper it would certainly be called a literary work and not a work of art, but conversely “words” do not usually have jobs and paint their nails and do the washing up.
From that perspective it’s easy to see a whimsical element of performance art, and it cannot be denied that this project is far more visually interesting than the average novella.
The most fascinating element of SKIN, be it literary or artistic, is its transient nature. The story may never be fully realised, as it seems possible that before the last word has been “born” one of the others may have died.
And the author is quite aware that many of her words could outlive her. But this seems to be part of her grand design, an integral part of her artistic vision: “As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will also have died. The author will make every effort to attend the funerals of her words.”
(Via).
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The bibliophiles among us might appreciate the Pagina bookshelf from Italian company Cassina. Designed by Jean Louis Berthet and Denis Vasset, the shelving system mimics the appearance of a giant book…
OH MY GOD. GET IN MY LIFE NOW.
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I found this lovely book in the art room. Here are some of my favorite pages…and some that speak to the tumblr soul…
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Willie’s Choice - Altered Book by Lucinda Beatty
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Reading is scary. (Taken with Instagram)
Excuse me, I have to go write Kate a love letter.
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The Voynich manuscript, described as “the world’s most mysterious manuscript”, is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912.
Some pages are missing, but the current version comprises about 240 vellum pages, most with illustrations. Much of the manuscript resembles herbal manuscripts of the time period, seeming to present illustrations and information about plants and their possible uses for medical purposes. However, most of the plants do not match known species, and the manuscript’s script and language remain unknown and unreadable. Possibly some form of encrypted ciphertext, the Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.
As yet, it has defied all decipherment attempts, becoming a cause célèbre of historical cryptology. The mystery surrounding it has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript a subject of both fanciful theories and novels. None of the many speculative solutions proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.
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The Bonefolder E-Journal Volumes 1-8 (Free Download)
The Bonefolder published significant articles by established and emerging authorities on a variety of book arts topics. These include hand bookbinding, teaching, business practice, the history of the book, the book as art, general tips & tricks, exhibitions, how-to technical articles, and reviews.
On January 13, 2012, Volume 8, the largest (and regrettably last) issue of The Bonefolder was published online. What started as an experiment in open-access online-only publishing “way back” in 2004 grew into perhaps the most widely read publication in the book arts with over a quarter million downloads for all issues combined since we began with a global readership.
downloading now. So awesome
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Free Hi-Res Old Book Textures (For both personal and commercial projects!)
About me
Why hello there, I'm Cat! I'm a ridiculous librarian from the mostly uneventful state of Maryland. For more information about me, check out my about me page.
paperandair on all of the internets
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just so everyone knows: yes, carrie brownstein actually did make an amex commercial.
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“But women don’t like to look at porn, they only like to read written ero—”
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Snoop Dogg!
I’ll call your Snoop and raise you LiL...
