It's art all right, but is it really a book?
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Your support makes all the difference.You may think you know what a book is: a neat item you open, with text to read and pictures to look at. But how about a "book" made of feathers, in a concertina shape, or with record singles as pages, or built as a box full of things to pick up; or how about one as small as a stamp, or another large enough to walk into?
Neither wholly book nor wholly art, this relatively little known, contemporary art form will be celebrated at an international fair in London this week.
Known as "artists' books", the market for them is growing. Last year, 60 exhibitors collected at the South Bank Centre and sales, which had previously been insignificant, soared to pounds 40,000.
Previously restricted to an underground small press, artists' books were radical vehicles for ideas during the Sixties and Seventies. These books only reached a limited audience.
Today, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Chelsea College of Art and the Tate Gallery, all in London, have bought pieces. "It will take another four or five years before artists' books gain a mainstream acceptance," believes the fair's organiser, Marcus Campbell, co-director of St James' Art Books in London.
Works on show are produced using all technologies available, from the humble potato print to computer wizardry. They range from limited editions to photocopy multiples; from electronic books, to the beautifully-crafted.
For pounds 2 you can buy an original pamphlet; many pieces will sell for pounds 30-pounds 60, while the most expensive is pounds 2,000.
"Artists' books are like interior accessories," enthuses MrCampbell. "Your bookshelf becomes an art museum. They are the new collectables - the fair will attract many bibliomaniacs, which is an honourable disease to suffer." One piece, by Sophie Artemis from north London, is a gold box. Open it and see a stained latex bag. Unbutton it and find a pair of rubber gloves with financial jargon stitched on. What does it mean? The artists will be on hand to explain.
You can stroke and grope to your heart's content. Tactile narratives, these books challenge our conception of what makesa good read. And look out, for in the future you may see them by the Penguins in Waterstones.
The Artists' Book Fair is at the Barbican Centre Concourse Gallery, 15-17 November, admission free. Call Marcus Campbell on 0378 422 556 for details.
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