I wrote a few weeks ago about spending time experimenting with print surfaces and this led me to think more about how I might present my work to the examiners of my PhD.  I have researched and reviewed a number of Artists’ Books during the first two years of my course including the following:

Fragile by Valda Bailey (Triplekite Publishing) (22 x 22cm square format)

A full colour hardback featuring landscape shape images with a short introduction about the images by the author (48 pages).  Triplekite Publishing focuses on limited edition landscape photography books.

 The Sea by Barbara Bosworth (Radius Books) 33 x 26 portrait format)

A comprehensive and extensive body of work including colour and black and white images, inserts of others writing, maps, paintings and journal notes etc.  Radius Books is a non-profit publisher based in Santa Fe.

Elemental by Melanie Collie (Triplekite Publishing) (24.5 x 24.5 square format)

A hardback book featuring square images with a short introduction from the photographer.

12 Hz – by Ron Jude (MACK) (24 x 23.5 cm portrait format)

Understated hardback book featuring 48 landscape and portrait format black and white images.  MACK, founded in 2010, is an independent publisher working with artists, writers and curators.

 Another Way of Looking at Love by Janelle Lynch (Radius Books) (29 x 24 portrait format)

A full colour hardback book in full concertina square format with smaller insert about the photographs. (29 double pages)

Saddleworth Responding to a Landscape by Matthew Murray (Gallery Vassie) (31 x 25 landscape format)

High quality canvas, hardback book featuring 45 colour images.

 The Living Mountain by Awoiska van der Molen (Idea Books) (29 x 24cm portrait format)

Scrapbook-type book A3 portrait with black and white images in addition to a musical score composed to accompany the photographic work. (20 pages)

At the same I have been investigating options to produce a handmade book rather than a commercially published version.  After careful consideration, I have decided that a handmade book will provide a more personal, individual, and unique way of presenting my work.  It will allow me to use high quality photographic paper best suited to presenting my work.   It will also provide me with flexibility in terms of producing the book to my schedule rather than fitting in with a publishers’ timescales allowing me to include practice up to and including June 2023.

After discussions with a bookbinder, Corinna Krause, based in the Outer Hebrides https://www.sollasbooks.com/ or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sollasbooks/?hl=en  I am considering the following formats/ways in which I might present my work.

Large A2 portrait format, Coptic bound book

I am of the view that my images will be best presented in a large format however, I am not convinced that producing large-framed prints under glass will do justice to my work.  The photographic paper I wish to use is a thick fine art paper which has a rich texture that needs to be handled by the viewer.  The Coptic binding will allow the large-format book to lie flat and display the images to best effect.

Square format Concertina book

I find the concertina book format interesting and exciting.  It works well as a square format which will suit my reed images perfectly.  It also allows the viewer to experience the book by turning the pages, or by viewing a series of images together.  The pages will be individually knotted together.

Using different book formats will allow me to produce different size/format images and on different paper surfaces.

Large A2 Box

There is also an option to produce a handmade box to store loose images and perhaps the concertina book.

These format options offer a number of ways in which I can personalise the objects such as insetting my images into the cover of the books and on the spine of the box.

I plan to visit the Artists’ Book Collection at the University of Dundee on 14 September.