(1982) Volume 5, Number 5

              volume 6 number 5 november 1982 making book in philadelphia bookworks/82 after 18 months of preparation bookworks:82 the interna tional conference on books and publications made by artists opened on 1 october in philadelphia at the moore college of art hosted by the foundation for today's art and coordi nated ably by michael kostiuk bookworks:82 proved to be a continuation of that spirit which was generated in roches ter two years ago at the visual studies workshop that spirit of cooperation communication and continuity you couldn't have asked for a better place for a conference a city that really put out the red carpet for books and book makers not only with indian summer weather but with no less than 27 exhibitions of bookworks throughout the city from alison knowles the book of bean a walk-in book whose pages were 8 feet tall to suzanne ho rvitz's thou hast ravished my heart and for sick of love am i a miniature dual volume of xeroxed color images there were exhibi tions of william morris books at the rosenbach foundation bruce schnabefs handsomely bound books at the helen drutt gallery a remarkable exhibition of one-of-a-kind books at jeffrey fuller's gallery including some mysterious closet book artists and so much more alas the confe rence was so rich and full that many participants could not see ail the exhibitions that were available except within wal king distance at lunch hours but tjhose who came early and those who stayed after the sunday closing of the conference did get to see many books more than anyone could absorb in one sitting the more than 250 conferees enjoyed a full program from morning to night including a significant sesssion on books and freedom chaired by martha rosier and with the parti cipation of felipe ehrenberg telling about setting up more than 50 presses in the rural areas of mexico funded by the mexican government where villagers learned how to put to gether a newspaper or a magazine to communicate among themselves with a press many examples of which were on display on the 13th floor of the philadelphia college of art over the weekend this was a testimonial to a democratic system of freedom of the press taught by one who should know about that the founder of the beau geste press in contrast the gerlovins valerie and rimma spoke about the problems of being artists in russia and the necessity of prin ting underground books it was a powerful beginning to a wealth of information for the next three days shelly rice analyzed the structure of a few of her favorite books such as kevin osborn's real lush and paul zelevan sky's case for the burial of ancestors there was also an in teresting dialogue of artists and writers who produce vinyl disks and audiotapes as an extension of their visual or writ ten works with peter frank as moderator and jackie apple photo nathalie magnan jeff gordon and charlie morrow on the panel the offset printers presented a fascinating explanation of their methodology and techniques on saturday morning with kevin osborn as moderator and conrad gleber michael goodman philip zimmermann and janet zweig participa ting internationai participation the international nature of the conference showed represen tation not only from mexico and canada but also from hol land finland and poland via amsterdam the dutch repre sentatives were the owners of void distributors including bookmaker hettie huisman and her partner as well as outi heiskanen from helsinki henryk gajewski a polish artist who found temporary haven in amsterdam he gave a pre sentation on other child book the exhibition of one-of-a kind artists books which artists from all over the world sent to a show which opened in 1979 in warsaw and has seen been seen in mexico city australia and now in philadelphia his presentation not only gave his philosophy of teaching contemporary art to children via bookworks but also exhibi ted a film which he had made about the books and the inter action by children with them art librarians were also given a chance to voice some of their opinions about the importance of the acquisition and preservation of these bookworks in a panel chaired by the issn 0160-0699