Author Archives: Alexis Curtis

On the Topic of Artistry

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In chapter 3 of The Book, titled The Book As An Idea, we’re introduced to the “artist’s book”. The book defines the artist’s book as “a zone of activity by artists and writers who create books as original works of art that “integrate the formal means of [their] realization and production with [their] thematic or aesthetic issues.” Essentially, artist’s books are books that have been entirely designed by the creator, and can be anything. Through my studies, it’s clear by now that quality and customization in books has been reduced due to the mass production commercialization of books. That is known, and not surprising. So I find it interesting that these intentionally designed books are called artist’s books. In the modern day, if you want your book to be traditionally published you have to give up some artistic control over things such as the cover, bindings, or font. For these authors, the “book” is the text. I’ve always viewed books as works of art, so I don’t want to say that these books aren’t artistic, because they are! But a mass market paperback was made to be read, not to be displayed or to challenge the book as an object. There are quite a few authors, poets especially, that play with the page, or the letters. I don’t think the commercialization of books has killed books as art.

As the chapter continues, Borsuk writes “It represents a conceptual approach to bookmaking, and one that relies on the viewer’s interaction with the object to make meaning. For this reason Carrión called such works “anti books”—because they refuse the book’s function while interrogating its form, separating the idea of the book from the object.” I really like the phrase anti-book. These artist books have been meticulously designed to take advantage of every aspect of the physical book. But to say they’re anti-book? This is a direct result of books being about content. Reading, or understanding, these artist’s books require you to think more creatively. There are no page numbers telling you where you are, or table of contents pages so you can flip to your favorite chapter. You have to do more than read how you were taught. You have to be willing to do things wrong– and you have to accept that no way is right. You have to consider parts of the book that you had never gave a second thought, because you didn’t buy the book for its binding, or rather the glue along the spine. It is the job of the artist, and the writer is an artist, to push boundaries. And while you could consider artist’s books as going back to our roots of individualized books, I would say that going against the current status quo will always be necessary.

Lasting Impressions

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Until now, I assumed that a bibliography was another term for a works cited page. The section of a paper in which the author complies their citations. Now that I’m thinking about it, biblio means book and -graph means to study, so bibliography being the study of books should be obvious. But I had never heard the term used in such a way. Reading through the Bibliography Society of America’s website also revealed that bibliography refers to both books as objects and books as content. As modern day scholars, it’s important to realize that it is the content that decides whether we get to read an older book. I was thinking of this because of the following quote: “As an extension of this follows the investigation of the methods of production in general and of the conditions of survival.”

Conditions of survival might be the conditions of which a book was physical stored in. Was a book rarely used, and kept in a dark, dry room? Or was it touched often, stained by the oils in a hand, read in the sunlight on a wet, humid day which would effect the pages, ink, and bindings. But conditions of survival could also be about in content of the book. The importance of a book to an owner is directly connected to how it is kept. We have many versions of religious texts, because people went out of their way to preserve them. They found them important and considered that future generations would want to read them. But not all stories, all books, are given that same consideration. The only books we get to study are the ones that survived. There’s so much that has been lost to time, because the people in the moment were concerned with the present, not with saving their favorite stories for historians in the future.

As someone that reads online, as well as someone that owns a variety of digital content including video games, movies, and music, I do worry about the future of archiving and preservation. Not only can creators delete their stories at any time, but conglomerates can revoke access to previously purchased materials. It’s not truly possible to own a digital item, which will make it harder if not impossible for future scholars to truly understand digital humanities in the 21st century. How can we ensure that modern stories will survive? I know that some people do take it upon themselves to archive fanfictions; I’ve read stories from a Harry Potter archive account that I’ve really liked! So I know that their are people that worry about this as I do. I don’t have an answer for how to best preserve digital literature, but I do hope that congress passes some laws about buying versus licensing digital products. It should be clear to the consumer what we own and what we don’t.

In the end, we read what we’re told to read. We can only read from the options we have in front of us, and those options were meticulously chosen by people who don’t necessarily have our best interests at heart. As time goes on, I will continue to study older books with the question of why this specific item still survives for me to be able to interact with.

The Commercialization of Books

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While reading chapter 2 of Amaranth Borsuk’s The Book, I learned many things about the printing press that I did not know before, particularly because I didn’t know much about it. I knew the name of Johannes Gutenberg, but I knew nothing about him or the machine itself. Reading about how the machine worked was really interesting! I also appreciated the addition of Gutenberg being important for European book printing, but there already had been some version of book printing in China and other areas. Lots of cultures, and people within those cultures were inventing their own ways to speed up book production.

What I found the most interesting was the section on copyrights and intellectual property. I never thought about it, but with older books being used as religious texts, and especially since they were written by scribes, the author wasn’t as important. It’s hard to imagine from the modern perspective. The shift occurred because of the printing press, which is when books became more about the content than the object (pg 100). The artistry began to matter less and less, and even I grew up being told not to judge a book by its cover. People could purchase, own, and read their books, and because of how fast the publishing industry grew it became necessary to create copyright and public domain laws. I don’t think this shift was very important to the masses. After all, books were bought for their content. And the modern book publishing methods would be considered miraculous to those even 100 years ago. I just think that mass production can sometimes make something lose what made it special.

The Many Parts of the Whole Book

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The Broadview Introduction to Book History by Michelle Levy and Tom Mole begins by explaining the origins of the book. Known as a codex, they were pages bound together along a spine with a cover. It took some time for them to become the predominant tool for sharing written information over the scroll, but religions, particularly Christianity, helped popularize the codex. The chapter continues with a brief description of book history as a subject of study. Different cultures and groups of people all found different ways to study the book. In France, the beginning of book history studies focused on the circulation of books and their effect on large historical events. In Germany, the focus was on the history of how books were published and distributed. Literary students looked at the book in a different way than a historian, or information studies students, or an art historian, or an economist. And now, digital humanities and media studies scholars are again, looking at the book in a new perspective.

After reading this section, I thought about everything that goes into a book. Sure, the content, author, and cover are important, but I’ve realized that I haven’t spent too much time pondering all of the other aspects of a book. How did this information become a physical object in my hands? Trees were grown with the intention of becoming paper, and that paper has been dyed a certain color, cut to a certain size, and text, that someone decided to write and someone else decided that the public would benefit from having said information, was printed on said paper. The font was picked, the font size was picked, the font color was picked. And not without careful thought and consideration, they were specifically chosen by people who believed that the specific typeface would enhance the text. Hardcover or paperback, or both, or neither. Artists designed the cover to be appealing, but different types of books are appealing for different reasons. Designers made covers for both a romance novel and a self-help book. And once the book has been designed it still needs to be produced and distributed throughout the world. It has to be priced, high enough to pay all of the people involved in the process, but low enough for people to buy.

I’ve thought about the politics of books. How could I not? With calls of censorship and book banning I’ve always viewed the politics of books strictly through the lens of the content of the book. But politics doesn’t just mean culture wars. Everything that exists is political, and political is not a negative term. I look forward to beginning my studies on book history!

Alexis Curtis: The Pilot Episode

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Hello all!

My name is Alexis. I’m a senior here at State, and a transfer student who attended Palomar College. I’m a fellow English major, with a minor in digital and social media studies. I’m looking forward to working with and getting to know you all this semester! I love books, and I think I love books because the represent opportunity. The opportunity of literacy & education, as well as the opportunity to dream.

I am a native to San Diego County, but I lived in Berkeley for a year. I’ll be back someday. I am a nerd, and am very into video games (HZD:FW & FFXV are my #1s), comics (Damian Wayne is the best Robin), YouTube (My favorite Youtuber ChilledChaos streamed Undertale once and I ditched my final to go watch, yes I failed the class, yes I was already failing at that point.), and anime (Fairy Tail and Yu Yu Hakusho are the best!). I’m thinking about trying out for SDSU’s Marvel Rivals team! I used to be obsessed with the game, but I have poor internet at my parents’ house which made it so I didn’t play over the summer. I tried to play a round when I moved back to campus, but I am, in fact, washed. I don’t think I’ll make the team, but that doesn’t mean that the experience wouldn’t be worth it. In rapidfire mode, I love movies, cooking, the color green, and the ocean. I hate the Joker, weather below 75 degrees, raw meat, and I am terrified of tomorrows.

Here’s a picture of me at Griffith Observatory in July. It’s blurry, as I had to screenshot the original photo as the file was too big 🙁 . It was a hike to get there, so the flats and sweater combo in the Los Angeles heat was absolutely not the vibe. I liked the outfit though, so that’s all that matters. 😘