“A book…is not an inert thing that exists in advance of interaction, rather it is produced new by the activity of each reading”

– Johanna Drucker, “The Virtual Codex: From Page Space to E-Space”

In the advance of type and illustration, bookmaker and illustrator merge into one whole that is the book. Each time we reread a book, we notice something new, the type of font, size, and how they interact with each other and the page to demonstrate a new understanding of the book. Some book publications are standardized, or the style is chosen by the author for a specific purpose. In Johanna Drucker’s quote, every time a person reads a book, it is changed into a new one because our understanding of it has changed. By our new notes and changes in what we analyze, that changes the whole purpose and meaning of the book.

While reading, even in elementary school, we are taught to reread and go over the text multiple times. The emphasis is on learning words and sentence structure, but also to deepen our interpretation of the text and the purpose of it. While reading over, we meet bookmaker and author together again as we notice the ink and format of the page working for the story.

In “The Book”, Borsuk states in Chapter 3 that “A book is a space-time sequence.” In a book, time collides together as it contains elements from different time periods which create a time-merge. The text could be written by a modern-day author but contain words originating from decades or centuries ago. The font could be Black letter referencing the standardization of text and the printing press. The style or illustrations came from the medieval period, and the paper and binding came from the new age of industrialization made to not last and be cheap. All of the elements that are in the book contain history and cultural practices from the very beginning of text and codex to the 21st century of commercialization and commodification of books.

Our understanding of the book changes with each reading and new emphasis on physical details. With new observations of how the text and page are made, we are interacting with the whole history of bookmaking, authorship, and globalization. The elements that make up our ability to read and have the book introduces us to the history of how we got to this point today and what we can look at now traces back to centuries old tradition.

In The Artist’s Book as Idea and Form, Johanna Drucker writes, “If all the elements or activities which contribute to artists’ books as a field are described what emerges is a space made by their intersection, one which is a zone of activity, rather than a category into which to place works by evaluating whether they meet or fail to meet certain rigid criteria.” (p.2) This passage interested me because it redefines how we think about art and books. Instead of treating the artist’s book as a fixed form that can be easily defined, Drucker presents it as a living space where creative actions and ideas come together.

The phrase “zone of activity” suggests that meaning and value are created through process rather than through a set of rules. Drucker’s approach moves away from seeing art as a finished product and focuses instead on the relationships that form during creation. When she speaks of intersections, she reminds us that books combine many elements for e.g. like writing, design, printing, binding, and reading and that each of these contributes to the work as a whole. The artist’s book becomes a place of interaction where ideas, materials, and people meet.

What I find compelling about this idea is how it shifts the way we respond to art. Instead of asking whether something fits a definition, Drucker asks us to notice how it operates and what it does. This encourages a more open and flexible way of thinking. It also makes me reflect on how we often approach learning, since education tends to focus on definitions and categories. Drucker’s view suggests that real understanding might come from exploring connections rather than setting limits.

I was not aware that there were multiple meanings to bibliography. I am most used to the bibliographic definition of the word, meaning the categorization of a text. Bibliographical refers to the study of the physical aspects of the text and its historical contexts. Since we’ve been discussing the physical sources of information, I found it fitting that the website for the Bibliographical Society of America had many interactive elements, like the slideshow of different texts with hover text about the physical elements of that text. The website also had lots of citations with links to the information that led to the original sources of information. It drew attention to the fact that I don’t see that type of practice very often on most websites that I visit, unless they are specifically a news organization. 

The further reading section details a timeline of the gradual definition of bibliography. In this timeline we can see that the definition of analytical/critical bibliographical studies has evolved to include a wide variety of critical studies for the sake of “identifying and repairing the harms of systemic racism, settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and other oppressive structures” (Derrick Spires, “On Liberation Bibliography” (2022). 
The first definition of in the timeline, from W. W. Greg, “Bibliography – A Retrospect” (1945), Greg describes bibliography as “the study of books as material objects irrespective of their contents.” Greg views the study of the book as something separate from the contents. However, from Borsuk and our discussions in class, I understand the study of books as objects to include the content, considering that the conditions of the object inform the content.

I think the understanding of bibliography as a political practice, as discussed in Lisa Maruca and Kate Ozment’s “What is Critical Bibliography?”, is relevant and useful in the time we live in, where I feel more people are starting to get more comfortable discussing the larger political systems that shape our everyday lives.