From Deseret News archives:
Book exhibit uncovers an intriguing form of art
But they are all intriguing. And, because they are books, they are difficult to display.
Marnie Powers-Torrey is the Book Arts studio manager and a printer for Red Butte Press at the University of Utah. She curated "The Art of the Book" exhibit, which runs through July 16 at the Main Salt Lake City Library. Powers-Torrey is also the curator of an exhibit of student-made books on display at the U.'s Marriott Library. That exhibit is called "Counterform," and it runs through July 15.
Powers-Torrey says book art is inherently hard to display because the whole point of books is to handle them. "They are intimate."
Also, she says, "There is a chronology implied in books." As readers, we want to first leaf through a book. Then we want to sit down and read it. If it has no text, we want to look at the pictures. In both cases, we want to start at the beginning and turn the page whenever we want to turn the page.
Powers-Torrey's job as curator was to figure out how to show only the cover and a page or two, under glass, without leaving the viewer frustrated. She needed to give us a peek, but still demonstrate the range of what the artist had accomplished. Hers was a tricky task.
Books may be difficult to exhibit, but the book is a perfect form for artists, says Madelyn Garrett, curator of the rare books division at the Marriott Library. "The book is an interactive canvas," according to Garrett. She says the book provides physical connection between the interior world of thought and the exterior world of action.
Garrett explains that the U. has a student exhibit every spring, but this is the first year there has been a downtown exhibit at the same time. The "Art of the Book" came about through the invitation of the City Library and the Utah Arts Festival.
At first, Garrett says, the idea was to use some books from the U.'s Special Collections and then send out an invitation to various book artists. At first, she says, she and Powers-Torrey thought they needed to do a nationwide search.
Then they discovered there were plenty of lovely books right here in Utah. They had more than enough for an exhibit.
Powers-Torrey gave a lecture when "The Art of the Book" opened. She outlined the history of book art, beginning with clay tablets in Egypt. Modern book art began in the 1960s, she said. Artists in the '60s saw books as a way to break out of the galleries and make art more democratic. (Ironically, it wasn't long before their limited edition books were in demand and became too expensive for the average person.)
