主編語
Editor-in-chief’s Note

Editor's Note

CHU Yin-Hua

Abstract

Publishing as Possibility for Artistic Practice

From the outset of 2020, many art and cultural events have been seeking alternative ways of operation due to the pandemic. For instance, the Tokyo Art Book Fair (TABF) has been named as the Virtual Art Book Fair (VABF), taking an interactive website as its site. The original venue, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, hosted the fair in an online virtual space, which also combined a variety of images to offer access to the virtual exhibition, including the booths inside the museum, the outdoor performance, the design of the booth, and the photos of books and other publications of the booths.

Such a case reflects a significant medium shift of global art and cultural events in 2020. Since 2006, the New York Art Book Fair (NABF), organized by the New York-based non-profit publisher Printed Matter, has set the trend for other cities around the world (such as Tokyo, Bangkok, London, Shanghai, and Singapore) to organize art book fairs under the name of each "city," continuing NABF's curatorial model and structure. When the name "Tokyo" was replaced by the concept "Virtual" at the VABF in 2020, it implied that the "virtual" scene diminished the divide between cities, highlighting the contradictions of glocalization in contemporary society and blurring the boundaries between online and offline activities. On the other hand, physical "paper" hard copies are crucial elements of publications in various forms in art book fairs, including artist's books, photobooks, hand-made books, and zines. Hence, when books were presented through online interfaces in a virtual book fair, the physical quality was transformed into pixels on the screen. The presentation further responded to new media intervention on the books regarding flipping and covering and the multiple and blurred definitions of images, pictures, and post-photography.

With the inquiry "Publishing as Possibility for Artistic Practice," this issue aims to bring together perspectives of diverse researchers to deliberate the contemporary book culture phenomenon. In the Featured Articles, independent Chinese curator He Yi-ning reviews the development and changes in photobooks publishing in China from 2010 to the present and analyzes the types of photo archives in contemporary Chinese photobooks in her article "Photo Archives as Photobook Works: The Echoes of ‘Old Photos’ in Chinese Contemporary Photobook publishing”. She further takes Kurt Tong's photobook Yanjie: Combing for Ice and Jade and Shi Zhen's Tragédie, Coïncidence et La Double Vie de L.L.D.M (Tragedy, Coincidence and Double Life of L.L.D.M) as case studies. In "The Mixed Names: The Birth of the Photo-Essay in South Korea in the 1960s," South Korean photography researcher Nayun Jang examines Joo Myung-Duck's The Mixed Names series concerning the development of photography in the 1960s after the Korean war. Jang explores how The Mixed Names took the form of photo-essay and revealed the situation overlooked in the official narratives with the juxtaposition of photographs and texts. Taiwanese researcher Pei-chun Viola Hsieh takes the 2013 photobook Cauchy Horizons as a case study in "The Future was Exhausted: On the Cinematic Banality of Sci-fi in Martine Stig’s Cauchy Horizons”. Hsieh investigates the intersections of layout, printing, photography, and film in sci-fi photobooks and explores how the sci-fi genre can reflect on the current situations. Furthermore, Jian Miaoju's “Wake up! Taiwan Punk Fanzine and the Cultural Politics of Zines” attempts to connect the historical contexts of the international punk zine and zine culture movement. Jian illustrates the rebellious nature of zine culture and emphasizes the criticality of zine culture by looking at the development of punk zine around 2000 in Taiwan and how the trend has expanded in the indie music scene.
 

As to Research Articles, in “Library and Soapbox: A cross-domain reading into Cross-Domain Reading & Writing: A Biblio-ecology in Art,” Shen Yu-Chang starts from the 2018 exhibition Cross-Domain Reading & Writing: A Biblio-ecology in Art in Taipei Fine Arts Museum to analyze the contemporary significance of “publishing as an artistic practice”. He employs the works of eleven participating artists and the curatorial methodology of the two curators to scrutinize the inquiry the role of exhibition publications that “feature exhibitions but do not serve as exhibition catalogues”. In “Publishing as Artistic Practices as a Form of Creativity and Distinction: An Investigation on the Narrative Disarray Inside and Outside of the Fields of “Xiao Zhi” and “Artists’ Books” Throughout the Past Decade in Taiwan” Hong Tze-Ning focuses on “artist’s books” and “xiao zhi” (zine) practices in the past decade in Taiwan, using the concept of cultural fields as the approach to distinguish the two practices. Lai Wen-shu adopts her course on “artist’s books” at the Institute of Applied Arts, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University to explore the concept of artist’s books in the context of teaching, practices, and artmaking in “The Teaching and Art Praxis of Artist’s Books at NYCU”.
 

In general, this issue focuses on the cultural phenomenon surrounding “books” in the art scene. Through a collection of in-depth commentaries and essays, we aim to propose possibilities for media thinking in the post-digital culture and establish new modes of perception in diverse situations that continue to be defined.¹

[1] The chief editor has interviewed practitioners who have been involved in book-related events in recent years, including bookmaking, exhibition, editing, curating, publishing, teaching, and research, in an attempt to present the “book culture”scene in Taipei around 2020. The full text is available for download as an e-book, a reference for further research. See Book Phenomenon, https://www.tw-chuyinhua.com/book-phenomenon.　　

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

Library and Soapbox

SHEN Yu-Chang

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Tunghai University

Abstract

In this 21st century, how do we realize art practice in publication? This particular question in this study would be investigated from the exhibition, Cross-Domain Reading & Writing: A Biblio-ecology in Art, held in Taipei Fine Arts Museum. In this exhibition, the unorthodox art creation from eleven artists and the strategic planning from two curators are adopted to rethink the contemporary meaning of “art practice in publication” as well as to explore its potentiality. The most pertinent research object of this study is the publication, “The topic is the exhibition but the exhibited painting album” published for the exhibition, “The topic is the books but the book fair”. Thus, “cross-domain reading & writing” is employed to analyze the research object in this study, “Cross-Domain Reading & Writing: A Biblio-ecology in Art”. It’s an attempt to stir the established concept of “books” and broaden the sphere of imagination via creative reading into the artworks listed in the publication of “Cross-Domain Reading and Writing”.
 

Keywords: publishing, art practice, cross-domain reading & writing, books

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

Publishing as Artistic Practices as a Form of Creativity and Distinction

HONG Tze-Ning

Independent Researcher

Abstract

In recent years (2011-2021), paper-based “Xiao Zhi” and “Artists' Books” have both appeared in the cultural fields, such as exhibitions and art book fairs, as well as related platforms for exchange. In addition, the open narratives between the two cultural fields have also increased.
 

According to current research in Taiwan, the term “Xiao Zhi” results from a naming paradigm shift around 2013 and is related to the recent developmental context of independent publications and zine in Taiwan. Inside the field, “Xiao Zhi” is promoted by not defining or categorizing the term. Throughout the past decade, the research and promotion of “artists’ book” have mainly focused on individual creative cases, while there are traces that the term is being discussed in a more systemized manner. However, due to insuffcient open critique in the past and burgeoning open narratives in recent years, discrepancies have appeared between the two cultural fields when mentioned by communities, activists, as well as when facing the creative act and definitions, which leads to parts of media and promotors emphasizing distinction in public discourses; this is different from the former approach where the two are not categorized within the field and has resulted in narrative disarray.
 

This paper adopts the concept of Cultural Field and explores the public discourses regarding “Xiao Zhi” and “artists’ books” during the past ten years to investigate the changes in the field, clarify the common concepts that appear in public narratives, and propose the value of public discourse in contemporary art. The discourse is structured with the hopes that current research and discussions on “Xiao Zhi” and “artists’ books” in Taiwan will be included in the evaluation and observation of “publishing as artistic practice” in contemporary art and enrich future practices and discussions.

Keywords: Xiao Zhi, zine, artists’ books, cultural field, distinction

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

The Teaching and Art Praxis of Artist’s Books at NYCU【1】

Wen-Shu LAI

Associate Professor, Institute of Applied Arts

Abstract

Artists’ book is the 20th-century art form. It is a zone of activity made at the intersection of a number of different disciplines, fields, and ideas—rather than their limits. As one of the paths of art praxis, the artist’s book has many turns along with its historical context. It needs to be understood from the artist's intentions as well as the work of itself since it has a dialectical relationship with the artist and its readers. We can discuss Artist’s books from several dimensions such as the production, media, binding, and printing of books, or discuss the creative philosophy and distinctive signature of a book artist’s oeuvre from the angle of the artist’s professional training. Some artist’s books are the only existing copies. Instead of being published and produced massively, they are intended to topple the conventional idea, form, and structure of books by introducing heterogeneous concepts and media. The understanding of an “artist’s book” often lies between the artist’s book, the artist and his intentions hidden in the book, and the readers. It covers the conceptual, material, technical, and spiritual aspects of the book. Also, these are closely related to the artist’s own training or intentions. This paper seeks to investigate how artist’s books appear as an approach of artistic praxis in related fields in Taiwan, and what possibilities this approach can offer, with a special focus on two courses—“Artist’s Books” and “Advanced Artist’s Books” offered by the author at the Institute of Applied Arts, NYCU since 2011. This paper proceeds in accordance with the four major topics that underpin the two courses. They are: the expending meaning of the artist’s books, the curriculum thinking and innovative techniques of the artist's books, the exhibition of the artist's book, and the analysis of the works of the artist’s books. In sum, this paper elaborates on the praxis of “artist’s books” from the aspects of the meaning of the artist’s books, teaching praxis, exhibition, and work analysis. From above, this paper will clarify what teaching and art praxis paths that the two courses offer, and the insights derived from them.

Keywords: Artist’s books, art praxis, artist’s intention, teaching praxis

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

Photo Archives as Photobook Works

HE Yining

Independent Writer, Curator

Abstract

In the last decade, a rich and diverse body of photobook works based around photographic archives is getting published in China. These practices include, but are not limited to, the re-editing of family albums by artists, or the re-excavation of a particular place or historical event, reflecting the different possibilities of these artistic practitioners in their attempts to use photographic archives to establish connections between the present and history and memory. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the contemporary context of photobook publishing in China in recent years, followed by an overview and analysis of the types of photobooks currently created around photographic archives and the reasons for this trend. Finally, it attempts to consider how practitioners relate photographic archives to a specific historical time and space through a logical structure between pages by examining two cases of creation.

Keywords: Photo Archive, Chinese Photobook Publishing, Historical Narrative

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

The Mixed Names: The Birth of the Photo-Essay in South Korea in the 1960s

Nayun JANG

Research Associate Professor, Critical Global Studies Institute, Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea

Abstract

This essay examines Joo Myung-Duck’s The Mixed Names series and the photobook in relation to the evolution of photography movements in South Korea before and after the Korean War. It analyses the shift in the country’s photography scene in the 1960s, when creating a series of photographs began to be discussed as a way of presenting an in-depth analysis of a topic and overcome limitations of the preceding photography movements, such as Salon Sajin and Saenghwal Juui photography. The essay aims to demonstrate the significance of The Mixed Names as the first-ever photographic series that took the form of a photo-essay, and it explains how the photobook powerfully
delivered the photographer’s intention by affective juxtapositions of photographs and emotional texts. It also points out how the series and the photobook were designed to engender a sense of guilt and responsibility in viewers by re-enacting memories of mixed-race war orphans neglected in the offcial narratives.

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

The Future was Exhausted: On the Cinematic Banality of Sci-fi in Martine Stig’s Cauchy Horizons

Pei-chun Viola HSIEH

Doctoral Candidate in Art History, SUNY-Binghamton

Abstract

The photobook Cauchy Horizons is a collection of the artist Martine Stig’s investigation into the language of science fiction cinema. Across four cities: Tunis, Shenzhen, Geneva and Athens, Stig aims to achieve a visual resemblance from the classic Sci-fi’s films to capture the present for a photographic fact of future. Flipping through these monotonous and even uninspiring pages of photographs, Cauchy Horizons shows an exhaustion both in the composition of camera and our imagination to future. Taking a cue from this visual exhaustion, this essay proposes a critical reading toward the Scifi as a genre in image production. It will begin by tracing the historical alinement between the photographs and printed book, and end with a suggestion on how this photographic exhaustion is in fact an anti-spectacle gesture to the exploitation of Sci-fi images.

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)

Wake up! Taiwan Punk Fanzine and the Cultural Politics of Zines

JIAN Miaoju

Professor, Department of communication, National Chung Cheng University

Abstract

This article explores the first wave of punk fanzine in Taiwan that appeared in the early 2000s. The author intends to link the origins of the international punk fanzine to the evolution of the zine movement in the Western countries, and to especially focus on the cultural and political implications of the resistance politics of the global punk zine. On the one hand, it reviews the rebellious nature of the zine culture which includes the challenging mainstream culture, establishing alternative communities, and the global resistance politics. On the other hand, it reconstructs the rise of the local punk fanzines around 2000, and examines how the punk DIY culture was introduced and how they sprouted, spread, and connected with each other within the independent music scene. The author argues that the emerging zine cultural movement since 2010 has gradually become diversified and the content has become easier to understand. However, using the developing history of the local punk zines and indie music fanzines as the entrance to better understand the current zine culture may provide another perspective. This article tries to bring back the resistance politics of the nature of zine culture and the political empowerment potential of the fans. The resistance nature of zine culture is turning zinesters from a passive political object to an active political subject. At a moment when zine culture has exploded in Taiwan, it is worth reawakening the resistant ethos of the punk fanzine and zines.

Keywords: punk zine, fanzine, zine, DIY culture, politics of resistance

Full Text(HTML) Full Text(PDF)