Shelves

Andrea Blum sends me the link to Donald Judd's library, as it can be browsed on the Internet. Traffic jams make the final browsing of individual shelves too slow, but I like to scan them anyway: see how they are organized, both in their room as on the website. See the stones under them, very few bibelots and plenty of space to add more printed volumes. That's Judd for me.

Around 11.30am I get access to the shelves, which on mouse-over per book flips up a red tab, to be clicked to enter the library's records. Of course the almost 13,000 books are not fully digitized and not being a lending institution either this is where our journey into Judd's property ends: on the front cover. The link to worldcat.org however leads one to a copy of the desired book, as nearby as other public or university libraries allow... Impressive site.

Look inside

Rediscovering the scanner (of which the scan quality even when sharpening is switched off is not 100% convincing, I'll use a camera from now on) makes me rediscover a couple of my most important books, as they are gathered in the ‘Books’ section.

Vilém Flusser's Die Schrift; Hat Schreiben Zukunft? is among the most heavily annotated.

Little wonder, its chapters read, in this order: Überschrift; Inschriften; Aufschriften; Buchstaben; Texte; Buchdruck; Vorschriften; Gesprochene Sprachen; Dichtung; Lesarten; Entzifferungen; Bücher; Briefe; Zeitungen; Papierhandlungen; Schreibtische; Skripte; Digitale; Umcodieren; Unterschrift; Nachwort... everything you always wanted to know about writing and where texts go to be read. None of this I remember to be translated in English, but I'll check again.

Recent changes

Pages, books, calendars, pictures, net-works, snippets, colophon.

Note from the backbone (first post to a new publication)

Originating in early etching, silkscreen and offset printing, continued online in 1998's nqpaofu.com and up to today's IBILIBER, my interest in graphic representation/reproduction and publishing media can be considered the backbone of my artistic work.

The production, distribution and reception of text and images by means of printed and network reproduction has informed my work both conceptually and technically as well as aesthetically.

Print and the book, visual communication and the dissemination of information and knowledge by means of printed matter, text and illustration, word and (photo-)graphic image, produced in editions and print runs... books, flyers and posters, leaflets, labels and cards, ephemera – All the World of Print is referenced in many of the pieces that I have made over the years. Copying and reproduction was done by hand, stamp, block print, in etching, silkscreen print, photocopy and digital printing – on paper, cardboard, plywood, plastics, plexiglass, even wax tablets.