BOTH EVENTS ARE IN PERSON. THE WORKSHOP IS PAID AND THE TALK IS FREE.

11:00 AM - 1:30 PM: Artist’s Book Workshop with Karen Babayan

(In Person & Ticket Required)

Artists have long experimented with artists’ books: that is, art in a book form, subverting their audience’s expectations and presenting books in new and surprising ways. In this workshop, Karen will show you her own artists books and will teach you a range of experimental book-making techniques. From the book made from just one piece of paper, to the concertina book, to the lotus fold or flower fold book form. This creative and fun workshop is open to all, especially those trying out book-making for the first time!

6PM - 7 PM: Artist's Book Talk with Chris Taylor

‘Shifting Borders / Breaking Boundaries: the Artists’ Book as Primary Medium’

(In Person & Free)

In this illustrated talk, artist, curator and publisher Chris Taylor will look at the origins of the ‘artist’s book’, what it is, how artists have exploited and utilised the book structure, and where the future of the genre lies within the broader art canon. Over the past three decades he has collaborated on numerous projects with artists including Karen Babayan, Nicky Bird and Craig Wood, where the book format has been pivotal in the development of ideas and centre stage in the works’ final outcomes and presentation.

He says: “This familiar object– the book– remains as important a vehicle for visual communication as the white cube space might be to the contemporary exhibition or the proscenium arch is for opera. Beyond our everyday experiences of the text book, the novel or the technical manual, artists’ books in their many guises can be intimate yet highly accessible containers of creative thought, providing a platform for words, images or sounds, or a combination of these, in which we can immerse ourselves as artists and audience.”

Bios:

Karen Babayan is an artist, writer, and curator. Born in Iran to British-Armenian parents, her family moved to the UK in 1978 due to the impending Islamic Revolution. Ever since she has been trying to make sense of who she is and where she belongs. Now based in Cumbria, her first book of short stories on the Armenians of Iran, "Blood Oranges Dipped in Salt" (2012) was born out of a PhD in Contemporary Art Practice and described by her external examiner Professor Eric Knudson as ‘the best piece of auto-ethnography I have ever read’. Her award for ‘Cumbria Artist of the Year 2016’ finally established her creative reputation in her own county, followed by a chance discovery which informed Babayan’s second book of short stories. "Swallows and Armenians" (2019) championed the children from Aleppo, Syria who inspired Arthur Ransome to write his first book of fiction for children. An exhibition of the same name, supported by Arts Council, England toured venues in Cumbria and Northumberland during 2020-21. In July 2022, a musical version of Swallows and Armenians had its world premiere with Cumbria Opera Group, in Appleby, county town of Westmorland, Cumbria. Karen Babayan’s first piece of writing was published in The Guardian: Waiting for Father Christmas in Tehran (22.12.14) and her epic poem Armenian Coffee on the 2020 war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in The Big Issue, North: (01.2021). Karen’s paintings, prints and artists books can be found in many public collections, including Tate Britain Library, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; National Art Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Rank Xerox, Marlow; Provident Financial Group, Bradford; Dean Clough Collection, Halifax; Harris Art Gallery Museum, Preston and Leeds Art Gallery & Museums.

Chris Taylor is Professor of Fine Art Practice at the University of Leeds specialising in the field of contemporary printmaking and focusing on the role of the artist’s book as primary medium. His current research draws on material housed in the university’s Special Collections for the exhibition Shifting Borders: Journey to the Centre of Our World(s). Curated for The Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery (January – December 2023), it is a comparative exploration between historic artifacts and contemporary artists’ book works examining how travel and movement by individuals or groups has been documented and illustrated through maps over the centuries within the arts and sciences. Chris is co-Director of PAGES, promoting the development of artists’ books, and their dissemination and reception through activities including the biennial International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair (1998- ) and touring projects such as ARCHIVE (2003- ) and New Voices (2019- ). He is co-Director of the Artists’ Writings & Publications Research Centre (AWP) at Leeds and co-Editor of the Wild Pansy Press, a university-based imprint advancing publication in its widest sense as both distributional strategy and mode of production. His artist's books and printed matter can be accessed in numerous collections including MoMA and Cooper Hewitt, New York, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Chicago Institute of Art, AGO, Toronto, Tate Britain and V&A Museum, London, and Centre Pompidou, Paris.