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We recommend — Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

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acanthus, Anglo-Norman Litany of Saints, April, Boise, border, burnished gold, Cami Nelson, chrysalis, color, Connecticut College, Craig Dworkin, Elizabeth Peterson, eye, Finger Lakes, fragment, France, Geoffrey Babbitt, gilded, gold pavé, gutters, heliotropic, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Idaho, ink, ivy, Jerry Root, Julie Gonnering Lein, Karen Brennan, Kathryn Cowles, leaf, lift, light, littera gothica textualis, littera gothica textualis formata, Luise Poulton, Marriott Library, National Poetry Month, New York, New York City, Office of the Dead, Paisley Rekdal, Paris, pasture, poet, rare books, rinceaux, scribe, Shira Dentz, Special Collections, Spyten Duyvil, street lamp, tendrils, The University of Utah, thunder, Tom Stillinger, transport, vellum, Vespers, vines


“a trace unnameable — place
holding the child
to the first frost,
the street lamp, the pasture — ”

Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light
Geoffrey Babbitt
New York City: Spuyten Duyvil, 2018
PS3602 A224 A6 2018 (General Collection, Level 2)

“This is Geoffrey Babbitt’s first book. His poems and essays have appeared in North American Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, Notre Dame Review, TYPO, Tarpaulin Sky, The Collagist, Interim, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere. Raised in Boise, Idaho, he studied at Connecticut College and earned his Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Utah. Geoffrey currently coedits Seneca Review and teaches at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in the Finger Lakes region of New York, where he lives with poet Kathryn Cowles and their three daughters.”

Geoffrey acknowledges the help of many friends, colleagues and faculty from the University of Utah including Luise Poulton, Karen Brennan, Craig Dworkin, Julie Gonnering Lein, Cami Nelson, Paisley Rekdal, Jerry Root, Tom Stillinger, Shira Dentz, Elizabeth Peterson, and others.

Congratulations, Geoffrey!


MS Fragment: 4 — Date: ca. 1375 — Origin: France (possibly northeastern) — current location: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Special Collections, Rare Book Division — Materials: Ink, and burnished gold on vellum — Illustration: Detail — Size: 7 1/8 in. x 5 7/16 in. — Section: Anglo-Norman Litany of Saints — Script: littera gothica textualis formata

“vines scritched, chrysalis
onto vellum leaf–all
lost color, stolen thunder
–spiritual curl
of the vine tending
ultimately toward–tattered edge
curling from the gutters…”


MS Fragment: 8 — Date: ca. 1425-1450 — Origin: France (possibly Paris) — Current Location: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Special Collections, Rare Books Division — Materials: Ink, and burnished gold on vellum — Size: 7 1/4 in. x 5 3/16 in. — Illustration: Detail, border — section: Office of the Dead, Vespers — Script: littera gothica textualis

“lit border
buoys — acanthus
place setting
scribe sets — rinceaux
sprays, gilded ivy leaf,
bryony tendrils, gold pavé
fleur-de-lis — heliotropic
buoyancy — motor cells in
the pulvinus synthesize
bouncing light, con-
vert eye movement, displace
page’s gravitropic
polar auxin transport —
downwarding becomes lift”

April is National Poetry Month.

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Rare Books Goes to Utah State University!

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Rare Books Loans

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ailments, Alexa Sand, Andromachus, animal, antidotes, Antioch, antiquity, Arab, Arabic, aristocracy, artists, Athalus III, Avicenna, Baghdad, Barcelona, benefits, Bibliotheque National de France, binding, bites, border, Byzantine Renaissance, Cairo, climate, codex, Constantinople, court, covers, Criton, culture, display, doctor, drink, drugs, Egypt, Ellucasim Elimittar, exhibition, facsimile, food, formulas, French, fruits, Giovaninno de Grassi, grammarian, Graz, Greek, handbook, happiness, healing, health, Hebrew, Hellenistic, herbal, herbs, Homeric, household, hygiene, Ibn Butlan, illustration, Italian, Italy, King of Pergamum, Latin, layout, layperson, leather, magical, management, manual, Materia medica, medical, medicine, medieval, Merrill-Cazier Library, Mesopotamia, Middle Ages, mineral, miniatures, Mithridates, Moleiro, monk, movement, nature, Nero, Nestorian, Nicander of Colophon, observation, occidental, opium, pain, paper, patrician, Pedanius Dioskurides, pharmacological, physician, plants, poet, poisons, potions, publicity, rare books, reception, remedies, rest, Roman, sadness, samples, scholar, science, simples, sleep, Special Collections, stings, substances, symposium, Syria, Syrian, Theatrum sanitatis, therapeutic, toxicology, Trajan, Ububchasym of Baldach, University of Utah, Utah State University, vegetables, Venice, woman, wooden

Last semester, Rare Books loaned six of its medieval manuscript facsimiles to the Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State University in collaboration with an art history course taught by Professor Alexa Sand. The upper-level course, “Special Topics Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Art: Rare Books and Facsimiles,” provided a wide-ranging introduction to the interdisciplinary field of manuscript studies. The focus was the history of the codex from its advent in late Roman times to the early print era.

Each student selected a facsimile and researched its origins, history, and significance toward the final assignment of including it in a group-curated exhibition displayed in the library. The seminar concluded with a one-day symposium in which student researchers played an active role in discussion.

The materials selected for study related to botany and its medical and magical associations from late antiquity through the early modern period. Students prepared all aspects of the exhibition, from layout and display to publicity and the opening reception, working with Special Collections faculty and staff and Professor Sand.

Facsimiles on loan from Rare Books were:


Des Pedanius Dioskurides aus anazarbos arzneimittellehre in funf buchern
Ca. seventh century, Italy
Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1988
R126 D56 1988

Facsimile. This manuscript is one of the oldest in the tradition of Materia medica, a pharmacological treatise written by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century CE. Dioscorides’ work was used by the medieval world for centuries. In the sixth century it was translated into Latin and by the ninth century it had been translated into Arabic, Syrian and Hebrew. More than four hundred plants are described in this illustrated herbal manual, each illustration bordered in red ink. The binding of wooden covers and leather accords with the character of the original.


Theriaka y Alexipharmaka de Nicandro
Nicander of Colophon
Barcelona: Moleiro, 1997
QP41 N53 1997

Facsimile. The Greek text for this codex, produced in the tenth century, was written in Constantinople in the second century BCE. Nicander, a trusted doctor, poet, and grammarian served in the court of Athalus III, King of Pergamum. In Homeric-style verses, Nicander describes poisons caused by animal bites and stings and by the ingestion of plant, animal, and mineral substances. Antidotes are given for each type of poisoning. These nearly sixty formulas were later improved upon by Mithridates, who added opium and aromatic herbs to the potions. Nicander’s work was used by Criton, the doctor of Trajan, and Andromachus, Nero’s doctor, and is the oldest extant Greek text relating to toxicology. Using this text as his basis, Andromachus compiled a list of seventy-one curative remedies – a list used until the nineteenth-century as the panacea textbook for all and any poisonings. The tenth-century codex, a product of the Byzantine Renaissance, is the only remaining illuminated copy of Nicander’s poetry. The forty-one illustrations form a part of the Hellenistic artistic tradition. The original is now housed at the Bibliotheque National de France. Facsimile edition of nine hundred and eighty-seven copies. University of Utah copy is no. 469.


Theatrum sanitatis
Ububchasym of Baldach (d. ca. 1068 AD)
Eleventh Century
Barcelona: M. Moleiro, 1999
RS79 T46 1999

Facsimile. This handbook of health was written between 1052 and 1063 CE by the Arab scholar Ububshasym of Baldach, better known throughout medieval literature as Ellucasim Elimittar. Many of the concepts used in his writing were derived from earlier Greek, Roman, and Arabic medical treatises. Good health depended upon six essential factors: climate, food and drink, movement and rest, sleep and wakefulness, happiness, pain and sadness. Plants, fruits, vegetables, and basic hygiene also affect a person’s health. Ninety-nine of these and other elements are described with the therapeutic properties of each and the ailments that may be helped by them. The illustrations were influenced by the school of Giovannino de Grassi. Two hundred and eight red-framed, nearly full-page illuminations illustrate scenes from daily life as well as the elements described.


Tacuinum sanitatus in medicina.
Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1986
RS79 T335 1986

Facsimile. Northern Italy. This illuminated medical handbook was produced for a layperson – a woman of the upper aristocracy or of a rich patrician family able to read, and afford, a lavish book. A reference of sorts for the household management of health and healing, this type of book goes back to an Arab source written by the physician Ibn Butlan in the 11th century. The Arab art and science of healing decisively influenced occidental medicine and enjoyed a long-lived and distinguished reputation. The Latin translation, which made the codex accessible to the educated of the medieval western world, was widely known. Many copies survive. This particular copy is one of the finest of its kind, displaying over two hundred full-page miniatures of all that was considered important with regard to human health and well being. Beginning in the 14th century, the text was placed below an individual image. The evocative miniatures portray everyday life of late Medieval Italian culture. With a natural style and strong colors, two artists portrayed plants, animals, food, and drugs. All of the objects are within scenes centered upon a human. The text below each miniature describes both the benefits and shortfalls of the object depicted. Derived from the classical herbal tradition, but closely related to Arab manuscripts, the format follows a later western tradition. Bound in leather on wooden boards with hand stamping according to contemporary pattern.


Livre des simples medecines
Antwerp : De Schutter, 1984
QK99 A1 L58 1984 v.1

Facsimile. This late fifteenth-century manuscript is of what has become known as “Livre des Simple Medecines,” a major text of medieval science. Many manuscript copies of this work exist – at least twenty-three from the fifteenth century and one from the sixteenth century. It was first printed in 1488 and printed nine more times before 1548. In classic herbal format, Livre des simple medecines is an alphabetical list of “simples,” that is, unadulterated vegetable, mineral or animal products. Each entry provides a description and, among other things, its usefulness in treating ailments. Herbals as pharmacopeia began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The earliest surviving medical herbal is a work in Greek compiled by Pedianos Dioscorides. This work would dominate European herbals for the next fifteen centuries. It was translated into Arabic as early as the ninth century and influenced Avicenna and other physicians from the Arab world. Herbals were living works. That is, copyists, often practitioners of medicine themselves or copying for practitioners, would contribute to adapt or modify an herbal depending on new or different experience. In this tradition, the French translation here includes new sources such as ibn Butlan, an Arab physician, and others. The four hundred and fifty-seven illuminations in this copy, the Codex Bruxellensis IV, reveal an attempt by the artists to be faithful to nature. In this sense, the desire was to return to copying nature, instead of merely copying degraded illustrations from older herbals. Deliberate observation and representation of nature emerged in all forms of art in the fifteenth century. Codex Bruxellensis IV was copied onto paper. Written in maroon ink by a single hand sometime in the second half of the fifteenth century in a cursive script, the copy also contains marginal annotations by at least two sixteenth-century hands. An attempted pagination was added by a seventeenth-century hand. At some point in its history, one owner added dried samples of plants within its leaves. Facsimile edition of two thousand copies. The University of Utah copy is no. 316.


Tacuinum sanitatis/enchiridion virtutum vegetablilium, animalium, mineralium rerumque omnium: explicans naturam, iuvamentum, nocumentum remotionemque nocumentoru[m] eorum/ authore anonymo
Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1984 RS79 T33 1984

Facsimile. Venice, 1490. Tacuinum Sanitatis (Handbook of Health) is the modern title given to one of the most popular treatises on medicine during the later Middle Ages. It combines Arabic and western knowledge on many types of foods, plants, and circumstances, with particular reference to their useful and harmful properties, and how the latter could be cured if necessary. The illustrated versions of this text yield much information on medieval daily life. The manuscript is comprised of 82 leaves, with four miniatures per page, a total of 294 miniatures. The captions or text are based on the Taqwin al-sihhah of Ibn Butlan (d. 1066), which was unillustrated. Ibn Butlan, originally from Baghdad, visited Cairo about 1049, after which he went to Constantinople before settling at Antioch in Syria and becoming a Nestorian monk. Facsimile edition of nine hundred and eighty copies, numbered.

Photographs of people by Andrew McAllister/Caine College of the Arts, Utah State University

Digital scans of books by Scott Beadles/Department of Art, University of Utah

Special thanks to our colleague Jennifer Duncan, Head of Special Collections, Book Curator, Merrill Cazier Library, Utah State University.

 

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DOC/UNDOC — Part 6/6, “Luces Brillantes”

05 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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19 poemas de Hispano América, antidotes, antiguas de libros, Antonio Frasconi, apprentice, Aproximaciones Al Estudio de La Literatura Hispańica, Ars Shamánica Performática, artista, audio, border, Boston, CD, Chicano, códices, comentarios, culturas, Doc/Undoc, drama, Edward H. Friedman, ensayos, escritor, España, español, Estados Unidos, Felicia Rice, fetishes, fragmento, frontera, Guillermo Gomez Peña, Gustavo Vazquez, historiadora, idiomas, ilegal, Inglés, Isabel Dulfano, Jennifer González, Latinoamérica, Laura Denisse Zepeda, libro, literatura hispánica, Manifesto, manuscrito, Mexico, Moving Parts Press, música, naciones, Nicanor Parra, papel japonés, performance, poemas, poesía, poeta, prosa, rare books, Rare Books de la Universidad de Utah, reliquary, saints, self-transformation, shamans, textos, toolbox, University of Utah, Zachary Watkins

During Fall Semester, 2015, University of Utah graduate students in SPAN6900-2 Analyzing Texts: Form and Content visited Rare Books. During the third and final session with Rare Books, the students were introduced to late 20th century/early 21st century fine press and artists’ books. The session ended with the premiere viewing of our copy of DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática, purchased in September. Student response was so strong that managing curator Luise Poulton, in her typical over-enthusiastic way, exclaimed, “You should post your thoughts on Open Book!” Prof. Isabel Dulfano, in her own enthusiastic way, immediately took up the suggestion and made this a new assignment, right then and there. Bless the beleaguered grad students! Rare Books is pleased to present these responses, one post at a time.

From Laura Denisse Zepeda

A traveling case for apprentice shamans
A reliquary for imaginary saints
A toolbox for self-transformation
A quiet call to heal yourself with fetishes and antidotes
A border kit to face the uncertainty of future crossings
A new project, seven years in the making

Doc/Undoc photo courtesy of Moving Press Parts

Doc/Undoc photo courtesy of Moving Press Parts

“Me hicieron perder mi imaginación y la han reemplazado con miedo”, se escucha decir en voz en off en un fragmento del video que forma parte de la obra más reciente de Guillermo Gómez-Peña, DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática (Moving Parts Press 2014). Esta reciente obra de la autoría del mexicano Gómez-Peña, plantea el tema controversial de “cruzar la frontera” utilizando sus propias experiencias para poder conceptualizarlo, habla de la dualidad que representa una persona que siendo documentada de un país, en este caso México, se convierte en indocumentada al cruzar la frontera y llegar a Estados Unidos.

Se puede clasificar esta obra como un “kit” artístico que incluye un DVD con el performance de Guillermo Gómez-Peña y video de Gustavo Vazquez, un CD con música de autoría de Zachary Watkins, un libro bajo el formato de la artista Felicia Rice que recoge textos del artista y escritor Gómez-Peña y comentarios de la historiadora de arte Jennifer González, todo dentro de un baúl metálico adornado con espejos, luces brillantes y una tela que asemeja la piel de un leopardo. Esta obra es un concepto de arte que rompe con todos los esquemas convencionales, es más que nada, una experiencia tangible. La obra, al contener una gama tan completa de formas, rompe las barreras que se tenían en cuanto a lo que apreciación de arte se refiere, presentando un formato interactivo, el espectador puede con esta obra no solo ver, sino también escuchar e incluso tocar.

Según la definición del libro de Aproximaciones al estudio de la literatura hispánica, el arte comprometido es el arte que implica una actitud crítica o no conformista, actitud que mantiene todo artista que tiene la obligación moral de poner su obra al servicio de una causa social o política (3). Guillermo Gómez-Peña, definido por él mismo como un artista que vende ideas, nos presenta una obra de arte comprometida, el producto resultante de siete años de arduo trabajo y dedicación. Su nueva obra, DOC/UNDOC, es una fusión de ideas basadas en la combinación de dos naciones, dos culturas, dos idiomas, que incita a romper con las nociones que se tienen actualmente de lo que una persona “ilegal” tiene que vivir en el viaje de “cruzar la frontera”. Muestra a través de métodos artísticos poco convencionales la lucha diaria que millones de mexicanos tienen que enfrentar día a día en una sociedad que rechaza el idioma español, y todo lo que conlleva la cultura de aquellos quienes lo hablan.

Nacido y crecido en la ciudad de México para después emigrar hacia Estados Unidos, convierte a Gómez-Peña en un agente intercultural, experiencia de la cual hace uso en sus obras. Su trabajo incluye performance, video, audio, instalaciones, poesía, periodismo y teoría cultural, abordando cuestiones interculturales, inmigración, política del lenguaje, y nueva tecnología en el mundo actual (Pocha Nostra).

Desde hace algunas décadas, Guillermo Gómez-Peña ha explorado a través de su arte cuestiones culturales a través del uso de “arte mixta”, y de la combinación de dos idiomas, Español e Inglés. A través de su arte que se ha desarrollado de manera continua, Gómez-Peña ha creado performances que incluyen una narrativa bi-nacional, creando lo que diversos críticos han definido como “Chicano cyber-punk performances” y “ethno-techno art” (Pocha Nostra).

Esta obra forma parte de la colección disponible en la sección de Rare Books de la Universidad de Utah. Siendo parte del grupo de SPAN 6900 Analyzing Texts: Form & Content, con la profesora Isabel Dulfano, tuvimos la oportunidad de a lo largo del semestre acudir a esta sección en varias ocasiones. La primera visita la hicimos para conocer de códices, manuscritos y glifos mayas, empezando de esta manera nuestra incursión a la literatura. Habiendo discutiendo previamente en clase los siguientes temas, tuvimos nuevamente la oportunidad de una segunda visita para conocer el concepto de manuscrito, conocimos versiones antiguas de libros que incluyen diversos géneros literarios como poesía, drama, ensayos, prosa, pertenecientes a las regiones de Latinoamérica y España. Para cerrar el semestre, acudimos una vez más a la sección de Rare Books, esta vez para conocer los diversos formatos en los que los libros más actuales son presentados, por mencionar algunas obras tenemos la obra de Antonio Frasconi, 19 poemas de Hispano América, una colección exclusiva de poemas de diversos autores, impresos en papel japonés, firmados cada uno por el artista. Otra obra es Manifesto, de Nicanor Parra, una obra en la que el autor revela lo que el considera la forma en que un poeta debería de escribir. Y como parte final, conocimos la obra de Guillermo Gómez-Peña, DOC/UNDOC, la cual aborda temas de concepto de identidad, contexto, transición, frontera y reinvención del individuo.

19 Poemas, 1969

19 Poemas, 1969

Manifesto, 1963

Manifesto, 1963

Haber tenido la oportunidad de formar parte de un grupo en el que se conoció de literatura desde sus inicios hasta la actualidad, es una experiencia que todo estudiante debería de tener, y si acaso no está dentro de su alcance el matricularse en una clase como éstas, los invito a conocer la sección de Rare Books, será una experiencia que no olvidarán.

20151201_155123

(Last paragraph translation: Having the opportunity to form part of a group that became familiar with literature from its inception to the present was an experience that every student should have. If by chance this type of class does not fit into your schedule, I invite you to visit the Rare Books collection, as it will be an unforgettable experience.)

Friedman, Edward, Virgillo, Carmelo, Valdivieso Teresa, and Edward H Friedman. Aproximaciones Al Estudio de La Literatura Hispańica. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2003.
<http://www.pochanostra.com/antes/jazz_pocha2/mainpages/bios.htm>
<http://movingpartspress.com/publications/doc-undoc.>

alluNeedSingleLine

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DOC/UNDOC — Part 3/6, “This Type of Trespass”

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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accordion, Alexander Calder, archival, art, artist, audio, books, border, borders, boundary, Carl Andre, ceramic, children, codex, comments, communication, definitions, dialogue, dialogues, dice, DOC/UNDOC: Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática, Donald Judd, experiences, fashion, fragmented, Francisco X. Alarcon, Guillermo Gomez Peña, Gyula Kosice, ideas, iguanas, impression, Isabel Dulfano, J. Willard Marriott Library, Joaquín Torres-García, Jorge Luis Borges, Joseph Beuys, literary analysis, Luise Poulton, Lygia Clark, Marta Minujín, medium, mobiles, mystery, objects, oils, Pablo Neruda, performance art, performances, performative, Peter Tanner, Piedras del Cielo, plexiglass, rare books, Rare Books Department, reader, requests, rhetoric, Santa, sculpture, Siete Poemas Sajones, sounds, Spanish, sweat, three-dimensional, toys, transgressive, trespass, University of Utah, videos, viewer, visual

During Fall Semester, 2015, University of Utah graduate students in SPAN6900-2 Analyzing Texts: Form and Content visited Rare Books. During the third and final session with Rare Books, the students were introduced to late 20th century/early 21st century fine press and artists’ books. The session ended with the premiere viewing of our copy of DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática, purchased in September. Student response was so strong that managing curator Luise Poulton, in her typical over-enthusiastic way, exclaimed, “You should post your thoughts on Open Book!” Prof. Isabel Dulfano, in her own enthusiastic way, immediately took up the suggestion and made this a new assignment, right then and there. Bless the beleaguered grad students! Rare Books is pleased to present these responses, one post at a time.

 

Doc/Undoc photo courtesy of Moving Parts Press

Doc/Undoc photo courtesy of Moving Parts Press

From Peter Tanner

The work of Guillermo Gómez-Peña has always caused quite a stir. The manner in which he has maintained a dialogue with, around, and trespassed over the subject of borders and in particular definitions that have been accepted as fixed in defining such borders, has always raised open questions that his viewer, or reader in this case, must confront in order to establish their own relationship to his work. The art book/performative book DOC/UNDOC: Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática (2014) is a work that questions the fashion in which the book is both a static and malleable medium for communication of both ideas and experiences. When one interacts with this work one is forced to cross one’s own limits as to what can and should or should not be done with an object of obvious value, which is also meant to be used and discovered. To illustrate I will describe my first encounter with this phenomenal performative work/performative book.

Several colleagues and I from my department (Spanish) were viewing many extraordinary limited edition artistic texts that are held by the Rare Books Department at The University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library. Works such as Francisco X. Alarcon’s De Amor Oscuro, Pablo Neruda’s Piedras del Cielo, and Jorge Luis Borges Siete Poemas Sajones are just a few of the amazing collection held by the library. All of these texts were developed with the highest quality craftsmanship and when possible the direct collaboration and input of the artist. While these texts were fascinating for their quality, and the fact that the text in some cases they had actually been handled and signed by the author, for example the Borges book, they are none the less texts that are beautiful books to be owned and perused with the hands, mind, and eyes of the reader. However, the performative text by Guillermo Gómez-Peña was a different experience entirely.

De Amor Oscuro, 1991

De Amor Oscuro, 1991

Las Piedras del Cielo, 1981

Las Piedras del Cielo, 1981

Siete Poemas Sajones, 1974

Siete Poemas Sajones, 1974

The case for the performative book contained several traditional collections of works of visual art that, while much more visual oriented than those of the texts listed above, were still in book format (either codex, accordion format or a more contemporary edge book binding were used). The difference between these more traditional texts and the more performative text of Gómez-Peña was apparent in the reaction of my colleagues to my exploration of the text. Before I explain my experience delving beneath the protective plexiglass, which separated the traditional texts from the more performative elements found below, I should say something regarding the history of interactive art.

From arguably the 1920’s forward there has been a movement in art that involved the idea of not just having a work of art to behold, but rather one that must be manipulated to be fully appreciated. Some early examples are Alexander Calder’s mobiles, and Joaquín Torres-García’s manipulable toys for children. Later works such as Lygia Clark’s Bichos and Máscaras sensoriais; Gyula Kosice’s kinetic sculptures, Carl Andre’s minimalist tile patterned floor displays, as well as Donald Judd’s sculptures required either manipulation or activation by the presence of the viewer/participant to complete the experience with the work in a three-dimensional world. This of course also relates to the dialogues that performance artists such as Joseph Beuys and Marta Minujín present to the world that must relate in some fashion to their work, and in the case of Minujín the environments that she produces. These types of works are fantastic examples where art breaks down the barrier between life and art, the more common interpretation of the effect of these works. They also reinforce the fact that the viewer, unless initiated to the need to trespass, will not understand that they are supposed to interact with the work and allow the work to facilitate their crossing the border between life and art. It is this very transgression of the boundary between visual witness of a work versus participation that Gómez-Peña seeks to break down.

The need for participation now explained, I was absolutely giddy at the chance to interact with the work of so transgressive an artist as Gómez-Peña. As a group we looked at the traditional texts and looked at all the objects behind the plexiglass resting in the bottom of the case. The plexiglass rested upon the tops of small partitions within the bottom of the metal case that serves as the container of all the books, objects, sounds, and videos that form this piece. Each partition below the plexiglass contained a collection of objects, some of which were easily visible, though much remained invisible, placed with in small velveteen-looking bags. Extending from the partitions tops and protruding through holes in the plexiglass are buttons that could be pressed by the viewer to activate a recording that would be played by the sound system also contained in the “books” box-like metal case.

While my colleagues looked on I couldn’t help but ask if we could remove the plexiglass and examine, that is touch, fondle, and explore the items within the case. At that moment there was a sort of awkward laugh that went around the group. The laughter seemed to express two feelings: the first, there he goes again with odd requests and comments; the second, of course he will not be allowed or actually ever touch the items in the case, it is after all behind the plexiglass. In retrospect this perceived reaction illustrated to me the way that we all seem to let ourselves be contained by the expectation that the glass, the plexiglass in this case, is not meant to be transgressed when it comes to those objects that we are visually told are archival, and thus separate because someone has set them apart.

When I was told that the plexiglass could be removed, and that I could examine, that is touch and explore the objects, I waited with anticipation while my colleagues watched, seemingly unsure of what to do. I further asked if I could touch everything and get into each and every velveteen bag. I was told I could, and so I did. A plethora of objects that were at times both disparate though connected fell out of each bag into my hands, including collections of fragmented body parts: ceramic heads, arms, legs, and even an iguanas severed and preserved paw. There were two sets of dice, which I picked up and rolled, to see if they were loaded (they weren’t). I tried on the pair of flip lens sun glasses and said to my colleagues, “I am seeing you with the artists’ eyes.” They laughed. There were only two things I did not get to either use or try on, the luchador mask (which I did hold but did not wear), and a metal container that was shrink wrapped. I was not permitted to open it this final container (a mystery never to be solved). Only one or two of my colleagues handled any of the objects, and no one handled them all like I did. It was amazing to hold them, to see the mystery unfold and realize that, as the video and audio performances state, I was leaving my impression or trace upon each object that I held, with my own oils and sweat. More importantly, I feel that by transgressing the plexiglass border, that I was fulfilling not only the intention of the artist as he sought to have his viewer/reader move beyond their own boundaries, but also, and I do not mean to be egotistical but I cannot think of another way to say it, modeling this type of trespass for my colleagues that seemed more or less unwilling to cross the boundary.

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This type of work is meant to cause the viewer/participant to not only trespass the art/life border of the object imbued with the aura of artistic production, but also to cross over the porous definitions that we use around us. To investigate something unfamiliar one must experience something outside of one’s comfort zone. It is the very investigation of definitions beyond those that one sets upon oneself that facilitates the reformation and discovery of perspectives beyond one’s own, both conceptual and physical as this work demonstrates. By this kind of questioning the significance of the boundary as a fixed and defined concept is also redefined as more porous and flexible than perhaps previously believed. Ironically, for those that choose to not cross such boundaries, even in the most cursory way, their choice is one that solidifies the boundaries defining rhetoric. This then, at least to me, presents a third option, one which Gómez-Peña has always had as a guiding influence, what is the place of those that are undefined within a system that requires definitions? Are rights only available by functioning within established definitions? What is lost when is one is left undefined? What is their relationship to the definitions and those who both define as well as leave undefined all such positions? Works such as this one by Gómez-Peña, et al., open up all sorts of new concepts for the viewer’s/reader’s contemplation. Not the least of which is, is this a book or a work of art or both in a new hybrid performative format? You can choose for yourself, but I beg you, please move past the plexiglass.

Gómez-Peña, Guillermo, et al. DOC/UNDOC: Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática. Santa Cruz, CA: Moving Parts Press, 2014.

Coming soon: Dallas Fawson

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Book of the Week – Calendarium

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week – Calendarium

Tags

almanacs, astronomers, border, calendar, Calendarium, Easter, eclipses, Erhard Ratdolt, imprint, initial, instruments, Italian, lunar, Nuremburg, printer, printing, Regiomontanus, title page, Venice, woodcut

Mueller, Calendarium, 1482, First Page
Mueller, Calendarium, 1482, Solar Chart
Mueller, Calendarium, 1482, March Measurements

Calendarium
Johannes Mueller, Regiomontanus (1435 – 1476)
Venice; Erhard Ratdolt, 1482
CE73 M8 1482

Regiomontanus’ Calendarium was first printed at his own press in Nuremberg in 1474. In 1476, master printer Erhard Ratdolt published it in Venice, the capital of Italian printing, followed by this edition in 1482. Regiomontanus was one of the first publishers of astronomical material. His Calendarium represents the first application of modern scientific methods of astronomical calculation and observation to the problems of the lunar calendar, such as Easter, and the accurate prediction of eclipses.Regiomontanus’ almanacs contained planetary positions for a particular year as calculated from astronomical tables, freeing astronomers from performing the laborious task themselves.

This edition also contains verses by J. Sentius in praise of the author, and by Santritter in praise of the printer. Santritter would later become a printer himself. The last two leaves of this book are printed on four pages of thick paper pasted together to form astronomical instruments. The ingenuity of the instruments demonstrates Ratdolt’s technical skill in overcoming the challenges posed by early scientific publishing. This edition was not only technically innovative but artistically elegant as well. The title page is ornamented with an intricate border. The title-page initial is printed in red and black. Other woodcut initials are printed in black and white. Ratdolt included imprint details – that is, the information which tells us when and by whom the book was printed – at the end of the opening verses on the verso of the title-page.

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