Iconic books are texts revered as objects of power rather than just as words of instruction, information, or insight. In religious and secular rituals around the globe, people carry, show, wave, touch and kiss books and other texts, as well as read them. This blog chronicles such events and activities. (For more about iconic books, see the links to the Iconic Books Project at left.)

Friday, December 4, 2020

Fishy scroll book art

 

Robert Bolick at Books on Books draws out attention to Yasutomo Ota’s Die Forelle (2014):

  

 A poem about a trout here appears in a book that moves like a fish, thanks to its Chinese scroll form which Ota has repurposed into a codex format. Go to Books on Books for more pictures and a video demonstration.

That leads Bolick to show other examples of book art that uses similar formats to highlight the text they contain. "Form draws attention to itself but also inevitably back to the content. ... That is book art at its best."