The Illuminated Library : An Exhibition of Books
Throughout December and January, the Frith Street Gallery will present a show of artists’ books – the first of what is intended as an annual exhibition.
This year, the gallery will exhibit books by Rudolph Fila, Ron Haselden, Rob Kesseler and Tim Long.
Rudolf Fila has exhibited extensively in central and eastern Europe as well as in the west – most recently this year at the Riverside Studios, London and the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow. Fila uses a gesture or mark across the surface of an exisitng image as an agent of ironic comment, applied not only to paintings but to books, magazines, prints and copies of Old Masters. Surfaces seem alive under these semi-transparent gestures and the entire significance of the under-lying image is transformed by the explosive and often humourous mark. Included in the ‘Illuminated Library’ will be several books in which Fila has changed both the surface and the meaning of imagery, as well as a series of Hogarth prints similarly subverted.
Like Fila, Tim Long uses as a base a central icon taken from art-history and then layers images from popular culture – either invented or copied, over the surface. In the ‘Illuminated Library’ Long will exhibit original work from his recent publication `The Lost Image’ as well as a limited edition of the publication.
Ron Haselden is best known for his large on-site installation pieces using strings of tiny lights. He has exhibited throughout Europe, most recently at the Cornerhouse, Manchester and in the ‘Tree of Life’ touring exhibition. For the ‘Illuminated Library’ exhibition, Haselden will create an installation of books each with lights, embedded and escaping from the pages.
Rob Kesseler draws on familiar but dislocated imagery, some kitch, some of significance – a feather, a cross, a cup – and combines them, leaving us to draw our own conclusions. For the ‘Illuminated Library’, Kesseler will exhibit a series of books, each with their pages glued and with covers painted with a single sign.
Each artist approaches the making of a book differently, but they have in common a desire to change, to subvert traditional format and structure. All the artists alter exisitng notions of the book, taking the concept and scale of book creation and production far beyond our pre-conceived understanding.