Speaking of speeches, David Eggers delivers one at TED on grassroots community tutoring for kids who need help with their English homework: "There's something about the kids finishing their homework in a given day, working one on one, getting all this attention. They finish their homework, they go home -- they're finished. They don't stall. They don't do their homework in front of the TV. They're allowed to go home 5:30, enjoy their family, enjoy other hobbies, get outside, play and that makes a happy family. A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right? So, the key to it all is homework." Love him or hate him (mefi consensus) it's a great example of nervous energy microphilanthropy, social entrepreneurship and, if I may make the connection, machines of loving grace. [previously]
posted on Mar 23, 2008 - View this thread

Good Girl Art is defined as "A cover illustration depicting an attractive young woman, usually in skimpy or form-fitting clothing, and designed for (mild erotic interest)[sic]. There have been several prior posts on pulp fiction cover art (1, 2, 3); this site focuses on the "good girls" usefully organized into categories such as "Swamp Babes", Ringside Jezebels, Crazy!, Vietnam Vixens, and Peeping Toms. via
posted on Mar 12, 2008 - View this thread

Book nerds everywhere will enjoy these scans of cover art from the works of Beat Generation authors William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and John Clellon Holmes.
posted on Mar 4, 2008 - View this thread

Alice illustrations other than Tenniel
posted on Dec 24, 2007 - View this thread

When he's not recording more songs than Bob Dylan, former Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard is busy creating collages, many of which can now be seen online in an exhibit from Studio Dante in New York City.
posted on Dec 18, 2007 - View this thread

The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae A collection of over 900 zoomable print engravings, organized around the work of Antonio Lafreri and other Italian publishers, whose documentation of Roman ruins and statues helped fuel the Renaissance. The itineraries are a good place to start for detailed discussion, or just browse away. [via the wonderful Bouphonia]
posted on Dec 10, 2007 - View this thread

Daniel Essig creates wooden-covered art books and book-based sculptures. "Using a fourth-century binding style known as Ethiopian style Coptic, he creates mixed-media book structures that incorporate unusual woods, handmade paper, found objects, fossils, and mica. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he has a studio at the Grovewood Gallery." [Via MonkeyFilter, which has links to other book artists.]
posted on Oct 25, 2007 - View this thread

If you are a fan of longtime MeFite peacay's extraordinary blog, BibliOdyssey - and who isn't? - you can now get the coffee table version, The Annotated Archives of BibliOdyssey. (Or, in the U.S.) Forward by artist Dinos Chapman (NSFW). Kudos, peacay! Via.
posted on Oct 20, 2007 - View this thread

"A paper around her neck said she was Ida, but Ida said nothing at all." So tells the story of the saddest, unluckiest girl that ever lived.
posted on Sep 6, 2007 - View this thread

Brian Dettmer is an artist/surgeon who carves books into intricate, astonishing & precise new pieces of art.
posted on Aug 31, 2007 - View this thread

A few cool shelves: a skull shelf and another, made of books by Jim Rosenau, invisible shelf, secret stash shelf, accordion shelf by Thut Möbel, maze shelf and broken shelves.
posted on Jun 29, 2007 - View this thread

Sure, reading is great, but books are fun to look at, too
posted on Jun 21, 2007 - View this thread

Born in Bohemia, Wenceslas (Vaclav) Hollar (wikipedia; illustrated chronology of his life; essay on Hollar) was one of the leading etchers and illustrators of the middle 17th Century, working primarily in England and Belgium. The University of Toronto has placed almost his entire works online, including more than 4,000 images and some complete illustrated books. Some favorites: the man himself; simple, powerful Illustrations of Genesis; The Pack of Knaves; Elephants and Flowers; Shells; Fitting out a Hull; and Muffs (sfw). Most images are zoomable, and you can create marked lists and compare images side by side.
posted on Jun 17, 2007 - View this thread

Books judged by covers. Via.
posted on May 1, 2007 - View this thread

Gems of Penmanship, Penman's Leisure Hour, Ninety-five Lessons in Ornamental Penmanship, The Champion Method of Practical Business Writing and other Rare Books on Calligraphy and Penmanship from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lots of neat tidbits. [via mlarson.org]
posted on Feb 24, 2007 - View this thread

"Georgia Russell is a Scottish artist who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen. She works with obsessive perserverance to create constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs." Samples here. {via design dna}
posted on Jan 16, 2007 - View this thread

The children's book illustrators archive. Czeschka - Die Nibelungen; Nielsen - Hansel and Gretel; Goble - Japanese Fairy Tales; Dulac - Arabian Nights; Pavlishin - Folktales of the Amur; Finlay - The Ship of Ishtar; Detmold - The Arabian Nights; Crane - Flora Feast; Kirin - Croatian Tales of Long Ago; Clarke - Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination; Collard - British Fairy Tales, and; more Rackham in the gallery then you can shake a pen at.
posted on Dec 13, 2006 - View this thread

Tidying up is not an art. Tidying Up Art - that's another matter altogether. Be it Niki de St.Phalle, Matisse, van Gogh, Kandinsky, or Meret Oppenheim, Magritte or others - Swiss author Ursus Wehrli's services are accurate and reliable.
posted on Nov 9, 2006 - View this thread

Su Blackwell, Thomas Allen & Abelardo Morell are artists who cut up books and then photograph the interesting, whimsical & gorgeous results.
posted on Nov 6, 2006 - View this thread

Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie [via]
posted on Nov 6, 2006 - View this thread

Penguin Books is an all too brief Flickr Photoset of Penguin Book cover designs from decades past. For those interested, this book is highly recommended.
posted on Oct 24, 2006 - View this thread

What Good Are the Arts? asks John Carey’s recent book of the same name. The New Criterion think Carey’s thesis is informed by cynical political motives rather than earnest convictions, and accuses Carey of dabbling in the risky art of aesthetic relativism: Obviously, art is ultimately about “the search for truth” (a lesson we’d do well to remember before society falls apart). But as Carey and others point out to the contrary, the Third Reich was all about art—and yet, art under the Third Reich had precious little to do with “searching for truth.” So just what good are the arts? Here’s what a few others have to say on the subject.
posted on Oct 4, 2006 - View this thread

Cool book photos by Abelardo Morell, who takes pictures of other cool things, too.
posted on Sep 4, 2006 - View this thread

2 years ago I FPP'd FlavorPill, a company that sends out permission-based emails for books (Boldtype), music (Earplug), and fashion (the JC Report). They've since added ArtKrush (it's art, stupid! - nsfw) and Activate (world events) to their aresenal. In addition to the topic-specific mailing lists, they offer city-specific lists for London, New York, SF, LA, and Chicago. Sample issues are archived on the site.
posted on Aug 11, 2006 - View this thread

The Toymaker offers over 40 free paper toys and pretties you can print out (PDFs) and make yourself, as well as "Stories to be Told by Firelight" - online versions of author/illustrator Marilyn Scott Waters' children's stories and lots of other fun goodies. For people who have kids, people who know kids, people who are kids, and people who love papercraft, illustration, toys, and tales. [more...]
posted on Jul 24, 2006 - View this thread

The Feather Book, digitized by and on display at McGill University: A seventeenth-century book containing illustrations of birds and men -- composed of real feathers, beaks, and claws. More information about the book and its contents and history can be read here.
posted on Jul 20, 2006 - View this thread

The U.S. Naval Observatory Library features high-res scans of images from antique books dealing with astronomy and navigation. Wallpapers, ahoy!
posted on Jul 13, 2006 - View this thread

"Covers is dedicated to the appreciation of book cover design."
posted on May 24, 2006 - View this thread

Germano Facetti - who died recently - was art director at Penguin Books during the 1960s. He was responsible for some of the most striking book cover designs of the period. More here.
posted on Apr 19, 2006 - View this thread

Laura Levine's works are themed around music, from her classic rock photos to her funky illustrations. Her children’s illustrated books about musical pioneers are delightful: Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels is due out in May. Previously: Shake, Rattle & Roll and a collaboration with the B-52's, Wig! She also runs a curiosity shop in Phoenicia, NY. (via Internet Weekly)
posted on Apr 11, 2006 - View this thread

The Parade of the Red Army and other scans of Soviet Children's Books from the '20's and '30's. [via DaddyTypes]
posted on Mar 27, 2006 - View this thread

2-inch books (flash) is a delightful exhibit of tiny hand-crafted books. The 2005 winners (pdf) of the Miniature Book Society's annual competition offers a sampling of little books that have been published. Tiny tomes have been delighting readers and collectors for 4,000 years. If these tiny treasures intrigue you, perhaps you'd like to collect your own vintage or contemporary library.
posted on Mar 18, 2006 - View this thread

The Memory of The Netherlands is an extensive digital collection of illustrations, photographs, texts, film and audio fragments from a large variety of Dutch cultural institutions. There are about 50 collections (in english).
posted on Feb 19, 2006 - View this thread

The Tokyo skyline [Windows or Real media] drawn from memory by savant Stephen Wiltshire.
posted on Feb 5, 2006 - View this thread

In the year 2525 if man is still alive, future generations will be able to consult this book or type a request into their DIY UNIT™ and reproduce the effect of wood or marble.
posted on Feb 2, 2006 - View this thread

Corset books - recycle your underwear as art? To explore issues related to women's body image, Tamar Stone creates books from "corrective" women's undergarments. (via art for housewives)
posted on Feb 2, 2006 - View this thread

Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu.
Rolled Palm Leaf Manuscripts in Nepal.
Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture.
Lots of beautiful images and fascinating information, courtesy of the wonderful plep.
posted on Jan 7, 2006 - View this thread

At least one commander told him, "Follow the soldiers' instructions, because they'll put their lives at risk to save you." But no one tried to censor his drawings or discourage him from going out on missions. -- Steve Mumford is a New York painter who was embedded as a "combat artist" in Iraq. The archives of his Baghdad Journal make for fascinating reading. He has recently published a large book of the art he created on this voyage.
posted on Dec 18, 2005 - View this thread

"The spiritual, physical, intellectual, social or economic well-being of the general public".
Within the MacDowell Colony's rustic stone and clapboard cottages, Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town, Aaron Copland composed Appalachian Spring and Dubose and Dorothy Heyward wrote Porgy and Bess. Jonathan Franzen finished writing The Corrections and Alice Sebold worked on The Lovely Bones. For decades, the town considered the colony a tax-exempt charitable organization. Not anymore.
posted on Nov 14, 2005 - View this thread

The Caravaggio Trail: "The Lost Painting". (BugMeNot for the New York Times). more inside
posted on Nov 13, 2005 - View this thread

"If time has to end, it can be described, instant by instant," Mr. Palomar thinks, "and each instant, when described, expands so that its end can no longer be seen." He decides that he will set himself to describing every instant of his life, and until he has described them all he will no longer think of being dead. At that moment he dies.
In memoriam of Italo Calvino, who died exactly 20 years ago.
"Calvino's novels" by his friend Gore Vidal. Calvino's obituary by Vidal, il maestro William Weaver's essay on Calvino's cities, Jeanette Winterson on Calvino's dream of being invisible, and Stefano Franchi's philosophical study on Palomar's doctrine of the void. More inside.
posted on Sep 18, 2005 - View this thread

Wagner, the repulsive giant If, on one hand, you ever wanted to know what a swine Richard Wagner was, this is the book to tell you. It does so at length, in reliable detail, calmly, without prurience, perfectly backed with documentation, and in a translation whose only fault is in giving no Translator’s Notes for in-house German references. Joachim Köhler sustains his story with new ideas, revises other interpretations and modestly deconstructs Cosima née Liszt’s creation of “Richard Wagner Enterprises Inc”. (This she developed so far as to keep Parsifal exclusive to Bayreuth, prompting George Bernard Shaw to remark in 1889 that it “would almost reconcile me to the custom of suttee”!).
posted on Sep 3, 2005 - View this thread

you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
"No, no, I never met Paul Celan. This poem is too CLASSIC, too cold, and too difficult to follow. It does nothing to me".
Singing, Painting and the Holocaust: Interview with Leon Greenman, Auschwitz Survivor 98288
posted on Aug 29, 2005 - View this thread

Truman Capote's Blood Work Two soon-to-be released films on Truman Capote's life, Capote and Have You Heard? begin as the novelist drops into rural Kansas to begin work on what became "In Cold Blood". More inside.
posted on Aug 18, 2005 - View this thread

Neil Gaiman 1997 essay on the myth of artistic inspiration
posted on Jul 19, 2005 - View this thread

Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities is so called because it asserts that what makes up a city is not so much its physical structure but the impression it imparts upon its visitors, the way its inhabitants move within, something unseen that hums between the cracks. This, however, has in no way dissuaded people from attempting to give form to his works. One such example is the Hotel Tressants, a building in Menorca, Spain containing 8 rooms named after and inspired by various cities from the novel. Meanwhile, artists offer illustrations^1,2,3, installations ^1,2,3,4,5, music^1,2,3,4,5,6 and dance, hypertexts^1,2, computer programs and animations, even View-Master slides, while intellectuals offer readings and commentary^1,2, lectures^1,2, and critical texts^1,2,3 sparked by the man and his writings. It has been dubbed "The Calvino Effect". Do you know of any more?
posted on May 20, 2005 - View this thread

What Was True. From the mid 1950s through the early 1980s, William Gedney (1932-1989) photographed throughout the United States, in India, and in Europe, and filling notebook after notebook with his observations. From the commerce of the street outside his Brooklyn apartment to the daily chores of unemployed coal miners, from the lifestyle of hippies in Haight-Ashbury to the sacred rituals of Hindu worshippers, Gedney was able to record the lives of others with clarity and poignancy. Gedney's America is a nation of averted eyes, and broken automobiles, and restlessness, a place Edward Hopper would recognize, but so, also, Walt Whitman.
posted on Apr 27, 2005 - View this thread

The Language of Saxophones At 55, L.A. musician and poet Kamau Daáood is finally beginning to acknowledge the possibility of his own place in local letters with his debut book of poetry, The Language of Saxophones, a 30-plus-year retrospective published by City Lights. Though he’s recorded a solo CD and read nationally and internationally, Daáood had never seen fit to collect his material in a book. Until now. “I never liked the idea of poetry sitting on a shelf somewhere, lost in all those book spines”.
posted on Apr 17, 2005 - View this thread

The Cheerful Transgressive Ever since 1971, when Larry Clark published Tulsa, an austere series chronicling his meth-shooting pals in sixties Oklahoma, Clark has made it his mission to document teenagers at their most deviant, their most vulnerable, their most sexually unhinged (possibly NSFW). And now “Larry Clark” the first American retrospective of Clark’s work, currently on display at the International Center of Photography, demonstrates the richness with which he’s mined this single subject (NSFW). More inside.
posted on Mar 31, 2005 - View this thread

Hand bookbindings.
web design by Mihai Parparita, via Evan Martin's LJ
posted on Mar 10, 2005 - View this thread

fore-edge painting. Books that, when fanned, reveal paintings on their edges. Hot, fore-edge action! (QuickTime.)
posted on Mar 9, 2005 - View this thread

EXLIBRIS MUSEUM. We've done ex-libris bookplates before, but trust me, this site far surpasses anything you've ever seen. Just go to the Gallery and click on any of the names. Vereshchagin, for instance. Or Karol Felix. Or... hell, just dive in, you can't go wrong. Warning: many bookplates contain female nudes. (Via dirty.ru; thanks, misteraitch!)
posted on Feb 25, 2005 - View this thread

Will Eisner Dies at age 86 The father of the modern Graphic Novel and hugely influential comics figure has died today from heart surgery complications. His concept of Sequential Art helped move comics out of the idea of being solely "kid's stuff" and was seen as a cannon in the comic art world. He was working on a book called "The Plot" due out later this year. He will be missed. More info and Eisner Bio at Newsarama
posted on Jan 4, 2005 - View this thread

Too many books? Not enough furniture? Problem solved.
posted on Nov 27, 2004 - View this thread

There is nothing wrong in this whole wide world. Artist Chris Cobb convinced Adobe Bookshop in San Francisco to allow him to reclassify 20,000 books based solely on their color. The result is like something out of a dream. Here are some pictures, and here's an interview with him.
posted on Nov 16, 2004 - View this thread

Irredentos. The sun beats down insufferably on the rust coloured landscape, stretching for mile after mile under a cobalt blue sky. In the distance, a convoy of rented farm trucks packed with thousands of penitents kicks up a serpentine cloud of dust that rises and then dissipates over the land. Through the dry air comes a jingling of chimes and a clicking of rosaries, a shuffling of processions, and with eyes heavenward, a ceaseless chanting of invocations. This is a holy and sun-scorched land, the Backlands of Brazil's northeast - the Sertão. Some believe Jesus is buried here.
Christian Cravo, the photographer, is Mario Cravo Neto's son.
posted on Nov 7, 2004 - View this thread

Enter a world where friendship is king and smiles abound. Owly is continuing graphic novel series created by Andy Runton. The series uses no words to tell the stories, instead relying solely on the art (which recalls classic cartoons), creating something fun and cute to read for pretty much any age. But don't take my word for it.
posted on Nov 1, 2004 - View this thread

Rare Books. Links to virtual exhibitions, 1991-present.
posted on Oct 3, 2004 - View this thread

Memories of a Dog . Moriyama Daido's pictures are taken in the streets of Japan's major cities. Made with a small, hand-held camera, they reveal the speed with which they were snapped. Often the frame is tilted vertiginously, the grain pronounced, and the contrast emphasized. Among his city images are those shot in underlit bars, strip clubs, on the streets or in alleyways, with the movement of the subject creating a blurred suggestion of a form (warning: NSFW images if you scroll down the page) rather than a distinct figure. His best known picture, Stray Dog, (1971) is taken on the run, in the midst of bustling street activity. It is an essential reflection of Moriyama's presence as an alert outsider in his own culture. Moriyama is also a toy-camera enthusiast (his favorite is the Polga) . He has worked in the US, too: "N.Y. 71". (more inside)
posted on Sep 27, 2004 - View this thread

XXX: 30 P9RN STAR PORTRAITS (a bit NSFW, obviously) by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, is a book that features paired portraits (one clothed and one nude) of the top stars in p6rn, straight and gay, from legends like (best-selling memoirist) Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy and Nina Hartley to (ahem) rising stars like Sunrise Adams, Belladonna, Chad Hunt. The book includes short essays on the intersection of p6rnography and culture by a wide range of writers, from Salman Rushdie to AM Homes. XXX is, essentially, about the much-dreaded "p6rnification" of the culture at large, recently featured in the New York Times. As Gore Vidal writes in the book's introduction, “Doubtless, sex tales were told about the Neanderthal campfire and perhaps instructive positions drawn on cave walls. Meanwhile, the human race was busy establishing such exciting institutions as slavery and its first cousin, marriage.” (more inside, with totally NSFW Terry Richardson)
posted on Sep 18, 2004 - View this thread

Lesbian Paperback Covers. [NSFW]
posted on Sep 13, 2004 - View this thread

The insolent art of Michel Houellebecq. "There are certain books—sardonic and acutely pessimistic—that systematically affront all our current habits of living, and treat our presumptions of mind as the delusions of the cretinous." Julian Barnes' 2003 review in The New Yorker.
posted on Aug 28, 2004 - View this thread

Kodomo no kuni - children's book illustrations and songs from 1920s Japan. I found the artist's index the best way to navigate. (via the always entertaining quiddity)
posted on Aug 21, 2004 - View this thread

"Hi. My name is Tony Kushner, I'm a playwright ...Ladies and Gentlemen and Supporters of MoveOn: the first lady of the United States, Laura Welch Bush". About a year and a half ago Kushner, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of Angels in America, published the first act of a new play, Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy (full text). In it, Laura Bush reads Dostoyevsky to a classroom full of ghosts of dead Iraqi children. Now, (in Salon, I know, I know) the first lady metacriticizes Kushner's play. (more inside)
posted on Aug 4, 2004 - View this thread

The Book Art of Richard Minsky found by helcat who shared it in #mefi.
posted on Aug 3, 2004 - View this thread

Three nice book links from the University of North Texas Libraries: 1. Victorian Bookbinding - Innovation and Extravagance has some gorgeous examples of bookcovers from the Art Nouveau, Victorian, and Arts and Crafts periods. 2. The Great Menagerie is an animated tour of 19th and 20th century pop-up books. 3. Pop-Up and Movable Books - A Tour, showcases pop-up book artists through the centuries, and includes the master of the genre, Lothar Meggendorfer. More about Meggendorfer inside ---->
posted on Jul 29, 2004 - View this thread

"Hubert Selby died often. But he always came back, smiling that beautiful smile of his, and those blue eyes of his... This time he will not be back. My saints have always come from hell, and now, with his passing, there are no more saints". Selby is the author of Last Exit to Brooklyn, (tried for obscenity in England and supported by, among many others, Samuel Beckett and Anthony Burgess), Requiem For a Dream, Song of the Silent Snow. He is being eulogized in the USA and UK, but also, massively (I've just watched a fantastic TV special) in France, where he is much more popular than in his native land (Selby's death was the cover story -- plus pages 2, 3 and 4 -- in the daily Libération today -- .pdf file): Dernière sortie vers la rédemption, L'extase de la dévastation. What makes all this kind of ironic -- in a very Selbyesque way -- is that Selby himself used to say, "I started to die 36 hours before I was born..." (more inside)
posted on Apr 28, 2004 - View this thread

Delicate. Abstract. Phallic. Gorgeously designed. Four pages of "rare and valuable" Isaac Asimov book covers. Some are truly beautiful. From West Virginia University's brand-new home for an Asimov geek's recently donated collection. [via the ever-useful ResearchBuzz]
posted on Jan 22, 2004 - View this thread

A Flash-heavy "Illustrated Complete Summary of Gravity's Rainbow". Includes an Episode Guide and a gallery of related art. See also the Wikipedia entry if you want some background, including a link to an online concordance.
posted on Dec 14, 2003 - View this thread

The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Online exhibit.
Related :- Buddhist art and ritual from Nepal and Tibet; photos of Tibet in the 1940s; dissecting the mandala; mandala and temple sacred architecture in Tibet; mandala sand painting; early Tibetan mandalas; Buddhist sculpture and paintings; the Norbulingka Institute.
posted on Aug 11, 2003 - View this thread

As a matter of fact, you can tell a book by it's cover.
posted on Jul 18, 2003 - View this thread

The tiny Picture Book Of Foods is an invaluable resource for true foodies everywhere. Learn where many of your favorite foods really come from. There are also growing secrets, educational cross-sections, and recipe tips. And pancakes.
posted on Jun 25, 2003 - View this thread

Sandman READ poster Anyone passing through libraries will have seen the series of READ posters, starring any number of actors, sports stars, musicians, and other celebrities. Everyone from Alex Baldwin to WWF wresllers to Yoda have been so honored.

Now you can add a comic character to that list. Neil Gaiman's creation of Morpheus, the Sandman, is now available as a poster. The artwork is by P Craig Russell, who was the artist for an issue of Sandman.
posted on Jun 15, 2003 - View this thread

Illuminated manuscripts are truly a joy to behold. And there are a remarkable number of them available on the web for your viewing pleasure. The most famous illuminated MS is the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. For galleries with multiple images, try the resources at DScriptorium, Web Gallery of Art, and the Leaves of Gold exhibition. Elyse Boucher's page is a work-in-progress detailing the history and methods of illuminating books, with both images and secondary sources; see also Sue Wood's Art and Books page.
posted on Apr 30, 2003 - View this thread

"This vellum-bound curiosity is one of the rarest and most mysterious etching suites of the late Renaissance." Braccelli's fantastic drawings are excellent examples of early (early, early) surrealism. For higher quality images, try this link instead.
posted on Mar 17, 2003 - View this thread

Angie was a marked woman , paying her own ransom with a body none could resist.
Someone has spent an incredible amount of time and energy scanning in lesbian pulp fiction covers from the 50's and 60's. An interesting look into what was considered titillating 40 years ago.
posted on Jan 8, 2003 - View this thread

TextArc is an interactive program that reproduces the text of more than 2,000 books as works of art.
The software converts the text into an interactive map that allows viewers to quickly see relationships between words and characters at a glance, even without having read the book. Try it with Alice in Wonderland. (Links opens a full-screen window.)
posted on Nov 30, 2002 - View this thread

A Gallery of Bookplates. I always think it's a wonderful surprise when I'm antique bookshopping and I happen across some beautiful ex-libris. Many more links found via Joy Olivia on the Graphic Design blog Speak Up.
posted on Nov 6, 2002 - View this thread

The following sing I a book. a book of art. of mind art as that which he hid reveal I. Tom Phillips made his first Humument pages in 1966 and continues to make them. He drew new meanings out of a forgotten Victorian novel - A Human Document by W.H. Mallock - by painting over or otherwise obscuring most of the words on the page, leaving pithy fragments. The result is wonderfully allusive, poetic and occasionally wise as well as beautiful to look at. He's used it to comment on Dante's Inferno and Joyce's Ullysses, made a sort of opera out of it, and it's dead postmodern to boot.
posted on Sep 17, 2002 - View this thread

Ace Doubles were undersized paperback novels published from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s. One book was on one side, the other, upside-down on the back. Sometimes, they were intended to introduce a new author t o the public by piggybacking the newcomer with a well-known professional (with varying results). Aside from the novelty of the layout of an Ace Double there is the fabulous art by now-unknown artists like Ed Emshwiller (Emsh), Jack Gaughan (my favorite) and Ed Valigursky. I myself am partial to the D series. â??
posted on Jul 17, 2002 - View this thread

projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE projet is a collection of independently-produced books and zines traveling and exhibiting across North America in a vintage Airstream trailer. The project is accepting submissions for the 2002 tour.
posted on Jan 16, 2002 - View this thread

Did many of the "great masters" of Western art, well, cheat? Not exactly, says David Hockney, but they were close. In his new book, entitled Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney fleshes out a theory that he's been toying with for years: that artists from Raphael to Caravaggio used devices similar to a camera obscura (specifically, a camera lucida), to "assist" them in making near photograph-quality reproductions of their subjects. The theory (and the resulting debate) is fascinating: if these artists did, in fact, benefit from "technical assistance," how should this affect our view of them, and of art history in general?
posted on Nov 10, 2001 - View this thread

Snap to Grid: A User's Guide to Digital Arts, Media, and Cultures is one of the best readings on the interactions between artists, technology, and culture I've found so far. I found a quote here by Sir Isaiah Berlin which is very appropriate to my experience and perhaps those who search for sites like Metafilter:

Loneliness is not just the absence of others but far more living among people who do not understand what you are saying.

posted on Jul 3, 2000 - View this thread