'(The) Fairing(s)', handgebonden kunstenaarsboeken, hand-bound artist's-books / des livres d'artists / handgebundene Künstler-Bücher / Mahler-Bücher The Artist's-Books Workshop in Vilnius, 14th. till 26th. 2009 related to: VILNIUS EUROPEAN CULTURAL CAPITAL 2009   1. A 'fairing' is a gift. More precisely: a 'fairing' is a present given at or brought from a fair. 2. A 'fairing' is a thin cake made of sugar and butter. 3. 'Fairing' is making the surface of an aeroplane (or boat) smooth and stream-like. More generally it is used for the process of streamlining. The theme is FAIRING. Most people like to begin at the the end. This will help them: the Students' Books to begin with we could all agree on 'an artist's-book is a book made by an artist, from idea till execution', just as a(n artist's) painting is a painting that has been - concept till finish - 'done' by the artist. The discourse. A first problem there to encounter is that the concept 'artist's-book' is not far off from being 'a reproduction' to begin with - 'reproduction' in the sense that there is a tendency to thrive towards 'a book(-like-object)' before anything. I like to think that works of art have something of a solid core, a meaning that gives them their special shape, rather than belonging to a specific genre would decide for the artist what shape his inner-story should reveal itself in to. This may sound like a fine beginning for a hairsplitting conversation, but I think I should mention this as it is indeed right at the root of many flaws in many deeply boring, and uninteresting artist's-books. The work of an original (and 'original' should be superfluous as without being authentic and therefore original there is no such thing) artist cannot be but fundamental researche. On the internet you will find loads of information telling you artist's-book to be a concept of the sixties. I'm afraid I have to disagree there, for that is pretty much like the statement: 'beton-brut is the beginning of architecture', or, for that matter: 'poor-man's-art is the beginning of the free arts'. Things are a bit more complicated than that. For all I care (and I care a lot) the first artist's-books in Europe are beginning to see the light with the brothers Limburg, or rather more the private breviaries that inspired the Duc de Berry to invite the brothers Limburg to make him a unique and especially fine example of this kind of breviary - the medieval book of hours. One may very well have a point when argueing that, quite so, the book of the brothers Limburg is not an artist's-book with that good reason that it lacks the fundamental originality that such books should have in the first place. O K let us have all the arguments when we are together in Vilnius. And, yes, I do know time is short, and this comes down to fundamentals, so we must plunge right in somewhere - somewhere where preconceptions may come in usefull. So on to: The discourse. some backgrounds of the artist Joseph Johannes Visser which may colour his tutorials ideas on 'Printing Traditions in The Netherlands' As there is, internationally, much going on in the field of artist's books in Lithuania: Doc. Kestutis Vasiliunas' site-pages on this subject (front page of 'Arts for Lithuania") Things we must look into during, before, and after the hands-on workshop: At this moment these pages are developing, as such they are far from ready! 1. simple paper making; I should tell you that artist's-book making, or any book making coming to think of it, has ever been about 'paper' only. Claus Uwe Heinrich, one of Europe's great modern bookbinders, creative power and organizing spirits behind 'Drucktopf' - a series of artist's cookery books - says: "You may send me pages in one inch carrara marble as long as you include the hinges" 2. watermarking and such; 3. typesetting; 4. printing of text & such; 5. printmaking and printing related to text; 6. fold and cut, A Page, folding, cutting, 'paper handling' related to 'books'B Page; 7. binding basics; It will not do as day's-work, it may just help to have some scheme, and rough time-line The group of 15 students in my workshop will make a book-like-object that is somehow an artist's-book in an edition large enough for each member of the group to have 1 copy, plus 6 for organizers' archives & sponsors (at this moment: The Academy's Archive in Vilnius, The Academy's Archive in Zwolle, Atelier It Plein 19 in Easterlittens; Drukkerij Douma Dokkum in Dokkum; Fries Grafisch Museum in Joure; The Bokartas Archive in Vilnius); that were an edition of 21 / let us be safe, and say 25 in order to have exemples for the exhibitions. Results will be shown / exhibited in Vilnius at the end of the course, and in January in the Fries Grafisch Museum, Joure, The Netherlands. the links in the columns bring you to 'what really happened', comments, and diary fragments:  Wednesday 14th  Thursday 15th  Weekend 16 till 18  More Weekend  Monday 19th  Tuesday 20th  Wednesday 21st   Thursday 22nd  Friday 23rd  the Student's Books      Saturday 24th  Sunday 25th  Monday 26th Unless stated otherwise, all artworks in these pages are by the artist Joseph Johannes Visser, as are the photographs; the actual pages have been created and done by the artist himself. INDEX of Joseph Joh'n' Visser's Pages