Production Narrative

by B. Freeman

JAB, Like everything, evolves over time while retaining some charateristic elements. JAB18 marks the third time we’ve had a guest editor. Clifton Meador, a book artist familiar to our readers, edited and designed this issue. He also designed and letterpress printed the JAB4 cover and was interviewed in JAB7. New to these pages is book artist, educator and curator Tom Trusky wit his astute and well-researched article about the extraordinary art of the autistic Idahoan James Castle. In JAB8 Thomas Gunter wrote about the situation of artists from the former East Germany facing reunification with West Germany (“Essential Aspects of Subculture Periodicals in the GDR and Their Place in Cultural History”). Gunter returns now with an article arguing for the legitimacy of unique, one-of-a-kind books in an era of easy access to reproduction technologies. Poet and letterpress printer Joe Elliott has written a review of a new Granary Books publication in this issue – his imaginative article “Reviewing the Subway as a Book” was featured in JAB1. The film for this issue was imageset on the SelectSet Avantra 25S donated by the Agfa Corporation at the Institute for Electronic Art at Alfred University. JAB18 was printed at Nexus Press, a programming division of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

Critical Analysis

by B. Freeman

Design Features

typographic: Overall, the text is presented in a two-column format with traditional use of font size and weight changes for titles, footnotes, and captions.

imagery: Contains drawn and collaged artists’ pages and cover. There are illustrative photographs of the books discussed and reviewed in the various articles.

graphical: Traditional two column format with illustrations and illustrative photos. Often, the footnotes cut into one of the columns and extend into the margins, forming a floating third column. There are artists’ collage pages and cover. The first page contains a table of contents.

openings: The image on interior back cover extends onto the final page of the text block to form a spread.

Journal of Artists' Books JAB 18

Agents

Brad Freeman

type: initiating

role:
author
printer
publisher

nationality:
born: United States

dates:
birth: 1951-01-23

Brad Freeman

type: initiating

role:
author
printer
publisher

nationality:
born: United States

dates:
birth: 1951-01-23

Nexus Press

type: other

role:
printer

location: Atlanta, GA

Clifton Meador

type: other

role:
artist Toward a New Cemetery - interior and exterior front and back covers including page 32
author Letter from the editor, “Pocketbooks: overview of a Scottish Publishing Program”
designer
gues editor

nationality:
active: United States

Tom Trusky

type: other

role:
author “Autism, Physiognomy & Letter Forms: The Faces of James Castle”

Joe Elliott

type: other

role:
author Review of Debtor’s Prison by Lewis Warsh and Julie Harrison

James Fossett

type: other

role:
artist Georgie the Elder

Thomas Gunther

type: other

role:
author “Singular and Unique: A Publisher’s Subjective Experience with the Untimely Art of the One-of-a-Kind Book”

Publication Information

edition type: editioned

publisher: Nexus Press

place: Atlanta, GA

dates:
publication: 2002-00-00

edition size:

Measurements

horizontal: 8.5 inches closed

vertical: 11 inches closed

Production Information

production means:
offset (local)

binding: saddle stitching (AAT)

media:
ink (local)

Appearance

general description: Pamphlet

format: pamphlet (AAT)

cover: Cover, both interior and exterior, front and back, was designed by Clifton Meador. The interior back cover extends to page 32. Combined, they form a work titled Toward a New Cemetery. The front exterior cover shows a hand reaching for a gas cap. The JAB title and issue number are contained within a skull and crossbones motif. The front interior cover is a black and white close-up image of the gas tank entry. There is text, “Every gas tank willb e sacred! Monument to the unknown refined corpse”. The gas pump nozzle imagery continues on the interior back cover/page 32 spread and is accompanies by several text blocks. The back exterior cover features flag design proposals for the newly defined political boundaries of the United Islamic Republics of America and The United States of Iraq.

color: yes The exterior front and back covers are printed in color.

Content

pagination: paginated 32

numbered?: unnumbered

signed?: unsigned

Colophon

Letter from the Publisher, Brad Freeman: JAB, Like everything, evolves over time while retaining some characteristic elements. JAB18 marks the third time we’ve had a guest editor. Clifton Meador, a book artist familiar to our readers, edited and designed this issue. He also designed and letterpress printed the JAB4 cover and was interviewed in JAB7. New to these pages is book artist, educator and curator Tom Trusky wit his astute and well-researched article about the extraordinary art of the autistic Idahoan James Castle. In JAB8 Thomas Gunter wrote about the situation of artists from the former East Germany facing reunification with West Germany (“Essential Aspects of Subculture Periodicals in the GDR and Their Place in Cultural History”). Gunter returns now with an article arguing for the legitimacy of unique, one-of-a-kind books in an era of easy access to reproduction technologies. Poet and letterpress printer Joe Elliott has written a review of a new Granary Books publication in this issue – his imaginative article “Reviewing the Subway as a Book” was featured in JAB1. The film for this issue was imageset on the SelectSet Avantra 25S donated by the Agfa Corporation at the Institute for Electronic Art at Alfred University. JAB18 was printed at Nexus Press, a programming division of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.