The Hybrid Book Extravaganza

This past weekend, June 4-6, 2009, was The Hybrid Book: Intersection + Intermedia, a book arts event at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. As someone who helped put the thing together, I feel I should comment, and also state that the lack of blog communication on this site has greatly been due to conference planning. There are so many things one would want to write about and address after attending such an extensive grouping of talks, panels, exhibitions, and a fair with over 100 artists. I will make a general statement and perhaps, when all the little loose ends begin to be tied up, I will return with more in depth analysis of what I saw.

As an organizer, I felt we made a real effort to bring together, not the old and the new for I don't like what those words imply, but the established and the emerging. It feels inappropriate to say we wanted to breathe new life into the field, for the field itself is not dying. It isn't even getting tired. We as artists, librarians, curators, critics, and enthusiasts, are active and expanding, and this events goal was to show the broad range of work being made today, and to explore the intricate web that binds it all together (pun intended).

It is incredibly exciting for a new artist to walk up to a table and stand face to face with someone whose name you have read in critical writings, whose binding instructions you have followed to make your own books work. To hold his or her books in your hands, to talk about what you see and what he or she meant them to say, to share your own ideas and books with those that you admire is such a luxury, and one that this field is in full support of. This interpersonal experience between artists of all ages and stages of their career is what has created a group of people that jump at the opportunity to get together and speak enthusiastically of an art form they love. This is what makes book artists so unique, and this is what made The Hybrid Book such a success. Thank you to all who participated.

I hope to return soon, after weeding through the video tapes, the audio recordings, the budget, the empty bottles of water and my apartment full of papers, to share with you a few exciting projects I was able to experience:
800,000: Acknowledge. Remember. Renew. by William Snyder
God Bless This Circuitry, A Performance by Andrew Sallee and Tate Shaw
The incredible works and humble nature of artist Sun Young Kang.
Book Artists with a BackUp Plan by Katie Baldwin and Mary Tasillo

If I neglect to tell you about these things, harassment is welcome.
Thank you again, everyone.
--Amanda