FAQ
What is a book?
On April 5th we had our second talk in a series of discussions to commemorate the 185th anniversary of the founding of the Library. The well attended talk – entitled What is a book? – was given by Andy Birsh and Davin Kuntze, from Woodside Press, who spoke about the elements of the book format. Their presentation focused on typography, papers, and bindings in use before and since the days of Gutenberg. Mr. Birsh is the proprietor of Woodside Press in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, one of the largest fine letterpress printing studios in New York. Mr. Kuntze is a trained bookbinder, printer, and graphic designer who lives in Crown Heights.
As always, it was a great pleasure to listen and think about the history of books and to see some books that are great examples of papermaking, printing and binding. Books on view included books on papermaking and specimen books with paper samples and facsimiles of codices such as the Codex Mendoza, the Mexican manuscript. The following is part of the catalog entry for this remarkable book published in London in 1938:
“The Mendoza codex is a Mexican pictographic manuscript prepared on the authority of Don Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain … A Spanish priest, familiar with the Nauatl … was employed by the viceroy to set down in Spanish the explanations of the glyphs as interpreted by the Mexicans themselves.” The facsimile includes the original pictographs in colors and the Spanish explanations.”
This codex facsimile is one of many in this collection that document the culture of Mexico.
Several truly rare books were out for the public to see such as Hori Apollinis selecta hieroglyphica (Rome, 1599). This emblem book (seen below) documents Horapollo’s attempt to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs and offers many woodcut images some of which are supposedly by Dürer. The book was recently on view in the Egypt Through Other Eyes exhibition organized by the Museum Library staff.
Other rarities on view included The First Book of Architecture by Andrea Palladio (London, 1721) and Specimens of plain and ornamental printing types, borders, ornaments, rules, &c. made at the type and electrotype foundry of James Conner & Sons (New York, 1859) A good example of an accordion binding was The Great Exhibition “wot is to be” : or probable results of the industry of all nations in the year ‘51. Showing what is to be exhibited, who is to exhibit it; in short,how its [!] all going to be done (London, 1850). This book is a continuous, illustrated strip, folded accordion style.
We also had a few artists’ books out that are exquisite examples of printing such as the Peter Kruty edition of The Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol (Summer Gardens Editions, 1998) with art by Mikhail Magaril. Peter Kruty’s letterpress studio is in Brooklyn and he worked with a team to produce this great example of letterpress and fine binding. The book was included in the Artists Book exhibition here back in 2000. Another artist’s book that was included in the Artists Book exhibition here and on view for our talk is The Corona Palimpsest (1996) made by Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese.
I could go on and on about all of the great books we had out on view … if you want a full list of what we all looked at send an email and we will be happy to send the list to you.
Keonna Hendrick, Education Intern for Library Outreach, enjoys looking at one of the many rare books we had
out for the public to see.
National Library Week having just ended, it seems opportune to bring up a topic that was discussed during the talk which centered on the future of the book and the challenges presented by the Internet. There seems to be a notion in the air that “all of this will be digitized” if it hasn’t been already and that we will not need libraries. Perhaps it is so much easier to click at your computer instead of getting up and opening a book. But what a pleasure that is! Touching the paper, seeing images that in many instances are engravings or are hand colored, feeling the binding. I realize I am speaking from the perspective of a research librarian surrounded by books that have a true intrinsic value. As in most art libraries, we have many books filled with tons of images – engravings, photographs, textile and paper samples etc - that have an incredible tactile quality to them. I don’t look forward to the day when I have to climb into bed with a computer instead of a book. I know I am not the only one who feels that we need to speak up for the book as a physical entity and would really like to begin a discussion here about this issue. As far as I can see here in Brooklyn there are two camps of thinking: the book lover who speaks for the beauty of the physical book and the Internet lover who wants everything online and available in a very immediate way. Which camp are you in? Can the wishes of the two camps converge so that we can have everything – the book and the digital version?
RSS 
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Most artists, like most book lovers, are not only cognizant of the physical properties of the object, but expect those properties to offer meaningful engagement with what’s being looked at. We usually don’t touch art (including much book art), so properties of scale, color, materiality, and surface texture are assessed from a distance. In holding books we add awareness of their weight and flexibility to those criteria.
All of this is preamble to reading, however, and it is the absorption in reading which shrinks our sensory awareness from the (public) site of artworks to that of the (private) space of pages.
Comparing “book lovers” with “Internet lovers” isn’t sufficiently equivalent. We are usually looking at something when we call a book “beautiful,” and we are usually searching for information when are using the Internet. There are interesting arguments to be had over the intellectual benefits of browsing bookshelves versus surfing the web, but these disputes orbit more around notions of classification and taxonomy than, say, the attractiveness of rooms full of books, shelves, and aisles versus that of computer screens.
That said, I still prefer to curl up in bed with a book of paper and pages to even the sexiest handheld digital reader.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
In evaluating “The Book” vs. “The Internet,” one has to make the distinction between INFORMATION and KNOWLEDGE. These distinctions have their roots in the nature of The Virtual World vs. The Physical World. Few would dispute that for gathering a lot of “Information” quickly, the internet is a powerful research tool. But it is a tool with LIMITATIONS — limitations that are inherent in the Virtual World. One limitation is that much of the “Information” gathered quickly on the Internet is unvetted and — for serious work — has to be cross-checked and validated.
The Book, on the other hand, because it exists in The Physical World can convey both INFORMATION and KNOWLEDGE. The SOURCE of the information in the book is readily apparent and can be easily evaluated. In addition, The Book engages other physical senses (touch, smell, and first-hand visual experience) and conveys additional KNOWLEDGE of the person (or persons) who created the book and the culture in which it was created. Like other cultural works (art and architecture), The Book is a physical artifact that is transmitted through time to suceeding generations. The Library is the primary conduit and steward for that transmission — a role that the internet can never entirely replace.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
the fundamental problem with the digital book is that a book is already portable. unlike music, tv and other diversions that necessitate a small device for portability outside their own primary existence, the book itself is already an object that over thousands of years has needed very little alteration and remains one of the most portable objects in its primary state. i think the idea of the digital book has its time and place but will not neccessarily usurp the functionality of the analog version.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
In response to the question about the book vs. the internet, as the world become increasingly digitized, I think there is a physical need for the aesthetic of the tangible object. This phenomenon is perfectly manifested in the book. This doesn’t require a wholesale rejection of th digital phenomenon. It’s not necessary to join one camp or another; they are not mutually exclusive. At Proteus Gowanus, we look back at early forms through exhibits of art, artifact and books, while embracing contemporary forms. There is a palpable sense of nostalgia in the best sense of the word when people enter the space, as if they are finding something that has been missing in the digital environment. This is enhanced by the fact that they can touch almost everything in the gallery (sometimes with white gloves!) Finally, I find the aesthetic and experience of reading a book contemplative and restful, something I don’t experience on the internet.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
book, paper, sky, virtual, reject rationalism, its failed, make it yourself book, academic function limits, make culture, do it yourself, art is a verb, modernist propaganda categorized, the children don’t care the children don’t care the children don’t care about your categories book, passion trumps rationalism, touch it all, touch, its all good the children don’t make a hierarchy of form, one medium doesn’t replace another, all practice hybrids, book, vehicle, book, its all good and, no sides, no camps, all the universe, post mod as in way beyond rationalist interpretations an anarchist culture, not a plant kingdom, not an open market, a free market of ideas, an open book book, it already has converged, mixed, merged, confused, collapsed, made love, intermingled, had the first spat, pages spread open wide book page web page surf read browse virtual visceral flesh digital electric sweat all create function reception audience content culture
the important point is not the book as an object or a virtual but as a representative of the concept of the library as an institution that expands public space and dialog by any means necessary, as a creative check and a healthy alternative to government and corporate and market discourse - the current brutality is where is academia in this equation? - fronting for corporate interests or struggling for the public good?
freedom of expression and speech is about the how all media functioning - the children care about the message
the children are the book
April 30th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
So far, the printed book remains the world’s best option for presenting thought in a long form.
What has changed is that thought that tends toward organization as a database — reference works, catalogues, etc. — can become hugely more encompassing and dynamic through computer formatting and high-speed digital transmission.
But ideas that need room to be persuasively expounded (rather than just summarized); histories that rely on detail and evidence to prove their points; invented tales that run longer, say, than the length of a standard novel’s chapter; life stories that have some of the breadth of life itself: none of these really circulate outside of the realm of printed text bound into books.
The book, in common with music and visual art, has a history of sometimes being treated as sacred. Millions of people have reached agreements, if you will, to accept certain books, music, and art as divinely revealed, integral to acts of worship, and at risk of defilement in various ways. And many millions more, although non-believers, are well aware that these books (it’s primarily books), are held sacred by large numbers of other people. So far, there are no major (and perhaps not even minor) examples of a movie, a video, or a website widely recognized as sacred to (as distinct from widely respected by or intimately known by) a share of any population. The Holy Bible, the Qur’an, and their counterparts still command a degree of respect that extends beyond their text to their bindings, pages, illustration (or prohibiting of illustration), and even their methods of storage and display.
We naturally tend to equate a respect for books with a respect for learning, but a book is a neutral thing, as liable to be full of lies as full of truths and given as much to rants as wisdom. And, of course, since the birth of mass book production, there have been glaring instances of books whose cultural importance has far outstripped simply being read. In China from 1964 to 1976, life itself might depend on being able to pull a copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong from one’s pocket. What other than a small book could be so pervasive and pernicious?
It is just as natural to equate a vision of the demise of the printed book with a vision of a demise of broad learning and a dwindling human capacity to pay attention to things that can’t flicker or change shape before your eyes. But books have always, for the most part, been a result, for good or ill, of the drives of individuals to say, invent, or gather together something extensive (and hard to interrupt). This complicated, powerful drive certainly had no distinct beginning, and what has ever met its demands like a book?