Campbell, Ken, 1939-2022, Execution , 1990
- Title(s):
- Execution : the book / [Ken Campbell].
- Published/Created:
- [London] : Ken Campbell, 1990.
- Physical Description:
- [74] p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 39 cm.
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsN7433.4 C35 E9 1990+ OversizeYale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon FundView by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/3762252
- Classification:
- Books
- Notes:
- "It moves away from some of the narrative forms of visuality [in earlier books], the progress of images being manipulated and turned into things. But there is a visual structure. I made a steel plate, etched and painfully sawed, of a diagram by Jan Tschichold (a book designer) that establishes a disposition of text on a page. Wood blocks and heavy lead rules make up an abstract of the page described by the diagram ... If you looked at the double spread, it was rather like two eyes or a face, or two halves of a head, and there is a notion running through the book of the wolfman revealed. That's a notion that's in Jung, and it's a powerful notion in my mind, that there are two people looking out of any one face. So, the diagram is progressively destroyed through the book, taken to pieces, to reveal a cracked black mirror, which is the mirror in which one half looks at the other half. Four faces, printed letterpress from etched plates, appear throughout the book. They represent three ages in search of a character and are accompanied by the figure of a sprite or demon, with whose own shadow he apparently converses ... It's a very odd book, and it's almost entirely without words except one dream of mine which is condensed down to about a dozen words ... Every now and again there are books that summarise what's been found out in the previous books in terms of technique or design in process or psychology, and sometimes predict what's going to happen in the others, because they're a kind of free-fire zone of experiment. I think this book does both."--Ken Campbell, from The word returned.
Edition of 40. Binding with printed paper boards and slipcase by David Simaleavich of Phoenix Bindery, Amsterdam.
Original archival material related to this work is available in the collections of the Yale Center for British Art, Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts (Ken Campbell Collection, MSS 25).
Word returned: artist books by Ken Campbell, 14
BAC: British Art Center copy is no. 33 of an edition of 39, signed by the artist. - Subject Terms:
- Artists' books -- Great Britain.Campbell, Ken -- Publisher.
- Form/Genre:
- Artists' books -- Great Britain
- Export:
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