Artists' Books: a guide to writing an analysis of art work
(Julie Goss)
Purpose
To:- revisit the elements of design and introduce the concept of the principles of design
- increase students' visual diary skills and their ability to document their ideas as they develop
- develop students' ability to think less literally about images (i.e. exploring different styles)
- introduce students' to the concepts of Artists' books and give them the skills to develop their own books.
Description
The nine week unit provides Year 9 students with opportunities to explore the history of books, artists' books, and the visual arts concepts of abstraction, composition and symbolism before developing skills in book construction. The skills and knowledge they develop are then applied to the development of two artists' books of their own - an altered book and an artist book created by using a variety of bookmaking and binding techniques.
Resources
Artists' Books Collection, James Hardie Library of Australian Fine Arts, Artists' Books Collection: available in the new State Libarary of Queensland at South Bank.
Books:
- Harrison, H 2003, Altered books, collaborative journals and other adventures in book-making, Rockport Publishers, Gloucester, USA
- LaPlantz, S 2001, The art and craft of handmade books, Sterling Publishing, New York, USA
- Perrella, L 2004, Artists' journals and sketchbooks: Exploring and creating personal pages, Quarry Books, Bloomington, USA
Websites:
- State Library of Queensland: Artists' Books
- Artists' books online - redefining the book
- Queensland Studies Authority: Years 1 to10 - The Arts [new window http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/yrs1to10/kla/arts/index.html]
Procedure
By the end of this unit, students complete two artists' books and a theory assignment. The first artist book is an altered book where, weekly, students add the next page/section to a second hand book of their choice. The second book is a culminating piece based on a collection of drawings, prints and any other collection of papers/leaves that are combined together to create an artist book. The theory assignment asks students to look into the historical concepts of books before looking at 4 artists, two that use text in their artwork and two whose artwork contains the concepts of books. Students then choose one artist to do a more in depth analysis of. (Part of this research is completed in class). Students are allowed to choose their own theme.
The following support materials are available for use with this unit.
- Unit Plan [new window 36 kb
] - Student Task sheet [new window 31 kb ]
- A Guide to Writing an Analysis of Artwork [new window 34 kb ]
Assessment
Students complete two practical and one theory assessment task. Details of each assessment task can be found on the Student Task Sheet [new window 31 kb ].
Learning outcomes
Visual Arts:
- VA 5.1a: Students make images and objects to express personal responses to researched ideas
- VA 5.1b: Students research and experiment with ideas to document sensory responses to developmental processes in making
- VA 5.2: Students research and analyse the images and objects for display
- VA 5.3: Students research and evaluate images and objects of Australian artists/designers/craftspeople from a variety of historical and contemporary contexts
Last updated: 6th September 2007
Creatively linking Queenslanders to information, knowledge and each other
