Biobat

An essay on Booklyn Style( A version of this essay was first published in the Artists' Book Yearbook 2003-2005, editor Sarah Bodman, 2003, Impact Press at the Centre for Fine Press Research, University of West England, Bristol, Great Britain. )Another version of this essay was given at the Eighth Rutgers University Annual Book Arts Symposium.By Marshall Weber with assistance from Amy Ferrara, Emily Larned, Mark Wagner, and Eleanor Whitney.Booklyn is a non-profit, artist run organization located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. Our mission is to promote artist books as an art form and an educational resource, to provide the general public and educational institutions with programming involving contemporary artist books, and to assist artists in exhibiting, distributing and publishing artist books, prints and related interdisciplinary art internationally. Booklyn originated from the Bookmobile, the distribution vehicle of Christopher Wilde's Artichoke Yink Press originally located in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1997 the paucity of distribution resources for AYP's innovative publications prompted Wilde and accomplice Shon Schooler (entymologist and proprietor of Blue Barrel Press ) to drive a trailer load of artists books around the United States. They put this artwork directly into astounded librarians' and curators' hands. The Bookmobile was an instant success; artists suddenly had a nationwide distribution network directed by a respected publisher, artist and curator of artists' book. Librarians and curators could now make one efficient appointment with the Bookmobile and see the work of numerous artists and presses. For all concerned a visit from the Bookmobile was vastly preferable than having to organize and suffer through dozens of potentially uncomfortable individual meetings.In 1999 two years after relocating in New York City the Bookmobile outgrew the car and ramshackle trailer that Christopher and Shon had toured throughout the United States. AYP then spawned Booklyn, which started as an informal association of about ten artist/staff-members running the organization in New York and ten other represented artists from across the United States. In the next two years, as its reputation for both fiscal and curatorial integrity grew, Booklyn has expanded to over forty associated artists and one hundred affiliated institutions, with various programs serving thousands of people every year. Recently Booklyn initiated its international Booklyn Bridge program. The 'Bridge' assists American institutions in developing international and multi-lingual artists book collections while helping European and Asian collections in developing their American artist book collections. At this time Booklyn Bridge represents ten artists from around the world (England, Belgium, France, Germany, and Japan ), works with ten European collections, and has a distribution partnership with Editions Despalles in Paris, France.Booklyn flourishes because there is a basic need in the book arts field for an organization committed to serving the public and professional artists. Booklyn is possible because there is an enthusiastic group of publishers, artists and institutions committed to the maturation and expansion of the field and medium of artists books. Artists books have recently re-entered the validated palette of media used by contemporary artists as defined by the artworld and academia. This validation has prompted a renewed enthusiasm for artists books by colleges, their students, and public and private libraries. Artists books are the rare books of the future and librarians appreciate the form as a valuable tool for both reactivating their collections and as bridges to the future of the library as a multi-media depository of interdisciplinary knowledge.Although the book has always been a ubiquitous media for artists globally, recent interest in artists books has re-conceptualized the form as a dynamic new integrated art and literary medium. Artists boo