Artist Books Judy Barrass

In a digital age there is much talk about the death of the book, but I think the elements of books,such as reading, sequence, personal interaction and imagination will survive. The book may not survive exactly as we have known it, but it will survive both as an abstract notion and an object, in some form.

Artist books have been a part of my practice for a long time. To me, as a visual artist,there is something compelling about the book as an object, and a means of conveying ideas, as a visual message. It is sometimes, but not always, something you can hold in your hand, smell, see, feel and interact with in a more powerful way than other less familiar art objects. I like to think of books as a sort of personal installation, to be experienced in an intimate and very individual way, alone, with your imagination. You need to open the box, look behind the covers, interact with the object, become lost in discovering it, and then it speaks to you.