Spaces of the book : materials and agents of the text/image creation (XXth and XXIst Centuries)
Trinity College, Cambridge, 6 and 7 September 2013
The conference will consider the book as a space of creation in which text and image stand in dialogue (illustrated books, livres d’artistes, artists’ books), from the point of view of its medium (materials, format, folding, etc.) and the various agents (writers, artists, as well as typographers, printers, graphic artists, publishers, gallery owners/directors, booksellers) who play an essential role in its conception and distribution.
The main issues will be:
— To what extent do the material specificities of the chosen medium influence literary and artistic innovation?
— To what extent do the various agents involved in the conception, composition, publication and distribution of the book play a role in the creative process, in contexts which also include digital media, installation and performance?
— Are there privileged sites for the distribution and reception of these works? Is the creative book an object to be called up from a rare books collection or a work to be exhibited (museums, galleries), or activated?
— How are the current transformations of both object and process modifying its social and political impact?
— Does the virtual book abolish the distinction that was traditional in the context of industrial reproduction between creative book and mass-market product?
— Does the multiplication of collective and even impersonal creations imply a new conception of creator or author?
During the conference, an exhibition on the avant-garde publisher, bookseller and gallery-owner Jean Petithory will take place in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.
The conference languages are English and French.
Please send your proposal (maximum 500 words) before 31 January 2013 to espacesdulivre@trin.cam.ac.uk
Organisers : Isabelle Chol (Université de Pau) and Jean Khalfa (Trinity College, Cambridge).
This conference is part of the ANR-LEC programme: http://lec.hypotheses.org/presentation