AMBruno
Intervals

AMBruno's new book project for 2024 was Intervals, with fourteen books by fourteen artists.

New book works conceived in response to the subject theme of Intervals, for instance:

- an interval as an intervening time or a pause,
- or a break in activity, a space between two things - a gap,
- or the difference in pitch between two sounds.

The selector was Sarah Bodman, Associate Professor for Artists' Books at the Centre for Print Research (CFPR), University of the West of England, Bristol. Sarah is the editor of the Artist's Book Yearbook, the Book Arts Newsletter and The Blue Notebook: journal for artists' books.

The twelve Intervals artists are: Karen Blake, Helen Douglas, David Howes, Julie Johnstone, Philip Lee, Sophie Loss, John McDowall, Alastair Noble, Redell Olsen, Ximena Pérez Grobet, Peter Rapp, Rachel Smith, Elisabeth Tonnard, and Maria White.

Please see the AMBruno Shop Window if you might be interested in buying a book from the collection.

The Intervals project was launched during Intervals with AMBruno at Tate Britain in the Library & Archive Reading Rooms on 18th October 2024. The event also included a panel conversation with AMBruno artists and past project selectors, including Gustavo Grandal Montero, Elizabeth James, Sophie Loss, Richard Price, Chris Taylor and Cally Trench, who discussed Intervals, the group's history, and the process of selecting books. The Reading Rooms also hosted a 'Show and Share', displaying a selection of books from AMBruno's projects, 2012-2024, including works by Mette-Sofie Ambeck, Martha Hellion, Erica Van Horn, Susan Johanknecht, Sharon Kivland, Katharine Meynell, Colin Sackett, and many others.

The Intervals books were shown at the Small Publishers Fair, Conway Hall, London, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th October 2024.

Karen Blake - au revoir

au revoir celebrates the companionship of house martins. Absent at the year's start, in summer there is an interval when they animate the skies. Then they leave. I show their cavortings, repeatedly tracing their flightpaths.

Open edition. 28 pages with tablet drawings, laser printed on Mohawk Eggshell White. Section sewn, casebound in bookcloth with hand drawn pencil markings. £95 €114

Helen Douglas - STEM

STEM was conceived, made and published as a Field Study specifically for this project. Examining grass stems, their joints/nodes and internodes: exploring the shapes they make in relation to each other, the space of the page and structure of the book. Insects alight: the grasshopper hopped off.

Edition of 60. 20 pages, digital print on 120gsm uncoated paper, card cover, thread stitched. £12 €15

David Howes - Dewerstone

Dewerstone plays on contour intervals. Each leaf is cut along a 10 metre contour line in the area below the Dewerstone, where the Plym and Meavy rivers join on the edge of Dartmoor. In isolation each line is a random shape, but together with their intervals they show a landscape.

Open edition. Ink jet printed with contour lines cut by hand in 240 gsm paper. Size 10.0 x 12.3 cm. £15 €18

Julie Johnstone - a book of hours

A secular, visual form of the traditional contemplative aid, this explores our experience of time with tints of black, cyan and magenta lightly marking the twenty-four hours of the day. On the reverse an alternative meditation: the phrase marking time making time.

Open edition. Double-sided concertina. Inkjet print on 300gsm watercolour paper. 24cm x 74cm unfolded (8cm folded). £25 €30

Philip Lee - Between Telamones

Telamones, or male caryatids, are figures used as pillars to support a structure. In the Forum Baths tepidarium in Pompeii, the burly statues are at intervals along the side of the space. The book offers a reconstruction of part of the tepidarium. The images are based on a photograph of the artist performing as Telamon, one of Jason's Argonauts.

Edition of 12. Hand drawn images and text in ink on paper. £40 €48

Sophie Loss - Rock Dove Rock

My book re-enacts the story of Jason and the Argonauts, the Clashing Rocks and the dove that enabled them to pursue their journey safely. The intention is to capture both the spatial and temporal intervals present in the myth and in my book.

Edition of 16. 20 pages, with moving elements, Indigo print, card cover with dust jacket. £110 €130

John McDowall - The reader

In a series of single phrases, gleaned from a novel, the time of reading is contrasted with the temporality of the story. At the centre of the book is a double-page spread filled with text, this writing is a description of a reader reading, she reads together with, one could say hand in hand with the reader of my book.

Open edition. Sewn pamphlet, 28 pages, laser printed on Canaletto Liscia 125 gsm and Colorplan Pale Grey 175gsm. £15 €18

Alastair Noble - Intervallum

The Latin origin of interval is Intervallum; meaning space or clearing between walls or ramparts. The book opens at its centre: two panels open to form upright walls revealing two sections set at right angles to the walls each present the book title and above definitions printed in Morse code.

Edition of 18. Triptych panels cover, inkjet printed Morse code on 120 gsm Wausau paper, hand-sewn binding. £65 €78

Redell Olsen - fossil oil: a book of hours

A reimagining of a medieval book of hours in an era of ecological crisis; following a series of meditative texts figured in relation to different times of the day. The binding echoes the chemise and girdle books as worn in the medieval period.

Edition of 12. Stub binding with 2 fold out sections, digital print and rubber stamps, typewriter, screen inks and paint, leatherette and knit fabric. £120 €144

Ximena Pérez Grobet - ECHO

The repetition of the word echo, written in Morse code, and the concept of intervals as a dialogue between language, sound, communication, space, sequence resonance and transparency, together weave a cohesive narrative experience throughout the repeating format of the book.

Edition of 25. Silkscreen printed on Japanese paper. Nowhereman Press. £120 €144

Peter Rapp - The Harrowing of Hell

The Harrowing of Hell relates to the interval between the crucifixion of Christ and his resurrection, when it is said he descends into hell to rescue souls from Limbo. This piece plays on the ideas of insecurity and displacement versus safety and salvation. The form is informed by the Turin shroud.

Edition of 12. Relief print on cloth in box with relief printed covers. £100 €120

Rachel Smith - stopping. Or

An exploration of the full stop as an interval or pause. Pairs of words either side of a full stop are fragmented from an existing text and combined with material possibilities of closing | opening, curtailing | expanding [...] Loose leaves add to the possibilities of tangential associations and divergence.

Edition of 12. Digitally printed text with individually drawn, cut, stitched, and collagraph printed elements. 9 loose leaves. £120 €144

Elisabeth Tonnard - Earth Station

The book uses intervals between images found on postcards from the 1950s and 1960s, when mass tourism began to grow, as a playful method of critique - creating brief visual stories about how humans changed nature.

Edition of 50. Wire-bound, 40 pages, 14 full color illustrations, inkjet printed on Biotop white and Clairefontaine Trophée intensive yellow. Published in Leerdam, The Netherlands. £40 €48

Maria White - The space between

Art gallery walls are often barely perceived but are vital to the design and concept of the gallery, and to the exhibitions held there. Each leaf of this book represents a room in Tate Britain's Historic and Modern British Art collection galleries, drawing attention to the interval and colour between the works.

Open edition. Print on demand, 28 x 21.6 cm. £20 €24