AMBruno
Margins

AMBruno's new book project for 2022 was Margins, with eleven books by twelve artists.

The selector was Regine Ehleiter, a Berlin-based curator and art historian with a research focus on exhibition history, artists' publications, conceptualism and contemporary photography. She works as a research fellow in the theory department of the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig.

Regine wrote: 'I would like to thank AMBruno for the opportunity to select this year's proposals on the theme 'Margins'. In the current political situation, with a war raging in Europe, what constitutes the centre and the periphery is, again, being called into question. Events taking place anywhere in the continent affect us all. Analogously, many of the submissions suggested a shift of focus, inviting us to turn our attention from the body of the text to the spaces around it, and consider what specific use and role that frame might have, not only as a space for note taking, but for alternative storytelling, imbued with a life of its own. The selected proposals offer manifold interpretations of this theme, making use of the specific form of the book to communicate their ideas.'

The twelve Margins artists are: Karen Blake, Susan Johanknecht & Katharine Meynell, Julie Johnstone, Philip Lee, John McDowall, Linda Parr, Peter Rapp, Mireille Ribière, Maddy Rosenberg, Cally Trench, and Maria White.

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

The launch of the Margins project was at the Small Publishers Fair, Conway Hall, London, 28th-29th October 2022, where it was marvellous to meet collectors, book artists and other interested people face to face again. This was the twentieth anniversary of the Small Publishers Fair, and the first in-person iteration since 2019.

John McDowall wrote a blog about the Margins books for the Small Publishers Fair website. The blog includes comments by some of the AMBruno artists about the process and challenges of making their book. John McDowall on AMBruno

The Margins project was also shown at the Volumes Art Publishing Days in Zürich on the 26th and 27th November. This lively event was attended by a wide range of visitors, from families on a day out to students, library curators and private collectors. Interest, and curiosity was evident, especially as AMBruno's display stood out from the majority of books on show - this formal difference is a clear manifestation of our principle of books made by individual artists to a given theme.

The entire collection of Margins books was bought by the British Library.

The Margins project was also shown at PAGES: Reset Contemporary Artists' Book Fair in the Parkinson Building at the University of Leeds on 17th-18th March 2023.

The Margins project was also shown at Offprint London 2023 in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern on 12th-14th May 2023. We happily shared a table with Sharon Kivland and Ma Bibliothèque at this very busy and lively event, and the conversations on both sides of the table were good serious fun.

Karen Blake - Hand with Book

Hand with Book is inspired by Albrecht Dürer's drawing of the same name. It depicts seven ways to hold a book, using the artist's fingerprints printed in the margins. The seventh hold is most like the one depicted in Dürer's 1506 drawing. The reader's touch is revealed momentarily on the cover, as they hold the book.

Open edition. Made in collaboration with Rob Hadrill, Book Works. Black ink on white paper, 120 gsm. Black screen-printed thermochromic ink cover. £100

Susan Johanknecht & Katharine Meynell - manhole: a marginal duet

Texts derived from Cast Iron Services Ltd brochure and manhole covers [overlooked] in plain sight - the manhole cover as an indication of the margin between under and over-ground. To be read as a two-sided text, printed in margins, alternating between two voices.

80 pages. context natural recycled paper. Printed letterpress. Hand bound with a Canson grey slipcase. Edition of 40 copies. A6 concertina unfolding to 420 cm. £40

Julie Johnstone - MA[RGINS]

Margin: a space between spine and text. Ma: the Japanese concept of negative space. The context is torn away leaving the margins to stand on their own terms, perhaps stripping them of meaning. A blank book; a sculptural exploration of emptiness, redundancy; suggestive of loss, censorship, yet celebrating the value and beauty inherent in the overlooked spaces of the page.

Hand-torn and bound, each book unique. Size 28 x 6 cm. Cover: watercolour paper 300gsm. £25

Philip Lee - Alas

The term 'full-bleed' refers to a printed image which is trimmed to the edges of the page. The image is printed on an oversized sheet that is then cut down to size with the appearance that the image is 'bleeding' off the edge of the paper. What if the cut photograph bled from its edges into the margins of the page? The book presents a personal history juxtaposed with a Greek myth.

Edition of 15, numbered and signed. Laser printed, stab-bound with sutures. £20

John McDowall - Flow, and ebb

The written text describes its own analogical movement and transformation, as the margin sweeps over it, disrupting yet also regenerating, thereby inviting new readings.

Open edition. 20 pages, laser print on Canaletto Liscia 125 gsm and Colorplan Mist White 135gsm. £20 €24

Linda Parr - Pushing the Margins

Human differences such as geography, gender, belief and wealth create boundaries that push 'others' out; even democracy creates margins - majority pushes out minority. Writers explore these tensions; there is little space for those on the margins, for those who wish to be, or have to be different. Pushing the margin occurs in society and on the page. Margins bleed.

Edition of 20. 11 x 17.5 cm. Perfect bound with creased cover. Printed on Claro 150gsm, cover Claro Silk 350gsm. £40

Peter Rapp - The Hollow Book

The content and structure of the book reference T S Eliot's poem The Hollow Men. The centre of each page is removed, leaving just the margins. The book has been created in the shadow of the events of 2022, depicting themes of conflict, fragility and emptiness in the age of hyper-connectedness and hyper-consumerism.

Edition of 12. Cover and 8 pages. Hand printed linocuts on Somerset Satin paper. £90

Mireille Ribière - A Book of Margins

On a visit to a printer's, a fictional narrator picks up some odd trimmings from the shop floor. They decide to make something of the find, and also include a record of their musings.

Saddle-stitched booklet. Laser-printed on watercolour paper (160 gms) and glued into a wrapper (Fedrigoni Woodstock 225 gsm). Closed with magnets. 28 x 11 cm. £40

Maddy Rosenberg - On the Margins

The imagery is achieved through assembling and melding photographs of geographic margins, of disparate places along the edges of a neighborhood, of a city, of a land mass. Pages are shaped by the imagery and, when opened and completely unfolded, reveal a terrain that moves along the margins of habitation. The hand-drawn monochromatic tonality unites the elements throughout.

Edition of 25. Modified hand-cut accordion fold. Original drawings scanned and digitally printed on Magnani Pescia. £200 $225

Cally Trench - Marginal Notes on Simon

At the age of 15, I made marginal notes on 25 pages of my copy of a novel set for English 'O' Level. In this new book, the original text exists only in ghost form, indicated by its outline shape. My notes are printed in their original location on the page, creating a minimalist and partial version of the story.

Edition of 12. Hand-sewn. Printed in Candara on watercolour paper. Signed and numbered. £16

Maria White - In from the edge: moments from the margins of illustrated manuscripts

The margins of medieval manuscripts are littered with drawings and decorations made by the reader or scribe. They range from pointing fingers indicating significant text to scenes, some sweetly domestic, some violent, and others that are surprisingly rude. Each leaf of this plain white book bears a description of a piece of marginalia.

Open edition. £20. Print on demand from Lulu: In from the edge