Artists’ books extend the limits of the conventional book. They take liberties with its form, content and configuration; they include subjects that might be considered insignificant, risqué, abstract or obscure. Their print run is too limited for ordinary publishing and marketing procedures. This thesis engages with the artists’ book in terms of its various moods as suggested by the bodily humours of Hippocrates and Galen. It argues that humour (in its embodied sense) takes many forms in the artists’ book: from the angry, the despairing or the melancholic to the comic or the joyful. In building a foundation for this approach to the artists’ book the thesis also connects with crucial moments in the evolution of twentieth century conceptual thought about art. Chapter One introduces the idea of humour as a strategy used by book artists to negotiate an art world in which the aesthetic canon is under scrutiny. Up to this point a characteristic feature of this negotiation has been a search for a consistent definition of artists’ book. My concerns are not so much with a fetishization of the book in a digitally challenging age, but, rather with the focus on the artists’ book’s ironic techniques that are employed to oversee the nature of the form relative to changes in its context, both technological and cultural. In the second chapter, I connect the artists’ book to some of its experimental origins within the literature of humour. I discuss a number of artists’ books that exemplify the sharpness of wit, the use of irony, the depth of melancholy and the place of nonsense among other forms within the spectrum of humorous possibility. The “anatomy” of humour is dissected in the third chapter, according to the way in which it embodies the creative process. The concepts of appropriation and détournement are basic tools, for the collection of subject matter. Every one of the books discussed use “wit” to carve a direct channel to the core of the idea it expresses. The diverse manifestations of irony enable the artists’ book in its various guises to mislead, riddle, surprise and seduce its reader. “Nonsense” keeps rationality honest by arguing a case for a productive form of “uselessness” that reflects upon an art world burdened by the weight of “usefulness” and overproduction. The fourth chapter examines a number of artists’ books and writers who, in various ways tap the rich field of the mundane: here is a source that like a compost heap, nurtures and produces those species of humorous surprise that also rejuvenate. The fifth chapter looks at larger aspects of the world, which shape our consciousness through spectacular images and the media. How these pressures permeate and influence the creative activities of the book artist is mapped in Chapter Six, which examines the shared internal space of the reader and the creator of the artwork. This internal space is the workshop of the book artist. Here the tactics are honed and the dynamics of the exterior world are in effect moulded and shaped into the subject matter and forms of artists’ books. In a culture in which “success” is commensurate with the accumulation of wealth, to be unsuccessful is to belong to an under-class, to be invisible. Chapter Seven makes use of an ironic sense of failure as a strategy to support the main objective of the thesis, which is to test the limits for the possibility of an art practice that continues to thrive as it ducks and weaves its way through and under the radar of contemporary cultural conditions. It argues a case for a fugitive practice that even as it is on the move is congruent, and in its selfreflexivity, accountable for its political and aesthetic stance. There has been a considerable resurgence of interest in the artists’ book since the late twentieth century with an increase in small press publications, the development of significant public and private collections of artists’ books and a growing body of critical commentary on them. Digital technology and desk top publishing have enabled many artists to produce books rapidly, cheaply and with qualities ranging in quality from the photocopy through to slick high-end productions. From the 1970s until the present, however, the commentary on artists’ books has been preoccupied with a search for a definition of the genre. Underpinning this endeavour has been a yearning for “consecration” (in Pierre Bourdieu’s sense) where acceptance would elevate the artists’ book to the same level as the “legitimate” art forms – painting, sculpture, photography and the finely crafted art object. By contrast, this thesis considers the artists’ book as an alternative art form and explores its ability to evade the constraints of consecration, to remain fresh and mischievous in creative and subversive ways / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Den information som idag finns tillgänglig om pälsdjursallergi hos Astma och Allergiförbundet samt Mälarsjukhusets barnavdelning, riktar sig inte till barn som fått diagnosen. Informationen som förekommer är textbaserad och är avsiktligt menad för vårdnadshavaren. Därför undersöktes vad barn vill veta om pälsdjursallergi samt vilket slags material och visuellt stöd barn i åldrarna sju till nio år behöver för att förstå sitt tillstånd.  Den slutgiltiga produkten är en interaktiv trycksak som barnen kan lära sig av tillsammans med vårdnadshavaren, då god inlärning hos barn innebär aktivt deltagande. Trycksaken består i högsta grad av visuell information för att barnen ska kunna se sin sjukdom, trots att det är något abstrakt. Genom litteraturstudier samt kvalitativa intervjuer med sjukhuspersonal och lärare inom socialpedagogisk inriktning samlades kunskaper om målgruppen för att kunna åstadkomma ett lämpligt material.  Efter att ha gestaltat ett förslag utfördes två olika typer av användartester på individer inom målgruppen, vilket är barn med allergi i den ålder som informationsmaterialet riktar sig till. Användartest ett indikerade hur barnen uppfattade de bilder som gestaltats. Syftet med användartest två var hur väl fungerande informationsmaterialets interaktion var, med hjälp av en pappersprototyp. Användartesterna visade att barnen till stor del förstod bildmaterialet samt uppskattade interaktionen. / The information currently available fore fur allergy in Astma och Allergiförbundet and Mälarsjukhusets children’s section, is not directed to children who are diagnosed. The information that appears is text based and is purposely meant for his and her parents and caretakers. Therefore, I examined what children wants to know about fur allergy and what kind of material and visual support children in age seven to nine years need to understand in their condition.  The final product is an interactive booklet for children to learn together with their parents and caretakers, when the high level of learning in children involves active participation. The booklet consists in the highest degree of visual information for children to see their disease, although it is somewhat abstract.  Knowledge about childrens learning skills and fur allergy was gathered thrue litterature studies and intervjues with clinical stuff, researchers and teatchers with a social pedagogical approach. Further two different types of user testing was performed among children with allergies in the same age range as the informationmaterial was targeted to.   The user test number one gave an indication on how children interpreted the images. The purpose of the user test number two was to get an indication on how well-functioning the interactive part of the information material was, by using a paper prototype. In the result from the user test showed that children had understand the artwork and the estimated interaction.

Lupus is the result of an investigative project in illustration. In my degree- work I have investigated the different guises of the wolf, which I have then illustrated visually combined with some portions of text. The result, presented in the form of a book of 36 pages, is narrated in a poetic and free style with me as a personal author. The images of the book tell the story of both the wolf of flesh and blood, as well as the wolf as a symbol. My work is produced with the hope that by talking about the wolf in a way other than the standard, new ways of regarding a presently endangered but valuable animal, can arise. / Lupus är resultatet av ett undersökande illustrationsprojekt. Jag har i mitt examensarbete undersökt vargens olika skepnader, för att sedan berätta om dem i bild med ett visst textuellt inslag. Resultatet, presenterat i bokform på 36 sidor, är fritt berättat med mig som personlig avsändare och har ett poetiskt anslag. Bilderna i boken gestaltar både vargen av kött och blod och vargen som symbolväsen.  Arbetet är gjort med förhoppningen att genom att prata om vargen på ett vis annat än det gängse, öppna upp för nya sätt att uppskatta ett idag utsatt och hotat, värdefullt djur.

Doctor--Philosophy--New York--Institute of Fine Arts, 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 353-378.

Habil. -Schr.--Marburg--Philipps Universität, 2003. / Bibliogr. p. 436-464. Iconogr. Index.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 199-215.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Universität Karlsruhe, 2005. / Bibliogr. p. 616-640. Notes bibliogr.

No description available.

This project has been a study of selected graphic media and their relationship to the production of a limited edition printing of a fine book. The scope of the study was limited to the relationship of the graphic image to that of the printed contents of the book. No attempt was made to survey all of the varied possibilities of pictorial or typographical processes. The book contains eight recipes and twelve prints. All the prints were cut and printed in the traditional woodcut process. The type was hand printed and the book was hand bound. The paper, which is included in this project, gives a description and discussion of the project, historical precedents, technical history, contemporary methods and conclusions.

Jag fick i uppdrag av Barn- och ungdomsförlaget Vombat förlag, att göra en barnbok som handlar om väderfenomen för målgruppen barn 6-9 år. Boken ska inne hålla förklaringar och fakta om tretton olika väderfenomen, men i detta examensarbete har jag gjort förslag på fyra uppslag ur boken som behandlar fyra olika väderfenomen.Det finns idag redan många böcker som behandlar temat väder och väderfenomen, då det är ett relevant och spännande ämne som barn ständigt kommer i kontakt med och som påverkar dem varje dag. Dock har jag inte stött på någon som enbart fokuserar på väderfenomen utan att gå in på klimatfrågor eller mer omgripande information om väder. I detta examensarbete har jag undersökt hur informativ illustration kan användas för att på ett enkelt, tydligt och underhållande vis förklara vad som ligger bakom de olika väderfenomenen. För att ta reda på detta och för att förstå målgruppens behov har jag använt mig av teorier, gjort en omvärldsanalys och en målgruppsanalys.Utifrån vad jag kom fram till har jag utformat ett förslag på fyra uppslag som jag sedan testade på målgruppen.