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The Book as Physical Object (ENGL 333)
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The Book as Physical Object (ENGL 333)
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Lecture 5: The Book as Physical ObjectJanuary 18th, 2023
Types of Books: All books are a set of sheets (paper, wood, ivory, cloth, etc.) strung or bound
together. The type of book is determined by how it is bound: at one or two points, along one or
more edges.
● “Does a book have to be bound?”
● An unbound book can be a stack or a portfolio, but it can also be a book.
Getting Acquainted With the Book
A book is a sensory experience.
● With the rise of “eye” culture as a result of the dominance of the book, the sensory
elements of the book were deemed to be unimportant, and the book became increasingly
valued for its content, its “text.”
● But the form of the book has a distinct effect on its content; the codex form produces
meaning differs from the scroll form.
● “The book is a physical object. The hand-held book demands touching.”
Turning the Page
“It is a physical movement.”
● It places the book into time.”
● Ultimately, this connects the codex book to the cinema.
Remediating Manuscript Culture
By the end of the 19th century, bookmakers such as William Morris, in response to the
commercialization of books through mass printing technologies, sought to return book
production to the values held by the makers of manuscripts.
The End of the Book and the Beginning of the Artist’s Book
● With the decline in importance of the book at the beginning of the 20th century due to
advances in electronic media (the invention of the telegraph in the 1830s not only
communicated electronically but also without the use of the alphabet), the book was freed
from being a carrier of text and was able to rehearse its own formal qualities
● Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944), the founder of Futurism, was the first practitioner of the
artist’s book to use foldouts.
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