Scope and Contents

This catalogue is a retrospective of Kocman's Artists' Books and Papers. Jiri Valoch contributed a critical essay that traced the interdisciplinary art movements of the 1970's, the European political and artistic community in which Kocman worked, and his studies in bookbinding and aesthetics. He describes Kocman's work as "a synthesis combining intellectual detachment informed by his conceptual experience with a remarkable sensibility and strong lyricism and with a continuous questioning of the nature of art." Several examples of Kocman's works are held by the Sackner Archive. For example, the catalogue depicts a reproduction of Poe's "The Raven," one of Kocman's paper re-making books that is held by the Sackner Archive. The catalogue lists "The Metamorphosis" by Kafka (1980) and Fragment of Videvdat and Other Fragments (1988), as well as several editioned books held by the Sackner Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Al the pages with the exception of the cover are blank. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The pages were made from pulped rea paper. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This exhibition was curated by Pavel Buchler who also wrote a seminal essay on Artist Books. It deals with books and book objects. Finlay contributed a pamphlet on blue stock paper bound into the book that consisted of the following text printed on facing pages. "greeness, leaf or bark - greeness, leaf or barque." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Ths booklet is similar in concept to those mae by Wally Depew who also made pin holes in some of his bookets and relied on chance staining of the pages with paint and ink. The back cover is rubberstamped '126.' Wikipedia: Vaclav Boštík (November 6, 1913 - May 7, 2005) was a Czech painter, graphic artist and illustrator. In 1937 he joined the Academy in Prague and from 1942, he was a member of the Umělecka berseda (Art Forum). In 1960 he became one of the founding members of the UB 12 Group. His early work is much influenced by painters Corot and Cezanne and realism. However, by the late 1950s, he had begun painting abstract art. Later he participated in the restoration of Renaissance artistic work on the facade of Litomyšl castle.Shortly before his death, in 2004 he received an award from the Minister of Culture and in the same year Medal of Merit from the President of the Czech Republic. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The exhibition is titled "The Best Contemporary Czechoslovakian Design Bookbinders." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents The fingerprints dedication to Milan Grygar is appropriate since he used the tapping of his fingers in his performance pieces. Milan Grygar was born in Zvolen, Slovakia in 1926. After graduating from the College of Applied Arts, Prague (where he studied under Professor Emil Filla) he concentrated on still lifes which evolved into colour compositions devoid of subject matter. In 1964 he produced a series of 64 black-and-white drawings using the principle of a linear sequence. Working in a fast rhythm, he could "hear" the drawing he was creating. From there, it was only a step to a discovery that was to define his future artistic career and bring him recognition. Grygar began tape recording the acoustic process of drawing. In 1965 he started to pursue the relationship between drawing and sound, and in 1966 exhibited his first acoustic drawings with accompanying tape recordings. These New Drawings led him to the direction known as the New Music, and were followed by large drawings and...

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Kocman pulped the book "Videvdat" and used the paper pulp to create new thicker pages of handmade paper. The title refers to Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion. The VidÄ“vdāt, or Vendidad ("Law Rejecting the Daevas"), consists of two introductory sections recounting how the law was given to man, followed by 18 sections of rules.... -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This might be a unique typed book. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The paper was made with notations, writings, and pictures from Johann Strauss' "Netopyr." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The first Sackner catalogue photocopied from typed paper sheets (1980), according to Kocman as typed on the colophon "was torn in to small fragments and threse were crushed by grinding in water on mixer. From this pulp handmade paper sheets were made and from these sheets a new book was bound. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Kocman made a diagonal cut across all the pages of a physics laboratory calalogue distributed by W. Hruby in 1913 (as on the cover). This book bears a relation to Buzz Spector's book object, "The Outline of Art" (1982) who tore each page at progrssively closer edges to the right hand border. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Kocman made a diagonal cut across all the pages of a physics laboratory calalogue distributed by W. Hruby in 1913 (as on the cover). This book bears a relation to Buzz Spector's book object, "The Outline of Art" (1982) who tore each page at progrssively closer edges to the right hand border. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Kocman requested the Sackners to send him five paperback copies of Kafka's novel "The Metamorphosis" and that he would return a surprise to them. The novel describes the tribulations of Gregor Samsa who as he "awoke one morning from uneasy dreams found himself transformed into a gigantic insect..." Kocman took the books that the Sackners had sent him, pulped the pages and formed handmade paper pages bound them into a book literally metamorphosizing "The Metamorphosis." This work was exhibited at the Agnes Scott College Gallery, Atlanta, January 2001. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Mentions that works by Kocman are held by the Sackner Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.