ARTISTS' BOOKWORKS

1984. 30 Minutes. Color. ISBN 1-56235-668-2

Sandra Kroupa, Librarian at the Rare Books Collection at the Suzallo Library (University of Washington) shows examples of unique books, broadsides, and chapbooks. With her is one of the artists, Mare Blocker, who--holding a hand-made, three-dimensional, beaded book in front of her, she gives her personal history. "Because of a rabbit," she explains, tongue-in-cheek, was the way she began.

Then, printmaking students listen as their professor, Bill H. Ritchie, Jr., describes how their etching course and print making in general relates to book arts. His forecast was, when this tape was being recorded, new "electronic" forms of books are coming. Examples he gave were laser videodiscs, and he holds in his hand his first ink-jet color book made from a computer.

The tape includes scenes made in a television studio, with and edited interview of two members of an art-team who created a book using screen print, galvanized metal, etched glass, carborundum and hand-painting. Keith Beckley and Dennis Evans explain to Sandra Kroupa some elements of their book and the installations it relates to.

Sandra Kroupa explains: "The rare book collection is a non-browsing and a non-circulating collection, which means you can't actually just walk to the shelves and take things off, so this is an apportunity for you to see a little bit of the kinds of the thing that we collect. We collect a wide variety of materials, but we specialize in modern book arts." (Sandra Kroupa spoke, on the sound track, full-text transcript available on-line. Directed by Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. and Co-Produced with UWIMS-TV.

Purchase: $US50.00 includes S&H, Printed transcript and On-line help