{"title":"Telfer Stokes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"spaces","title":"Spaces","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCurrently based in Suffolk, Scottish artist Telfer Stokes is best known for his sculptural practice and his pioneering approach to the artist’s book as both a material and conceptual form. Drawing on the radical re-evaluation of the relationship between text and image associated with Ed Ruscha’s early editorial projects, Stokes uses photography and sparse text to explore the narrative, formal, and conceptual possibilities of the book as a medium.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Spaces” is the third artist’s book in a series of six paperbacks published by Weproductions between 1972 and 1978. Its premise is deceptively simple: to explore the layout of the page, the placement of text, and the use of photographic negative space within the bound volume. Images of the Flat Iron, a mansion house, newspaper clippings, a step chair, and other subjects create a continuous mise-en-abyme throughout the book, drawing attention to the conditions of their presentation and reproduction. In an interview with Cathy Courtney, published in “Art Monthly” in November 1989, Stokes explains:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I drew the camera away from the photograph so you saw the edge of the layout or the edge of the book. That introduced a more self-conscious area, a way of saying that the view of the page was over the book.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Spaces” consequently unfolds as a self-reflexive book in which not only the depicted image, but also the page, its edges, and its physical support become integral to the work. Rather than using text to explain an image, or an image to illustrate text, Stokes treats both photograph and text as material elements within the structure of the book. The work thereby shifts attention from what the book depicts to the ways in which the book itself produces and mediates meaning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54543113683283,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4320.png?v=1786374194"},{"product_id":"young-masters-and-misses","title":"Young Masters and Misses","description":"","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54543177285971,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4328.png?v=1786374641"},{"product_id":"song-of-the-thrush","title":"Song of the Thrush","description":"","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54543485469011,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4322.png?v=1786375980"},{"product_id":"real-fiction","title":"Real Fiction","description":"","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54543492940115,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4312.png?v=1786376227"},{"product_id":"foolscrap","title":"Foolscrap","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCurrently based in Suffolk, Scottish artist Telfer Stokes is best known for his sculptural practice and his pioneering approach to the artist’s book as both a material and conceptual form. Drawing on the radical re-evaluation of the relationship between text and image associated with Ed Ruscha’s early editorial projects, Stokes uses photography and sparse text to explore the narrative, formal and conceptual possibilities of the book as a medium.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Foolscrap” is the second artist’s book in a series of six paperbacks published by Weproductions between 1972 and 1978. Its premise is deceptively simple: images of mustard seeds appear to take root and “grow” through the pages of the book. They are interspersed with seemingly random images of objects accompanied by incongruous captions, as well as photographs of Kodak contact sheets depicting vintage electronic devices which, in turn, display other photographic images. The mise-en-abyme thus created extends beyond the images themselves, drawing attention to the conditions of their presentation and reproduction. In an interview with Cathy Courtney, published in “Art Monthly” in November 1989, Stokes explains:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I drew the camera away from the photograph so you saw the edge of the layout or the edge of the book. That introduced a more self-conscious area, a way of saying that the view of the page was over the book.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Foolscrap” consequently unfolds as a self-reflexive book in which not only the depicted image, but also the page, its edges and its physical support become integral to the work. Rather than using text to explain an image, or an image to illustrate text, Stokes treats both photograph and text as material elements within the structure of the book. The work thereby shifts attention from what the book depicts to how the book itself produces and mediates meaning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54551904551251,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4314.png?v=1786436682"},{"product_id":"mim","title":"Mim","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTelfer Stokes and Helen Douglas worked together for nearly three decades. Through their imprint, Weproductions, they developed a shared approach to the artist’s book. Influenced by the radical rethinking of the relationship between text and image found in Ed Ruscha’s early book projects, Stokes and Douglas used photography and sparse text to explore the narrative, visual, and conceptual possibilities of the book as a medium.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“MIM” is the fourth book in the MILLBOARD series, published by Weproductions in the 1980s, and develops Stokes and Douglas’s earlier investigations into the self-reflexive possibilities of the artist’s book, in which not only the depicted image but also the page, its edges, and its physical support become integral to the work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eConceived as a haptic exercise in style, “MIM” binds together short texts on patterns and surfaces with photographic images, offset printing, and original wallpaper scraps, creating a palpable interplay of splicing, layering, and overlay. “MIM” is a literally tactile book from cover to cover.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2018, Printed Matter presented the first retrospective of the Weproductions press and its archive. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54551942529363,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4330.png?v=1786436880"},{"product_id":"loophole","title":"Loophole","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTelfer Stokes and Helen Douglas collaborated for nearly three decades. Their imprint, Weproductions, served as a collaborative platform through which their artist’s book philosophy crystallized. In 2018, Printed Matter presented the first retrospective devoted to the independent press and its archival material. Rooted in the radical re-evaluation of the relationship between text and image associated with Ed Ruscha’s early editorial projects, Stokes and Douglas used photography and sparse text to explore the narrative, formal, and conceptual possibilities of the book as a medium.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Loophole” is one of the earliest formal collaborations between Stokes and Douglas. It brings together a sequence of diverse full-bleed photographs to form an almost cinematic montage. Here, the narrative emerges less from the individual images than from their accumulation and juxtaposition. The photographs appear as if glimpsed in succession through a loophole, while the dialogue between image and paper extends beyond the depicted scenes themselves, drawing attention to the conditions of their presentation and reproduction.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Loophole” develops Stokes’s earlier investigations into the self-reflexive book, in which not only the depicted image but also the page, its edges, and its physical support become integral to the work. The duo’s first collaborative artist’s book thus shifts attention from what the volume depicts to the ways in which the book itself produces and mediates meaning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54551960322387,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4318.png?v=1786437261"},{"product_id":"passage","title":"Passage","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCurrently based in Suffolk, Scottish artist Telfer Stokes is best known for his sculptural practice and pioneering approach to the artist’s book as a material and conceptual form. Drawing on the radical re-evaluation of the relationship between text and image associated with Ed Ruscha’s early editorial projects, Stokes employs photography and sparse text to explore the narrative, the formal and the conceptual possibilities of the book itself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Passage” is the first artist’s book in a series of six paperbacks published between 1972 and 1978 by Weproductions. Its premise is deceptively simple: two halves of a sandwich are spread across the pages, only to be repeatedly prised open and jammed shut again through the act of turning the book’s pages. Yet the work’s self-reflexive process extends beyond this photographic account. In an interview with Cathy Courtney, published in “Art Monthly” in November 1989, Stokes explains:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I was dealing with simple things in the early books. Like using pieces of a sliced loaf for the pages of a book which, on closing, made a sandwich. That was in “Passage” (1972), the first book I did and the beginning of a series published in the 1970s. The most important thing was what I call ‘book form’. I considered that the most successful way of using the page of a book was to use an object that was roughly the same size as a page, and to photograph it and place it in the book so that it operated and related in some way to the pages as they were turned. I might have photographed both sides of each slice of bread for every single page and that would have been transferring the notion of the object itself relating to the object I was remaking – the book.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Passage” unfolds as a self-conscious object in which not only the depicted image, but also the page, its edges, and its physical support become integral to the work. Rather than using text to explain an image, or an image to illustrate text, Stokes treats both photograph and text as material facts within the structure of the book. His homage to Ruscha surfaces subtly at the end, where a bottle of milk appears in three successive positions, echoing the celebrated finale of “Various Small Fires and Milk”. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54552049746259,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4316.png?v=1786438731"},{"product_id":"desire-the-collective-unconscious","title":"Desire: The Collective Unconscious","description":"","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54552059183443,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4326.png?v=1786438964"},{"product_id":"ajar-a-history-of-burnt-pans","title":"Ajar (A History of Burnt Pans)","description":"","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54552079106387,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4324.png?v=1786439221"}],"url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/collections\/telfer-stokes.oembed","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}