Passage
Telfer Stokes
1972
Passage
Passage
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Currently 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 ...
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Passage
Telfer Stokes
1972
London: Weproductions
Unpaginated [128 pages]
17.8 × 10.9 cm
Edition of 1,000

Currently 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.


 


“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:


 


“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.”




“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”. 

London: Weproductions
Unpaginated [128 pages]
17.8 × 10.9 cm
Edition of 1,000

Currently 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.

 

“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:

 

“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.”


“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”. 

DESCRIPTION

Currently 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.

 

“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:

 

“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.”


“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”. 

London: Weproductions
Unpaginated [128 pages]
17.8 × 10.9 cm
Edition of 1,000

Currently 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.

 

“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:

 

“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.”


“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”. 

MORE BOOKS

Currently 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.

 

“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:

 

“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.”


“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”. 

MORE BOOKS