Books of Art

The topic for this week was "Baby's Choice," and Professor Ingersoll said we could write about anything our little hearts desire. 

My little heart desires artist's books. 

In this post, I will be focusing on artist's books and the like that are inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

I had trouble finding artist's books for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. However, I did find some book sculptures and an altered book.

Su Blackwell is an artist whose medium of choice is paper. She creates book sculptures by cutting out images from old books and using other pages from the book to create a three-dimensional diorama. She leans toward young girl characters, and places them in settings that express the vulnerability of childhood and convey a sense of childhood anxiety and wonder. Alice fits this perfectly. 

Blackwell (2007) Alice, A Mad Tea Party.

In fact, Blackwell has made other book sculptures based on Alice.

Blackwell (2008) Down the Rabbit Hole.

Blackwell (2007) Through the Looking Glass.

Joseph Marsh is a freelance graphic designer who had to produce an altered book for a bookmaking class he took. The goal of the project, according to Marsh, was to alter a book to reflect its original content. The center of the book is cut out, so it's no longer readable, but Marsh still created a very cool work of art.

Joseph Marsh's altered book

See more photos (including close up shots) of the book here.

Description

I would venture to say that there are at least one hundred different editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and probably more. I am looking at three different editions of the novel in this blog, but I chose just one—my favorite—for the book description.

Book description: 2010. Format: Hardcover. Trimsize: 5 3/4" x 8 1/4". Pages: 160. Smooth, cloth-like binding with metallic pink stamping on front cover and spine. Fourth printing. Full color dust jacket and full color illustrations throughout by Camille RoseGarcia (1970- ), an internationally known artist whose work has been in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Juxtapoz, and Modern Painter. Semi-glossy paper used to showcase Garcia’s illustrations. Black endpapers with a pattern of small lavender illustrations. Published by Collins Design, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. Text first published in 1866 and written by Charles Lutwidge Dodson (1832-1898), better known as Lewis Carroll, who wrote a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland called Throughthe Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There in 1871. Book is in excellent condition; only one previous owner. Book designed by Agniszka Stachowicz. Printed in the United States of America. No markings, bookplates, or other notes inside covers or on pages. Printed using offset lithography and commercially bound. No headband is present, not even a decorative one.

In a Bind

The components that make up the binding of a book--namely the covers, spine, endpapers, and any decorative stamping on the cover--are often the most visually beautiful parts of a book. There is no exception when it comes to all of the editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland I have been looking at.


The first edition was bound in red cloth, with green-coated endpapers and gold gilt on the cover and top edge of the pages. The original copies werea bound by the James Burn and Company bindery. Some copies still exist with the original bindings, like this one and this one on AbeBooks.com. Some have been rebound using the original binding boards, endpapers, and spine. Repair work can be visible on these copies. Others have been completely rebound (this one in the 20th century) using materials similar to the originals. 

First edition


My personal copies of Alice have been commercially case bound. In the Penguin copy, the cover is a white cloth-like material stamped in dark pink. There is a fake red and white striped headband on the book, as well as a white ribbon bookmark. The endpapers are a similar pink to the stamping on the front.

Penguin Endpapers

Penguin faux headband and ribbon bookmark

In the Garcia-illustrated copy, a colorful dust jacket covers a black, more paper-like cover. It is smoother than the Penguin cover. The front and spine are stamped in a metallic pink. The black endpapers are dotted with lavender mushrooms, bottles, top hats, and butterflies. There is no faux headband on this, which I have actually never noticed before on a hardcover book. I think even a faux headband makes the books look nicer.

Garcia dust jacket

Garcia cover, sans dust jacket

Garcia endpapers

No headband