jen bervin | derek beaulieu's blog

Shandy Hall has just released the sumptuous catalogue for their 2011 exhibition “The Emblem of my Work” designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Sterne’s marbled page, which Sterne described as ‘the motly emblem of my work’, 169 artists and writers were invited to design the Emblem of their own work.

Finally, this box of delights has been concocted where the identity of each Emblem-maker can be discovered in the booklet provided. The catalogue is limited to 225 copies of which only 55 are available (170 copies are reserved for the participating artists and writers).
If you would like to reserve a copy, please contact the Curator at Shandy Hall.
The catalogue has been produced for the Laurence Sterne Trust by Colin Sackett.
Each contains an original, miniature marbled page by Payhembury Marbled Papers.

I’m proud to be included in this catalogue alongside such luminary colleagues as Tom Phillips, John Baldessari, Jen Bervin, Christian Bok, Helen Hajnoczky, Eric Zboya, Lemony Snicket and Eugen Gomringer…

Once again, December brings an opportunity to reflect upon the year’s books. Like previous years, this “most engaging books” list is idiosyncratic and by no means reflects “the best”, only what i found most engaging and most rewarding … this is a selection of what i considered the most fascinating / useful / generative books of the year. Seek out these volumes, every one will reward the search (and your local, independent, bookstore can help…). This is the cream of the crop for 2013:

Heimrad Bäcker. Seascape. Patrick Greaney, trans. (Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse)

Jen Bervin and Marta Werner. The Gorgeous Nothings. (New York: New Directions).

Jaap Blonk klinkt. (Gent: het balanseer).

Craig Dworkin. No Medium. (Cambridge: MIT Press).

Kenneth Goldsmith. Seven American Deaths and Disasters. (Brooklyn: Powerhouse)

Jeet Heer. In Love with Art: Françoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman. (Toronto: Coach House).

bpNichol. A book of variations: love-zygal-art facts. Stephen Voyce, ed. (Toronto: Coach House).

Yoko Ono. Acorn. (New York: OR)

Rachel Simkover, ed. An Anthology of Concrete Poetry. (Berlin: Motto).

Nick Thurston. Of the Subcontract (York, UK / Toronto: information as material / Coach House)

Emmett Williams. Anthology of Concrete Poetry (New York: Primary Information)

Andrew Zawacki. Video Tape. (Denver: Counterpath)

Paul Zits. Massacre Street (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press)

The Emblem of my Work

most engaging books of 2013