Emily Martin's Fly Away

Overview

Fly Away by Emily Martin is an artist's book published and copyrighted in 2005 by Emily Martin herself. Emily Martin published many of her earlier books under the publishing company “The Naughty Dog Press” which is her own, as she prints all of her books on a Vandercook SP15 printing press. She works out of Iowa City, Iowa, and seems to work solo, as all marks on the book only indicate her involvement, including the copyright. The University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections bought this book directly from the author, making Penn the first owner of the book, which shows as the book seems to lack markings, marginalia, and aging that are most prominent in books that pass through many owners.

Artists' Books

Historical Context

Artist books started to boom in Paris in the 1890’s, where artists like Ambroise Vollard and Sonia Delaunay-Terk were at the forefront of this intersection between the classic codex and art. These artists deeply focused on the formatting of a book in order to showcase an artist’s work without creating an abrupt change to the codex. In Paris during this time, there was a sudden increase in the number of wealthy middle class citizens, also known as the bourgeoisie, that tended to show interest in the art world. These artists took advantage of the bourgeoisie and the art market that they created by using classic texts to create original prints by well known artists. This allowed for a greater acceptance of these creations as the classic texts used were well known and well loved by this social class at the time, making these first artists’ books more intriguing. These books were market driven, so they were often not based on politics or societal issues, contrasted from most artists’ books in modern times. Additionally, these books were produced and sold for the bourgeoisie, so they were often expensive, limiting their accessibility to only those who could afford them (XXX).

Around the same time as this French boom in artists’ books, there was a Russian avant-garde where many artists started combining all of their talents, as many of them were brilliant writers and artists. These artists put a lot of focus on the materials they used, the form of the book, and the layout of the page, among other things. They also showed similar interests in the incorporation of art into the classic codex while pushing the boundaries of the codex. This avant-garde period coincided with the Russian Futurism period, where there was a focus on traditional folk writings as well as more of a focus on visual aesthetics. Futurism was a generally innovative period in Russia, making it much more likely for something like artists’ books to be accepted. Early Russian artists’ books differed from those in Paris during the same period, as these early Russian artists tended to focus on political and social problems or they focused on their opinions, unlike the unbiased book in Paris.

In order to create these works in both Russia and Paris, artists’ needed to be able to control all aspects of the creation process. Many processes and a lot of time went into making these books, and it was often difficult to create them in an affordable way for both artists and buyers. Instead of books being generic when reproduced, like a codex typically would be, they became centered around the expression of art, giving the artist full control for the first time in the book production process. By this time, the idea of the codex was being challenged not only in the addition of art, but also in the books’ materiality and form.

Artists' books didn't get a foothold in the United States until the 1960's when contemporary artists' books became popular. Quick technological advances, like the invention of photocopying, further fueled this quick rise in artists' books in the United States, as they not only made printing easier and much more affordable, but also made the production of artists' books more customizable, further pushing the explosion of creativity during this time.

The Importance of Materiality and Form

One major difference between authors who create artists' books and those who create codex style books is the emphasis they put on formatting, materiality, and the form that the book takes. Artists' have to carefully consider everything from the paper they use to the shape of the book to ensure the proper reading experience for their readers.

The fold book, which is very similar to the Japanese doubled leaved album, is important for its dynamic features and its apparent cyclical abilities. Although when laid flat these books don't have this cyclical theme, the display of these books is what lends them to this. The pages can be folded in distinct ways, creating a circle throughout the entire book, especially when stood up on its end. These fold books take many forms that each change how you read the book depending on what form the book is in when reading. These books also challenge the idea of beginnings and endings, as they can be viewed as continuous loops with neither a beginning nor an end. The presence of key features of the codex like covers and a title page disrupts this concept of continuity, as they are often what provides this sort of abrupt start and end to your reading experience. Creators of these books put a lot of consideration into the binding and shape of the book as key features like the book's form and display emerge from this.

The type of paper, although overlooked by many readers, plays a key role in not only the reading experience, but also in the production. In the most obvious sense, the feeling of paper along with its color will change the visual aspect of reading a book. More importantly, different papers are better suited for different printing types. The classic paper used in most printed books is not suitable for many artists' books, as mixed medias like paint and thicker inks are too bold or vibrant for how thin this paper is, so artists' must used thicker, more manipulatable papers in order to create exactly what they want.

The time and focus put onto this idea of form and materiality is what makes the reading experience of artists' books so intimate and unique for each reader, emphasizing the importance of dynamic reading to get a full understanding of the materials, meanings, and form of the book.

Physical Object

The book is made out of Sakamoto paper, and the cover is a hard cover wrapped in Moriki Paper. Moriki Paper is an authentic Japanese paper that is usually brightly colored and best for artist materials like water colors and relief printing. It’s thickness and durability make it an optimal material for book covers and end papers. The type used on the cover and for the contents of the book is a mixture of letterpress, inkjet and pochoir. Inkjet is a common printing technique used by authors and artists to easily reproduce their own work, which Emily Martin most likely did with her printing press mentioned above. Similarly, letterpress is another type of printing used for reproduction, but is more like relief printing, where an inked raised surface is pressed directly onto the paper. Lastly, pochoir is French for “stenciling” and is a type of printing very similar to stenciling. Pochoir is seen in one of the very first books that is considered an artist book, La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France, by Sonia Delaunay-Terk. This book was referred to as the “first simultaneous book” which connected how an object visually impacts its observer with the ever changing thrill of the modern world (XXX). Delaunay-Terk used pochoir in this book to emphasize this cross section with bright color, similar to Martin’s use of pochoir to include the yellow brick road in a bright yellow media, further emphasizing the intersection of art and the classic codex.These methods are common techniques used by many pioneering artist book creators, as they help emphasize the cross section between original book publishing, and classic art, as it was known at the time.

This book resembles a Japanese double leaved album, with the pages folded inside the covers in an accordion style. The most notable feature of this book is its triangular shape, making it much easier to manipulate and interact with, but potentially making it more difficult to read and interpret. From the front cover, the book can be read in a classic codex style from each corner, with flipping the pages from each corner giving the reader a different story. The pages are not individual cut pages like a classic codex, but the book can be unfolded, revealing that each “page” that is seen in the codex reading view, is actually just different folds of the same, single page. Although the book consists of only one page, it seems to be multiple pieces of paper glued together, to create this accordion style reading experience. The pages can also be unfolded and laid flat on a surface to reveal the two sides of the single page in a zig zag layout. There is no binding to this book, as the pieces of paper are just glued together, and glued to the covers. Since this is a modern day artist book, the lack of a traditional binding isn’t surprising.

The Reading Experience

The Codex

Unlike most books, there are many different ways to read Fly Away, with three codex ways, and infinite ways with how you choose to fold it. The first of the three codex stories consists of identical pages reading “there’s no place like home”, seemingly relating to the paratext at the beginning of the book which reads “follow the yellow brick road”, showing a Wizard of Oz type theme in the book. The second codex view reads “ Fly away not home never home”, which seems to relate to the “main” story of the book. This main, and third story is the longest and says “A life lived not looking over my shoulder is perhaps not the most satisfying. And while it may be obvious that moving towards something moves me further from something else, what is not always obvious is that sometimes having something recede in my rear view mirror is far more satisfying than whatever looms ahead.”

The Words

Except for the paratext, there is no indication on how to read the book, leaving it fully up to the reader to control their own reading experience. Although this makes it more difficult to understand, as it is unclear on how Martin wants it to be read, it makes the reading process more intimate allowing the reader to spend time interacting with the book, instead of having a passive reading experience that codex reading has become. Similarly, the lack of instruction leaves the meaning of the book completely up to the interpretation of the reader, giving each reader their own unique understanding of the words on the page and how each story and reading of the book connects to the others. The meaning of the book emerges differently for each reader depending on the order in which they read the stories, the ways in which they fold the pages, and how they choose to interpret the words on the pages. This newer active and dynamic way of reading that is demanded forces the reader to look deeper at every aspect of the book, making it impossible to understand it by passively reading the words on the page.

The wording of the main story is also very important for the interpretation of the meaning. Martin intended for the book to be about feeling trapped in your life, and that feeling of wanting to "flee one's own life"(XXX). The same words that Martin interprets as meaning fleeing your life, I first interpreted as the societal and safety issues of being a woman in modern day society. The vague wording of this story allows every reader to interpret it differently, or how they see fit based on the social climate of the time. This makes the reading experience even more intimate, as each reader can relate to the words in their own unique way based on issues that are close to them.

The Folding

The easiest way to “follow the yellow brick road” was to connect the pages in a circular manner, which could be done with two different sets of pages, one being the “fly away” pages and the other being the “there’s no place like home” pages. The circular continuous loop of the yellow brick road creates a sense of entrapment in home. Being trapped on this yellow brick road contradicts the longing to “fly away” from home and the concept of growth that is shown on the page, hinting at the idea that despite home usually being a comfortable place, you are not able to grow if you are stuck at home. The quote from the Wizard of Oz “there’s no place like home” shows this comfort of being at home, highlighting this tension between the materiality of the book and the words written. When reading the main story, it is very difficult to actually follow the yellow brick road and read the words in the correct order, further emphasizing the idea that growth is not easy or straightforward, contrasting the simplicity and comfort of home, which was represented with a circle.

Book vs. Art: The Conflict of Accessibility

Artists' books are known for how interactive and intimate the reading or viewing experience is, but you will often find some of the most famously interactive artists' books locked up in university libraries or in a thick glass case in a museum, only to be handled by those who are considered qualified to work with the book. Authors often sell their books straight to institutions for profit, but this just leads to their book being hard to access for the general public, and if it is accessible, only what this institution wants you to see is available, as you aren't allowed to flip through the pages, but instead merely look at it like a work of art. This often leaves a lot of information difficult to interpret since the very important reading experience is not an option. This begs the question of how to treat artists' books to preserve them while also giving readers the full intimate reading experience that the book was created for. To access Fly Away at the University of Pennsylvania, I had to first be a student who knew about the existence of the book at Penn, and then I had to go to this highly controlled reading room where I was checked in and allowed very few materials to access the book.