Susan Kae Grant - Radioactive Substances

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Outside of artists' book

Front cover of Woman in Girlhood-Wifehood-Motherhood

Introduction

Created in 1994-1995 for the exhibition "Science and the artist's book" held at the Smithsonian Institution and the Washington Project for the Arts in 1995, Susan Kae Grant's Radio-active Substances is like no other artists' book I've ever seen before. Housed at theUniversity of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, the book appears to be something you would find in a chemistry laboratory as opposed to a library. Encased in a small lead box are 5 glass tubes and a 10 x 15 cm spiral note book consisting of 28 pages and various illustrations that all honor the legacy of Maria Sklodowska Curie. Renowned as the first scientist to win the Nobel Prize twice, in 1903 and 1911, Curie accomplished more than what most women could even dream of at the time. Described as Grant's "evocative interpretation of Curie's 1903 dissertation presented at the Sorbonne in Paris" , Radio-active Substances portrays Curie's biggest life challenge: the struggle to balance her duties as a wife and mother with her unwavering pursuit of scientific knowledge in an era that disproved of the latter. In addition, the book illustrates the physical and emotional burden that accompanied Curie's radioactive endeavors.

Historical Context

Artists' Books

Defined by Art historian Stephen Bury as "books or book-like objects over the final appearance of which an artist has had a high degree of control; where the book is intended as a work of art in itself", artists' books challenge the current idea of what constitutes a book. Although artists' books with the traditional codex format can certainly be found, the genre's increased popularity stems from the flexibility and variation that exists between works. Utilizing both their artistic capabilities and authorial expertise, artists have created non-traditional books out of a wide range of substrates, techniques, forms, and mediums for years; a prime example of this phenomenon is William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, an early precedent for emphasizes the book as an artistic production. Consisting of two poetic collections combined, Songs of Innocence and of Experience features 49 original poems, each accompanied with an elaborate illustration engraved, hand-printed, and colored by Blake and his wife. Much like the artists' books of today, artistic expression, here in the form of illustrations, accompany text in order to present the reader with a narrative. Overall, Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience serves as an early predecessor for modern day artists' books, combining self-publishing and self-distribution with the integration of art, text, and form.

These works would set the tone for later artists' books, connecting self-publishing and self-distribution with the integration of text, image and form. All of these factors have remained key concepts in artists' books up to the present day.

exemplify certain featur es which later find vari ed expression in artists' books,

This unique art helps tell the story of each poem, and was part of Blake's original vision for how each poem should be understood old maxim“a picture is worth a thousand words”rings false

As Bury notes, women artists were often shut outof the gallery system and so turned to the medium of the book to take control ofthe presentation and distribution of their work

The increased popularity of artists' books can probably be.attributed to the flexibility and variation of the book form, rather than to any single-aesthetic or material factor.

Hecites the silence of Max Ernst’s collage novels as inspiration for works where images rather than texts provide the narrative.

Marie Curie

Maria Salomea Skłodowska, commonly known as Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw on November 7th, 1867 as the fifth and youngest child of well-known educators Bronisława and Władysław Skłodowski. Born during a time of political unrest, specifically due to national uprisings aimed at restoring Poland's independence, Curie's childhood was marred with poverty and illness. After losing both her mother and older sister in a short span of time, Curie fell into depression and moved to the countryside with her paternal relatives. While in the countryside, Curie offered tutoring services to many students until she saved enough money to fund her higher education. In 1891, Curie moved from Poland to France and enrolled in the University of Paris where she continued her studies in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. After earning two degrees by 1894, Curie chose to remain in Paris and begun her scientific career with an investigation of the magnetic properties of various steels. A few months later, Curie met Pierre Curie, an instructor at The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution and her soon to be future husband. In summer of 1895, the two got married and began their long journey of scientific exploration. After countless years of arduous labor and publications, the couple were finally able to announce the newfound existence of two elements, polonium and radium; they were also the first to coin the term "radioactivity". Unfortunately, unaware of the deleterious effects associate with radiation exposure, in 1934, Curie succumbed to aplastic anemia at the age of 66 due to her long-term, unprotected investigation of radioactive substances; she left behind two daughters and a long lasting legacy as the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.

Material Analysis

Radioactive Substances consists of three individual objects that together form the entirety of Grant's artist book: a small box, a 10 cm x 15 cm spiral notebook, and a set of 5 glass test tubes.

Substrate

Box: The book and test tubes are both protected in a mauve stained box measuring 5 in x 6 in x 2 in. Upon first glance the box appears to have been poorly handled in the past, featuring many indentations, rough edges, and a sunken lid. However, once picked up, the reader is surprised to find out that the box is actually constructed of a soft metal material, specifically lead. Despite its rigid appearance, the box is malleable and its shape can be manipulated, contributing to its imperfection. In addition, although a majority of the box is constructed out of lead, steel nails, banding clips, wires, and hinges are used to provide support and uphold the box's rectangular shape. Once opened, a lead rack bolted to the lid of the box can be found. The rack features a ledge and a bended strip of metal used to create a resting place for the 5 glass test tubes. The inside is otherwise left empty with just enough space to house the accompanying notebook.

Notebook: The notebook encased in the box consists of 14 one-pound sheets made entirely of lead. Apart from its 15 pound weight, which comes as a surprise to many readers due to its small size, another interesting feature of the notebook is the flexibility of the pages. Although also constructed out of lead, similar to the box, the individual sheets that make up the notebook are so thin that they bend as the pages are turned. To help make the reading experience a bit easier, the spiral binding that holds all the pages together is made out of solid steel, allowing the reader to flip through the artists' book without the spine collapsing under the weight of the page. Once opened, the notebook features juxtaposing images and text. The images, collected from a variety of historical sources depict sketches, blueprints, and writing from Curie's personal journal, as well as images of the female scientist and her husband. The images are printed in black ink directly unto the grey lead pages and differ greatly in terms of ambiguity, contrast, and lighting. The text is also directly printed onto the lead pages in a legible font. Apart from the Thesis on the first page and the colophon on the last pages, the text featured are quotes taken directly from Curie's 1903 thesis titled "Researches on Radioactive Substances"

Test Tubes: The artists' book also consists of 5 glass lead-lined test tubes that each contain a vellum scroll of text. The test tubes are synonymous to the one typically found in a laboratory and each house a clear, glass rod. Once removed, the glass rods are revealed to be dowels attached to long strips grey vellum paper. Each scroll features a different title and text sourced from a biography written Curie's daughter; all five scrolls aim to articulate Curie's personal life journey as a wife, mother, and researcher. Although the scrolls are not super fragile, if mishandled, they can tear. Thus, two hands are necessary to properly analyze this part of the artists' book. Interestingly, once placed in the dark, the lead that lines the inside of the test tubes begins to glow, imparting an aura to the artists' book that is simultaneously fascinating and dangerous.

Form and Structure

The binding style of Radioactive Substances diverges from the format of conventional books intended solely for reading. Typically, such books utilize a technique called Perfect binding, a book binding method widely used in the mass production of paperback and hard cover books. This binding technique involves gluing the multitude of pages that comprise a book together at the spine with a strong yet flexible thermal glue. The stack of pages is then trimmed to produce "perfect edges" and attached to a cover. In contrast, Grant's artists' book adopts spiral binding to secure the lead pages together, a technique typically used to make books designed for writing rather than straightforward reading. Such books include notebooks, planners, and sketchbooks. Despite this departure from the norm for reading-oriented books, Radioactive Substances' form and structure is contemporary with the time and place in which which it was published.

Significance

Physical Significance

Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle.[80] Even her cookbooks are highly radioactive.[81] Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.[81] In her last year, she worked on a book, Radioactivity, which was published posthumously in 1935.[74]

She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket,[76] and she stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the faint light that the substances gave off in the dark.[77]

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Symbolic Significance

As JoAnna Drucker writes in The Century of Artists' Books:

“ [W]hen a book calls attention to the conceits and conventions by which it normally effaces its identity, then it performs a theoretical operation... A book can call attention to the external factors which determine its structure or the book can become an object whose structural features are its subject matter"/>