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== Introduction ==
Though modern day notions of the book tend to be conceptualized in the form of paginated codices, “book” is a capacious term. The physical form of the book, which changes through time and endless technological developments, has a rich history that forms the basis of bibliography and the basis of how our societies consume information today.


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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_book artists' book] I've ever seen before. Housed at the University of Pennsylvania's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Pennsylvania] [https://www.library.upenn.edu/kislak 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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_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" [https://www.susankaegrant.com/radio_active-book-arts], '''''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.
This site is a compilation of the research conducted across the [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Material_Book_Cultures_Through_the_Ages Fall 2018], [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Remote_Book_History_Resources Fall 2020], Spring 2022, Spring 2023, and Spring 2024 classes of Professor Whitney Trettien’s [https://www.english.upenn.edu/courses/undergraduate/2018/fall/engl034.001 Cultures of the Book undergraduate seminar]. The Fall 2018 page, [[Material Book Cultures Through the Ages]], emphasized observing materiality, especially in the form of numerous objects from the [https://www.library.upenn.edu/kislak University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts] collection, unraveling discussions on the creation of meaning beyond content, from [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Parchment parchment] and [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Page_Numbers pagination] to [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Early_Duplicators mimeographs] and [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/HTML_and_the_World_Wide_Web HTML], various book technologies were explored through presentations before being turned into research papers. In 2020, our class, which was taught remotely, heavily utilized Amaranth Borsuk's text "The Book" as a central framework for our understanding of what a “book” is. This central text considered the complex history of the book as a technology, as well as the various methods of analysis scholars employ when studying the book. Moreover, Borsuk’s writing also pushed us as a class to challenge our notions of what makes a book a book, allowing us to better understand the true breadth of scholarly considerations of the book as a technology. In 2022 and 2023, each member of the class adopted a book from Kislak's special collections to research, with help from John Pollack and the staff at the library. Each student wrote a material text analysis as well as original research on these unique items.


== Historical Context ==
Among other topics, researchers in this class have focused on:
=== 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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience '''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.
* ''substrates'': how do paper, [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Parchment parchment], and [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Palm_Leaf palm-leaf], among other materials, inform us of the contexts in which works were created?
* ''inscriptions'': what implications do para-texts such as [http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Footnotes footnotes] and apparatus such as binding have on the way content will be consumed?
* and ''platforms'': in what ways do devices, software / hardware, and operating systems contribute function transitionally to give voice to content?


== 2018 Contributions ==
[http://digitalbookhistory.com/culturesofthebook/Material_Book_Cultures_Through_the_Ages This page] contains a compilation of resources from the Kislak Center gathered by the 2018 class.


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.
[[Material Book Cultures Through the Ages]]


exemplify certain featur es which later find vari ed expression in artists' books,
== 2020 Contributions ==


[[Remote Book History Resources]]


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
== 2022 Contributions ==
old maxim“a picture is worth a thousand words”rings false


Each of these entries links to an article on a unique book in Kislak's special collections.


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
[[A German Miscellany]]


[[A Brief State on the Province of Pennsylvania]]


[[The Xerox Book]]


The increased popularity of
[[Bartholomew Fair]]
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.
[[Catharine Gould Scrapbook]]


=== Marie Curie ===
[[Chinese Poetry Paper by the Master of the Ten Bamboo Hall]]


[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Paris 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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie Pierre Curie], an instructor at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPCI_Paris 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.
[[John B. Thayer Titanic Memorial Collection]]


== Material Analysis ==
[[The Nuremberg Chronicle]]
'''''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 ===
[[Scrapbook 1936]]


'''''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.
[[Synergy by Mike Piazza]]


'''''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"''
[[Formulary.]]


'''''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.
[[John Wright Commonplace Book: A Unique Late 18th-Century Manuscript]]


=== Fortmat/Structure ===
[[World War I Trench Newspapers]]


[[Perpetual Card: Vaticinia Varia]]


=== Illustrations ===
[[Minnie Recipe Book]]


[[A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke]]


talk about printing technique here
[[Biblia Pauperum]]


== Content/Textual Analysis ==
[[Home Economics Foods and Food Preparation]]
=== Book ===


=== Scrolls ===
[[Grimm's Goblins Illustrated]]


== Significance ==
[[Mayan Medical Receipts and Spanish Translation]]
=== 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]
[[Edwin Forrest's Plays]]


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]
[[Useful Knowledge]]


=== Contextual Significance ===
[[The Illustrated Tang Poems]]
=== Symbolic Significance ===


== References ==
[[The History of Tom Thumb]]
 
[[The Graphic: a Premier Illustrated Newspaper]]
 
[[William Penn's 1683 Letter to the Free Society of Traders]]
 
[[The Provincial Freeman and Weekly Advertiser]]
 
[[The Aldine Psaltērion]]
 
[[The New World]]
 
[[Maps and Plans Illustrative of Thucydides]]
 
[[House of Mystery, Volume 2: Love Stories for Dead People]]
 
[[The Boke of Common Prayer (1583?)]]
 
[[The American Farmer, Vol. 1]]
 
[[A British Soldier's Photoalbum of India]]
 
== 2023 Contributions ==  
 
Each of these entries links to an article on a unique book in Kislak's special collections.
 
[[William B. Richard World War II letters]]
 
[[Tunnel book depicting a promenade on the Champs-Élysées]]
 
[[Recipe Book]]
 
[[Collection of Chinese Culture: Stone Rubbings]]
 
[[Edith Mary Mellor's Travel Diary]]
 
[[Scrapbooks & Theatricals in Philadelphia]]
 
[[A Defense Of The Antient Historians: Ireland and Great-Britain]]
 
[[Every Man His Own Physician]]
 
[[A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book]]
 
[[Balthazar Solvyns' Etchings of Colonial India]]
 
[[A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica]]
 
[[A Pesach Sampler: from appetizer to afikomen]]
 
[[A North African Megillat Esther]]
 
[[Jiu Huang Ben Cao: A Plant Atlas for Famine]]
 
[[John Gay's Polly (1729)]]
 
[[The Indian fighter!! and Ghost of Morgan!!! : Together with a great variety of other tales;--"To amuse the odd, the comical and queer."]]
 
[[The Experienced English Housekeeper]]
 
[[Alchemical Miscellany]]
 
[[The hierarchie of the blessed angells: their names, order and offices: the fall of Lucifer with his angels]]
 
[[芥子園重訂本草綱目:a reprint version in Qing Dynasty of the Bible of Traditioanl Chinese Medicine]]
 
[[Leaves of Grass]]
 
[[Early England Soup Societies]]
 
[[Springs, An Artist Book by Enid Mark]]
 
[[Wa-Kan kōsō shige shō]]
 
[[Ruptures, Their Causes and Varieties : With Various Methods for Curing Them]]
 
[[American and British Ballads, Circa 18th-19th Centuries]]
 
[[Beyond Pedagogy and Aesthetics: Werner Pfeiffer's ''Errantry'']]
 
[[How to Know the Wild Flowers]]
 
[[ State of the Union: a Snapshot of Our Political and Social Conundrum]]
 
[[A Combination Canvassing Book]]
 
[[The American Flag: Reconstructed]]
 
[[The Ten Pleasures of Marriage, relating all the delights and contentments that are mask'd under the bands of matrimony]]
 
[[The Black Panther Ministry of Information]]
 
[[Emily Martin's Fly Away]]
 
[[Songs; Collections of American sheet music bound into volumes by their original owners between 1820 and 1860]]
 
[[Natural History of Serpents]]
 
[[The Handmade Papers of Japan]]
 
[[Swirls: James Prez's Ode to Duchamp]]
 
[[Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant: Risks and Rewards]]
 
[[A course of chirurgical operations, demonstrated in the Royal Garden at Paris / by Monsieur Dionis ... ; translated from the Paris edition.]]
 
[[Medicinal Experiments, or, A Collection of Choice and Safe Remedies]]
 
== 2024 contributions ==
 
[[2024 sample title]]
 
[[Curious Flap Anatomies - 19th Century Obstetrics]]
 
[[Balzaculator – La Comedie Humaine as a Binary System for Balzacolytes]]
 
[[The Fettered Lettered]]
 
[[Model of the Medieval Girdle Book]]
 
[[Susan Kae Grant - Radioactive Substances]]
 
[[The Traveller's Pocket Farrier Handbook]]
 
[[The Golden Touch]]
 
== License ==
 
The content in this book is licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International unless otherwise stated on individual pages, in which case the individual licenses supercede this general one. To understand your rights as a user of this website, please see this page: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Revision as of 01:30, 29 April 2024

Though modern day notions of the book tend to be conceptualized in the form of paginated codices, “book” is a capacious term. The physical form of the book, which changes through time and endless technological developments, has a rich history that forms the basis of bibliography and the basis of how our societies consume information today.

This site is a compilation of the research conducted across the Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, and Spring 2024 classes of Professor Whitney Trettien’s Cultures of the Book undergraduate seminar. The Fall 2018 page, Material Book Cultures Through the Ages, emphasized observing materiality, especially in the form of numerous objects from the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts collection, unraveling discussions on the creation of meaning beyond content, from parchment and pagination to mimeographs and HTML, various book technologies were explored through presentations before being turned into research papers. In 2020, our class, which was taught remotely, heavily utilized Amaranth Borsuk's text "The Book" as a central framework for our understanding of what a “book” is. This central text considered the complex history of the book as a technology, as well as the various methods of analysis scholars employ when studying the book. Moreover, Borsuk’s writing also pushed us as a class to challenge our notions of what makes a book a book, allowing us to better understand the true breadth of scholarly considerations of the book as a technology. In 2022 and 2023, each member of the class adopted a book from Kislak's special collections to research, with help from John Pollack and the staff at the library. Each student wrote a material text analysis as well as original research on these unique items.

Among other topics, researchers in this class have focused on:

  • substrates: how do paper, parchment, and palm-leaf, among other materials, inform us of the contexts in which works were created?
  • inscriptions: what implications do para-texts such as footnotes and apparatus such as binding have on the way content will be consumed?
  • and platforms: in what ways do devices, software / hardware, and operating systems contribute function transitionally to give voice to content?

2018 Contributions

This page contains a compilation of resources from the Kislak Center gathered by the 2018 class.

Material Book Cultures Through the Ages

2020 Contributions

Remote Book History Resources

2022 Contributions

Each of these entries links to an article on a unique book in Kislak's special collections.

A German Miscellany

A Brief State on the Province of Pennsylvania

The Xerox Book

Bartholomew Fair

Catharine Gould Scrapbook

Chinese Poetry Paper by the Master of the Ten Bamboo Hall

John B. Thayer Titanic Memorial Collection

The Nuremberg Chronicle

Scrapbook 1936

Synergy by Mike Piazza

Formulary.

John Wright Commonplace Book: A Unique Late 18th-Century Manuscript

World War I Trench Newspapers

Perpetual Card: Vaticinia Varia

Minnie Recipe Book

A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke

Biblia Pauperum

Home Economics Foods and Food Preparation

Grimm's Goblins Illustrated

Mayan Medical Receipts and Spanish Translation

Edwin Forrest's Plays

Useful Knowledge

The Illustrated Tang Poems

The History of Tom Thumb

The Graphic: a Premier Illustrated Newspaper

William Penn's 1683 Letter to the Free Society of Traders

The Provincial Freeman and Weekly Advertiser

The Aldine Psaltērion

The New World

Maps and Plans Illustrative of Thucydides

House of Mystery, Volume 2: Love Stories for Dead People

The Boke of Common Prayer (1583?)

The American Farmer, Vol. 1

A British Soldier's Photoalbum of India

2023 Contributions

Each of these entries links to an article on a unique book in Kislak's special collections.

William B. Richard World War II letters

Tunnel book depicting a promenade on the Champs-Élysées

Recipe Book

Collection of Chinese Culture: Stone Rubbings

Edith Mary Mellor's Travel Diary

Scrapbooks & Theatricals in Philadelphia

A Defense Of The Antient Historians: Ireland and Great-Britain

Every Man His Own Physician

A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book

Balthazar Solvyns' Etchings of Colonial India

A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica

A Pesach Sampler: from appetizer to afikomen

A North African Megillat Esther

Jiu Huang Ben Cao: A Plant Atlas for Famine

John Gay's Polly (1729)

The Indian fighter!! and Ghost of Morgan!!! : Together with a great variety of other tales;--"To amuse the odd, the comical and queer."

The Experienced English Housekeeper

Alchemical Miscellany

The hierarchie of the blessed angells: their names, order and offices: the fall of Lucifer with his angels

芥子園重訂本草綱目:a reprint version in Qing Dynasty of the Bible of Traditioanl Chinese Medicine

Leaves of Grass

Early England Soup Societies

Springs, An Artist Book by Enid Mark

Wa-Kan kōsō shige shō

Ruptures, Their Causes and Varieties : With Various Methods for Curing Them

American and British Ballads, Circa 18th-19th Centuries

Beyond Pedagogy and Aesthetics: Werner Pfeiffer's ''Errantry''

How to Know the Wild Flowers

State of the Union: a Snapshot of Our Political and Social Conundrum

A Combination Canvassing Book

The American Flag: Reconstructed

The Ten Pleasures of Marriage, relating all the delights and contentments that are mask'd under the bands of matrimony

The Black Panther Ministry of Information

Emily Martin's Fly Away

Songs; Collections of American sheet music bound into volumes by their original owners between 1820 and 1860

Natural History of Serpents

The Handmade Papers of Japan

Swirls: James Prez's Ode to Duchamp

Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant: Risks and Rewards

A course of chirurgical operations, demonstrated in the Royal Garden at Paris / by Monsieur Dionis ... ; translated from the Paris edition.

Medicinal Experiments, or, A Collection of Choice and Safe Remedies

2024 contributions

2024 sample title

Curious Flap Anatomies - 19th Century Obstetrics

Balzaculator – La Comedie Humaine as a Binary System for Balzacolytes

The Fettered Lettered

Model of the Medieval Girdle Book

Susan Kae Grant - Radioactive Substances

The Traveller's Pocket Farrier Handbook

The Golden Touch

License

The content in this book is licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International unless otherwise stated on individual pages, in which case the individual licenses supercede this general one. To understand your rights as a user of this website, please see this page: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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