Artists’ books as a qualitative research methodology in multidisciplinary contexts

Abstract

This practitioner piece outlines a novel method for practice-based research centred on the production of artists’ books. There is growing evidence for the benefits of artists publishing as an alternative route to disseminating academic research (see Bodman, ‘Towards a community of artists’ books’, 2019; Taylor, ‘The artist’s book as collaborative art practice’, 2017; Vieth, ‘The artist’s book challenges academic convention’, 2006). However, there is only limited research to help understand how the unique qualities of the artist’s book as a medium – and the processes and methods used in its creation – can be positioned to scaffold a process of mediating knowledge and hierarchies of practices. The insights from the study have significant benefits beyond art and design where they can be useful in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) contexts, especially where this involves diverse multidisciplinary groups and specialist/non-specialist participants. The research focused on designing a practice-based method which positions the artist’s book edition as a visual verbatim facsimile. The project’s initiating concept and conceptual anchor centred on the etymology of the prefix ‘re’. As a facsimile, each iterative edition revisits, reuses and reassembles, making visible the traces of individual interpretations and interventions as well as the technologies and materials deployed in the process of collaboration. As shown through the study, the method proposed offers an inclusive collaborative process where progressively more complex relationships are formed and synthesized through subsequent editions. A series of four iterative editions were developed through the study, each following a cyclical method involving three phases: (1) transcription and documentation; (2) constellation and translation; and (3) publication.