An Amazing Labyrinth Of Books

By Stephen J. Gertz

From July 31 - August 26 2012 the Southbank Centre Clore Ballroom in London will host aMAZEme, an art project that integrates literature books, performance, installation and cinema. It's just one of many events at the 2012 London Festival.

Created by Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo, aMAZEme provides a total immersive experience for those who attend. The audience is subtly led into a labyrinth of books. Once lost in the maze, curiosity, knowledge and creativity are stimulated.

It's as if Richard Serra traded-in his monumental slabs of rolled steel for monumental walls constructed from 250,000 (yes, 250,000) books.

The audience fully participates in the project, discovering new textures, images and emotions. They become surrounded- hypnotized – by words and thoughts, designs and patterns.

There appear to be secrets hidden in the installation’s walls, which are up to 2.5 meters high, built from thousands of books, forming a 500 square meter maze.

The construction of the labyrinth and public participation will be filmed by video cameras and sent to the “aMAZEme" website as well as to social media sites. Touch screens will be installed to look up information and to screen content, which will also be shown in monitors throughout the installation.

The public will be able to navigate through this hypnotic and surprising “book labyrinth” or attend daily performances from literary figures.

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All images courtesy of Southbank Centre, with our thanks.
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Today's post freely adapted from the aMAZEme press release because I am currently experiencing a bad case of acute slugopathy with swollen lethargy, lazy bones, and iron-poor blood. Cerebral hemispheres not operating on all cylinders, either. Geritol or Vin Mariani tonics indicated but not ingested.

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Tycho Brahe's Sculpture Garden of Scientific Instruments

by Stephen J. Gertz

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), a Danish nobleman and gentleman scientist,  made the most precise astronomical and planetary observations to date by designing and building the best, most sophisticated scientific instruments available until  the invention of the earliest known telescope in 1608.

His discoveries in astronomy were made from  Uranibourg, an observatory on an estate on the island of Hveen in the sound between Denmark and Sweden, which King Frederick II of Denmark had granted him, with funding as well for construction of the observatory and its instruments.

His observations of planetary motion, particularly that of Mars, provided the crucial data for later astronomers like Johannes Kepler, who was Brahe's assistant, to construct our present model of the solar system.

Brahe's observatory and his scientific instruments were splendidly documented by Joan Blaeu in his Grand Atlas. Blaeu’s magnificent hand-colored copperplate engravings were revised from wood-cuts originally published in Brahe’s own Astronomiae Instauratiae Mechanicae (1598).

Joan (John) Blaeu (1596-1673) was born a cartographer and died as one in Amsterdam. He was the son of Willem Blaeu, who established the family business as a globe and instrument maker in 1599 and soon expanded into maps and atlases. Joan shared his father's passion for this work. After Willem died in 1638, Joan and his brother, Cornelius, continued to expand the business. After Cornelius's death Joan continued to direct the work alone.

He produced a whole series of 6 volumes of maps (1655), which completed the work that his father had begun. The next, massive project resulted in the production of the 'Atlas Major', or Grande Atlas. This extended to eleven volumes (later editions ranged from 9-12 volumes), the first publication being in 1662. The work contained 3,000 pages of text and near 600 double-page maps.

It was and remains the most extraordinary cartographic work ever produced. The engraving was exquisite as was the calligraphy, coloring, heraldic detail, pictorial work and the intricate cartouches, which dramatically added to the Grande Atlas's appeal. Some of the maps produced by Blaeu are considered to be the finest published during the seventeenth century.

The hand-colored engravings of Brahe's instruments and observatory are unforgetable. They stand out not only as sophisticated scientific instruments of the period but as works of art, bold geometric constructions that would be welcome and admired in any sculpture garden.

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BLAEU, Johan (1596-1673). Le grand atlas ou cosmographie Blaviane, en laquelle est exactement descritte la terre, la mer et le ciel.  Amsterdam: chez Jean Blaeu, 1663. 12 folio volumes. 

Title from half-title to volume 1. Title of volume 1: Geographie qui est la première partie de la Cosmographie Blaviane. Title of vols. 2-12: Second [etc.] volume de la Geographie Blaviane./ Vol. 1 has general half title for the complete work, and special t.p. with imprint date 1663./ Some parts have additional engraved title page, some with imprint in Latin: Amsterdami : Apud Ionnanem Blaeu, 1662.

Cf. Potter, p. 171.

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Images courtesy of Bruun Rasmussen Auctions of Denmark, which recently offered this edition of the Blaeu Grande Atlas, with our thanks.
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Four Sets of Rare and Exceptional Bookends

by Stephen J. Gertz

We have an affection for fine bookends at Booktryst. A colleague is now offering four outstanding and collectible examples we thought we'd share with you.

Nudes on Books.    [American]: Nuart Creations, [ca. 1929].

(8.5 x 4.25 x 2.5 inches). Just over 5 pounds the pair. Pot  metal  with a  warm  bronze  finish. Both stamped "© Nuart N.Y.C.", and retain most of the original felt bottoms. A  couple tiny spots of loss to finish, small dings to both girls' noses, but still an exquisite  set.

Yes, we prefer our ladies with a warm bronze finish with their original felt bottoms, a few dings on the nose an ethnic plus. It demonstrates character; these beauts have been around, and are proud of the face they've earned, screw cosmetic surgery.

Nuart Creations was known for its attractive and  inventive Art  Deco  female  figures,  of which  this  rare pair is a prime example.

Variant of Kuritzky, Collector's Encyclopedia of Bookends. Identification & Values 1182.

Perfect Symmetry.    [American: Glauber, ca. 1925].

(9 x 5.5 x 3.25 inches). Almost 9 pounds the pair. Solid bronze.

Variant of Kuritzky, Collector's Encyclopedia of Bookends. Identification & Values 1208.

I know that many Booktryst readers are dog lovers. Below, a pair of gorgeous  greyhounds, albeit gold.

Greyhounds.    [Unknown Manufacturer, n.d.].

(7.25 x 3.5 x 5 inches). 8 pounds the pair. Cast of gold finished gray metal, set on marble bases.

There's an Art Deco-Egyptian deity quality to these bookends that is particularly attractive; a handsome pair.

Variant of Kuritzky, Collector's Encyclopedia of Bookends. Identification & Values 424.

We move from the cool and remote idols above, to the nearly-too-cute-for-words-I-may-go-into-diabetic-shock-yet-gosh-darned-adorable dogs below.

Dogs on Black Leather Chairs.  New York: Nuart Creations, [ca. 1935].
(158 x 145 mm.) Four and a half pounds the pair. Cream-colored metal dogs on black painted chairs, also metal. One with its original felt bottom, the other lacking, aw shucks, both stamped  "© Nuart Creations N.Y.C. Made in USA."

Kuritzky, Collector's Encyclopedia of Bookends. Identification & Values 1230.

I'm just thankful that the dogs are on black leather and not in it, with collar, muzzle, and chain leash: An ASPCA Vice-Squad nightmare!
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Images courtesy of Dragon Books, which is currently offering these  bookends, with our thanks (for the pix).
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House of Recycled Books (Art Installation)

by Stephen J. Gertz

Somewhere a Door Slammed ...
1.74 x 1.47 x 1.81
Nettie Horn Gallery, Bethnal Green, London.

Rosie Leventon creates environmental art installations, often from recycled materials.

She "makes sculptural installations, for both indoors and outdoors, using a broad variety of materials from human hair to recycled central heating pipes. She also draws and paints, using ink, pencil, acrylic, chalk, bitumen and other media to create proposals for sculpture and installations. Although often conceived as outline ideas for larger 3d projects these drawings and maquettes represent a significant body of work in their own right.

"Some of Leventon's installations comprise radical interventions into the interior architecture of a building. She has constructed false floors that float on water and which shift under foot. Her outdoor installations sometimes highly ambitious in scale often have a functional, regional element, providing water for animals, for example, or promoting biodiversity and regeneration.

"All of Leventon's work however is grounded in a sensitive concern for the natural environment and how we use it. Leventon sees her work as interweaving a kind of personal archaeology with the archaeology of contemporary society and the physical archaeology of places" (Leventon website).

Interior.

Of Somewhere a Door Slammed (2009) she writes:

"This recycled installation is made from paperbacks, mainly romantic novels, that have titles like Confessions of a Vicar's Wife and Cold Heart Canyon. They have been formed brick-like into a rectangular tower which stands about 1.82 metres high. In it are regular shaped windows on two sides which allow a view into the interior. The titles of the books are visible on the outside of the walls, and looking through the windows people can see the pages of the books have been roughly carved - softened - so that they may look a bit like flat pieces of stone or an ancient ruin. Living in Central London, we all live in or walk past huge tower blocks every day. But what do we know of the lives of all the people who live in the flats? Peoples complicated lives in which so much joy and sorrow and so many major and minor events are contained. References to archaeology run right through my work, also the act of looking."

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With thanks to Nancy Kosenka of Serendipity Books for the lead.
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