―Please briefly describe your practice.

 

Art is my community center, house of religion and congregational home. As a good member of the congregation I have been fortunate enough to take on various roles within it. In my artistic practice I like to take an objective stance towards our systems of engagement. I look at how we interact with each other and the world around us through aids such as language and art and how we position ourselves in space as physical beings. This I do with what I know best, which is methods in printmaking, by applying color in layers to a surface.

 

When it comes down to it, I don't really see a difference in making art myself and helping others make art, we're working together to extract something out of our collective consciousness, from the recesses of our own perceptions of the world. Through Print & Friends, I have helped artists make editioned prints in silkscreen, relief, riso and lithography as well as artist books and magazines. At Y gallery, which is located in a 70's gas station, we focus more on three dimensional work as the space calls for it with windows all around the space. I also work as the Director of Workshops at the Iceland University of the Arts as well as teaching courses there. It is such rewarding work to be in direct contact with the pure source of creative energy that is the art school, and help them channel it into material.

 

 

 

―What is the history of artists' books in Iceland?

 

The advent of the artist book came early in Iceland with the Swiss artist Dieter Roth moving to Iceland in 1957 and making what some consider to be the first artist books. Dieter had previously been involved with the concrete poetry and visual art journal Spirale, and in Iceland became involved with poet Einar Bragi and the journal Birtingur. At the time Dieter was working as a graphic designer and would create some beautifully abstract and conctrete advertisements in the journal. His Kinderbuch from 1957 was arguably his first artist book, an assemblage of cut out of geometric shapes and colors. There was a force to Dieter in that he engaged others around him in making.

 

Dieter collaborated with Magnús Pálsson who went on to establish a new department within the school of arts and crafts, Nýlistadeild which directly translates to New Art Department. Magnús created a variety of artist books at the time and was also instrumental in engaging others to collaborate. In my opinion that is the defining characteristic of the artist book as a medium in Iceland; it is not so much a craft as it is a driving force in collaboration. It allowed Icelandic artists to engage with their contemporaries abroad. Many of the artists that came to Iceland through Magnús and Dieter would collaborate on artist books, and then continue their collaboration through mail art. It is through artist books that Iceland came to participate in the contemporary art scene internationally. Ever since, Icelandic artists have continued to work with making artist books and editioned work in some sense, often as a side- or by-product of their practice or as collaborative work. Even though Iceland has a longstanding tradition of printing and publishing dating back to the early 16th century, there's something about the Icelandic culture that is still very much unformulated and open, there's a strong DIY ethic that I guess comes from centuries of having to be self-reliant and self-sufficient and having to be creative with little means.

 

 

 

―Can you please describe the significance of the books you were unable to bring this time?

 

Once Around the Sun

Down

Forest

Study Book

Drawings to Waterfalls

 

To curate a selection of artist books to be displayed in a context such as this is always very much a balancing act. These works are meant to be handled by the viewer, meant to be read. The art philosopher Jóhannes Dagsson proposes a new definition of the artist book as a the relational experience of the reader as an embodied being.

 

With time some of these books become very important in the narrative one wants to portray as a curator. What happens then is contradictory; the more you want people to be able to read these books, the less accessible they become. These books are made in the early seventies by people that were involved with the SÚM group which proposed a new way of making art. Once Around the Sun catalogues each second in a whole year where each second is represented by a full stop. Study book by Rúrí is a single spread book that opens up to an image of the starry sky on the left and a mirror on the right.

 

―What is the Reykjavík Art Book Fair like?

 

The Reykjavík Art Book Fair is held at the Reykjavík Art Museum. It is like a small family gathering, a harvest festival of a small but dispersed group of self-publishers and artists all working at the common goal of publishing the un-publishable. I like to also invite the museums and galleries so that it becomes a meeting point that is publishing, a place to come together in a common interest in the printed object or the book. We have a few people participating from abroad which is great, and I'd like to take the oportunity to encourage people to apply.

 

―Could you tell me your project to archive the history of artists’ book in Iceland?

 

This is connected to an ongoing research project of mine that I run with art theorist Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir. We've been looking into the rich history of artist books in Iceland and activating students from the Iceland University of the Arts with us on the project. They've written a number of essays on the subject and carried out concentrated researches into the techniques emplyed in the making of these works, as well as mapping the international networks created in these collaborations. So far we've published one Workbook as we call them, which are small publications that we intend to publish on the way to creating a more in depth book on the subject.

 

―You listed many contemporary artist books for our Nordic Art Book Store. Are there any characteristics you noticed among the art books in Iceland through the process of this selection? Have you found any other similarities/differences with the other four Nordic countries?

 

What I find to be characteristic of these works, which could maybe be extended on art in general in Iceland, is this kind of carefree aesthetic and way of making. Most of the works in the selection are simply made and present a simple concentrated idea.

 

 

―A quick message for our Japanese audience please!

 

I think we'll actually find that we share a lot both in concepts and asthetics. I recently got to know a French artist, Joan Ayrton, who's has a research project where she's looking into marbled paper. She told me how these methods travelled from Japan where the paper was very simple both in color and motif. The technique then travelled all over Asia and to Europe becoming more intricate in color and structure. It travelled further north where it started to become simpler again. When she studied the techniques in marbling paper in Iceland, she found that they had returned to how it was made in Japan, with simple irregular motifs and little subdued color. I look forward to further collaborations between Iceland and Japan!