The Experimental Book Object: Materiality, Media, Design

by Sami Sjöberg (Editor), Mikko Keskinen (Editor), Arja Karhumaa (Editor)

Overview

The Experimental Book Object shows why and how books matter in the 21st century. Digital and audio platforms are commonplace, and other fields of art beyond literature have increasingly embraced books and publication as their medium of choice. Nevertheless, the manifold book object persists and continues to inspire various types of experimentation. This volume sets forth an unprecedented approach where literary and media theory are entangled with design practitioners’ artistic research and process descriptions. By probing the paradigm of the codex, this collection of essays focuses on historical and contemporary experimentation that has challenged what books are and could be from the perspectives of materiality, mediation, and visual and typographic design. Investigations into less-studied areas and cases of performativity demonstrate what experimental books do by interacting with their systemic and cultural environments. The volume offers a multifaceted and multidisciplinary view of the book object, the book design and publishing processes, and their significance in the digital age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032368825
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/13/2025
Series:	Routledge Digital Literary Studies
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sami Sjöberg is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research focuses on avant-garde and experimental literature, especially in relation to science and epistemology. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Avant-Garde Studies and the author of The Vanguard Messiah: Lettrism between Jewish Mysticism and the Avant-Garde (2015).

Mikko Keskinen is Professor of Comparative Literature (University of Jyväskylä, Finland). His main research interests include narrative theory, sound studies, experimental literature, and intermediality. Keskinen is the author of Response, Resistance, Deconstruction (1998) and Audio Book: Essays on Sound Technologies in Narrative Fiction (2008). He has co-edited a book on the collage novel (2018) and two journal issues on “the ubique and unique book” (Image & Narrative, 2019).

Arja Karhumaa is a graphic designer, text artist, and Associate Professor in Visual Communication Design at Aalto University, Finland. Their work spans across experimental writing, visual poetry, typography, and publishing. Karhumaa is the author and designer of the artistic research Epä/igenesis (2021) featuring the artist book Epägenesis: Katalogi X, a catalogue of their experimental writing.

Table of Contents

IntroductionSami Sjöberg, Mikko Keskinen and Arja KarhumaaOpening Experimental Book Objects: The Heterogeneity of the Codex in the Twenty-First CenturyI Book MattersJan Baetens, Olivier Deprez, Books and CompanyEmily Brennan-Moran and Torsa Ghosal, Excessive Tactility of 9/11 Book MemorialsDanuta Fjellestad & Sami SjöbergPerformative Materiality of Book Inserts: The Case of S. and Personal EffectsMikko Keskinen, The Two-Layered Book and Storyworld, with Transgressions: Graham Rawle’s OverlandJuri Joensuu, Literary Mutilation: Typographical and Material Abuse in Finnish Experimental Poetry and Book ArtJuha-Pekka Kilpiö, Punched Pages: Holes in Experimental Print LiteratureOskari Rantala, The Disintegrating (Comic) Book Object and the End of the Narrative Universe in PrometheaII Book MediationsStella Bolaki, Bound to Matter: Artists’ Books and Illness ExperienceLaura PiippoLooking Back to Now: Book as Technology of Remembering the Present in Jatkosota-extra by Jaakko Yli-JuonikasWojciech Dr?g, The Dispersed Self, the Database and Digital Biography: David Clark’s 88 Constellations for WittgensteinSara Tanderup Linkis, Performing E-bookness: Remediation and Meta-Mediality in the E-book Edition of Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Fifty Year SwordIII Book DesignsLeslie Atzmon, Gender, Transgression, and Ritual Torah PreparationZach Dodson, Bookish Biomes: The Writing and Design of KUU, a Paper EcosystemPauliina Nykänen & Arja Karhumaa, Body Text: Exploring Somatic Devices in the Design of Hybrid Books Fun Primavera and YoursZoë Sadokierski & Cecilia Heffer, Encountering Lace Narratives: Designing a Multimodal Book to Capture the Complexity of Practitioner-ResearchNick Thoburn and Nick Thurston, Papercuts: The Horizons of Minor PublishingAfterwordJohanna DruckerDirect Objects: Critical Ways to Think a Book