The material folio

The rematerialisation of the art object has come full circle. The cycle commenced with its dematerialisation as documented by Lucy Lippard in 19971. This is not to say in any way that the ground covered since 1966 has been discarded, rather, as Timotheus Vermeulen describes in re-engaging with the material object - artists must now address from the outset the problems inherent to working with materials. The renewed interest in materiality extends across disciplines and holds particular relevance for print and literary cultures. It is not surprising then to see a corresponding interest in the material book and the haptic. What is not so apparent is that the return to the book and the haptic also completes a cycle. This is not the first time the book's materiality has drawn the attention of artists and poets. William Blake (1757 -1827) chose the haptic book to address the West's privileging of sight, the book's haptic properties underpinned early twentieth century poets and artists engagement with it, and Marshall McLuhan attempted to reharmonise the senses in his book Verbi-Voco-Visual Explorations (published by Dick Higgins of Something Else Press in 1967). In returning to the material book, artists and those who read their books closely need to address the problems inherent to the language of materials. In this essay I will address the folio, the primary structure of a codex which has been elemental to my studio research.