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Visual Artists' News Sheet | March – April 2021
Artist Publishing
Kimberly Goes, A Soundscape of Notes and the s paces between, 2020; image courtesy the artist.
Top: Laura Fitzgerald, The Inch Conglomerate, 2019; image courtesy the artist. Bottom: Paul Gaffney, Stray, 2016, handmade artist book; image courtesy the artist.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF any book generally goes through a number of
Self-Publishing: An Incomplete Guide CHRISTOPHER STEENSON OUTLINES SOME KEY CONSIDERATIONS WHEN SELF-PUBLISHING.
key stages, from content creation, to copyediting, design and layout, followed by proofing and, finally, printing. At each stage of the process, there are a range of considerations. Being mindful that every artist’s book will have its own idiosyncratic motivations, this article provides a general overview of key stages involved in the self-publishing process, whilst offering examples and pointers along the way. PLANNING & CONTENT
The decision to self-release an artist’s publication should have a clear set of aims from the outset. Why do you want to make a publication (and why now)? What is your budget and how much will be allocated to the different stages of production? Will you sell the book simply to cover costs, or do you need to make a profit? These practical questions should be carefully considered, as they impact each stage of the book-making process. Publications are often used by artists as a concluding point to a longterm body of work. This is particularly common amongst photographers, where the ‘photobook’ collates and sequences images associated with a particular series. Irish artists who have self-published photobooks to great effect include Paul Gaffney, whose publication, Stray (2016), was meticulously edited, designed and printed in an edition of 50. Other publications are created as companions to projects or exhibitions, sitting in dialogue with other aspects of the artist’s work. Publications like these might present texts and/or imagery that expand upon the artist’s research or project themes. One example is Laura Fitzgerald’s Inch Conglomerate (2019) – a fictional broadsheet newspaper that accompanied her text-in-the-landscape-based artwork, Cosmic Granny. This publication was co-designed and edited by me and printed by the Newspaper Club. BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS
Making a publication is not cheap, especially when self-publishing without the support of funders (who can cover some, if not all, production
