Makerspaces: Aotearoa New Zealand: Featuring: Tom Bevan

This post was originally published on August 2, 2013.

We’re excited to share the work of Tom Bevan on the site today– a new addition to our growing catalog of library workers who double as artists, and who use the library as direct inspiration to their work. Tom’s most recent piece scrutinizes the digital shift taking place in many levels of library service, but everything he makes is beautifully wrought. Enjoy! ~Erinn

Red Riding Hood, by Tom Bevan

Library as Incubator Project (LAIP): Tell us about your artistic practice in general– what is your training, and how would you describe your work? Any previous projects that were library-incubated in addition to the one you sent?

Tom Bevan (TB): I am a graduate of Interactive Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, which is a largely a ‘do what you want course’ as in there is no specific discipline. Books and stories have always been a huge inspiration to my work and it was in my second year that I began to look into making books myself. As a bookbinder, I am largely self taught from reading a few books and watching some videos online – this resulted in a lot of mixed results in the early stages! I do believe that this, at times, can be the best way to learn, and I definitely developed my own style rather quickly. This lead to my first library incubated project, creating books as objects of art. The books were seen, by me at least, as sculptures rather than tools and each represented a fairy tale (because of their renowned familiarity) in some way. This was my first response to my thoughts on books in a digital world, and they were exhibited as part of a craft exhibition. Displaying them in this context, I believe, really changed how the book was seen. It was now looked upon as an ornament or item of decoration and I wasn’t really sure how I felt about this – the point was to highlight the book and the beauty of its form.

This lead to me creating books for Chorlton Arts Festival that were displayed in Chorlton Library. They were similar in style in that the books were objects of art that illustrated an aspect of a story but this time they were bigger and aimed more at a family audience. Displaying them in a library encouraged families to explore the library more and, hopefully, the books within then.

Three “fairy tale” pieces shown in situ at Chorlton Library.

LAIP: Create a mini book list for us– what 5 books do you wish you could find in the stacks at every library?

TB: Books I have found invaluable are:

How to Make Books – Esther K Smith – My very first book binding book.
Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut – Hatori Koshiro – An excellent introduction to paper art
The Penland Book of Handmade Books – Jane LaFerla – Beautiful books and wonderful tips
The Late Age of Print – Ted Striphas – A good summary of print in a digital era. Lovely front cover.
Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet to Form – Paul Jackson – Excellent to learn what paper can really do.

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LAIP: Can you tell us about your most recent piece? We are Twitter fanatics, so we think it’s a really neat visualization of Tweets as information.

TB: I have worked in libraries for the past 5 years. Originally, I was hired as a Library Support Assistant, dealing with the regular activities of checking books in and out, organising the shelves etc. Recently, however, I was made redundant from that role to work solely as a Digital Inclusion Assistant, as mine, and many other libraries, focus more on their digital services – ebook catalogues, free computer usage etc. It was noticing this shift of priority that inspired my subsequent practice.

I am not a digital protestor – I can see and understand the benefits of digital media, though I do have a certain nostalgia for the traditional form of the book. It was for this reason that I learnt how to bind books by hand – I wanted to be able to keep this art form alive in my practice, even if it is reappropriating its use from a tool to an object of art. One thing I noticed in my research into ebooks vs printed books, particularly Harold Innis’ communication theory, was the temporary nature of digital media as compared to the more permanent state of a printed book. It was because of this theory of time, that archive methods began to inspire my work, and so I created a hand bound book using archival (acid free) paper. The book was a recording of a minute’s worth of the internet, or, more specifically, Twitter. I chose to focus on Twitter because of the rapid turnover of tweets. Our personal thoughts are uploaded to the internet and are quickly lost into obscurity by the onslaught of tweets that follow moments after.

By recording a random amount of tweets at a random time (4.02pm) I was essentially capturing and freezing a moment of time in Twitter. After binding these tweets in a book, I then cut them out and wove them to create a community – these separate, unrelated thoughts and notions (connected simply by the time they were uploaded to Twitter) are now permanently intertwined and displayed in a sealed perspex box. The hope for the piece is that the book becomes a life of it’s own, the user’s stories are forever stuck in suspended animation, on display for people to consider and reflect on their own use of digital media.

LAIP: What would your ideal library look like? What would you be able to do there, and what could you find on the shelves?

TB: My ideal library would be very traditional aesthetically. Though the old adage is ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ it is the look of a book that initially piqued my interest as a child. The cloth bound, hard back book with gold foil blocked writing would line all the walls with ladders on a dolly to skim past them all (though health and safety would never allow this!). Despite the traditional look, it would still have computer access, as I know how important this is. When jobs are online, benefits need to be registered online and banking is online, to deny those who cannot afford it access, I believe, would be wrong. The library should still be a place of community, where children learn and play, people study and, most importantly, where books are read.

LAIP: Tell us about the first library that you can remember playing a part in your development as an artist.

TB: As I have worked at Bury Library since I was 16, this has surely been the first library to have played a development in my practice, if for no other reason than to see how the books are slowly being stripped away through budget cuts and a new focus on digital aspects in the library service. Seeing books be withdrawn and taken away was the main reason for me to start using them as a material – I didn’t see it as the destruction of a book but utilising what is no longer wanted. Working in a library has also increased my sense of community. For example, as a commission for Bury Light Night (an annual art event in the town), I created an interactive workshop where members of the public would build a house and add it to an installation in an empty shop, with a light inside some to give the impression of an alive town at night. The idea was that the town would come together to create a piece of art that is personalised to each member. The paper houses that were left were then displayed in Bury Library for a few months after as many of the participants often come in and I think it highlighted how the library is a community hub as well as a place of books.

Tom Bevan is a paper artist with a specific interest in book binding and the form of the artist book. His work is often based in stories and narratives – how these can affect us and our development as people – and also how storytelling has developed in a modern, digital world. It is this question that makes me question the position and the purpose of the book in society. Check out Tom Bevan’s website HERE, and follow him on Tumblr: http://ift.tt/1SHpTSU.com