Glass and light are the main elements of the work. In lieu of pages, the volumes contain a variety of glass sheets of various colours, qualities, and degrees of opacity. Each copy, bound with leather, sits upon a bookrest to be observed in great detail, allowing the viewer to experience the abstract narrative game initiated by the artist.
A view becomes a window is an homage to the book as a space in which we find ourselves. You can see the previous page and the next one through those you are perusing; you never read only one page at a time. In a sense, the full book is present within any one spread, explains Eliasson. This internal depth and texture is merged with the immediate surroundings; the space and the reader are reflected in the deep, glassy surfaces in which ultimately you—the reader—are read by the book.
Some of the glass plates have ellipses and circles cut into them, framing the lector’s face as they turn the pages. The pages were hand-blown by artisans from the Glashütte Lamberts glassworks, in Germany, one of the few remaining factories in the world capable of producing hand-blown glass sheets of this quality. Because they are handmade, the edges of the leaves are irregular, and each bears the imperfections of its production, making them unique pieces.
A view becomes a window is the eleventh artist’s book published by Ivorypress since its foundation in 1996. Olafur Eliasson is thus added to the roster of artists with whom Elena Ochoa Foster, founder and CEO of Ivorypress, has previously worked, such as Eduardo Chillida, Richard Long, Anthony Caro, Anish Kapoor, Francis Bacon, Isamu Noguchi, Cai Guo-Qiang, Richard Tuttle, Ai Weiwei and Isidoro Valcárcel Medina. Several copies of these artists’ books are part of the collections of institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Fundación Serralves in Porto and in private collections.
Text: Ivorypress.
Dates: From 19th to 28th September 2013.
Place: Ivorypress Space. C/ Comandante Zorita 46 (Madrid).
