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FREEDOM OF THE PRESSES

because both have an essential impact on creative decisions. Within the
context of my investigation the book functions as a space of reference
where type is imprinted. The book is the carrier of type. It fulfills the
function of an archive and is a medium of communication of information
coded in type. The particular formal and cultural quality of the book has
a decisive impact on the use and the perception of type. The context in
which type is perceived is crucial for its impact on meaning. It makes

a difference whether writing is chiseled in stone on a monument,
handwritten on a scroll, or printed in a book. Iwould like to define art

as a technique of reflection that combines theory and craft, mind and
matter. Through this means art launches its critique. I understand critique
as the exploration of the circumstances of a given problem and as the
verification of its conditions.

Book art for me, therefore, represents a reflection on the conditions
and functional potentials of the book. In book art, the book becomes the
subject of artistic expression—a self-referential medium “that not only
represents reality but that also presents itself as reality.”16 The book is taken
over by artistic freedom and the reader becomes part of a discourse that
forces him to act and tojudge. From this results the task of “clearing out
the clearing,”17 in which the book is situated due to its form and contents
as a cultural idea. Given our specific perspective, this clearing (Heidegger
literally talks about lichten des Spielraums : clearing/lightening the space to
play) must recognize the following problems:

- How does the visual expression of language—coded (i.e. spoken]
information function with the help of printed type (i.e. in writing]
when we consider above all its mediating codification in the book?

. What effect does the writing in letters have on our perception?

Is the artists’ book a possible locus for an examination of this
problem?

. What does “artistic expression” have to contribute to an examination
of a reflected use of type?

2. WRITING, TYPE (THE ALPHABET)

”Writing is language written up.”18 “Writing equals the quantity of
graphic signs needed to record spoken language.”19 “Writing in its true
meaning is present when two assumptions are fulfilled: First: A graphic
activity (painting, drawing, scratching, printing) must occur. Second:
Communication should be successfully established—either with others