The New Art of Making Books Revisited : Postdigital Recycling of the Literary

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This chapter revisits Ulises Carrión’s pioneering manifesto “The New Art of Making Books” (1975) with the purpose of providing a critical framework that will be used to shed some light on contemporary artistic practices in the field of postdigital publishing. Attention will be paid to the work of artists that use canonical literature as raw material for their pieces, such as Jesse England’s "E-Book Back Up" (2009), Jason Huff’s "AutoSummarize" (2010), or Mimi Cabell and Jason Huff’s "American Psycho" (2011), exploring the different strategies involved in the process of cultural and literary recycling. In an age when print competes with digital technology, its physical format appears to be more alive than ever, with artists using print affordances as subversive and performative gestures that open a dialogue about contemporary notions of authorship, originality and the evolving nature of contemporary reading habits and media consumption.