Linda Newbown:
"The Tennis ball book was made in response to the dichotomy of book as object and book as information. A book is a difficult thing to define because half of it is object and half is an abstract concept. Is a book the sum of certain requisite characteristics? If a book has no pages is it still a book? If it cannot be opened is it still a book? These are the things I like to ask as I make my books. My artists’ books are a way of questioning bookishness."
(Linda Newbown's artist statement sourced from State Library of Queensland, Artists’ books online, 2005)
Description: Yellow tennis ball, cut in half, hinged and pages with text
Answer the following questions:
1. Linda Newbown states that Tennis ball was made in response to a dichotomy, or two opposing concepts, concerned with books as art. What are these two concepts?
2. Linda Newbown indicates it is difficult to define an object as a book. How do you define a book? Do you agree that the Tennis ball is a book?
3. As a process of creating your own personal definition of what constitutes an artist book, answer the same questions Linda Newbown has asked herself:
a) Is a book the sum of certain requisite, or necessary, characteristics?
b) If a book has no pages is it still a book?
c) If a book cannot be opened is it still a book?
“Tennis Ball is the concrete form of my thinking about the intersection of book as an abstract idea, as an object and as the carrier of information.”
--Linda Newbown--
Critical Thinking: Tennis Ball
