BOOK
A book is a sequence of spaces.
Each of these spaces is perceived at a different moment — a book is also a sequence of moments.
A book is not a case of words, nor a bag of words, nor a bearer of words.
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A writer, contrary to the popular opinion, does not write books.
A writer writes texts.
The fact, that a text is contained in a book, comes only from the dimensions of such a text; or, in the case of a series of short texts (poems, for instance), from their number.
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A literary (prose) text contained in a book ignores the fact that the book is an autonomous space-time sequence.
A series of more or less short texts (poems or other) distributed through a book following any particular ordering reveals the sequential nature of the book.
It reveals it, perhaps uses it; but it does not incorporate it or assimilate it.
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Written language is a sequence of signs expanding within the space; the reading of which occurs in the time.
A book is a space-time sequence.
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Books existed originally as containers of (literary) texts.
But books, seen as autonomous realities, can contain any (written) language, not only literary language, or even any other system of signs.
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Among languages, literary language (prose and poetry) is not the best fitted to the nature of books.
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A book may be the accidental container of a text,. the structure of which is irrelevant to the book: these are the books of bookshops and libraries.
A book can also exist as an autonomous and self-sufficient form, including perhaps a text that emphasises that form, a text that is an organic part of that form: here begins the new art of making books.
Book
Editado y diseñado por James Langdon
Publicado por Eastside Projects como parte de la exposición Book Show, septiembre de 2010.
