Wot is a book?


Gemma Bilby, Turn Page to Unlock, 2018
Paper, glue, string, ink

In terms of wider practice, my work is generally very craft-based and tactile. In this piece I have employed my usual hands on practice, combining colour and texture to create a physical outcome. Throughout the research stage of this project, my main inspirations to make this piece were Papier Machine, a group of designers who create interactive toys from paper and metallic ink; and Dan McPharlin, with his Analogue Miniatures, a collection of old technologies made from paper. It was this idea of going back to basics that inspired me to pursue my idea for this project. In the production of this piece, I used only paper, some cellophane and glue. I avoided the use of printing services as the whole idea was to create this piece in its most simplistic form. After thorough brainstorming, researching, sketching and prototyping, I began the production of the piece. I started by cutting the templates of the pages, and then just built on top of them, piece by piece. There are some ideas I had to discard, as they would have required some form of digital input, where the fundamental idea of this book was to talk about a digital object in a purely analogue output. Ideally this piece would have been submitted as a series of photographs showing a child using the book, but due to the time consuming manner of the construction, I couldn’t arrange to take these photographs before the deadline, and had to postpone these photos for another time. Should I further pursue this project, I would consider creating additional books to form a series of digital devices in the form of paper children’s books. I hope that this work can prompt further discussion on the question of what defines a book in a time after the internet.