The New Art of Making Books - Ulises Carrion

Widely known for his decisive role in defining and conceptualising the artistic genre artists' book through his manifest 'The New Art of Making Books' in 1975.

Asks, 'where does the border lie between an artists' work and the actual organisation and distribution of the work?' (Where does the border lie between the artist book and publishing?)

The New Art of Making Books

Useful source for distinguishing a 'book' from an 'artists book'.

Old vs New:

'In the old art the writer judges himself as being not responsible for the real book. He writes the text. The rest is done by the servants, the artisans, the workers, the others. In the new art writing a text is only the first link in the chain going from the writer to the reader. 

In the new art the writer assumes the responsibility for the whole process. In the old art the writer writes texts. In the new art the writer makes books. To make a book is to actualise its ideal space-time sequence by means of the creation of a parallel sequence of signs, be it linguistic or other.'

This is where the concept of publishing as artistic practice can be drawn in as artists are taking more control and gained an awareness of the production and distribution of a book. Whilst artists are not formally trained in formal design principles such as modern typography and commercial production and distribution, it can be argued that this position of self expression and experimentation opens new opportunities and innovations for graphic designers. There is evidence to suggest that designers are jealous of this spotlight position and freedom to design without commercial constraints...
However, surely this subjective and autonomous method of working is detrimental to the designers role as problem solver/service provider as he/she is searching for attribution rather than an objective solution to a problem.

Go into the debate between Crouwel and Van Toorn - Subj ad Obj

This evidence suggests that designers are using there formal, conceptual knowledge of the design industry and combining them with the expressive nature of art.

 a balance between formal design and autonomy can be established with independent publishing. Autonomy being the concept behind the book, based on personal interest