Dedicated to the production and distribution of (very) limited edition artbook multiples by contemporary artists, I established flask in 2004. Over the years flask has worked with over twenty artists including Luanne Martineau, Yang Lui, Wanda Koop, Vikky Alexander, Jeanne Randolph, Sonja Ahlers, eeportal, Jim Holyoak and others.
Approaching artists whose work interested and intrigued me, I would ask if they would be interested in extending their artmaking process into an artbook multiple. We would then work together in the realization of the project.
The form and content of each artbook multiple develops through a process of experimentation and dialogue. In the production, a wide variety of printing, book construction and artmaking processes are used and the notion of ‘the book’ is extended. For most of the artbooks the artist creates a part of the book itself. Examples of this would be Luanne Martineau’s needle felting of each cover for Freakout, Alison Bigg’s printing of etchings for each of lostfoundsound, Christine Walde’s building of glass sculptural components for Bride Machine and Jim Holyoak’s hand painting of each cover of his lettered edition of Book of Nineteen Nocturnes. In this way, although editions, each artbook multiple is also unique. In addition, along with the artists and flask’s resources, experts in a number of fields also contribute to the eventual outcome, including; various forms of book binding and printing, offset, giclee, screen-printing, digital, lithography, etching, drawing, photography, collage, letterpress, and fabric arts. Several flask artists have undertaken residencies at the Farallon Book Arts Lab at UVic where they have worked with master printer Jacob Maddison.
Artbook multiples published by flask have been exhibited at galleries and museums including The National Gallery of Canada, Trepanier Baer Gallery (Calgary), Jessica Bradley Projects (Toronto), Paul Petro Contemporary Arts (Toronto), McBride Contemporain (Montreal), The Paul D. Fleck Library and Archive (Banff), the Pat Martine Bates Gallery (Victoria) and are in public collections including; The University of British Columbia Library (Rare Books and Special Collections), The National Gallery of Canada (Library), The Art Gallery of Ontario (Edward P. Taylor Library and Archives), The University of Victoria (Special Collections Library) ,The Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections at York University, The Paul D. Fleck Library and Archive (Banff Centre for the Arts), Artexte (Montreal), Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver), Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec (Montreal), The Nordic Artist Centre (Norway), Bibliotheek Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, Netherlands), UCLA Arts Library (Los Angeles), The Drawing Room (London, U.K.), The Poetry Collection (University at Buffalo, New York), The Philadelphia Art Museum Library and Archives (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Nasjonalmuseets for Kunst Biblioteket (Oslo, Norway) and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt.
Books are distributed through galleries, artist book stores and this web site. Please let me know if you would like to be included on the mailing list for upcoming editions. lgammon@uvic.ca
For inquiries please contact:
Lynda Gammon
lgammon@uvic.ca
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my sincere appreciation to all the artists who have created artbook multiples for flask, as well as to the galleries and institutions that have exhibited and acquired these works. Although flask has not sought funding itself, a number of artists have received support from the Canada Council, the BC Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council and The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec for their artbook projects and flask is very grateful for this. In addition, flask would like to thank the many partners who have helped in so many ways with the production of the works. This includes Kelsey Meszaros at Mitchell Press (Vancouver), Michael Huston (senior scientific assistant the UVic Studio for Intergrated Media), Christine Walde (Fine Arts librarian and director of the Farallon Book Arts Lab at UVic), Jacob Maddison (master printer at Farallon Book Arts Lab UVic) and many others along the way. We would also like to thank Border Crossings for their insightful articles on flask books.
I also wish to acknowledge with respect the Lekwungen peoples on whose traditional territory this project stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.