ARTIST’S BOOKS
Elena Ochoa founder of Ivorypress
On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2021 publishing artist’s books, Ivorypress is organising a multi-institutional exhibition in collaboration with museums, libraries and universities in Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.
Looking Forward, celebrates its history with a great edition
In a three-volume edition it chronicles the history of Ivorypress since 1996 with primary sources that range from oral histories and archival documents to pictorial records and texts.
A Trilogy of astonishing content
Words, Books, and Stories consider the many facets of Ivorypress activity as a means of reflecting on the history of the artist’s book as a medium and of generating new ideas in art publishing for current and future generations of creators, historians, and students.
By critically examining these materials, engaging in a series of interviews, and developing scholarship on past exhibitions, publications, and curatorial activities, these volumes seek to amplify the scholarship on the medium of the artist’s book.
These three volumes chronicle Ivorypress’s history since 1996 using a variety of primary sources and diverse perspectives that range from oral histories and archival documents to pictorial records and texts.
It is a research tool for current and future generations of creators, historians and students as well as an opportunity to look back at the people, texts, images, artists’ books, and works of art that have shaped Ivorypress
Words is a selection of sixty texts out of the hundreds published by Ivorypress since 1996, ranging from artist statements and essays to poems and narrative texts. Many of these writings were previously only available to a relatively small audience, and thus Words seeks to democratise these texts by making them accessible to a wider public.
Books foregrounds the primacy of the artist’s book as an artistic medium at Ivorypress. Introductory essays explore the conceptual underpinnings of the Ivorypress Artists’ Books Collection and the history of the artist’s book. Through sixteen richly illustrated entries, Books chronicles the complex, varied, and often laborious production processes for each of the artists’ books.
Stories presents the voices of some of the leading figures in the visual arts and in the field of artists’ books. Through dialogue, Stories seeks to unpack the recent history and current issues surrounding the artist’s book, a medium that has been historically embraced by artists yet has only recently gained the recognition of museums and collectors of contemporary art.
This publication is complemented by exhibitions that will take place in museums and libraries across Europe and the United States during 2021
Exhibition programme
Biblioteca Nacional de España: Michal Rovner, Document.
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford: William Kentridge, Tummelplatz; Marc Quinn,
Thames River Water Atlas and Edmund de Waal, breath.
The British Library: Francis Bacon, Detritus.
CICUS, Universidad de Sevilla: Francis Bacon, Detritus; Anish Kapoor, Wound;
Michal Rovner, Document; Edmund de Waal, breath; and Ai Weiwei, Becoming.
Ivorypress Space: All the artist’s books Ivorypress has published over the last 25 years in
dialogue with a selection from the Ivorypress Artist’s Books Collection.
Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge: Eduardo Chillida, Reflections and Richard
Long, Walking and Sleeping, alongside a selection of works artists who have collaborated
with Ivorypress.
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao: Anthony Caro, Open Secret and Eduardo Chillida,
Reflections.
Museo Chillida Leku: Eduardo Chillida, Reflections.
Museo Lázaro Galdiano: Olafur Eliasson, A View Becomes a Window.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía: Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, ilimit.
The Museum of Modern Art: Richard Long, Walking and Sleeping and Richard Tuttle,
NotThePoint.
Neues Museum: Olafur Eliasson, A View Becomes a Window.
Stanford University Library: Drawings by Buckminster Fuller and Norman Foster,
and Isamu Noguchi, 18 Drawings,18 Photographs.
The Warburg Institute: Anthony Caro, Open Secret.
Yale Center for British Art: Marc Quinn, Thames River Water Atlas.
Artists’ books in the exhibitions
Eduardo Chillida
Francis Bacon
Anish Kapoor
Ai Weiwei
Antonio Caro
Isamu Noguchi
Olafur Eliasson
William Kentridge
Richard Long
Isidoro Valcárcel
Marc Quinn
Edmund de Waal
Michal Rovner
Cai Guo-Qiang
Richard Tuttle
Anselm Kiefer
Maya Lin
The history of Ivorypress in the founder’s own words
Ivorypress began in 1996, inside of Elena Ochoa Foster’s small study in London with little more than a phone and a computer. Since then, it has expanded into a multipurpose structure open to the public in Madrid that includes an artists’ books collection of over 500 titles, a publishing house, archives, exhibition spaces, workspaces, bookshop and that has served as a venue for over fifty exhibitions and hosted over a hundred public conferences and debates, educational colloquia, artist talks and book presentations.
Over the past twenty-five years, Ivorypress’s main project has been the careful production of artists’ books, for which Ochoa Foster has worked with over sixteen artists, including Maya Lin, William Kentridge, Michal Rovner, and Edmund de Waal, to facilitate their creation of unique editions.
The Ivorypress exhibition space
Calle del Aviador Zorita, 46-48, 28020 Madrid
Teléfono: +34 914 49 09 61
[email protected]