Version 7.1Mon 16 Jun
2008
The Art of Japanese Books on Art
Whenever it is that I’ll finally get an opportunity to make it to Japan, I plan to take with me a copy of “Art Space Tokyo,” an unexpectedly stunning bit of cultural travelogue from Chin Music Press. It’s a beautiful — and I mean gorgeous — guide to “twelve of Tokyo?’s most distinctive galleries and museums,” written in English, lovingly edited by Ashley Rawlings and masterfully designed and curated by a friend of mine, Craig Mod of Hitotoki fame.
Pagemakers
The book is a tour of the nooks and crannies of Tokyo’s art world, going behind the scenes with twelve significant galleries within the city limits. But to my mind, it easily qualifies as a work of art of its own. The cover, a simple ink-drawn map of the city by Mod, was delicately silkscreened and stretched across the hardback cover. It feels quite luxurious and sparing at once, and it gives that very visceral, tactile satisfaction that only painstakingly printed and bound books can.
