BOOKVILLE

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:54:00 +0000

LO-FI PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTION SPECIALIST

we publish stuff we love
we promote people we love
we can help you make things and make things happen
contact us with your ideas, manifestos & proposals

------------------------------------------------------------

Testimonials

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Jo Ray - artist

Bookville embodies a genuine, rigorous and intellectual and practical application of Inclusion, creativity, challenging debate, freedom of expression and inquiry. I have experienced the work of Bookville as a participant in their 2005 residency ‘Publishathon’ at Hull Art Lab, and in a professional context when I invited them to visit and speak to students at Hull School of Art and Design. Maggie and Graeme are incredibly adept at making a space for creativity, drawing on their wealth of professional experience, artistic understanding, and intuition. These skills have been continually evidenced not only in the radical tranformation of venues into thriving centres of activity, but in the transformation of groups and individuals who become involved with them in whatever context. The infectious energy provided by Maggie and Graeme is a powerful catalyst. But as well as the inspiration they provide, it’s the tools they pass on to others, the underlying ethos and the continued praxis, that ensures the legacy of any Bookville initiative is long lived. I understand their work as essential research into sustainable modes of being and making.

Mark Pembrey - artist, writer & curator

Bookville is a very exciting thing. When I came across Graeme and Maggie’s first Bookville base, just after it opened on High Bridge Street in Newcastle Upon Tyne, there was already a whole load of stuff happening: bookmaking, live music, poetry, storytelling, creative workshops…something just about every day for just about everyone. It was that sheer volume of things going on that made you feel like this was somewhere where things were happening, and somewhere where you could get involved. People came from all over to hang out and share the things that excited them. It’s often hard to find an artist-led space – or anywhere – that can make people feel like they can really do that. Soon the ‘stop thinking, start doing’ ethos became infectious. I still see traces of its influence around Newcastle today, and as it moves and changes shape I’m sure it’ll continue to infect in a pleasing way. Bookville, to me, is about fast-paced and high-energy creativity as a catalyst for great things, and as a great thing in itself. It should serve as an inspiration to all artists and artist-led spaces. Projects like Bookville help make things possible, but also they help people realise that things are possible – things like making great art and having a really good time. Everything.

James Johnson Perkins, artist

Bookville is a concept (curated by Graeme Walker and Maggie Tran) which stretches the boundaries of a conventional bookshop by mixing it up with various artspaces and helping artists with DIY publishing. At Bookville when it was on High Bridge St in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, audiences were treated to countless happenings and events including: Book making, performance days, local bands, poetry readings, exhibitions and various other actions. These events: entertained, enchanted and dazzled

Bookville’s famous slogan is ‘Stop thinking, start doing, so visitors were actively and directly encouraged to get involved, either by organising something themselves or by joining in with other events. It was one of those magical places where spontaneous things happened and it inspired a host of artists to think for themselves and try things out. So books were burnt, there was an upside down man, people were serenaded by love poetry and like all special places like this, treasure was found.

Christopher Manson - photographer

Bookville was born after the Waygood Gallery appropriated the old hairdresser's building on High Bridge street for the purpose of spontaneous and compulsive art happenings. As a gallery and bookshop, Bookville exhibited work from emerging and accomplished artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and more. As a workspace, Bookville attracted savvy image and performance makers and invites them to engage in a new dialogue with the gallery space. The intention of Bookville was clear: to make art and the practice of art accessible to all. In this, it respectfully succeeded.

Technical Support

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:54:00 +0000

This page will contain details of our areas of expertise and what technical support we offer and to which organisations.

Available Equipment

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:53:00 +0000

This page will contain a list of specialist equipment available for hire/tuition.

Who We Are

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:15:00 +0000

Bookville was established by Graeme Walker in 2004 and was soon joined by Maggie Tran. We are both artists and have worked with hundreds of people since then, all of whom have been intensely involved in various capacities: artists, writers, musicians, technicians, poets, film-makers, publishers and more.

Graeme's Website Maggie's Website

Bookville on the move

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Bookville is currently working on developing a new and exciting programme of mobile projects, ranging from a wheeled suitcase to converting a truck or van into a performance/project space.

DIY 5

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Graeme joined in Mat Robins workshop for DIY5 & offered to host a mini-workshop for the other participants, much in the style of the Paper Basics workshop for Before Writing. It included much paper folding and A4 theory, including:

8 page folded book
12 page booklet (aka The Bookville Speciale)
Wallet/Envelope
Box/Bowl
Fortune Teller
CD Case
"Slip-Through" binding

28 July 2008 - New Look Website Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:03:00 +0000

Bookville has had as many websites as years, this being our 4th of both. What's nice about this one is that it uses the blogger framework to help us manage all the different things we do and organise them better. If anyone needs help with similar web work, get in touch.

Other News...
Times are changing. Bookville has run a long course. We've never compromised or held back from experimentation. In about mid-2007 we stopped for a year to get on with our own art practices which was very nice and now we're at a cross-roads where we have to decide where we want to go with it.

Ever since we finished on High Bridge we've rumoured of a mobile project space, but have since, for various reasons and conflicting priorities have never quite managed the gumption to get it on the road. But last week, after a good meeting with Arts Admin we decided that it was all or nothing - either give up BV and make something new happen, or make it mobile. We're pretty positive and have started to work towards making it happen. We've got a truck on kind of time-share possibly and somewhere to work on it. It'll be a while before we get it off the ground, but sooner or later travel is going to become a large part of what we do.

Watch this space...

Nov 2007, Bookville Q&A, Hull College of Art

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:57:00 +0000

We were invited by Jo Ray, who we met at the Bookville Publishathon in 2006 to give a seminar at Hull College within the art department where she was working. Instead of the usual method of delivery: talk about what we do, talk about what we've done, Q&A session etc. we decided to talk about what we do through questions alone. This allowed the audience to ask us anything that they felt was relevant, rather than us assuming what they might find interesting. This also gave the session a more informal feel and although it was difficult for some of the audience to understand our approach, some very useful questions were asked which forced us to consider our position on the spot. It also gave us the opportunity to ask questions back to the audience, which is an unusual approach and yielded some interesting thoughts and developments.

Following the session we invited the audience for participation in a tour of the college, looking for resources that would have otherwise been hidden. With Jo as our member of staff and about 3 or 4 student participants, we set off and discovered a hidden recording studio. We also joined in a lecture from another class. Following this we traversed the whole site, looking for more obscure resources. We found some excellent facilities in the theatre and had a very interesting conversation with science lab technician.

Below are some photos of the seminar in progress and the poster advertising the session.

Project History

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:04:00 +0000

May 2008 - Before Writing, Phoenix Arts, Brighton

November 2007 - Questions & Answers, Hull College

November 2006 - April 2007, Bookville at Bravo!

June 2006 , The Publishathon

May 2006, Bartstore

December 2005 – November 2006 - Research project, The Netherlands

January 2006, BV!

November 2005, Bookville vs Hector and Glen

August 2005, Creamola Foam

37 Long Headlam, Newcastle

37 Highbridge, Newcastle, February – May 2005

May 2008, Before Writing Workshops @ Phoenix Arts, Brighton

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:56:00 +0000

A series of three workshops introducing low-budget, practical techniques for creating the vehicles through which an idea can be published, or “made public”. Emphasis will be on the underlying forms, materials, structures and processes necessary to effectively
disseminate an idea.

I: PAPER BASICS
An opportunity to explore the fundamental properties of paper, and how this knowledge can be applied to various published forms such as books, zines and brochures. Learn cutting and tearing techniques and different forms of binding that enable you to transform a single sheet of A0 paper into a small notebook, which can then be filled with ideas.
Sunday 18 May, 1 - 5 pm, £5 / 3 concessions

II: WEBLISHING FOR ARTISTS
A workshop for artists who want to create an online portfolio and to explore the potential of the internet for their work. Using internet programmes such as blogger, deli.cio.usand upcoming, participants will broaden their internet horizons and discover ways of marketing their work effectively and cheaply. Participants must bring along a wireless enabled laptop with Firefox internet browser installed, and a Google account.
Sunday 25 May, 1 - 5 pm, £5 / 3 concessions

III: PERFORMANCE SPACE & SURFACES
A unique opportunity for anyone interested in performance using the urban landscape as a blank canvas. The workshop leaders will guide participants on a trail through Brighton, leading exercises that will open the possibilities for using everyday spaces for interventions and publishing performance ideas. Bring wet weather clothes if raining.
Sunday 1 June, 1 - 5 pm, £5 / 3 concessions

download booking form here

Paper Basics Workshop

Links
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PIJXUobhOY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_ratio
http://www.petercallesen.com/index/A4PAPERCUT_000.htm
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/guides/paperplanes/0,,,00.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-book-16-pages.-Just-one-piece-of-paper./
http://greggman.com/japan/origami-bowl/origami-bowl.htm
http://japanese.magnify.net/item/QLB1TPGTJ24TN0T7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh1W15BWCUk
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/professional/reference/paperweight.php
http://www.wikihow.com/Fold-Paper-Into-a-Secret-Note-Square
http://www.hewit.com/sd10-pape.htm
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=88962&d=18&m=11&y=2006
http://www.graemedawes.co.uk/
http://home.clara.net/brianp/paper.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foolscap
http://sandesh247.blogspot.com/2006/12/a4-for-origami.html
http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/a4.htm
http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/thok/sqbronze.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper
http://www.zinebook.com/resource/zinetips.html
http://www.rock-paper.com/
http://www.ruthbeale.net/pamphlet.htm

please send me any other interesting links to add to this list.

Weblishing Workshop

Links

http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/
I Hate The Internet...
327 Words: I Hate the Internet
RSS tutorial: building and using a feed, step by step.
"Interview With Experts: What's so cool about del.icio.us?" from The Business Blog at Intuitive.com
Pulsed: Blogger vs. Wordpress.com Comparison Chart
Network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
31 Days to Building a Better Blog
Firefox Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts
Social network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What Happened To The Personal Web Site
Blogs as Blogs or Websites?
Top 10 Template Generators for Blogs and Websites

Performance Spaces Workshop

It doesn't matter what I say
Or where I stand
Or what configuration this room takes;
Or how these objects are arranged
There's still these four walls
There's still a floor and a ceiling
You're still sat there watching me, full of expectation
Perhaps you expect me to be boring
Or perhaps you expect me to do something Crazy!
Like turn up the volume really loud!
It doesn't make a difference if I use the megaphone or not
It doesn't matter if I am sat on the chair
or stood on it
You will always be the audience
I will be the performer
This is the space in which we get together
And stay apart
The space rules us
It frames us, specifies who we are, what we do and how we are understood
We are in the realm of the usual
We are able to anticipate everything
Where is the truth in that?
How is that like real life?
It is not! That's how.

* * *

You walk into a room
Inside the room is an object
You recognise the object as art
You see that it has been placed thoughtfully in the space
This gives you the notion that the space itself is part of the work
You notice how the space has been lit and see how critical it is to how the work is viewed
You start to recognise that there are other elements that contribute to the work:
The quality of the air;
The reflective properties of the paint on the wall;
The sound of your own footsteps as they enter the room
It is clear that the artwork has been placed in a space whose acoustics do not interfere with the work
Therefore, you conclude, they must be part of it

You ask, how can you possibly not be as much a part of an artwork as the artwork itself?
It is possible when in the room to close your eyes -
so as to not see the differences between yourself and what surrounds you -
and consider yourself as essential to the completion of the work
And does this not remain so when you leave the room?
Is it not possible to close your eyes at any time and retain this position?
Perhaps you close your eyes before seeing the work
Perhaps you choose not to go
Perhaps you are not even aware of the existence of such an artwork
You ask yourself, what then?
How far is it possible to extend the meaning of a work? That is to say, it's material and spatial meaning and not necessarily the ideas it tries to embody?
How might that influence the ideas you make, as an artist?

Nov 2006 - Spring 2007, Bookville @ Bravo!, Rotterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:52:00 +0000

At this time Bookville resided on an island in the Maas river, Rotterdam. We cooked food, played music & showed some films.

Graeme, together with Laurens & Evert began an improv outfit called Oink, moo & baa. Recordings were made, gigs played - culminating at Bravo! in April, accompanying Charles Chaplin, old Pete Greenaway shorts & a Vigo.

Painter Jay van Buren and his Furry Paint-Off

Film Screening: The Fairground Trilogy by Adrin Neatrour

June 2006, The Bookville Publishathon

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:07:00 +0000

From a chance meeting with an artists group from Hull [Hull Art Lab], we developed a two week long project in their warehouse space, aiming to make as much work public as possible in the time we had – a total of 87 by the end of the fortnight.

HULL ART LAB, 53 HUMBER ST, HULL

PROGRAMME

JUNE
16
Bookville [Graeme Walker + Maggie Tran] arrives and starts making a mess.

17
P.I.Y [publish it yourself] workshop no.1 - A4 paper, thoughts and technical exercises for underground lo-fi publishers. 1-5pm. Bring your publishing ideas and problems to the surgery after the session is over. Drop in to the Publishathon or give us an email [info@bookville.co.uk or info@hullartlab.org] to get more info and sign up. 10 free places available.

18
Quiet Day. We're going to have sunday dinner.

19
Photocopier is here, scanners on their way! We're making messages in bottles. I wanted to make messages on helium balloons but it's too expensive [here's you chance to donate, you party people!]. I'm also making soap boxes for people to stand on and rant about things - catch those soon in Hull town centre...

20
PPP [play, publish, perform] workshop no.1 - A three day intensive workshop focusing on performance as publishing, culminating in performing and publishing directly to the public. It is recommended that participants attend all three days for the full effect. Drop in to the Publishathon or give us an email [info@bookville.co.uk or info@hullartlab.org] to get more info and sign up. 12 free places available.

21
PPP Workshop no.2

22
PPP Workshop no.3

23
Richard Hall, the 3rd member of Bookville is arriving to contribute to the chaos!
Zine Editorial, bring your ideas for a simultaneous web + paper zine publishing day on Friday the 30th June. We're going to sit round the table from 12pm onwards, drink coffee and decide what's going to happen.

24
P.I.Y workshop no.2 - Publishing, set up your own weblog, learn how to put different kinds of books together and how to put the pages in the right position. This is going to be quite a long day, starting at 10am, so we suggest bringing your own lunch.
Exploding Alphabets + Nothing Happens Here - An evening of freeform rants, improv, performance, noise, poetry, soundscapes and cups of tea. Get up and join in. No old work please. Lo/No-tech preferred... from 7pm.

25
Meet up with us at Hull Art Lab between 12 and 12:30 and come along to Ye Olde Black Boy pub for publishing, Interventions and nice, greasy food. If you ever thought a beermat was just there to put your glass on, turn up and be amazed... [probably]

26
Stencil making today I think. Bring in clothes and any spare spray paint you've got and we'll spend the afternoon pimping you up!

27
Adam Thomas and friends from Exploding Alphabets will descend upon us for an action packed event of spoken word, poetry and an almost inconceivable amount of etc in a night called ALL THE WAY! Time to be confirmed...

28
Rotterdam based project The Bart Store [http://bartstore.blogspot.com] have been gived a brief to come up with an art event to be broadcast over the world wide web. We're going to project their work live in the Publishathon space via Skype [free phone calls] and a webcam. Time to be confirmed...

29
An evening of artists film and video. Co-Curated with Slack Video. 9pm at The Lamp, Norfolk St.

30
The result of the editorial where the you will bring along the finished ideas for publishing. If you didn't make the Editorial check the weblog, keep in touch and come along anyway.

JULY
01
P.I.Y workshop no.3 - Binding, we're going to try perfect binding seeing as though we've got about 5 gallons of glue. I'm also going to show you how to sew books up in 3 or 4 different ways and talk about other kinds of binding and finishing. These workshops will culminate in the revealing of the secrets of the BOOKVILLE SPECIAL! Book your place now to avoid any feelings of being left out. From 10am.
Camping and BBQ in the space. Bring your tent along if you haven't already and spend the night eating burnt food and singing scout songs! From 6pm. Carnivores, omnivores and herbivores welcome to contribute their own ingredients. You can also make things, if you fancy it.

02
Massive publishing frenzy! + exhausted people drinking coffee and nursing their aching noggins.
As if all these events and workshops are not enough to get your creative juices flowing, other stuff includes; clothes- stencilling, tea-drinking, music- listening, idea-sharing, hanging-out, discussions and anything else we feel like at the time... especially making your own books and contributing them to The Marathon!
The Publishathon is open from 1pm unless otherwise stated. Please note that the programme will probably change [I think we will keep adding things]. All events are free. If you can, please donate any spare materials and shrapnel you have to the cause! In the time you've read this programme another publication has been made in Hull's biggest publishing marathon ever!

16.06.06

On the 16th there were still hundreds of speakers in the space from the last exhibition. We soon sorted it out, Bookville style into a beautiful work station.

17.06.06

Today [17th] was the first session of the PUBLISH IT YOURSELF workshop, which covered understanding paper qualities, in particular A4 paper. See the links to the right for both A4 paper and Publishing It Yourself.

18.06.06

Today was a quiet day. Last night I camped in the space, along with the spiders who took this photo. If anyone is coming and wants to bring a tent, feel free!

Hull Art Lab's Espen Jensen. With circular saw.

19.06.06

Bookville working late into the night!

20.06.06

Today was the first day of Maggie's Play, Perform and Publish workshop. See outline above.

PLAY, PUBLISH, PERFORM OUTLINE

21.06.06

The second day of Maggie's PPP workshop is totally happening! Participants did video performances in my tent then got blindfolded and led out into town. They've not come back yet...

22.06.06

TODAY was the final day of Maggie's PPP workshop. In the end only two participants saw it through to the end. Derek read poems out as his performance and then I asked him the following questions:

Why do you throw your poems to the floor when you've finished reading them?
Why do you move so awkwardly when you read?
Why did you read so many? [he read about 25+]
Why do you not make eye contact with your listeners?
Why do you smile when you are reading out a serious poem?
What distracts you when you read?
What moves you?

These questions came from observing him read. We had quite a long session on the microphone where he answered everything thoughtfully. I then gave him half an hour in solitude to reflect and then present us a single poem of his choosing. Which he did.

Jo is yet to do her performance, but spent much of the day making the props required to make it happen - cardboard hides. Hull awaits with anticipation...

Alexander

Some views of the space this evening - the Publication shelf is filling up nicely, the speaker's corner is totally pimped up and ready for Nothing Happens Here on Saturday and at the bottom - the table... awaiting the zine editorial tomorrow.

Publishing Jam

I will be making 6lbs of "Homemade" marmalade in the space. What I need from you is home made labels and jars. Please come and take it away and give it to your friends.

Last Night...

At first things were going normally...

Maggie was busy on the typewriter...

For a long, long time

and at 5:23 AM, she enthusiastically took this photo [below] of yours truly

so I took one back.

23.06.06

Zine editorial today. Jo also carried on with her hide making [see 22.06.06]. The sun came out so we basked and I made certificates for everyone who felt.

Ladies and gentlemen, Richard Hall has arrived!

Print it out NOW!

24.06.06

Day 2 of the P.I.Y workshop - making a 16 page A6 book [photocopied + stapled] from scratch.

R. Hall at work converting the entire warehouse door in a chalk piece.

Busy, busy people - the publishathon publication count is now at 52!!

Nothing Happens Here - we heard poems, performances + semi-improv music. Exploding Alphabets has moved to Tuesday when Adamski + friends is coming from E/A in Newcastle for All The Way!

25.06.06

We spent 8 hours in the pub today for the Pub-foodathon! We ate salty snacks and made hundreds of labels for the pub's bottle collection. We decorated the toilets with post-it notes and afterwards, we burnt all the leftovers.

The Publishathon Playlist

What we're listening to - thanx to da Pseudonics

Devo - I'm a potato, Wesley Willis - The chicken cow, John Dolce - Shaddap you face, Kevin Blechdom - Binaca, Clem Snide - Weird, Elbow - Independent woman 1, The Ukranians - Anarchy in the UK, Lilliput - Die mat rosen, YMO - Tighten up [japanese gentlemen stand up please], Peter Sellers - She loves you, Melanie - Brand new key, The Waitresses - I know what boys like, Captain Beefheart - I love you, you big dummy, Cookie Monster - Cookie song, Baba Yaaga - Back in the ussr, Josephine Baker - Don't you touch my tomatoes, Pipilotti Rist - I like tv, The s2 key verbeek fairground orchestra - All my lovin, Steve Harley & The Cockney Rebel - Mr soft, Joanie Sommers - Johnny get angry, Kiki & Herb - I'm not waiting, Kevin Ayers - Hat, Brain Eno - Driving me backwards, Fiona Apple - Waltz [Better than fire], The Foundations - Build me up buttercup.

26.06.06

We write Monday 26th June, 6:48pm and the rain has again started tapping on the Hull Art Lab asbestos roof. William Harris is singing his 'Bullfrog Blues' and I am quietly contemplating the last 9 days of Bookville mayhem - well, not so much mayhem as controlled frenzy. The days come and go way too quick - 5pm is when we shut our gates to the public. By then we've been open 5 hours solid, but it feels more like 20 minutes - that's how much fun this project is! We started last Saturday, and courtesy of some peeps from ARC across the road, we had a few glasses of wine to celebrate! Nice! As one of the organisers, I have mostly kept to the sidelines during the workshops, but at every (frequent) tea/coffee-break the vibe is one of enthusiastic excitement amongst all the participants, and the conversations invariably consist of; "This is sooo cool - I cannot believe I haven't been to HAL before!" and "The Publishathon is such a great idea! I've been wanting something like this to happen for years!" which makes me go all warm and fuzzy inside... We've had impromtu in-house-performances, bookmaking, street-performances, badge-making, stencilling, film-screenings, improv-music, and more besides which escapes my rattled brain presently... Yesterday we spent the best part of 8 hours in the Black Boy Pub, creating a cartoon about the liberated Sea Trout, labelling about 130 bottels of beer, eating pickled eggs/crisps/nuts and generally, inadvertently, entertaining the other patrons of the establishment - and we still got up bright and early this morning to come back to HAL.. I know what the rest of the Publishathon is supposed to consist of - I've seen the programme - but I am certain I will have many a beautiful surprise yet courtesy of the Bookville-crew. Tomorrow (Tuesday) it is time for Exploding Alphabets - an evening of performance-ness, and on Thursday we trundle off to the Lamp for an evening of artist's short-films and video, and I've heard talk of a sleep-over and barbeque in HAL on Saturday..! This just gets better by the minute! That's it for the time being - I'll bother you again tomorrow with more thoughts/ideas/stuff & stuff - Over And Out!
Espen

Check out Hull Daily Mail, who've written stuff on us today and Pick Me Up online magazine, which has covered us several times and is basically great.
Jo's hides [below] are finally ready to go out in to the town centre tomorrow - the culmination of her work for the PPP workshop & I made t-shirts also [bottom].

27.06.06

Jo takes her hide around town and observes the people of Hull.

Then later on this evening we had Adam and Rory down from Exploding Alphabets for ALL THE WAY. And boy did we go all the way! We weren't sure what was going to happen, but we ended up going to Espen's house to get some instruments and we jammed the night away until 3 in the morning, with intermittent performances and readings thrown in for good measure.

28.06.06

Today we connected with The Bart Store in Rotterdam via the internet. They presented us with two pieces of work - an animation and a performance to video. It was painfully techno-illogical, but wonderful when we got it to work. The Bart Store is run by Nina Boas and Hester van Spijk and you can visit their blog here.

Adam Thomas, below, at work and with his book.

I heart tapes

The Bookville Publishathon mixtape - featuring on side 1: Adam [keys], Rory [guit], Espen [ars], Graeme [hitting things] and Yol [shouting] and on side 2: Jez [machine, glock + tinkling] and Maggie [tinkling also]. We're doing a first edition inc. handmade flyer booklet, sticker, badge with tape in envelope. It goes up to 10 and you can get a free one by sending Hull Art Lab a SAE. If we run out, we'll keep making the tape only, so that's what you might get if you're slow!

29 & 30.06.06

It's been a quiet couple of days. People have been engaged in quiet activity, perhaps awaiting tomorrow's madness. Jo's been out with her hides again, this time on the pier. I made some more stencils. We had a film night last night. Some nice books were made. We haven't had anything nicked yet, but we have been waking up in the space to the merry sound of JCBs destroying the neighbourhood. Tomorrow is the big, calamitous culmination day. People are going to camp. I'm going to make marmalade. There's going to be a BBQ [!] and we'll all Kum ba Yah and Green Grow the Rushes. Join us, in this, the final weekend, before we're gone and Hull is but a distant memory!

PROGRAMME: Sunrise (1min) Graeme Walker, Driving Success (2mins) Keith Bianchi, Another Language I Can't Speak (6mins) Neil Ira Needleman, Microphone Transitions : Mic, Brick, Mirror (1min) Jason Dee, Paper Cuts (1min) Wayne Wolton, Library (3mins) Tim Main, For Sol (2mins) Jemma Hutchins, While You Are Waiting II - Brew (0mins) Gary McKeown & Andrew Quinn, Battleship Untouchable (5mins) Graeme Walker, Piano Short (1min) Bob Levene, Process Climax (3mins) Stefanie Wyke & Chris Gladwin, Terminator (2mins) Graeme Walker, My First Film Noire (7mins) Neil Ira Needleman, Microphone Transitions : Mic Spray Can (1min) Jason Dee, Spoilsbury Toast Boy -2 (5mins) David Firth, Trailer Truths (2mins) Erica Scourti, Strawba The Greek (1min) Ray White, Decay (3mins) Pete McPartlan, A Silent Epidemic (3mins) Vidar Evensen, Coffeeshop Hell (4mins) Matt Sandbrook, While You Are Waiting IV - Phonebox (0mins) Gary McKeown & Andrew Quinn, Pointless (1min) Wayne Wolton, Scrr Scrr Twang Ting Scrr (2mins) Jemma Hutchins, The One and The Many (4mins) Andre Silva, Death of an Orchestra (4mins) Snake Beings, Microphone Transitions : Mic Extension (2mins) Jason Dee. Going Dutch (27mins) Stefan Gray. Total 98mins approx. That's it. Thanks to Slack Video, HAL, JJP and Artpleasure.

01.07.06

Today was the final PIY workshop, which focussed on binding. I'm going to publish as many of the techniques I've described on the PIY weblogas I can. In the evening we had a campfire, sang songs, dressed up in twigs and burnt the England flag [I'll try to get the video of this for the BV website]. It was beautiful.

Panoramathon

Published & reclaimed

We reclaimed England last night by burning the St George Flag. It didn't really burn, but melted into a lump [pictured]. I also reclaimed St George's day from the fascists last April 29th in the form of a Mummer's play, performed in the woods in Rotterdam. The lump is goint to be put in a box, which people can look at.

Today is the last day! Thanx to everyone who did things here. People are still doing things as I write this and hopefully, people will still be doing things after we've gone.

January 2006, BV! - The Bookville Catalogue

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Published at the end of January, our small book is a catalogue of all the major work we had done to date. Here it is in its entirety. Actual copies are still available, contact us for details.

* * *

These are spare pages from BV! that didn't make it into the final publication

The Bart Store - May 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:59:00 +0000

After arriving in Rotterdam, we made an arrangement with an artist group called De Player to run a space. Working in collaboration with two Dutch artists, who eventually took on the project completely, BART is a not-for-profit sale or return shop, selling artist made multiples, fashions and books for zero commission.

August 2005, Creamola Foam

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Tour of the Scottish Highlands and Outer Hebrides with two portable record players and a big box of records, with the intention of giving the UK’s most remote dj sets.

November 2005, Bookville vs Hector and Glen

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:54:00 +0000

Collaborative project at the London Artist Book Fair 2005, aiming to create rather than sell publications.

Summer 2005, 37 Long Headlam, Newcastle

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:50:00 +0000

After finishing in High Bridge, Bookville reopened in Graeme’s house as a by appointment bookshop selling artist made books.

Everything in boxes after moving out of Highbridge

The space in my house after we opened shop.

Feb - May 2005, High Bridge, Newcastle

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Waygood provided Bookville with a space in a disused hairdressers for four months. Primarily conceived as a bookshop, Bookville put on over 40 events and supported over 100 artists – including live music, workshops, day residencies, exhibitions a week long performance festival, readings and sleepovers. This was supported by both the Waygood Gallery and Arts Council England.

01 FEB BOOKVILLE OPENS

The famous Bookville book cake with crayon candles, by Wendy.

The first exhibition, by Simon Jones, included a series of large prints of closeups of crisps and a collection of objet d'art on two shelves.

Visitors to the shop on the opening night had to make their way through all the red tape.

Before it was Bookville, 37 High Bridge was a hairdressers. This meant a plethora of hair related events, including free haircuts. I did my first ever performance on the opening night where Mags painted my hair then Mat Cowan organised the blighters to turn me upside-down and use me as a human paintbrush!

02 - 05 FEB RUDEBOY NOAH READS ENTIRE MOBY DICK

It took Noah a good three days hard reading to finish the entire of Moby Dick. Read out loud almost to himself in a damp, dank and hairy basement.

03 FEB MAGGIE GETS COMPLETELY WRAPPED UP

Maggie stayed out in the cold all day getting slowly wrapped up in horrible sticky tape, while charvas came in and nicked my camera!

05 FEB POTATO PRINT WORKSHOP

I led a potato print workshop and produced a little book with Mags, James J-P & RudeboyNoah. We made the a little book with odd socks in it called ODD [below].

07 FEB SLUMBER PARTY + GHOST STORIES

One of the coldest nights I can remember. Cold February, cold basement. We did it for my birthday which happened to have Shrove Tuesday after, so it was pancakes for breakfast.

Earlier in the day the charming Hector & Glen [who I later did a gig with at the London Artist's Book Fair] came up from London to see me on my birthday. They left a collage of copies on our wall... [below]

14 FEB VALENTINE'S DAY READINGS & PERFORMANCE

Mags & Debs organised this mix up of reading dirty love poems & performance around a big double bed in the centre of the room. I read out some stuff, as did RudeboyNoah & Alec Finlay. One guy also read out the sweets from an entire pack of love hearts as he ate them, wrote them down and pinned up the poem on the wall.

12 - 18 FEB EUROPEAN ANIMAL

The noble European Animal stepped in at the last minute to fill a gap & what filling they provided! Decorating practically the entire space with an array of curious little characters!

19 FEB BOOKBURNING WITH MAT COWAN

Saturday the 19th of February saw Mat Cowan lead a book burning with a difference.

23 FEB DJ CALLAN

Christopher Smith AKA DJ Callan, brought his protable record player in a few times during Bookville on High Bridge & was the original inspiration for Creamola Foam.

24 FEB JOE SCURFIELD

Rest In Peace Joe. No one came, the bastards - too cold, no beer, probably a bit too weird for some random weekday. But we who were there, well...

25 FEB & 6 MAY JAZZ IN THE SHOP

We invited a Jazz band to come and play in the shop a couple of times during the day while people browsed around and did things. Nice.

26 FEB STORY TELLING WITH GARY CORDINGLEY

Lovely ex-fireman Gary Cordingley was spotted telling stories at the Cumberland Arms and was asked to give a day residency, giving stories to our guests and customers.

27 FEB - 06 MAR INTERNATIONAL WEEK

The Artists arrive: Marieke Haandrikman, Floor Van Slochteren, Nina Boas [NL], Jeff Koh [CA] & Sabrina Basten [DE] all came off the ferry from North Shields. We were joined later in the week by Cian McConn [ROI] who made t-shirts for people.

The Art-Is-Dinner was organised for that Friday and was an opportunity for people to meet the artists and see their work [there were several live pieces, see above].

Jan Voss from Boekie Woekie never made it.

15 MAR A.J.BUMPUS

Andy Bumpus did a residency & exhibition in the space where he produced some beautiful collages, posters and videos. He also did artwork for a book which I helped publish called The Cylinder With Four Million Teeth [below].

16 MAR POETRY VANDALS & BOOK LAUNCH "SIX OF ONE"

The Vandals performed on a couple of occasions, reading both old and new works.

17 MAR NEV CLAY LIVE ON ST PATRICK'S

Nev performed a beautiful gig today to the merry sound of chopping paper. You see, Richard Hall and I had decided to make a little zine, Nev's audience started coming in and then they all suddenly got involved. Afterwards they got to take a little book [see below] home with them - sweet! As I recall Lake Me couldn't make it, so John Egdell played instead with Jennie, which was lush.

25 MAR CREAMOLA FOAM

I got me a portable turntable too & me 'n Callan got together a few times to play sweet records for anyone who wanted to listen. We went on a tour of Scotland in the summer, played for Exploding Alphabets in Morden Tower and have done some gigs seperately. [I did a one for Novellus Castellum, for example & check some pics below of Chris's solo gig at the Cumberland Arms].

26 MAR & 02 APR DEBBIE BOWER & MAT FLEMING ARE MAKING A FILM

Debs & Mat came into the space on consecutive weekends to help people make some short 8mm B&W films.

27 MAR EASTER DAY TREASURE HUNT

The idea was simple enough... Mags and I made a little book called EGG about a little chicken who comes out of it's shell. All the pages were hidden around the space and contenders had to find all the different pages in order to make up the complete book. An alternative egg hunt you see!

29 MAR STEVEN LOWERY

Steve put up an impressive exhibition of drawings on yellow paper that more or less filled the space. He also made a couple of books with us [see below]. We also tried to have a jam as our old band Sock! but, as per usual, it ended in complete chaos [probably on purpose].

Steve's Publications

31 MAR BOOKVILLE HOSTAGE SERVICE

Strangely, no one took us up on this offer...

01 APR GEORGE J PEMLID "ALOSA AESTIVALIS"

A beautiful and quiet performance by shy George at Newcastle City Swimming Baths.

04 APR PILLOW + AMATEUR DRAMATICS + GREENSPACE

Pillow

Amateur Dramatics

& Greenspace

12 - 16 APR JAMES JOHNSON-PERKINS

James did a wicked residency day and exhibition of new prints all using a gadget to turn normal photos into zx-spectrum graphics. Click here to check out his website.

17 APR BOOKVILLE AT TYNEMOUTH MARKET

Me, Mags & Chris set up a funny stall at the crusty Tynemouth Bookfair. M did crazy portraits dressed up as "French" woman & Chris & I played records, made books & badges.

22 APR LACHRYMOSE ONE + TEARS OF ABRAHAM

Grunge-pop gruffness from Lach1 followed by Babreham's deep reverberations.

Lachrymose One

Tears of Abraham

23 APR THE BRIGHTON LINESMEN ON ST GEORGE'S DAY

Linesmen Rory & Larry came all the way up from Brighton to do a huge drawing for the space. It was exhibited with pride. Click here to go to the Linemen site.

The drawing... [about 3 X 2 metres]

30 APR - 01 MAY BOOKVILLE AT THE GREEN FESTIVAL

Creamola Foam made the usual stunning appearance with the badge machine, while Mags read people's Art Tarot in a grotty tent. It was a perfect weekend.

07 MAY FLORENTINA MEI MEI WHITE

Equestrian art-nut Florentina spent the day dominating myself & Richard Hall, poor boy. She left this strangely awful picture of a horse behind.

10 MAY NEILL SHEASBY

Neill positioned this extraordinarily heavy concrete shopping trolley by our front door. I believe it's still there.

13 MAY 3 POETS

Alec Finlay, Paula Cunningham & Ira Lightman gave a quiet poetry reading in the upstairs part of the shop.

14 MAY COLLEEN CHEN

Calligraphy master Colleen Chen painted the symbols for "Book & Village" for us & gave us a lesson in Chinese writing.

Book Ville

16 - 20 MAY MEANWHILE... PERFORMANCE WEEK

Mat Cowan was our butler on Monday

On Tuesday Carol Luby reconstructed Pieta as a Tableaux Vivant, Mat Giraud's Upside Down Man & Bridie Jackson's Sketch Night in the evening.

Wednesday had Topsy galavanting down the Waygood's old back alley in Love Me Avenue, Howard Laing's painting Tango & Patrick Snape in the evening.
Topsy

Howard

Patrick

The Newcastle Music Department descended on the basement on Thursday with a free improv night.

First thing on Friday was Hannah Paronage's Come Dancing to tape recorded instructions...

Then the first ever Exploding Alphabets!

21 MAY GAMES WORKSHOP WITH ILANA MITCHELL

Ilana utilised Bookville's chequered floor to develop some curious games for our customers.

24 - 27 MAY DAVID HAILS GRAF PROJECT

BV logo by Dave Hails

Hails spent all week spraying up the joint with a massive eyeball & tentacle piece...

26 MAY IMPROV NIGHT II WITH GUESSMEN

The Newcastle Music Dept. posse came back the week after their first outing to Bookville and sorted us out with an amazing gig including improv work from Guessmen & Will Scrimshaw.

28 MAY RUDEBOY NOAH PREACHING NARNIA

The Rudeboy spake the truth at Newcastle's monument.

31 MAY BOOKVILLE CLOSES - THE BIG BOOKVILLE BASEMENT BASH BONANZA

This was the night to end it all. It was crazy, beautiful and intense. I opened the door at 12 O'clock and let people take away free things while Creamola played records. At about 3PM the music started and carried on into the witching hour. A wicked way to go out & on to new things...

A Woman of No Importance - a sweet paired down set with wine glasses...

Greenspace

Lachrymose One

Nev Clay

Tears of Abraham dj'd throughout

Eagle Owl [I recall the fella on the right wearing the best knitted jumper I have ever seen]

Chippewa Falls

Field Music

Dressed in Wires hurt everyone's ears with his wicked crunchy scary and sometimes droll glitchcorepainthrashtrashhorror. Famously, he took a Barbie spaceship upon his head and ran through the crown with a wild look in his eye straight into the toilet door - a move repeated [remarkably] at the Distraction Weekender the following summer.

Ex Beta Band member Steve Mason AKA King Biscuit Time finished off with a DJ set.

Splendid visuals were provided by Debs & Mat

TOUR OF THE SHOP

BOOKVILLE IN THE PRESS

Get Rhythm Magazine

The Crack Magazine

A-N Magazine

BBC Radio North East & Cumbria

Newcastle Journal Culture Magazine

Published in the Artist's Book Year Book 2005-7

Contact Us

noreply@blogger.com (Graeme Walker) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:54:00 +0000

info[at]bookville.co.uk

Bookville
C/O The Werks
45 Church Road
Hove
BN3 2BE
Google Map | Multimap
Telephone: Graeme +44 (0)7952065556