ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an under-investigated form of Shakespearean appropriation: artists’ books, which can include unique books bound and printed by artists; and altered, sculpted, kinetic, pop-up, or other books that exist not merely as containers for art but as artworks in their own right. Some book artists develop the exquisite, diverse artifacts out of William Shakespeare’s works in order not only to comment upon the form and structure of books and media but also to interpret and reconsider the Shakespearean text through specific qualities of bookness. Book artist Sue Doggett’s “sketchbook” of The Tempest belongs to the category of artists’ books known as “one-of-a-kind” or “unique” hand-made books. The artist’s own lengthy colophon tells that Doggett imagined the shipwreck that opens Shakespeare’s play as fundamental to her understanding of the characters. Storming Shakespeare prominently features paper as an artistic medium — through traditional illustration, through the use of decorative paste-paper and through translucence.
