The Art Newspaper

Books that go where the iPad cannot (yet)

There are more than 1,000 titles on sale at Frieze this year. But how many art books will there be in the future?

By Anny Shaw. From Frieze daily edition
Published online: 14 October 2011

Browsing time: König Books at Frieze

Almost 50 years after Roland Barthes declared the death of the author, publishers are facing the possibility of the death of the book. Franz König, who has had a book store at Frieze Art Fair since its inception in 2003, says that the printed book is still big business, although he acknowledges that he has had to adapt to the transition from analogue to digital, particularly over the past two years.

“The trading landscape has changed,” says König. “The biggest pressure comes not so much from digital publishing, but from internet selling—prices and margins are under pressure. The recommended retail price (RRP) doesn’t really exist any more; only specialist books are still sold at full price. In our stores and at Frieze, general books sold at reduced prices are flagged up with ‘fair price’ stickers.”

At Frieze this year, König is stocking around 1,000 titles, from “grey literature” (books without an ISBN number) to more mainstream publications. General art books are priced between £5 and £500 and rare books are priced “far beyond that”. To coincide with the Gerhard Richter retrospective at Tate Modern, which opened last week (until 8 January 2012), König is selling several rare books by the artist, including two limited editions—Eis (edition of 90, each cover individually painted, published by Galleria Pieroni) and Sinbad (edition of 800, published by Walther König; 18 come with an original painting from Richter’s 2010 “Abdullah” series).

Books like these are “complex objects”, says König. “They often require more skill to create than a work of art. They are also permanent records, unlike temporary exhibitions.” König is confident that the Richter books, including the Tate’s exhibition catalogue, will prove popular at the fair.

An emphasis on the book as a finely crafted object is one tack publishers are taking in the face of stiff competition from eBooks, which are faring well largely thanks to the meteoric rise of the iPad. According to figures recently released by the American Association of Publishers, eBook sales rose from $181.3m in the first half of 2010 to $473.8m in the same period this year—an increase of 161%. Julius Wiedemann, the director of digital publications at Taschen, says publishers are focusing much more on the design of books: “Now you have to think about how to use all the properties that print gives you that you can’t get online.” The way to compete is “not to compete but to create something completely different”, he adds.

If publishers are focusing on form and design to bolster sales, they are increasingly looking to the internet to distribute content. Although Taschen is known for publishing large-scale, sumptuously designed art books, it has also tapped into the iPad market, and in December 2010 released its first app—the architectural monograph Yes Is More—on iTunes. The digital version of the book, which focuses on the Danish architectural practice, the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), features 25 videos and 360-degree images of their exhibitions. Taschen plans to release seven more titles as apps—including Architecture Now! 7, Art Now! 3 and Caravaggio—by the end of this year. According to Wiedemann, however, publishers often struggle to break even with apps, which are costly to produce. As König says: “Digital publications are always add-ons because digital revenue alone is not yet sufficient to create original content.”

Like Taschen, Phaidon is straddling the analogue-digital divide by continuing to produce weighty coffee-table books while also developing its online operations with a new-look website. Phaidon’s latest art book, The Art Museum, a 7kg, 992-page tome, which is being published this week to coincide with Frieze and is on sale at König’s store for £83.47 (RRP £125), offers readers huge colour reproductions of works. Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time, 1994-97, is reproduced on a double-page spread, for example. Amanda Renshaw, an editorial director at Phaidon, says: “You wouldn’t be able to view works of art at this quality on a computer screen.”

Art fairs and book fairs such as the Whitechapel Gallery’s London Art Book Fair, which focuses on art historical books, artists’ books and exhibition catalogues from the public and private sectors (next edition 21-23 September 2012), provide excellent opportunities for readers to physically handle books. “Art books are distinctive because their reproduction and materiality are two key components,” says Iwona Blazwick, the director of the Whitechapel. “I do not believe they will ever go digital. When all these technologies keep moving on, the book will abide.” For the first time, the Whitechapel has a presence at Frieze this year, having formed a consortium with fellow non-profit organisations (the Camden Arts Centre, Chisenhale Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Serpentine Gallery and Studio Voltaire). They share a stand (next to R4), which has been donated by Frieze, where they are selling works “in the tradition of limited editions and multiples”, priced between £75 and £4,000. Profits will return to the individual organisations.

Wiedemann says fairs are the perfect place to show titles. “Because a lot of books are now bought online, without the object in front of you, it’s hard to convince people of their value,” he says. “We are always thinking about how we can get people in contact with the books, and fairs are a great platform for that.” A sample copy of Taschen’s monograph on Mark Ryden, due to be published next month, is on display at Paul Kasmin’s stand (G2), alongside Ryden’s painting The Meat Shop, 2011.

It is not only publishers who are having to respond to the changing landscape of the industry. This month, Swedish furniture company Ikea is rolling out a new version of its “Billy” bookcase with deeper shelves, designed to hold coffee-table books and objects rather than the humble paperback. Ikea says the bookshelf can be configured to “cater for all books”, but the redesigning of this ubiquitous piece of furniture signals a shift in consumer tastes. König, like many publishers, is adamant the book will prevail. “A change in medium doesn’t happen overnight,” he says. “Books have evolved over a very long time. They are a perfect package whose 500-year-old tradition can’t just be cut off.”