Since I last wrote about this book project, which now seems to have taken on a life of its own, consuming mine in the process, I have been able to make some more progress and to discuss it with my tutor when we discussed my submission for Assignment 4 (I will post on that separately once we have finalised the feedback). I had made a mock-up of the map (2.25 metres long!) which he quite liked. I have since gone on and created a jpeg version of it, which has allowed me to add type for the stations and other points of note along the route instead of having to write them on by hand, which I fear would have looked a bit too messy.
The prints of the photos have now been made and trimmed to size and I am in the process of adding hinges between them. Once that has been done, I will print and trim to match the sections of the map, then add the covers. Still lots of work to do and I still expect that the result is going to be a maquette from which a final version might, theoretically, be produced professionally, rather than an “artist’s book” in its own right.
On that last note, quite coincidentally there are a couple of brief articles in the latest edition of Printmaking Today (pp 22-23) relating to artists’ concertina form books. (I am not actively making etchings or other prints of my own at the moment, being all-consumed in my spare time by this course, but I still occasionally collect prints so like to keep abreast of what is going on in the wider print world.) I am not entirely sure whether it is reassuring, but at least I am not alone with my struggles, but both show how difficult, and time-consuming a process making such a book is.
With a bit of luck, and not a small amount of further effort, I should be finished soon!
Printmaking Today. Summer 2020. Vol.29, Issue 114
Mark Robinson's OCA Landscape, Place & Environment Blog 