Bookmaking Theory

1. Bookmaking Theory Concepts
2. Bookmaking Theory Techniques
3. Bookmaking Theory Definition
4. Bookmaking Theory Meaning
5. Bookmaking Theme

The unchallenged bible of the publishing industry, Bookmaking is the introduction to editing, design, and production for newcomers, acclaimed as the premier text for students as well as a comprehensive reference for experienced hands. First issued in 1965 and revised in 1979, it has now been thoroughly reorganized and updated to reflect the profound changes in the bookmaking process and in. Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. In probability theory, the sample space (also called sample description space or possibility space ) of an experiment or random trial is the set of all possible outcomes or results of that. Noun a person who makes a business of accepting the bets of others on the outcome of sports contests, especially of horse races. A person who makes books. This theory has been applied to a wide variety of phenomena, including the persistence of irrational beliefs and behaviours (e.g., smoking), the effectiveness of certain persuasion and sales techniques (e.g., asking for a small favour before asking for a big one), and even placebo effects. At the narrow end of this dimension are theories that.

Keith A. Smith (born 1938 in Tipton, Indiana) is an American artist and author. He has taught at the Visual Studies Workshop, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois. He is a recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment of the Arts grant and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. Smith creates books as works of art,^[1] as well as instructional texts on how to make books. Permanent collections which hold works by Smith include the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Center for Creative Photography.

Education and teaching[edit]

Following military service in Vietnam where Smith was a chaplain's assistant for the US Army, Smith attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1963 to 1967. He received a master's degree in Photography in 1968 from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In 1971, Smith returned to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to teach in the printmaking and photography departments at the invitation of Ken Josephson. While continuing to teach, in 1974 Smith became an adjunct faculty member at Visual Studies Workshop, founded by curator and artist Nathan Lyons.

Early recognition and exhibitions[edit]

Keith Smith first met the artist and curator Nathan Lyons while in his second year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Lyons, then head of exhibitions at George Eastman House, included work by Smith in the exhibition “Seeing Photographically” in October 1966.

Also in 1966, Smith met John Szarkowski at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Szarkowski was impressed by the young artist and purchased a photograph and photo-etching for the Museum's collection. Smith was included in several group exhibitions at the Museum in the early 1970s: “Photography: New Acquisitions” in 1970,^[2] and “Unique/Multiple: Sculpture/Photographs” in 1973.^[3]

Smith's first solo exhibition “Photographs by Keith Smith” was held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1968, while Smith was still a student at the School there. The show was organized by the Institute's Curator of Prints and Drawings, Hugh Edwards.^[4]

In 1974, Keith Smith and Sonia Landy Sheridan collaborated on work using the 3M Color-in-Color process to reproduce the human form for the Museum of Modern Art's “Projects” series, which reported on recent developments in art. The pair collaborated on nine new works for the show, including three extremely large pieces up to 47 feet in length. The largest work, a nude figure, was constructed entirely of copies of 8 ½ x 11 inch prints of sections of the model's body enlarged and transferred to fabric.^[5]

Smith's 1966 photo-etching titled “Figure in a Landscape” was included in the landmark 1978 exhibition “Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960” at the Museum of Modern Art. Curated by John Szarkowski, head of the Department of Photography, the show and accompanying catalogue featured the work of artists such as Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Elliott Erwitt, Lee Friedlander, Stephen Shore, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg and Garry Winogrand, among others.^[6]

Artistic practice and bookmaking[edit]

Keith Smith is primarily known for his bookmaking, both as an artist and as a teacher. In addition, Smith is a printmaker, draftsman and photographer. His artwork and books are often unconventional in form, incorporating stitching, cutouts, holes and string, along with text, collage, drawings and prints.^[7]

In Book 95 “Structure of the Visual Book,” Smith said “All living things are in change. The finished book is a corpse. The observer views the remains, but the bookmaker has known the book while it was living and has seen many possibilities not told.”^[8]

Bookmaking Theory Concepts

To date, Smith has created over 280 books, including textbooks on bookmaking theory and techniques, poetry books, and unique artist's books, categorized by the artist as 1-picture books, no-picture books and conceptual books.

Smith emphasizes the “book experience” as the interaction the viewer has with the art object; viewing a book is a time-based experience that changes as the viewer moves through the sequence of the book by turning pages.^[8]

Book Number 1[edit]

Smith created his first book in 1967 while still a student at Art Institute of Chicago. “Book 1” is one-of-a-kind, with 32 photo-etchings and cased-in codex. The images in the book came from photographs Smith took during his commutes on buses and trains in the Chicago area, influenced by the subway photographs of Walker Evans.^[8]

Book Number 200[edit]

“Book 200” was written by the artist as an annotated bibliography documenting his previous 199 books. “Book 200” includes many examples from one-of-a-kind books that may not be seen elsewhere (other than the original), along with illustrations and photographs from the whole of Smith's bookmaking practice to that date.^[8]

Textbooks[edit]

Smith has written eight books on book theory and bookmaking techniques: Structure of the Visual Book;^[9] Text in the Book Format;^[10] Bookbinding for Book Artists;^[11] five volumes of Non-Adhesive Binding: Books without Paste or Glue; 1- 2- & 3-Section Sewings; Exposed Spine Sewings; Smith's Sewing Single Sheets;^[12] and Quick Leather Bindings. These books are standard texts for book artists.

Recent exhibitions[edit]

Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, presented a solo exhibition by Smith titled “Book by Book” in 2011.^[13] A second exhibition at the gallery in 2013 presented Smith's early photo-based works alongside prints and collages.^[14] In 2014, Smith's exhibition “Book by Book: 2nd Edition” was presented at the Printed Matter NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1.^[15] His work was also included in the Morgan Library's exhibition 'A Collective Invention: Photographs at Play'.^[16] In 2018, the retrospective exhibition Keith Smith at Home was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.^[17]

References[edit]

1. ^'Books As Aesthetic Objects: The Collection: Jaffe Center for Book Arts'. Library.fau.edu. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
2. ^'MoMA 1970 Press Release'(PDF). moma.org. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
3. ^'MoMA 1973 Press Release'(PDF). moma.org. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
4. ^'Art Institute of Chicago 1968 Exhibition History'. artic.com. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
5. ^'PROJECTS: SONIA LANDY SHERIDAN AND KEITH SMITH'(PDF). The Museum of Modern Art. 1974-06-05. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
6. ^'MoMA, 'Mirrors and Windows''(PDF). moma.org. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
7. ^'Bruce Silverstein Gallery - Keith Smith, 2013'. Brucesilverstein.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
8. ^ ^abcdSmith, Keith A. (2000), Two hundred books by Keith Smith: book number 200, an anecdotal bibliography, Keith Smith Books, ISBN978-0-9637682-7-8
9. ^Smith, Keith A. (1984), Structure of the visual book, Visual Studies Workshop Press, ISBN978-0-89822-036-0
10. ^Smith, Keith A. (2004), Text in the book format (3 ed.), Keith Smith Books, ISBN978-0-9740764-1-6
11. ^Smith, Keith A.; Jordan, Fred A. (1998), Sewn and pasted cloth or leather bookbinding for book artists requiring no special tools or equipment, Keith Smith Books, ISBN978-0-9637682-5-4
12. ^Smith, Keith A. (2001), Smith's sewing single sheets, Keith Smith Books, ISBN978-0-9637682-8-5
13. ^'Bruce Silverstein Gallery - Keith Smith: Book by Book, 2011'. Brucesilverstein.com. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
14. ^'Bruce Silverstein Gallery - Keith Smith, 2013'. Brucesilverstein.com. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
15. ^'New York Art Book Fair, 2014'. e-flux.com. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
16. ^'Morgan Library 'A Collective Invention''. hyperallergic.com. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
17. ^'Philadelphia Museum of Art - Exhibitions - Keith Smith at Home'. www.philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-08-28.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe three dimensions along which theories in psychology vary.
2. Give examples of several different types of theories in psychology.

Researchers in psychology have found that many different types of theories can help them to organize phenomena, predict what will happen in new situations, and generate new research. It is important for beginning researchers to be aware of the different types so that they recognize theories when they see them in the research literature. (They are not always clearly labeled as “theories.”) It is also important for them to see that some types of theories are well within their ability to understand, use, and even construct. In this section, we look at the variety of psychological theories in terms of three important dimensions: formality, scope, and theoretical approach.

Psychological theories vary widely in their —the extent to which the components of the theory and the relationships among them are specified clearly and in detail. At the informal end of this dimension are theories that consist of simple verbal descriptions of a few important components and relationships. The habituation theory of expressive-writing effects on health is relatively informal in this sense. So is the drive theory of social facilitation and inhibition. At the more precise, formal end of this dimension are theories that are expressed in terms of mathematical equations or computer programs.

Formal Theories in PsychologyPeople who are not familiar with scientific psychology are sometimes surprised to learn that psychological theories can take the form of mathematical equations and computer programs. The following formal theories are among the best known and most successful in the field.

Bookmaking Theory Techniques

• . A comprehensive theory of human cognition that is akin to a programming language, within which more specific models can be created. See more about ACT-R.
• . A formal theory of decision making under uncertainty. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics based in part on prospect theory, which he developed with Amos Tversky. Read about Kahneman’s Nobel Prize work.
• . A theory of classical conditioning that features an equation describing how the strength of the association between unconditioned and conditioned stimuli changes when the two are paired. For more on this formal theory—including an interactive version: The Rescorla-Wagner Model of Classical Conditioning.

Both informal and formal theories have their place in psychological research. Informal theories tend to be easier to create and to understand but less precise in their predictions, which can make them more difficult to test. They are especially appropriate, however, in the early stages of research when the phenomena of interest have not yet been described in detail. Formal theories tend to be more difficult to create and to understand—sometimes requiring a certain amount of mathematical or computer programming background—but they also tend to be more precise in their predictions and therefore easier to test. They are especially appropriate in the later stages of research when the phenomena of interest have been described in detail.

Theories in psychology also vary widely in their —the number and diversity of the phenomena they explain or interpret. Many early psychological theories were extremely broad in that they attempted to interpret essentially all human behaviour. Freud and his followers, for example, applied his theory not only to understanding psychological disorders but also to slips of the tongue and other everyday errors, dreaming, sexuality, art, politics, and even civilization itself (Fine, 1979)^[1].

Such theories have fallen out of favour in scientific psychology, however, because they tend to be imprecise and difficult to test. In addition, they have not been particularly successful at organizing or predicting the range and complexity of human behaviour at the level of detail that scientific researchers usually seek. These large theories that attempt to explain everything often end up being vague and can seldom make specific predictions.

Still, contemporary theories in psychology can vary in their scope. At the broad end of this dimension are theories that apply to many diverse phenomena. For example, cognitive dissonance theory proposed by Leon Festinger in 1956 assumes that when people hold inconsistent beliefs, this duality creates mental discomfort that they are motivated to reduce by changing one or both of the beliefs. This theory has been applied to a wide variety of phenomena, including the persistence of irrational beliefs and behaviours (e.g., smoking), the effectiveness of certain persuasion and sales techniques (e.g., asking for a small favour before asking for a big one), and even placebo effects. At the narrow end of this dimension are theories that apply to a small number of closely related phenomena. Consider, for example, a very specific quantitative ability called subitizing. This refers to people’s ability to quickly and accurately perceive the number of objects in a scene without counting them—as long as the number is four or fewer. Several theories have been proposed to explain subitizing. Among them is the idea that small numbers of objects are associated with easily recognizable patterns. For example, people know immediately that there are three objects in a scene because the three objects tend to form a “triangle” and it is this pattern that is quickly perceived (Logan & Sbrodoff, 2003)^[2].

As with informal and formal theories, both broad and narrow theories have their place in psychological research. Broad theories organize more phenomena but tend to be less formal and less precise in their predictions. Narrow theories organize fewer phenomena but tend to be more formal and more precise in their predictions.

Bookmaking Theory Definition

In addition to varying in formality and scope, theories in psychology vary widely in the kinds of theoretical ideas they are constructed from. We will refer to this fundamental aspect as their .

Bookmaking Theory Meaning

explain psychological phenomena in terms of their function or purpose. For example, one prominent theory of repeated self-injury (e.g., cutting) is that people do it because it produces a short-term reduction in the intensity of negative emotions that they are feeling (Tantam & Huband, 2009)^[3].Note that this theory does not focus on how this reduction happens, but on the function of self-injury for the people who engage in it. Theories from the perspective of evolutionary psychology also tend to be functional—assuming that human behaviour has evolved to solve specific adaptive problems faced by our distant ancestors. Consider the phenomenon of sex differences in human mating strategies (Buss & Schmitt, 1993)^[4].

Men are somewhat more likely than women to seek short-term partners and to value physical attractiveness over material resources in a mate. Women are somewhat more likely than men to seek long-term partners and to value material resources over physical attractiveness in a mate. But why? The standard evolutionary theory holds that because the male investment in becoming a parent is relatively small, men reproduce more successfully by seeking several short-term partners who are young and healthy (which is signaled by physical attractiveness). But because the female investment in becoming a parent is quite large, women reproduce more successfully by seeking a long-term partner who has resources to contribute to raising the child.

, on the other hand, focus on specific variables, structures, and processes, and how they interact to produce the phenomena. These types of theories involve identifying a mechanism or explanation for the phenomenon and providing context for when or how intense the phenomenon happens. The drive theory of social facilitation and inhibition and the multistore model of human memory are mechanistic theories in this sense. Figure 4.3 represents another example—a contemporary cognitive theory of hypochondriasis—an extreme form of health anxiety in which people misinterpret ordinary bodily symptoms (e.g., headaches) as signs of a serious illness (e.g., a brain tumor; Williams, 2004)^[5]. This theory specifies several key variables and the relationships among them. Specifically, people who are high in the personality trait of neuroticism (also called negative emotionality) start to pay excessive attention to negative health information—especially if they have had a significant illness experience as a child (e.g., a seriously ill parent). This attention to negative health information then leads to health anxiety and hypochondriasis, especially among people who are low in effortful control, which is the ability to shift attention away from negative thoughts and feelings.

Mechanistic theories can also be expressed in terms of biological structures and processes. With advances in genetics and neuroscience, such theories are becoming increasingly common in psychology and research is often criticized when it is does not contain a mechanism. For example, researchers are currently constructing and testing theories that specify the brain structures associated with the storage and rehearsal of information in the short-term store, the transfer of information to the long-term store, and so on. Theories of psychological disorders are also increasingly likely to focus on biological mechanisms. Schizophrenia, for example, has been explained in terms of several biological theories, including theories that focus on genetics, neurotransmitters, brain structures, and even prenatal exposure to infections. If functional theories provide the “why”, then mechanistic theories provide the “how”.

Finally, there are also theoretical approaches that provide organization without necessarily providing a functional or mechanistic explanation. These include , which specify a series of stages that people pass through as they develop or adapt to their environment. Famous stage theories include Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. A distinguishing factor of stage theories is that as people pass through the stages, they integrate their outcomes from previous stages to help them succeed in the next stage. In stage theories, progressing forward or stopping is the only option, because stage theories do not allow for reverting to previous stages. provide organization by categorizing people or behaviour into distinct types. These include theories that identify several basic emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust), several distinct types of intelligence (e.g., spatial, linguistic, mathematical, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal), and distinct types of personalities (e.g., Type A vs. Type B). Unlike stage theories, people do not progress through the typologies in any order or at all.

Researchers in psychology have found that there is a place for all these theoretical approaches. In fact, multiple approaches are probably necessary to provide a complete understanding of any set of phenomena. A complete understanding of emotions, for example, is likely to require identifying the basic emotions that people experience, explaining why we have those emotions, and describing how those emotions work in terms of underlying psychological and biological variables, structures, and processes.

• Theories in psychology vary widely in terms of their formality, scope, and theoretical approach. The different types of theories all play important roles in psychological research.

Bookmaking Theme

Exercises

1. Practice: Find an empirical research report in a professional journal, identify a theory that the researchers present, and then describe the theory in terms of its formality (informal vs. formal), scope (broad vs. narrow), and theoretical approach (functional, mechanistic, etc.).
2. Discussion: Do you think there will ever be a single theory that explains all psychological disorders? Why or why not?

1. Fine, R. (1979). A history of psychoanalysis. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ↵
2. Logan, G. D., & Sbrodoff, N. J. (2003). Subitizing and similarity: Toward a pattern-matching theory of enumeration. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 676–682. ↵
3. Tantam, D., & Huband, N. (2009). Understanding repeated self-injury: A multidisciplinary approach. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ↵
4. Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: A contextual evolutionary analysis of human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204–232. ↵
5. Williams, P. G. (2004). The psychopathology of self-assessed health: A cognitive approach to health anxiety and hypochondriasis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 629–644. ↵