Philip B Zimmermann

Interests

No activities entered.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Zimmermann, P. B. (2017). Landscapes of the Late Anthropocene. Chicago. IL and Tucson AZ.: Journal of Artists Books through the Center for Book and Paper at Columbia College Chicago, and Spaceheater Editions..
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2014). Incident in Deseret. Tucson, AZ: Spaceheater Editions.
  More info

  On January 5th, 2014, seven book artists were in Salt Lake City to attend the national conference of the College Book Art Association at the University of Utah. A Nissan Armada SUV was rented and the group traveled to Robert Smithson's canonic land-art piece The Spiral Jetty, about an hour or two out of town in the nearby great Salt Lake. To commemorate the visit, it was decided that each of us who were there that day would create a book with the Spiral Jetty as theme, and complete it within one year –or earlier if possible. The only restriction would be that all books in the series would conform to a common dimension, 8 inches by 8 inches. Incident at Deseret is my contribution. The other participants are Clifton Meador, Karen Zimmermann, Robbin Ami Silverberg, April Sheridan, Daniel Mellis and Elisabeth Long. I am fascinated by faith, and how so many religious people throughout the world are able to ignore what many would think of as logical thinking in order to make the leap to belief. In some ways, I admire that ability as it suggests a certain innocence and magical thinking that I am not able to summon up. The danger is when those folks start to think that they are the only people in the world able to communicate with god and travel the true path to heaven. I think of the location of the Spiral Jetty and Salt Lake itself as ground-zero for the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Mormon faith. Although my book uses terminology that comes from the LDS belief (picked due to the location of the Spiral Jetty) I could have just as easily have used nomenclature from any number of other world religions. Stylistically, I think of this book as the meeting of Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville with The Book of Mormon. Deseret is the original Mormon name for Utah and was originally comprised of a large section of the American West that included not only Utah (and the Great Salt Lake where the Spiral Jetty is) but also large portions of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Brigham Young's petitions to the US Congress to recognize this huge new state were turned down numerous times and eventually became what is now the current, much smaller, state of Utah. Deseret was also a language and an alphabet system that was developed but never widely used during the 19th century by the Mormons. The title also gives a little nod to a classic western book that I was impressed with when I read it in high school, The Ox-bow Incident and another book (and famous short film) called An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge.
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2013). Paradise Lost: An Allegory. Spaceheater Editions.
  More info

  The title and subject of this book is inspired by John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. It is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Paradise Lost is interesting to me because it makes real human characters (with strong personalities) of Adam and Eve as well as God and Satan. All are very human, with strengths and foibles. As an atheist, the story as a whole seems laughable to me. But it also seems to serve as a strong metaphor for the human condition and the weaknesses and greed that we all as humans share. Although to some it might seem a peculiar stretch, it is not hard to my mind to make the connections that explain our blindness to the causes changing the climate of our precious planetary home, Earth. This list of factors include greed, complacency, jealousy: the list goes on and on. The editors of the Norton Anthology of English Literature write, “Milton’s Paradise Lost is ultimately about the human condition, the Fall that caused ‘all our woe,’ and the promise and means of restoration. It is also about knowing and choosing, about free will.” The original is in a form of antiquated English, which I changed to a more contemporary English, using both the original and various “plain English” translations as well as my own rewriting of a number of lines. This book was created under the guidelines for a show proposed by Barb Tetenbaum and Julie Chen using an aleatoric system of Barb Tetenbaum’s devising. They (Chen and Tetenbaum) asked a number of artists to each create a book for a show in February 2013 at the Seager-Gray Gallery in Mill Valley CA called Ideation by Chance. The premise for the show proposed that each artist would have a series of cards drawn for them from a deck that Tetenbaum had devised. The cards showed categories of content and structure in bookart, and each artist had to create their book for the show using the results of the cards drawn for them. I use the fall from grace (caused by a failure of free will) as an allegory for the environmental rape and destruction of Earth. In my book there are three sections, much reduced from Milton’s twelve. In the first section, Adam’s voice is heard in dialog with Eve in the garden. In the second section the Snake convinces Adam and Eve to use their free will and partake of the forbidden fruit. The quest for ‘knowledge’ mentioned in that section can be taken a number of ways. In the final and third section God speaks: there are consequences for the human fall from grace and resulting destruction of the Garden. At the end there is a final cautionary coda which predicts an unhappy ending for mankind but restoration for Eden. While in Hawaii during December 2012, I could not help but notice some of the unhappy results that ever-increasing human populations were making on the ecosystems of Oahu. While there, hurricane Sandy struck the northeastern seaboard creating the largest amount of property damage ever made by a storm on the North American continent. Both of these events were in my thoughts while working on ideas for the book. I wanted to have the book feel a little like a brightly colored fruit, tempting and chromatically luscious on the outside, with a beige meaty inside, with slightly ‘off ’ colors. The drawings inset into the foliage are, on the one side, a sequence signifying evolution and refuting the Adam and Eve narrative, and on the other lush tropical side, a compendium of destructive devices to the environment.
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2012). 1000 Artists Books: Exploring the Book as Art. Quarry Books.
  More info

  Sandra Salamony and Peterv&vDonna Thomas
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2011). Cruising Altitude. Spaceheater Editions.
  More info

  none
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2009). Sanctus Sonorensis (artists' book). Spaceheater Editions, Tucson AZ.
  More info

  none
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2009). Shelter (artists' book). Spaceheater Editions, Tucson AZ.
  More info

  none
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2008). 500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form. Lark Books, Division of Sterling Publishers, New York, London.
  More info

  Edited book;

Proceedings Publications

• Zimmermann, P. B. (2015, January). Presentation on Ed Ruscha's Twentysix Gas Stations and then Interview with Ed Ruscha himself.. In College Book Art Association (CBAA), Scripps College, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA.

Presentations

• Zimmermann, P. B. (2015, October). "Educating Designers About Using Visual Narrative as Writers, Authors, and Makers of Books.". AIGA National Conference, New Orleans, LA. Hyatt Regency, New Orleans, LA: AIGA National.
  More info

  Powerpoint presentation at a session on visual narrative for designers, moderated by Ned Drew, Professor of Design at Rurgers University.
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2012, Spring). Printing Technologies Used in the Production of Artists' Books and How They Have Affected the Use of Photographic Imagery.. College Book Art Association National Conference, Mills College, Oakland CA. Mills College, Oakland, CA.
  More info

  Individual Presenter
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2011, Spring). Sanctus Sonorensis. Visiting Artist Lecture to design area at SAIC.. School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
  More info

  Individual Presenter
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2011, Summer). Pacing as Meditation. 2011 MCBA. Minnesota Center for Book Art, Minneapolis, MN.
  More info

  Individual Presenter
• Zimmermann, P. B. (2009, Spring). Photobook as Pedagogic Space. The National Conference of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE).. Dallas, TX.
  More info

  Panel Speaker

Creative Works

• featured in article; Wellesley College; October 2010; Wellesley Magazine; This article is about artists' books from the Special Collections of Wellesley College in Wellesley MA.
• [represented in article]; American Print Alliance; October 2008; Contemporary Impressions; This appeared in the Fall-Winter 2008 edition, Volume 16, #2, of the journal Contemporary Impressions: The Journal of the American Print Allinace. The article in which I am written about and which include images of my work is called End of a Chapter: Photo-Offset Artists' Books, by Tony White, head of the Fine Arts Library at the University of Indiana. My work and I are mentioned and illustrated on every page of the article.
• The Incredible Shrinking Studio; journal print; Center for Book and Paper at Columbia College Chicago; November 2014; JAB The Journal of Artists' Books; This was one of about 11 contributions for a special JAB issue on Artists in Studios.
• Illustrations and book design of artists' book; Spaceheater Editions; June 2012; Ojalá; 114-page digital artists' book with hand bound covers... Leon de la Rosa wrote the text. It's about life on the border in the time of the narcoterrorrists. We hope that there will be a larger different edition published by the University of Arizona Press.
• Photobook Criticism; Book of collected criticism; Conveyor Books and Indie Photobook Library; July 2015; Collected book of essays on Photobooks.
• Incident at Deseret (Deluxe editioned version); print; Spaceheater Editions; January 2015; This is a deluxe limited editionof a book that was published originally in the summer of 2014. It looks quite different.
• Reaper; print; Spaceheater Editions; February 2015; See
• Lecture on my work at PhotoAlliance Book Symposium | San Francisco Art Institute; Powerpoint presentation; February 2015; -; Talk on Friday, February 6th at San Francisco Art Institute and participant on panel at the PhotoAlliance Book Symposium on Saturday Feb. 7th at San Francisco Art Institute.
• Eyes Wide Open and Fingers Crossed: Production and Distribution Problems with Large-Editioned Artists’ Books; Peter Verheyen and the Editorial Board of The Bonefolder, Universuty of Syracuse.; February 2011; The Bonefolder: an e-journal for the bookbinder and book artist.; Here is the beginning of the article:"There exists today, as there has for many years, continuingproblems with the economics of production and distributionof large-edition artists’ books. The industrial revolutionallowed the creation of large numbers of books at relativelylow cost, and there have been fortunes made on the saleof popular book titles. But the production and sale ofmore esoteric art book titles has always been problematicfinancially. The same issues that bedeviled Dick Higgins’Something Else Press when he was publishing his Fluxusbooks in the sixties still continues today. Higgins soldSomething Else Press, after having published dozens of titleswhile he subsidized it with his own considerable wealth,because the financial drain started to become too onerous.After the sale, when the press had to actually stand on itsown without the aid of Higgins’ money, it promptly wentbankrupt, The economics that Something Else Press facedthen are still pretty much the same. I would like to addressthe knotty problems faced by artists’ books that are part ofthe tradition of larger (usually offset) editions rather thansmall, numbered, “fine press” editions, and I would like touse a recent title of mine, Sanctus Sonorensis, as a model andexample of these difficulties...."
• Celsius 233; print and video.; Spaceheater Editions; August 2015
• Cruising Altitude Diptych; Offset lithography; Never Mind the Press, Berkeley, CA; April 2013; *82 Review; I made a special section entitled Cruising Altitude Diptych for the periodical *82 review, Issue 1.2, published Spring 2013 by Alisa Golden, Never Mind the Press, in Berkeley, CA 94707.
• [ Included in text and image]; Center for Book Arts, New York, NY; April 2008; Show catalogue for Mapping Correspondences show; Included in the catalogue for the show Mapping Correspondence, Mail Art in the 21st Century
• Report From the Other Side; HP Indigo.; Spaceheater Editions; REPORT FROM THE OTHER SIDE by Philip Zimmermann is a contemplation of the human impulses behind building barriers and fences separating different peoples and cultures. What follows is much of the text from the book: "Years ago, when I lived in New Mexico for a period of time, there was a small blue-collar town named Westway only a few miles away, across the state border in Texas. Westway is a predominantly Mexican-American residential settlement of 4,200 that grew up organically over the last twenty years around a large commercial truck-stop along I-10. It lies only about three quarters of a mile from the Rio Grande and about nine miles from the Mexican border.  Westway fascinated me. The houses there were almost always owner-built and added onto slowly as the residents had money and time. The structures often grew naturally around a trailer or expanded and grew from a simple “starter” cinder-block structure. Eventually some added elaborate second stories, often built of recycled, returned or reclaimed materials. Like everything built in Westway, the homes had a wonderful, quirky, D.I.Y. quality. One thing that was common to all of the houses were the significant surrounding walls and fences. Even the most modest and humble homes had at the minimum chain-link fences, while larger homes had major steel, wood or stone fortifications around the house. Sometimes the walls and fences were the first things constructed on the perimeter of a lot, even before the house was built. Many homes had pit-bulls and other dogs behind those walls and fences, growling or barking at passersby. The owners would not be concerned with blocking scenic views with the walls, there really isn’t much of a view in Westway to block: it’s dusty and dry scrub desert along an interstate highway. Though these were not wealthy folks (there are almost no paved roads in Westway) they took great pride in their homes. But why were such extensive and often elaborate fence and wall systems built? Is it because they stood for strength, law and order, security…were they reassuring? Was there a clear danger from neighbors or outsiders to themselves and their property? I looked up police blotter reports for the area and there did not seem to be much crime at all, certainly not any more significant violence or theft than in any other nearby community. It could be that the lack of a local police force makes them feel insecure, or that they feel that because their neighbors are as poor as they are that there is a higher chance of burglaries or car theft. However, like most walls and fences around property, it would not at all be hard to breach these barriers. So the walls and fences that are erected are really not so much about protection of their possessions, but a mental protection from the harsh world out there. Westway inhabitants are not wealthy, and security may be one thing they feel that they can make for themselves (and own) by building the walls and fences that separate them from the cruel, cold, harsh world out there. As a Dr. Costica Bradatan wrote in 2011 in a New York Times opinion article, anxieties and fears are the real reasons for walls and fences. He argues that “they are built not for those who live outside them, threatening as they may be, but for those who dwell within. In a certain sense, then, what is built is not a wall, but a state of mind….With walls come mental comfort, tranquility and even a vague promise of happiness. Their sheer presence is a guarantee that, after all, there is order and discipline in the world.” So, does Robert Frost’s homey New England proverb, “good fences make good neighbors”, hold true? Is it only to give the builders a certain sense of security? There are those that think a wall, in addition to giving a potentially false sense of real security, is also a provocation… Just an hour’s drive south of where I live now in Tucson, Arizona, many billions of dollars have been appropriated and spent by politicians in the last ten years to build a 21 foot high steel and concrete fence. It will eventually run all the way from the Pacific Ocean at San Diego to the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville. This came about through House Resolution 6061 (H.R.6061) “The Secure Fence Act of 2006”, which was introduced on September 13, 2006. It passed through the U.S House of Representatives on September 14, 2006 with a vote of 283–138. The money that was appropriated to accomplish this fence has been depleted and the State of Arizona has a voluntary donation program for citizens to contribute to a pool that would go towards helping with the costs of completing this enormous fence. If completed it would be about half the length (almost 2,000 miles) of the Great Wall of China (just under 4,000 miles). It is certainly far more costly and a more impressive engineering feat than another famous wall, the Berlin Wall, which was only 103 miles long and only 12 feet high. The irony is that although we as a country have spent such vast amounts of money on the fence sections that have been built, it really is not that effective. Thousands climb over weekly using ladders, tunnels, ropes, car ramps, and pure acrobatic climbing skills. It is clear that the wall is mostly an extremely expensive  political and psychological construct rather than a truly effective deterrent to keeping drug smugglers and immigrants out of the United States. Are the walls and fences at Westway partially a status-symbol? Many inhabitants of Westway, with no building codes, certainly vie with their neighbors for glitzy details and height. Our Mexican border wall also has something of that: seeing the intimidating steel height of our border fence says something about how we feel about our supposed superiority as a country and our status as a desirable place where all of humanity wants to be, in effect making us a huge gated community. To make things even more complicated, we are now entering the drone era, where for a few hundred dollars, a drone with a camera can be sent up and the resulting video image shown on a smart phone. A sense of privacy that walls and fences give is really just an illusion. Arizona is one of the national centers for drone technology and they are getting cheaper, larger, and more sophisticated all the time. As is already done in the reverse, will cheap drones allow drug smugglers and the coyotes that take immigrants over the border to spot border patrol and other surveillance personnel or equipment? It cannot be far away that drone technology will be converted back to very inexpensive manned flight. Already drones are carrying much more than cameras or even the predator missiles used in Pakistan, they are carrying crop dusting chemicals and all sorts of other heavy loads. This development indicates then that we are heading into a time that border walls will be even less of an effective deterrent to passage and far more symbolic than anything else. So our costly border fence, still years and many more billions of dollars away from completion, is really more about politics and the sense and appearance of security rather than actual security. Dr. Bradatan, who teaches at Texas Tech University, (in another border state) also writes that “Once a wall has been erected, it acquires a life of its own and structures people’s lives according to its own rules. It gives them meaning and a new sense of direction. All those walled off now have a purpose: to find themselves, by whatever means it takes, on the other side of the wall.” He argues: “After all, history itself may be nothing more than an endless grand-scale game where some build walls only for others to tear them down; the better the former become at wall-building the braver the latter get at wall-tearing. The sharpening of these skills must be what we call progress.” This book is only available from MagCloud as a print-on-demand book. The book is $24.95 as a perfect-bound book at .