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Amaranth Claire Borsuk
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The Book (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) Paperback – Illustrated, May 4, 2018

by Amaranth Borsuk (Author)
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The book as object, as content, as idea, as interface.

What is the book in a digital age? Is it a physical object containing pages encased in covers? Is it a portable device that gives us access to entire libraries? The codex, the book as bound paper sheets, emerged around 150 CE. It was preceded by clay tablets and papyrus scrolls. Are those books? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Amaranth Borsuk considers the history of the book, the future of the book, and the idea of the book. Tracing the interrelationship of form and content in the book's development, she bridges book history, book arts, and electronic literature to expand our definition of an object we thought we knew intimately.

Contrary to the many reports of its death (which has been blamed at various times on newspapers, television, and e-readers), the book is alive. Despite nostalgic paeans to the codex and its printed pages, Borsuk reminds us, the term “book” commonly refers to both medium and content. And the medium has proved to be malleable. Rather than pinning our notion of the book to a single form, Borsuk argues, we should remember its long history of transformation. Considering the book as object, content, idea, and interface, she shows that the physical form of the book has always been the site of experimentation and play. Rather than creating a false dichotomy between print and digital media, we should appreciate their continuities.

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  1. Part of series
    MIT Press Essential Knowledge
  2. Print length
    344 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    The MIT Press
  5. Publication date
    May 4, 2018
  6. Grade level
    10 - 12
  7. Dimensions
    5 x 0.94 x 7 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0262535416
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0262535410
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Editorial Reviews

Review

What distinguishes Borsuk's book are her perspective as an artist and the book's breadth and depth despite its brevity.—Books on Books, 06.07.2018—

The Book will... serve as an excellent introductory textbook for courses on book art or the history of the book. And by virtue of its style and artist's perspective, Borsuk's book will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in this essential technology of civilization and its growing role as a material and focus of art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

—Books on Books—

Borsuk, who combines the expertise and sensibility of a scholar and a book artist, has written a book that provides the reader with a both technically precise and perfectly readable synthesis of our current knowledge on the book, while organizing and structuring this information from a specific point of view that helps find answers to the countless changes of the book in the digital era.

—Leonardo—

Progressing through The Book and the adoption of the codex, one follows the evolving display of printed language and envisions the pedigree of our own pages. This is essential knowledge....Borsuk's fluid prose finds its matched form.

—Ron Slate, On the Seawall—

This is an easy, enjoyable account, the latest in the MIT Essential Knowledge series, which condenses hot topics into pocket-sized volumes.

—Times Literary Supplement—

About the Author

Amaranth Borsuk is Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, where she also teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics. She is the author of Between Page and Screen, a digital pop-up book of poetry, and other hybrid print/digital books.

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Amaranth Claire Borsuk

Amaranth Claire Borsuk

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Amaranth Borsuk is a poet, scholar, and book artist interested in textual materiality across media. Her books of poetry include Pomegranate Eater (Kore Press, 2016); As We Know (Subito, 2014), a collaboration with Andy Fitch that takes the form of an erased and redacted diary; Handiwork (Slope Editions, 2012), selected by Paul Hoover for the 2011 Slope Editions Poetry Prize; Between Page and Screen (Siglio Press, 2012), a book of augmented reality poetry created with Brad Bouse; and Tonal Saw (The Song Cave, 2010), a chapbook-length erasure. Her intermedia project Abra, a collaboration with Kate Durbin and Ian Hatcher, received an Expanded Artists' Books grant from the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago and was released in November 2015 as a limited-edition hand-made book and free iPad and iPhone app. A trade edition was published in 2016 by 1913 Press. Her collaborative digital projects include an erasure bookmarklet, The Deletionist, with Nick Montfort and Jesper Juul, and Whispering Galleries, a site-specific LeapMotion erasure work for the city of New Haven created with Brad Bouse.

Borsuk received her Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California and served as a Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty of the University of Washington, Bothell, where she currently teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics and the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

www.amaranthborsuk.com

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
83 global ratings
The book
2 out of 5 stars
The book
The book came with some kind of sticky residue on top I will try to get it out. If not, I will return the book.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Léo Lee ART
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I am a book artist, so of course I wanted to read this book. However, whether you study the history and making of books, or are just curious about humanity's cultural evolution, of the evolution of books, this book will satisfy. Perhaps because they are ubiquitous, it is easy to forget how paper and books have affected our cultural evolution. If any of you have read "On Paper" by Nicholas Basbanes, this is in a way similar, as it discusses how the book evolved in response to humans and vice-versa. The book is well written, in no way ponderous or affected, and thorough. I was deeply delighted to find it was (finally) printed, and my expectations were met and more.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Sherwin B.
    5.0 out of 5 stars A book for all book lovers! Traces the history of the book from clay tablets to the digital age!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A book for all book lovers. Traces the history of the book from clay tablets to the digital age! The middle portion is devoted to artistic uses of the book form as a basis for creativity. The latter part is devoted to the digital forms books have taken and their possible future.
    The language is clear and a glossary at the back re-inforces the many words related to books and publishing you will learn reading this book. Recto, verso, marginalia and many, many more. I learned more new words from this book than any I've read in a long, long time.
    Recommended with no reservations!
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Arlet Obregon
    2.0 out of 5 stars The book
    Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    The book came with some kind of sticky residue on top I will try to get it out. If not, I will return the book.
    Customer image
    Arlet Obregon
    2.0 out of 5 stars
    The book

    Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2025
    The book came with some kind of sticky residue on top I will try to get it out. If not, I will return the book.
    Images in this review
    Customer imageCustomer imageCustomer image
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  • Jon
    1.0 out of 5 stars Low quality book and audiobook
    Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2025
    Format: Audiobook
    None of the chapters line up with the physical book, Chaper 1 is Chapter 3/4 in the audiobook. I also purchased the physical book and some pages were printed at an angle. A low-quality product, maybe try the kindle version if any.
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Jmh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction for all readers
    Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Well-written intro to history of the book. Perfect for students (especially first chapter) and those interested in the book object.
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  • galloway
    4.0 out of 5 stars L'uomo libro
    Reviewed in Italy on November 15, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Ogni libro è un uomo, ogni uomo è un libro. Impossibile immaginare la Biblioteca dell'Universo. Dovrebbe contenere i libri di tutti i trapassati, i passati, i presenti ed i futuri. Nemmeno Babele potrebbe contenerli.
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  • Darien
    3.0 out of 5 stars Nice piece. Not as fascinating as expected.
    Reviewed in Germany on June 8, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A nice piece to get acquainted with the history and evolution of the book as an interface and concept. It felt a little bit superfluous at points whilst at others it has very interesting information. It was not in my opinion as fascinating as I was hoping for. A good read nonetheless that I would recommend in any case.
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