Re: [BKARTS] what Wikipedia really needs

[Jules Siegel <jules@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sonja Elen Kisa wrote:
> The Wikipedia needs more articles about bookbinding methods and 
> knowledge, not about artists. (Generally artists will get deleted 
> unless they are quite notable.)
>
> We need a page about [[Coptic binding]] and need to expand [[secret 
> Belgian binding]] and stuff like that. 
As a non-craftsperson, I agree fully, but I also feel that individual 
artists should receive more attention. We have the power to set the 
standards for notability and I feel very strongly that we should 
exercise them. Wikipedia has a well-informed article on book artists, 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_artist>. Interestingly enough it 
doesn't have a page on book arts, although it does have 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists_books>. So there's definitely room 
for your proposal.

I would also like to report that the deletion order has now been 
canceled. Several people (some from Book_Arts-L) urged the Wikipedia 
administrator to keep the article. Although the guidelines discourage 
editing one's own biographical article, I went ahead and added some 
supporting links, arguing that I could get one of my friends to do it in 
my behalf, but how different would that be from doing it myself?

Although the article could use an illustration of one of my works, I 
think that it's now a good model for a brief biographical entry. I 
believe that we should help each other get Wikipedia articles published. 
The most convenient way to do this would be for artists to prepare their 
own draft Wiki bios which would be posted by other artists or 
commentators. Illustrated article on specific techniques can also be 
used to showcase individual artists. I'm not all that well-informed on 
book art online media, so I don't really know if there is a need for 
this sort of space, but I will be happy to join an effort to create one 
if there is.

Many thanks to those who wrote such kind expressions of support. I can 
easily have lived happily ever after without a Wikipedia bio, but I 
believe that we should do our best to resist the suppression of freedom 
of self-expression wherever it occurs. The essence of book art is the 
refusal to submit to official truth control. We create our own media. We 
are the experts in who we are and what we do and we set our own values. 
We defer neither to the curator or the critic or the marketplace. We 
define book art by creating it. With all due respect -- indeed, 
gratitude -- toward the audience, let us never forget that it is our 
show. The alternative is Pravda under Stalin.

--
JULES SIEGEL Apdo. 1764, 77501-Cancun, Q. Roo, Mexico
http://www.cafecancun.com/bookarts

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