Project Leaders : Nathalie Collé, Monica Latham
This project aims at tracing evolutions in the production, transmission and reception of books, texts and images over time and across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. It also seeks to examine the practices which have been developing in response to the acceleration of textual and visual production and exchange provoked by electronic media. The project’s combined attention to book history, textual scholarship and visual studies means that it is positioned to make a unique contribution in these fields, since other research bodies have tended to study book history, textual scholarship and images of all types separately (eg. SHARP and the London Rare Books School with their focus on Book History; the European Society for Textual Scholarship and the Center for Textual Studies at De Montfort University with their focus on Textual scholarship; and Illustration Research with their focus on Illustration).
IDEA has already gained a considerable reputation for its work in these areas, through the various international conferences and symposiums it has organised and the many books it has published on the subjects over the past years, notably in its Book Practices & Textual Itineraries collection. In the process, it has contibuted to establishing a network of scholars and practitioners who convene regularly to discuss the above-mentioned issues and share research projects and results as well as professional projects and practices.
Goals & Output
The first basic goal of this project is to establish IDEA as one of the research-centres of reference in France and Europe for subjects that require dialogue between book historians and textual and visual scholars. The second is to facilitate international dialogue on these subjects, not only among scholars but also between them and book, text and image practitioners and professionals from France, Europe and the English-speaking world.
The project leaders have been editing and publishing a whole series of volumes in the Book Practices & Textual Itineraries collection published at the PUN - EDULOR (see the Publications section on our website). BPTI has been seeking to secure partnerships with other scholars and institutions, so as to increase the visibility of the publication and to share the editorial tasks it involves.
The project leaders have been organising international conferences and symposiums designed to promote dialogue between textual and visual scholars, book historians and illustration specialists and practitioners on a regular basis, in Nancy and in Metz, and also with partner universities in Dijon, Mulhouse and Valenciennes in particular, as well as in the UK, Canada and the USA.
Publication
In 2011, ITL instigated a peer-reviewed, bi-lingual (English and French) and illustrated book collection devoted to questions relating to book history, textual scholarship and visual studies, Book Practices & Textual Itineraries, now Book Page Text Image. 13 volumes have been published so far and 2 are in the making. Do not hesitate to contact the directors, Nathalie Collé & Monica Latham, for more information on the collection, or to submit book proposals.