In 2002, thebookmann worked on a collaborative book exhibition with Canadian artist Jamelie Hassan called Caribbean Books. At the time, she inquired if whether any of the work from the project were online.There were none. This, thebookmann website and blog is the genesis of that very question.
Jamelie Hassan met Richard Bolai in Trinidad during her Canada Arts Council residency at Caribbean Contemporary Arts, CCA7, Trinidad. She recalled that while attending a lecture that he asked an important question on copyright and this began a series of connections revealing that they had previously met in Toronto where he had lived for some years while studying at the Ontario College of Art.
We had moved in the same contemporary art circles in Canada and had many people, places and books in common. Our mutual attention to books became the basis for our collaboration….
Caribbean Books involved the transformation of Ms. Hassan’s original photographs of a bookshop in Tobago as five handmade books. Also, a series of ceramic books accompanied ten coloured books with the pages sized and fixed with a coloued dye. The first exhibit was held in Trinidad 2002, then the show traveled to London, Ontario in 2003.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Alias: the – book – man(n) coined to Richard Bolai (bookbinder) by Peter Minshall
