Since 2006 artist Banu Cennetoglu has been running BAS as a space for artist’s books and publications to be collected, displayed, produced and distributed.

BAS is building a collection of artist’s books by local and international artists. With a permanent display in the space, the aim is to create an awareness of the medium and to encourage the public to explore printed matter. BAS’s first production project is Bent, a partnership between BAS and artist Philippine Hoegen. To support a local production and generate a discussion on the medium of printed materials, Bent is currently focusing on collaborations with artists from Turkey.

Bent has produced 10 Bent Books by five different Turkish artists / art collectives since it began in May 2006: Bent 001 by Masist GŸl: Pavement Myth The Life of the Pavement’s Wolf (1,2,3,4,5,6), Bent 002 by Aslõ‚ avuolu: Takip Poursuite, Bent 003 by Emre HŸner, Bent 004 by Cevdet Erek: SSS – Shore Scene Soundtrack – Themes and Variations for Carpet and Bent 005 by Atõl Kunst: KILAVUZ.

“An Interrupted History of Punk and Underground Resources in Turkey 1978-1999″ is another important project from BAS. Edited by Sezgin Boynik and Tolga GŸldallõ, published and released by BAS in November 2007, the book researches the development of the Punk and underground movement in Turkey. With interviews with local bands and witnesses of the period, over a hundred visuals and the complementary CD, it is the first extensive source on Punk and its place in Turkey’s recent cultural history.

After running the project for 4 years, BAS realized that knowledge and insight needed to be nourished in order to sustain production and awareness of their projects. The books that are produced and launched are appreciated as pieces in themselves, yet without the context and history of the artist book as a medium, much is lost. It is almost impossible to generate a critical dialogue, a discussion, or an appreciation of these books within the context of artist’s books. This has led BAS to prioritize the building of context over production in 2010 2011, through a series of talks and exhibitions, all taking place in the new space that BAS has recently moved to.

BAS opened their new space with an exhibition of artists’ books by Sol LeWitt on December 15th 2009. The exhibition was curated in Spoletto by Giorgio Maffei and Emanuele De Donno and produced by VIAINDUSTRIAE, a non-profit project space in Umbria, Italy. BAS was the second stop for this exclusive traveling collection after Spoletto and before Paris, London and Ljubljana.

Besides his own printed production, Sol LeWitt, together with Lucy Lippard and 8 other friends founded Printed Matter in New York in 1976, which is today’s most important non-profit organization for artist’s books and publications. In this context we invited Antoni Muntadas to give a talk. Muntadas is an artist who has been living in New York since 1971. He witnessed and shared with LeWitt and Lippard the New York 70′s scene and the development of Printed Matter. Working with multi-media as well as printed matter, a great part of his practice explores archive, recording and manipulation of information through social and political issues. MuntadasÕ practice is extremely different from that of Sol LeWitt and the contextual overlapping was the important part of this juxtaposition. Similar criteria will be used for the upcoming program.

The talk took place at BAS, with a full house, on January 13th 2010, the last day of LeWitt’s show. It was unexpected and inspiring to see the how much interest there is for the topic, so that gives us the reason and the will to continue.

The aim of the program, consisting of 5 archival exhibitions and 5 accompanying talks, is to develop a historical and critical discussion by showing politically and aesthetically diverse approaches to the idea of printed matter as an artist’s practice.

In Spring 2010 KORIDOR, a Turkish collective mail-art, printed matter project from late 1980′s, was shown in its complete form for the first time. KORIDOR was conceived by 5 artists as an assemblage of art works and theoretical material that could co-exist in a mailable grey cardboard file. Active between 1988-1997, KORIDOR is relatively unknown especially to younger generations. The archival show was followed by a talk and discussion which generated relevant and up-to-date questions about collectivity, diffusion and printed matter.

BAS reaches a local and international audience through posters and flyers distributed in the city, participation in international book-fairs and exhibitions, collaboration with both distributors and a large, international network of bookstores, through organizing events and via an extensive e-mailing. Attention has been paid to BAS and the project Bent in newspapers and monthly magazines, as well as in major publications and catalogues, giving access to an increasingly diverse public.

BAS has presented numerous talks and guest book launches including; AA Bronson (talk), 01-2011, Matt Magazine#7 on Rudolf Belling (launch), 10-2010, KORIDOR (talk)05-2010, Antoni Muntadas (talk) 01-2010, Bag Lady by Pilvi Takala (launch), 08-2007 and DICTIONARY, by Ask, Hillesoe (launch)12-2006.

BAS has participated in many fairs and exhibitions including; Salon Light by CNEAI, Paris, Fr; Artist’s Books Fair 11-2010; Centre Pompidou, Paris, Fr.: Artist Book International, presentation of the Bent Books 12-2009; New York Art Book Fair, PS1, New York, U.S 10-2009; Ljubljana Bienale, Exhibition of Bent Books at Skuc Galeria, Ljubljana 09-2009; and Paper Art View, Art book fair, Brussels 04-2009.

Bent 001: Pavement Myth-The Life of the Pavement’s Wolf (1,2,3,4,5,6) – Artist: Masist GŸl
May Ð October 2006 – 52 pages / 17cmx24cm / colour / offset printing

Bent 002: TakipPoursuite – Artist: Aslõ ‚avu_o_lu
June 2006 – 78 pages / 9.5cmx15cm / b&w / offset printing

Bent 003: Emre HŸner
February 2007 – 48 pages / 20cmx27cm / colour / offset printing

Bent 004: SSS – Shore Scene Soundtrack / Themes and Variations for Carpet – Artist: Cevdet Erek
February 2008 – 64 pages / 13.5cmx19cm / b&w / offset printing

Bent 005: KILAVUZ – Artist: Atõl Kunst
March 2009 – 560 pages / 13cmx19cm / b&w / offset printing

An Interrupted History of Punk and Underground Resources in Turkey 1978-1999Editors: Sezgin Boynik, Tolga GŸldallõ – November 2007 576 pages CD / 16cmx22cm / b&w / offset printing

BAS’s publications can be found at selected bookstores including: Robinson Crusoe Bookstore, Istanbul / Le Monte-en-lÕair, Paris / LÕendroit, Rennes / Serpentine, London / V Bookshop, London / Rough Trade, London / Pro-qm, Berlin / Motto, Berlin / Printed Matter, New York / New Museum, New York / Inc.livros e edicoes de autor, Porto / Boekie Woekie, Amsterdam / Contemporary Center for Architecture, Montreal / Taiyo Kimura, Japan / The Book Society, Seou / Dynasty Zine, Athens / òtœrdœr, Reykjav’k.

Publications are also part of selected collections including: Cneai, Chatou / Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam / Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven / MACBA, Consorci del Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Bidoun Library / Centre Pompidou, Bibliotheque Kandinsky, Paris / ARTER, Vehbi Koc Foundation, Istanbul.