Artist Book

I recently got the chance to visit OU's gallery. The show that was currently on was about the artist book. I have some experience with this having made one of these myself. It was particularly interesting to see some of the things other artists have done with their work. Here is couple pages from my book.

As you can see, my art has a very distinct comic book look to it. This is probably due to the fact that every page is done in ink and marker. This brings to my topic. Can a graphic novel be considered an artist book?

The common definition for an artist book is works of art realized in the form of a book. This sounds very similar to that of a graphic novel, which is an artistic book, produced by a graphic novelist utilizing the form of a comic book. Even this definition is starting to change as graphic novelists are becoming more abstracted and less tradition in their works. If they really are so similar, why do people have such a difficult time excepting graphic novels as art?

Other countries have had less difficulty with this. Japan's comics or "manga" actually stems from their traditional woodblock prints. They have also been credited for creating the first comic book. Their country, as well as many others, have had much less difficulty excepting the graphic novel as art. Perhaps one day people in the U.S. will be able to spend less time debating what is art and instead just appreciate something for what it is.