A Century of Artists Books by
Published to accompany the 1994 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, this book constitutes the most extensive survey of modern illustrated books to be offered in many years. Work by artists from Pierre Bonnard to Barbara Kruger and writers from Guillaume Apollinarie to Susan Sontag. An importnt reference for collectors and connoisseurs. Includes notable works by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.
Bookwork by
“There they rest, inert, impertinent, in gallery space—those book forms either imitated or mutilated, replicas of reading matter or its vestiges. Strange, after its long and robust career, for the book to take early retirement in a museum, not as rare manuscript but as functionless sculpture. Readymade or constructed, such book shapes are canceled as text when deposited as gallery objects, shut off from their normal reading when not, in some yet more drastic way, dismembered or reassembled.” So begins Bookwork, which follows our passion for books to its logical extreme in artists who employ found or simulated books as a sculptural medium. Investigating the conceptual labor behind this proliferating international art practice, Garrett Stewart looks at hundreds of book-like objects, alone or as part of gallery installations, in this original account of works that force attention upon a book’s material identity and cultural resonance. Less an inquiry into the artist’s book than an exploration of the book form’s contemporary objecthood, Stewart’s interdisciplinary approach traces the lineage of these aggressive artifacts from the 1919 Unhappy Readymade of Marcel Duchamp down to the current crisis of paper-based media in the digital era. Bookwork surveys and illustrates a stunning variety of appropriated and fabricated books alike, ranging from hacksawed discards to the giant lead folios of Anselm Kiefer. The unreadable books Stewart engages with in this timely study are found, again and again, to generate graphic metaphors for the textual experience they preclude, becoming in this sense legible after all.
1,000 Artists' Books by
The book is a timeless art form, one that is as alive today as ever before, and artists continue to explore and explode the boundaries of what a book is and can be. In this beautiful collection, you will experience close-up various aspects of hand-crafted books: covers, bindings, scrolls, folded and origami structures and books made from found objects. You will find richly illustrated and calligraphed pages as well as books created from a variety of printed processes. Ingenuity and creativity abounds in this carefully curated collection of both historically important and modern works.
Handmade in Cuba : Rolando Estévez and the beautiful books of Ediciones Vigía by 
Taking Form, Making Worlds: Cartonera Publishers in Latin America by The Benson Special Collections holds additional collections that contain Artists' Books, predominantly cartoneras. Check out the finding aids below found in Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO).
To find artists' books in the Benson Latin American Collection, use the following search terms in the library catalog to get started!
Subject Headings:
Artists’ Books–specimens
Artists' books -- Cuba
Artists' books -- Mexico
Artists' books -- Brazil
Cartonera books
Cartonera books -- Costa Rica
Cartonera books -- Mexico
Publishers:
Cartonera (general results)
La Cartonera
Eloisa Cartonera
Dulcineia Catadora
Ediciones Vigía
Taller Gráifico de Comala
Taller Leñateros
Casa Editora Cuadernos Papiro
Casa Editora Cuadernos Papiro
The Fine Arts Library contains an additional collection of Artist books. Visit their Libguide for further information and resources!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.
