BookArts Open House Exhibit (1 April 2016): Home

What, exactly, is an artist’s book? You may not be able to tell just from looking at the object itself! The simple answer to someone not familiar with artists’ books might be: art in book form. But they are not quite so simple…

An artist’s book is a medium of artistic expression that uses the form or function of “book” as inspiration. It is the artistic initiative seen in the illustration, choice of materials, creation process, layout and design that makes it an art object. . . .What truly makes an artist’s book is the artist’s intent, and artists have used the book as inspiration in a myriad of ways and techniques, from traditional to the experimental. The book could be made through fine press printing or hand-crafted, the pages illustrated with computer-generated images or cheap photocopies; books became sculptures, tiny and gargantuan; books were sliced up and reconfigured, made from all kinds of materials with unconventional objects incorporated, in unique or limited editions, or produced in multiple copies. With all sorts of ideas behind them, artists continue to challenge the idea, content and structure of the traditional book.

                -Anne Evenhaugen, The Smithsonian Libraries Unbound blog 

To see the libraries' catalog record for each of these works, click on the title.

Agnew, Lynn, Robin Hruska, and Susan Lange, and Mary Jeanne Linford. Listen, can you hear me?

Archetype Press. Brother can you spare a dime?: a typographic performance of songs of the Great Depression

Chen, Julie. Panorama

Copoulos-Selle, Stephanie. Seven wonders of the ancient world

Plank, Carrie Ann. VeneziaShafter, Jamie. Mix & match families

Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. In the event of a moon disaster

Samson-Talleur, Linda. The Phoenix

Serpas, Martha and Michele Burgess. The diener

Wait, Laura. Monumentum arbusti: a celebration of trees

Cooksey, Gabrielle. Monsters & beasts: tales imagined from Greek myths

Chen, Julie. Full circle

Pirkle, Amy. When you are old

Davidson, Laura. Library book

Zanten, Merike. Bounties of nature

Thomas, Peter. Time I$

Timm, Jill. Wire act

Baldridge, Jamie. The everywhere chronicles

Ziegler, Ellen. Imbue

Weston, Heather. A diction

Weston, Heather. Borges and I

Weston, Heather. Flip read

Weston, Heather. Grey matter: arguing with Descartes

To see the libraries' catalog record for each of these works, click on the title.

Agnew, Lynn, Robin Hruska, and Susan Lange, and Mary Jeanne Linford. Listen, can you hear me?

Archetype Press. Brother can you spare a dime?: a typographic performance of songs of the Great Depression

Chen, Julie. Panorama

Copoulos-Selle, Stephanie. Seven wonders of the ancient world

Plank, Carrie Ann. VeneziaShafter, Jamie. Mix & match families

Wagner-Lawler, Melissa. In the event of a moon disaster

Samson-Talleur, Linda. The Phoenix

Serpas, Martha and Michele Burgess. The diener

Wait, Laura. Monumentum arbusti: a celebration of trees

Cooksey, Gabrielle. Monsters & beasts: tales imagined from Greek myths

Chen, Julie. Full circle

Pirkle, Amy. When you are old

Davidson, Laura. Library book

Zanten, Merike. Bounties of nature

Thomas, Peter. Time I$

Timm, Jill. Wire act

Baldridge, Jamie. The everywhere chronicles

Ziegler, Ellen. Imbue

Weston, Heather. A diction

Weston, Heather. Borges and I

Weston, Heather. Flip read

Weston, Heather. Grey matter: arguing with Descartes

To see the libraries' catalog record for each of these works, click on the title.

Ephemera : poems / by Robert Pinsky ; prints by Karen Kunc.

Trio.

Nan / by Alisa C. Banks.

The quilts of Gee's Bend vol. 2 / by Carolyn Shattuck.

Blue / by Aimee Lee.

The beads in my hand / by Sammy Lee.

"What doesn't kill you" / Alicia Griswold.

Khorlo in blues / [Mark Head].

[Bare feet]. / Susan Joy Share.

[Mending / Elizabeth Sheehan].

Ecomenical / [Tara O'Brien].

[Forest stories snake] / [Mary Ellen Long] 

Nature / Deborah Greenwood.

Herbarium / poem by Marie Luise Kaschnitz ; etchings by Michele Burgess.

[Bounties of nature]. Zanten, Merika.

Listening to the earth / poems by Morri Creech and photographs by Robert ParkeHarrison, with an introduction by John Wood.

Grove / Clifton Meador.

Mitch Dobrowner : edited by John Wood ; with an essay by Dafydd Wood; published by Steven Albahari.

A tree within/ Octavio Paz

Gardens of delights : bouquets of flora & botanical poetry / [Jim Machacek & Sibyl Rubottom].

The alder / a poem by William Everson ; illustrations by Donna Thomas.

A gypsy caravan / by Kenneth Grahame ; [illustrated by] Peter & Donna Thomas

Time i$ / P & D Thomas.

Papermaking in seventeenth century England / Peter & Donna Thomas

Wilderness : a quote by Sigurd Olson

I love you! Peter & Donna Thomas

Sanctus sonorensis / Philip Zimmermann.

The new city : a poem / by MacLean Gander ; photographs by Jefferson Hayman

Faith medicine / Jamie Weaver

Orders / Emily Tipps.

[20th century fossil book / Vince Koloski]

Word / written and produced by the Scripps College typography class, with the help of Kitty Maryatt.

Synesthesia / Jan Owen.

A guide to higher learning / Julie Chen

View / Julie Chen

Circumstantial gravity / Macey Ley.

The lost journals of Sacajewea / by Debra Magpie Earling ; photo-interventions by Peter Rutledge Koch.

Promenade--a voyeur's guide to America : 26 woodcuts / by Art Hazelwood.