MassArt Library Artists' Books Collection
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Or Browse Subject Headings: Artists' books; Bookbinding; Paper folding; Papermaking
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How-To Books
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The Art of the Fold: how to make innovative books and paper structures
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"The influential artist Hedi Kyle and renowned architecture graduate Ulla Warchol shows you how to create their unique designs using folding techniques. From creating flag books and fishbones, to blizzards and nesting boxes, you''ll gain an invaluable insight into the work of two skilled artists with this fun read! With the help of their thorough instructions and simple illustrations, you''ll be on your way to becoming a pro paper crafter in no time at all" - Sew magazine "A wonderful insight into the work of a truly skilled artist" - PaperCrafter The renowned and influential book artist Hedi Kyle shows you step-by-step how to create her unique designs using folding techniques in The Art of the Fold. Bookbinding and paper craft projects include flag books, blizzard books, the fishbone fold, and nesting boxes. Written by the doyenne of artists'' books, Hedi Kyle, The Art of the Fold is a wonderful insight into the work of a truly skilled artist. Hedi will show you how to bind a book and fold paper to create over 35 of her cut-fold book designs. The book is beautifully illustrated with Hedi''s finished works of art. An excerpt from the book: ''I can still remember the thrill I experienced when my first folded book structure emerged from my fingers - how eager I was to explore its possibilities and to share it with whoever was interested. The Flag Book, as I now call it, is a simple accordion and has interlocking pages oriented in opposite directions. Little did I know that this simple structure would have legs and be the catalyst for the next forty-plus years of thinking about and making books. The common perception of the book today is fairly straightforward: a series of pages organized around a spine and protected on either side by two covers. This format allows for easy access, storage and retrieval of information. Yet what happens when the book is stripped away of centuries of preconceptions and is allowed to reveal something else: playfulness, utility, invention? Expanding the notion of the book is what the structures in the following chapters of The Art of the Fold attempt to do. Exploring its tactile, sculptural form, primarily through folding methods, the book as a structural object is celebrated while content is considered in a new and unconventional way. My range in this medium has always been broad. In part this is due to my introduction to the world of bookbinding and some chance encounters. In the 1970s in New York City, the art and craft of hand bookbinding and papermaking were experiencing an unprecedented revival. I was fortunate to arrive in the city at just this moment. With an art-school background and an impulse to make things, I was naturally drawn to pursue this new opportunity. The Center for Book Arts, the famous forerunner of so many centers yet to come, was located in a small storefront just down the street from where I lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Under the direction of founder Richard Minsky, it had a radical mission: to push concept, materials, printing and making of artist books in a new direction. When Richard dared me to teach at the Center one evening a week, I was hooked. My career as a book conservator and a book artist has now spanned over 45 years. As head conservator at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, I''ve had the opportunity to handle some of the rarest volumes and manuscripts in the world. I have also dealt with decrepit books, torn maps and countless curiosities discovered in stacks and archives. All were endless sources for ideas and provided a springboard for a departure from tradition. Leading book-arts workshops around the world and a 25 year tenure teaching in the graduate program for Book Arts and Printmaking at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia have shown me, in retrospect, that the more I taught, the more it propelled me to experiment and develop my ideas. The many students I have had over the years were always my biggest inspiration, and they continue to be so.'' - Hedi Kyle, Pine Hill, NY Sept 2017
Call Number: TT870 .K95 2018ISBN: 1786272938Publication Date: 2018 -
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Bookforms: a complete guide to designing and crafting hand-bound books
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Brought to you by the instructors at the Center for Book Arts, Bookforms is a comprehensive guide for making books by hand with a focus on functionality in design. Written by the experts at the Center for Book Arts in New York, Bookforms presents all the instruction you need to craft by hand a comprehensive array of historic bookbinding styles from all over the world. Bookforms traces the functional roots of each structure, explains their appropriateness for various uses, and provides projects for making an essential structure for each style of binding. Topics covered include: Why books work: General bookbinding principles for functionality and what we can learn from the past What you need to know for planning a special book or embarking on an edition How materials affect function Bookforms tackles a wide range of projects for all levels of bookbinders. You'll see everything from sewn and ticketed blank books and traditional western codex book forms, to scrapbooks and albums, Asian stab-sewn bindings, unusual structures, and aesthetics/embellishments. What better time to dive into this venerable and unique hobby than now?
Call Number: Z271 .B728 2019ISBN: 9781631596056Publication Date: 2019 -
How to Make Books
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From zines you can fold in a minute to luxurious leather journals and sumptuous sketchbooks, How to Make Books will walk you through the easy basics of bookmaking. Whether you’re a writer, a scrapbooker, a political activist, or a postcard collector, let book artist Esther K. Smith be your guide as you discover your inner bookbinder. Using foolproof illustrations and step-by-step instructions, Smith reveals her time-tested techniques in a fun, easy-to-understand way.
Call Number: Z271 .S63 2007ISBN: 9780307353368Publication Date: 2007 -
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Non-Adhesive Bindings, v.1-2, and 4
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Call Number: Z271 .S66ISBN: 0963768220Publication Date: 1995
Histories and Anthologies of Artists' Books
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Artists' Books: A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook
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Call Number: N7433.3 .A75 1985ISBN: 0879052074Publication Date: 1985
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Artists Books: A Critical Survey of the Literature by
Call Number: N7433.3 .K64 1998ISBN: 1887123180Publication Date: 1998 -
Artists Who Make Books
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Call Number: N7433.3 .A746 2017 -
The Century of Artists' Books
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Call Number: N7433.3 .D78 1995ISBN: 1887123016Publication Date: 1995 -
A Century of Artists Books
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Call Number: N7433.3 .C37 1994ISBN: 0810961245Publication Date: 1994 -
Craft and Conceptual Art: reshaping the legacy of artists' books
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Craft & Conceptual Art: Reshaping the Legacy of Artist Books uses the history of book art centers and organizations such as Center for Book Arts, Printed Matter, Franklin Furnace, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and San Francisco Center for the Book, to demonstrate an intertwining of craft and conceptual art, even as early as Center for Book Arts founding in 1974. The critical issues of craft theory, such as the relationship between the vernacular and the contemporary and anti-establishment and grass roots activities are shared with the book arts, an established discipline of craft arts. Yet the legacy of artist books is often traced back to conceptual art - dominated by white male artists, the dematerialization of the art object, and ephemeral art practices, negating artist books' earlier connection to the book arts and its place in craft history. This exhibition will tie artist books back to craft, reshaping our understanding of the relationship between the movement craft and conceptual art. It will feature artist books at the intersection of craft and conceptual art, ambitious in both materials and concept.
Call Number: N7433.3 .C73 2023ISBN: 9781951163129Publication Date: 2023 -
No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America, 1960-1980
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Call Number: Z1033.F5 B75 2005ISBN: 1887123717Publication Date: 2005 -
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Unshelfmarked : reconceiving the artists' book
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Call Number: N7433.3 .H35 2015ISBN: 1910010065Publication Date: 2015
Find Journal Articles
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Art & Architecture SourceArticles on art, photography, architecture, etc. (Included in Search Everything.)
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JSTORDigital library of academic articles and images. (Included in Search Everything.)
Recommended Websites
- Art Metropole is an internationally renowned artist-run centre that promotes the appreciation and importance of conceptually based art. Art Metropole specializes in the contextualization and dissemination of artist’s books, multiples, and related materials with an emphasis on innovative formats and emergent technologies.
- Artists' Books Online is designed to promote critical engagement with artists books and to provide access to a digital repository of metadata, scans, and commentary. The project serves several different communities: artists, scholars and critics, librarians and curators, and interested readers.
- Book Arts Web links to a large selection of book arts related sites on the web, including educational opportunities, professional organizations, tutorials, reference materials, and galleries with images. Plus a listserv with 1500+ members.
- Booklyn is an artist-run, nonprofit organization headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Our mission is to promote artist books as an art form and educational resource; to provide educational institutions and the public with programming involving contemporary artist books; and to assist artists in exhibiting, distributing, and publishing innovative bookwork.
- The Center for Book Arts is dedicated to preserving the traditional crafts of book-making, as well as exploring and encouraging contemporary interpretations of the book as an art object. CBA exhibits, publishes, and offers educational programming related to book arts.
- Minnesota Center for Books Arts touts studio spaces where you find masters and novices working at letterpress printing, hand bookbinding and papermaking. In addition to the studios, there is an exhibition space, a studio shop, an archive and reference library, and offices. Visitors are welcome to observe the book art activity close-up. MCBA serves artists, students, teachers, designers, writers, families, youth, and book lovers through a variety of participatory programs. More than 20 years after opening its doors, MCBA is the most comprehensive independent book arts center in the nation.
- North American Hand Papermakers is an organization that brings together people interested in hand papermaking, to encourage sharing of practical, historical, and artistic knowledge about the craft.
- Printed Matter, Inc. is the world's largest non-profit organization dedicated to publications made by artists. To promote public awareness of and access to artists’ books, Printed Matter maintains a public reading room where over 15,000 titles by 5,000 international artists are available for viewing and purchase. In addition to being a wholesale and retail distribution hub for artists’ books, Printed Matter offers a free consulting service to libraries, art institutions, and art professionals involved with artists’ books throughout the world. Printed Matter presents a range of educational programs for the public from talks to student groups by staff members to in-store lectures and readings by artists, critics, and curators. These educational initiatives are complemented by our internationally recognized exhibitions program and publishing program.
- Women's Studio Workshop is a visual arts organization with specialized studios in printmaking, hand papermaking, ceramics, letterpress printing, photography, and book arts. Artists are invited to work at WSW as a part of our Fellowship Program, Artists' Books Grants, Residencies, Internships, or to learn new skills in our Summer Arts Institute and community workshop series.
Museum/Library Collections
How-to tutorials
- University of Kent videos on foundational book structures.
- From the National Museum of Women in the Arts-- Art, Books, and Creativity curriculum on artists' books.
- Printable instructions and lesson plans for bookbinding techniques from Booklyn.
- Video of how to make a clamshell box from DAS Bookbinding
- Free resources for bookbinders at http://www.ibookbinding.com/
- Making Handmade Books with Alisa Golden
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How to Create a "Flutter Book" video from Otis College of Art and Design
What is an artist's book and why?
Educational Institutions
- Center for the Book University of Iowa’s MFA degree program.
- College Book Art Association An organization that supports and promotes academic book arts education by fostering the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.
- American Academy of Bookbinding
- University of Alabama The Master of Fine Arts in the Book Arts Program began in 1985, and emphasizes the art and craft of making books by hand.
- Book Arts Program, Marriott Library, University of Utah
- New York's Center for Book Arts offers both in-person and online classes
- North Bennet Street in Boston
Research Question?
Ask at the Library Front Desk
Email library@massart.edu
Call 617-879-7150
Sculpture: Richard Artschwager,
Question Mark, 1994
Photo: Stefan Baudy, CC-BY License
Journals on Artists' Books
Print Journals are located on the 13th floor of the library.
Citation Help
Online
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MLA Handbook, 9th Edition
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Call Number: REF LB2369 .G53 2021 -
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition
Call Number: REF Z253 .C453 U558 2024
