Introduction to book arts explaining what it entails. Artist's books are discussed and examples of different types of art books are shown in a gallery. Various artists are show-cased with links provided to the sites of some of the artists.

INTRODUCTION TO BOOK ARTS/ARTIST'S BOOKS

The book arts are a fascinating form of expression. 

You might ask:

What are artist's books?

Who makes artist's books?

Why make artist's books?

What

* Lucy Lippard refers to them as: "neither an art book (collected reproductions of separate art works) nor a book on art, the artist's book is a work of art on its own, conceived specifically for the book form and often published by the artist him/herself."

Who

*Book artist Ed Hutchins believes that anyone can make a book because everyone has a story to tell. Many forms and structures can be used to convey the message.

Why

* Ed uses the term "guerilla bookmaking" as "the efforts to take the book arts to the street and place it in the hands of everyday people." He says, "not everyone has a great ballet inside of them. Not everyone has a home run inside of them, but everyone has a story to tell and that's why everyone is a potential bookmaker."

Here are a few book arts links:

Ed Hutchins Site

Artists books by Beatrice Coron

Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, LLC

Shireen Holman's Web Site

Peter Verheyen's Book Arts Web

Peter Verheyen's Book Arts Web has sources, extensive links to other book arts sites as well as information about book preservation and conservation. Be sure to check out the gallery.

Here are some of Mimi Schaer's books - check out her GIRDLE books
and her installation of books and book objects, too.

More from the Colophon Page

Books & more by the incredible Emily Martin

Emily's site features lots of her dimensional book forms

Center for Book Arts (NYC)