The spectrum of modern and contemporary Artists' Books in Reed College's Special Collections and collected on this website include traditional letterpress printed books of poetry, conceptual book works, sculptural and visual works, concrete poetry, and magazine works. This unique collection, which holds significant 20th century and contemporary artists’ books, gives students and the broader population insight into the significant role artist's books have played among the avant-garde of Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the United States, from the turn of the last century to the present. This includes livre d’artiste works by David Hockney, avant-garde works by Sonia Delaunay, conceptualist works by Sol LeWitt, and contemporary works by Xu Bing.
Professor Lloyd Reynolds, who taught calligraphy, letterpress printing, graphic design, and art history during his tenure at Reed College from 1929 through 1969, was the first to foster interest in the fine press book. He collected some of the college's most significant fine press books. This effort has been furthered by subsquent art department faculty, who now teach courses in illuminated manuscripts, iconoclasm, 20th century German art, and Chinese art history, and have purchased book works to support their courses. The exhibition Bibliocosmos held at Reed College Library's Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery in 2004, featured several of these works, as well as items from Reed's modern and contemporary Artists’ Books collection.
The modern and contemporary Artists’ Books collection began as a resource for the course “Image Text, The Book as a Sculptural Object," which covers the history and fabrication of the book as an alternative space for art documentation and exhibition. This website supports and highlights the major historical categories taught in the course, which include the livre d’artiste, the avant-garde, the conceptualist and the contemporary. These categories, although generally used by most historians, are not clear divisions, and many books are not limited to a single category. The website subsequently lists the majority of books in the collection; a selection of our most significant bookworks have individual web pages where one can navigate the entire work.
The history of modern and contemporary artists’ books does not run parallel with the functional formality of the history of art. The movement is often dated by the emergence of several art book presses at the turn of the 20th century, although examples of works and influence date back much further. In the early 20th century, Ambroise Vollard, a Paris art dealer, created the livre d’artiste book, or the deluxe edition book, when he produced books with well-known artists and authors. Simultaneously, the artist book became a significant tool for artists to express social and political ideas and promote revolution. The European avant-garde artists, such as Marinetti, not only deconstructed language and typography, but also the book itself. The American and European conceptual artists of the 1960’s, such as Ed Ruscha, took this a step further, de-materializing the book as an art object by running commercial printings with no signature.
Since its conception, the artist’s book has gone through many metamorphoses, allowing artists to widen their presence to places and people outside of the gallery. Contemporary artists’ books range from fine craft letterpress works to one-of-a-kind or limited-edition art objects, to political-based zines and comics.
“The book is a unique medium in that it only performs its function if the viewer interacts with it, and turns its pages. The artist’s book is above all a physical object with which we interact with the physical world.”1 This website makes available the physicality of the artist’s book to the broader community, allowing users or viewers to experience the entire book before coming in to see the work in person.
Acknowledgements
The collection of Artists’ Books at Reed College was made possible by a generous gift to the art department by John and Betty Gray and Sue and Ed Cooley.
The Artists’ Books archive project was designed and overseen by Geraldine
Ondrizek, professor
of art at Reed College.
Photography: Orin Zyvan
Research and organization: Sheena Campbell and Gelsey Kurrasch
Web links and copywriter: Luke Fidler
Webmaster: Tony Moreno
CONTENTdm support: Caitlin Kirkpatrick
This website was developed as part of the Reed Digital Collections initiative to integrate digital assets into the liberal arts curriculum.
Copyright Usage
Images in this collection are provided for members of the Reed academic community, for use in teaching, study, and research. Reed College students, faculty, and staff may use images for in-class display, as well as academic presentations, papers, assignments, and senior theses. Cite the source of the image as "Reed College CONTENTdm Database" and when available also add the statement "Courtesy of [individual/organization listed as Copyright Holder]" or "Public domain image". Unless an image's Copyright Holder is "public domain", uses other than those described above - such as inclusion in a published or commercial work or a non-Reed-password-protected website - may require permission from the copyright holder.
Footnotes