Artists’ Book website

We would like to let our colleagues know about our new website:

http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/artbooks/

Reed College Artists’ Book website was designed as a resource for the course “Image Text, The Book as a Sculptural Object," as well as studio art, art history, and literature courses taught at Reed College. It will also function as an online reference guide for book courses taught in the Pacific Northwest and worldwide. The website exposes Reed students and the broader population to the significant role artists' 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. The Reed College collection holds some of the most significant 20th century and contemporary artists’ books. These include livre d’artiste works by David Hockney, avant-garde works by Sonia Delaunay, conceptualist works by Sol LeWitt, and contemporary works by Xu Bing.

This website highlights the major historical categories for the book arts, livre d’artiste, the avant-garde, the conceptualist and the contemporary taught in the course “Image Text, The Book as a Sculptural Object." The approximately 1,000 books in the collection are listed in their historical genre. For example, the livre d’artiste genre that is hand colored, letterpress printed limited edition collaborations between artist and authors include Kara Walkers’ and Toni Morrisons’ collaboration, Five Poems. The avant-garde genre features works by avant-garde artists such as, El Lissitzky, and Fernand Léger, who dissembled the conventions of the book via typography, materials, and illustration. Individual web pages were designed for sixteen of the most significant book works in the collection. These pages contain a gallery of images to navigate the entire work, a brief biography on the artist, a description of the book and the books colophon. All of the works featured on the site link to CONTENTdm, an image archive at Reed College, and the library catalogue.


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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.

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list of artist book websites