Artists' Books
This professional artist's books collection is housed in the Fleet Library Special Collections department. Special Collections includes nearly 18,000 important and rare printed books and periodicals that date from as early as the 16th century to present. Historical as well as contemporary materials cover the fine arts, architecture, photography, decorative arts, and design and provide supplemental and inspirational resources for students, faculty, and outside researchers.
The physical Artists’ Books Collection includes nearly 2,000 multiples, hand-made book objects, limited edition books, and zines dating from the mid-1960’s to present. The collection also includes numerous related book arts references and artists’ ephemera files. Featured collections include bookmaking process archives of internationally known book artists Carol Barton, Ruth Laxson and Angela Lorenz. This digital collection presents an abridged preview of each book. Visit 2nd Floor, Rm. 201 of the Fleet Library or contact risdspecial@risd.edu to view the collection in its entirety.
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Muse Measures
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[53] pages : ill. Limited edition of 150 copies. Cover title. Letterpress artist's book created by Ruth Laxson. Binding is Japanese side-sewn style. "Printed on Birch Royal Fiber, UV Ultra II and Warren Patina, using typography, type-high engraving and offset. The type is mainly Caslon and Franklin Gothic. It was hand set and composed on the press bed."--Colophon. Typographical illustrations are combinations of letters, lines, symbols, and drawings. White paint applied to two images. Library has copy no. 60 signed by the artist.
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Mythos Chronos Logos
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[22] leaves : ill. Part 1: Mythos (chance chants) -- Part 2: Chronos (timing) -- Part 3: Logos (logic). Cover title. Sewn in grey colored thread; five-hole Japanese stab binding with hinge-fold. Issued in grey paper boards; hinge-fold edged in grey cloth. Black endpapers. Printed in black and white. "Printed on various papers with hand set type: Caslon & Franklin Gothic ... Edition 40."--Colophon. Library has copy no. 24. Signed by the artist.
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Playfulness Works
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[16] leaves : [8] color illustrations Cover title. Title printed on plastic covers. Alternate leaves are semi-transparencies with text. "The intaglio images and the book text were printed by the artist. The type was hand set in 14 pt. Baskerville italic and printed on Millers Falls onion skin paper. All intaglio images were printed on Murillo paper. Edition 12"--Colophon. "This book is number 7" Signed by the artist.
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Power Poem
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[16] pages : ill Library has copy no. 92.
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Retail the Tale
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[25] pages : ill. (some color) "Printed Feb. '96 - Feb. 97, typography, drawing, etching with chine colle on RIves BFK and UV Ultra 11"--Colophon. Edition limited to 15 copies, signed by the author. Oriental style binding (traditional format, Japanese). Library has copy no. 13.
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Some Things are Sacred
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[26] pages : ill. Title in red on cover. Oriental style binding (traditional format, Japanese). Text in paper binder. "Edition: 50. This book is number 47."--Colophon. Signed by the artist.
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Wheeling
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[40] pages : ill Cover title. Of an edition of 200 the library has no. 75, signed by the artist.
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Where is Everybody?
Ruth Laxson, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[10] leaves : ill. ; 18 cm. Two outsized leaves, one a pentagon, the other with a serrated outer margin. "Fall 1990"--Leaf [10]. Library has copy no. 15 of 20. Binding is oriental stitch (traditional format, Japanese).
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A Basket is a reminder
Aimee Lee, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 24 pages . Cover title. Unique copy. "A basket is a Reminder celebrates baskets and their overlooked role in creating and advancing human culture and life."--colophon. Pages of handcut handmade paper, laminated. One side is made of iris leaves; the reverse is of milkweed parts (seeds, coma, pods, bast fiber, inner stalk), cutouts, ink on handmade laminated paper (iris + milkweed). Text inkjet printing on handmade yucca paper. Sewn binding. Covers of walnut inked hanji basket rolled onto Arches Cover paper. Laid in four-fold wrapper with title printed on front flap. Plant harvesting and processing, papermaking, writing, and binding by the artist. Signed and dated by the artist. Copyright date hand written on back cover. Colophon printed on wrapper.
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Conversations in the Sky
Andre Bassuet Lee, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 folded sheet. Numbered and signed edition of 100 copies Photography and design by André Lee. Printed in Osaka, Japan --colophon. "When I look at the modern Japanese landscape, I see continuous lines of communication, telephone wires connecting friends and family. The Japanese sky is unique in it's infinite lines against a mountainous and architectural backdrop. Can you imagine all the conversations going on in the sky through telephone threads?"--colophon. A single thread runs through the entire text and covers. Accordion fold. Text and back cover printed in light blue on white. Cover printed in light blue and green on white. Colophon text in Japanese and English.
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Picto Diary: After 1983
Bing Lee, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : chiefly ill. ; 22 x 22 cm. Includes three page introduction: "Calligraphic automatism" by Eleanor Heartney.
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Nightfall Faces
Carolyn Leigh, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
drum leaf binding with hidden built up compartment holding BB's. Enclosed in a collaged and painted wrapping envelope, held with woven ribbon. Book closed with wrapper; book closed with wrapper open; interior spreads; back cover; cover. Visions of a primitive ritual dance performed around a fire are evoked through these images of tribal masks. Rhythmic sounds can be made by shaking the book like a maraca.
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Big Man on the Dot
Ken Leslie, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations. Doughnut-shaped leaf folded to a fan shape (24 cm, folded to 7 cm), text and illustrations on both sides ; issued in a paper slipcase. Text titled "Big man" appears on one side and "Our Dot" on the verso. Cover title. Contemplates our place in the physical and metaphysical universe. Opens to reveal verso size comparison of "Our Dot" Earth, the Sun, Saturn, and Jupiter. "Brad Freeman, Director, Nexus Press"--back of slipcase. Conical accordion fold in printed paper slipcase. Gift of Jan Baker.
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Autobiography Sol LeWitt 1980
Sol LeWitt, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 126 pages. Printed by Morgan Press Inc., Dobbs Ferry, New York.
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Bologna Sample
Angela Lorenz, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
. "The 179 colors were all painted by hand in watercolor and glued individually onto acid-free paper produced by Cartiere Fedrigoni. The text was lithographed at Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy in Univers." Edition of 50 signed by the author, Bologna 1992. The cover is four-fold, the text pages have twelve-folds.
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Paper Plates : She's A Dish
Angela Lorenz, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[2] pages, [6] leaves of "plates" : color illustrations in wooden crate. Title from laid in colophon. The book is housed in wooden crate, constructed to look like a shipping box for china or glass. The book consists of six round collagraphs, resembling the Italian ceramic dishes called "belle donne" or "coppe amatorie", which are inserted into two sets of paper tryptics made to resemble wooden cupboards. The text surrounding the collographs is cut from cardstock and glued to the surface to resemble the painted scrolls that were attached to the original dishes. paper produced by Cartiere Fedrigoni. The colophon, which appears on a folded leaf in the center of the book, was printed by Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy on archival paper produced by Cartiere Fedrigoni. Signed and numbered by the artist, Library has copy no. 21 of an edition of 24.
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Soap Story : An Artist's Book
Angela Lorenz, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 picture album in case + 6 bars of soap. Title from case. Edition of 200 copies. Typeface for silkscreen and lithograph in Stone Sans and Stone Serif. Cover embossing and lithograph printing by Stamperia Valdonega of Verona. Linen from Gori Tessuti of Prato, soap from Saponificio A. Gori of Arezzo. Both case and soap are wrapped and tied as indicated in the summary note. "This artists's book tells the story of a young woman in Calabria, Italy during the 1950's, whose real life reads like a fairy tale, or a soap opera, in six installments. In order to give lasting form to this oral history, the reader must release the text, silk-screened on linen pages, from six tiny bars of soap, with numbers imprinted with lead type. After hanging to dry, ironing optional, the rags slot into six acid-free pages with oval die-cuts, through which the text remains visible. The pages are bound with a linen rag into a handmade, cloth-covered album, with the title embossed into a raised oval on the front cover. The book is housed in a matching cloth-covered box, lined with rags and sealed with a color-lithographed soap label."--from the soap bars wrapper
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The Theater of Nature, or, Curiosity Filled the Cabinet
Angela Lorenz, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : ill.. "Magic Lantern Edition" "'The Theater of nature...' is a variation on the original format, in which the water-colors are replaced by nine transparencies, alluding to the rise of photography and cinematography in 16th century magic lanterns. Most of the images are based on manuscript illustrations commissioned by Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), the first professor of natural history appointed in Italy and creator of an extensive museum of natural artifacts."--Colophon. Two mounted accordion fold illustrated texts. Each are printed on both sides and include color transparencies. Limited edition of 10 copies, numbered and signed by the artist. Issued in folding paper case, which when mounted, represents a camera obscura. Library has copy no. 6. Sally Hume Lincoln Memorial Fund.
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Abby Rogers to Her Grand-daughter
Joan Lyons, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
saddle stitch with soft cover; cover; title page; interior spreads and pages. Stories about childhood memories, stitched into a family quilt that is passed down to a grand daughter.
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Abecé
Joan Lyons, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
hand sewn signatures with cloth spine and paper covered boards. Enclosed in cardboard wrapper with thread tie. Cover; interior pages and spreads. Colorful images of letters of the alphabet, as found in grafitti on various public surfaces in Mexico City.
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My Mother's Book
Joan Lyons, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
saddle stitch with soft cover and two overlapping "French Door" spines; cover; interior spreads and pages. Stories of the artist's mother's family who immigrated in the early 20th century from the Ukraine.
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The Gynecologist
Joan Lyons, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
saddle stitch with soft cover; cover; title page; interior pages and spreads. Conversation between a woman and her male gynecologist. The physician is trying to convince the woman her reproductive organs are "totally unnecessary when child bearing is not a desired end."
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Twenty-five Years Ago
Joan Lyons, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
saddle stitch with soft cover; cover; interior spread and pages; back cover. The artist's wallet is recovered in an old air vent in her child's former school 25 years after she had visited his 4th grade classroom. The contents reveal life in the early 1970's.
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Leaf
Peter Lyssiotis, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
2 volumes. "Leaf was completed in 2017. The paper is Magnani Pescia 160 gsm. and the pre press work is by Chris Boone. The offset printing is by Redwood Prints. The book has been bound by Pohlmann Binders.. in an edition of 10 with 3 artist's proofs."--colophon. Illustrated endpapers. Signed by the author. At the edge of a forest, a man sees a mysterious woman working at a table, sewing words on a collection of leaves. By asking a series of questions, the man ultimately discovers the true meaning of her work.
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Do Not Enter
Marlene MacCallum, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
tunnel book variation, enclosed in a paper 4 sided wrapper with a thread closure; outer folio, closed; front view, closed. Although the text warns the reader not to enter, the haunting images of curious empty spaces and the unfolding of the tunnel book structure draw the reader in.
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Shadow. Canto Three Incidental Music
Marlene MacCallum, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations. Cover title. Edition limited to 16 numbered copies, signed. Text appears blind-printed at the head and letterpress printed at the foot of some leaves. "'Shadow: Incidental Music' is the third canto of the ongoing project Shadow, a book work variation on the long poem format. 'Incidental Music' presents itself initially as a straightforward codex but upon opening reveals a cascade of nested accordion-fold structures. Naturally occurring patterns of light and shadow create cyclical but transient intrusions into interior spaces. Sunlight progresses through the time and space of the pages with a brief shadow-play balancing-act performed mid-way through. The images hover over and almost obscure the poem and soundscape components quietly awaiting detection within the folds below. Tpoem rests within the base of the text accordion. It is a variation on the villanelle and cycles through psychological states. The blind embossed soundscape floats within the uppermost folds. It evokes subtle movements in a space so quiet that you can hear the most minute sound. Each component of the piece -- image, poems, folded structures -- exists independently and plays out its own rhythmic logic and integrity; a visual, poetic and material ostinati. The components complement each other by their shared manifestation of transitions. 'Incidental Music' bridges one scene to the next. In this piece, however, the interlude is the significant event; the condition of being the present."--Artist's statement from dealer blurb (http://vampandtramp.com/finepress/m/Marlene-MacCallum.html). Colophon printed on verso of spine. In paper slipcase. Library has copy no. 13.
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Theme and Permutation
Marlene MacCallum, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
24 unnumbered pages : illustrations. Limited edition of 100 copies, signed and numbered by the artist. Cover title. "The images were printed on the Heidelberg GTO offset lithographic press at Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Art by Clifton Meador with the assistance of Marlene MacCallum, Hannah King and Kate Morgan. The text was printed by Marlene on a Canon digital inkjet printer at the sillis lab in Corner Brook, NL. The book was bound by Marlene with assistance from Megan Musseau ... research team consists of Marlene MacCallum, Clifton Meador, Pierre LeBlanc and David Morrish"--Colophon. "[O]ne of four book works inspired by the experience of living in Corner Brook's Townsite area on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. I photographed in six homes--all the same model as the one I live in ... Theme and Permutation uses digital tools to translate the film sources and prepare the image files. The sixteen plates are then printed to explore the permutational possibilities of offset printing ... Each method of generating images and producing multiples results in a reconsideration of the content and offers varying formats for interaction by the reader"--Page preceding colophon. "Hand sewn pamphlet, images custom-printed in offset lithography on Mohawk Superfine, text printed in inkjet, covers are inkjet printed on translucent Glama"--Artist's website, viewed on November 10, 2011. Cover wrapper consists of two layers of translucent paper, each printed with a portion of the title. Library has copy number 58.
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The Twin Plays : Port-au-Prince & Adams County Illinois
Jackson Mac Low, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
14 pages. A Great Bear Pamphlet ; no. 10. Cover title. CONTENTS: Port-au-Prince -- Adams County, Illinois. Staple binding. Gift of Estera Milman, RISD Class of 1970. Estera Milman (RISD BFA Painting/Printmaking and Film, 1970) scholar of post-World War II avant-garde art. Founded Alternative Traditions in Contemporary Art (ATCA) at the University of Iowa, 1982, and served as its director until 2000. She is the author of many books, articles, interviews, and exhibition catalogs on Fluxus and No!art. In December 2018 she donated a selection books from her library to the Fleet Library at RISD. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition By Hand: Women & Books Exhibit fall, 2021.
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24-Hour Armed Security
Josh Macphee, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
16 screenprints : color ; 1 pamphlet ([12] pages : color illustrations ; . Pound the pavement ; #21 A set of 16 screenprints housed in a hand cut and assembled enclosure (40 x 32 cm) accompanied by a 12 page stapled booklet. Limited edition of 20, signed by the artist. Library has copy no. 3. Numbered and signed on the verso of the enclosure.
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Flying Letters
John Maeda, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : chiefly illus.. Digitalogue reactive book series, no. 2. Accordion fold text. System requirements for accompanying disk: Macintosh/Power Macintosh System 7.1 or above, True type/ATN outline font and floppy disk drive. Text in English and Japanese. Gift of Janice Woo, California College of the Arts.
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After Reasonable Research
Miranda Maher, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 folded sheet. Edition of 150."Years with no acts of 'open and declared hostile conflict' are indicated with a perpendicular line. Perhaps they were periods of peace"--cover. Issued in cardboard sleeve with velco fasteners. Accordion folded, printed on cream colored paper with a fleur-des-lis pattern.
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Shimmer
Jule Claudia Mahn, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, slipcase, 48 pages . Author, editor, translator and imprint from colophon. Short story by Jule Claudia Mahn accompanied by the author's photographs. "Set in Pollen Regular, Pigment print on Awagami Inbe, Thin white Washi paper ... in an edition of 13 copies in German and XVI copies in English ... 14th book in the series 'Verwandte Objekte,' Leipzig 2018"--Colophon. Exposed thread binding in Hollytex non-woven fabric. Housed in a paper-covered case. Enclosed in same fabric slipcase. All housed in two-piece grey board binder, held closed with two orange rubber bands (31 x 18 cm).
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Look Back
Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
32 unnumbered pages : illustrations (some color), facsimiles, map, portraits. Cover title. Collaborative response in an artists' book format to the letters of Anna Matilda Page King to her family (written between 1817 - 1859) from "Retreat", her St. Simons Island, Georgia plantation. Includes bibliographical references. Stapled. Gift of Jan Baker.
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Funny ha ha, Funny Peculiar
Emily Martin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume in slipcase, 19 pages. "Printed in an edition of 25 with several artist's proofs. Housed in a clamshell box covered in Japanese linen cloth."--colophon. "This book(s) is the result of my extended study of Shakespeare's comedies. I find the comedies individually to be enjoyable but there is a sameness to many of the plots that allows me to mix them up in my head. So much mistaken identity, gender confusion and various other contrivances while romping their way to a fifth act wedding or two. Even more problematic are the decidedly unfunny themes that are common in many of these same comedies such as hypocrisy, sexual harassment, intolerance, sexism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. I struggled for a long time to integrate all these ideas. I finally realized that what I needed to do was to address each aspect separately, thus a dos a do book. Each side has its own focus and treatment. The characters are the same in both books. They are printed using the P22 Blox which are a set of modular shapes that can be interchanged to change the body's posture and gestures. The P22 Blox allows the presentation of the characters as interchangeable as well. Funny Peculiar is a drum leaf book and presents selected lines from five plays delivered by characters on a stage set. Funny Ha Ha is a slice book allowing the viewer to mix and match the costumes and gender of the characters in a variety of postures. Funny Peculiar is letterpress printed on an SP15 Vandercook proof press using hand set type and P22 Blox combined with rubbings, ink washes, and collagraphs to make the images. Printed on Domestic Etch paper with gray Pescia end sheets. Funny Ha Ha is printed on an SP15 Vandercook proof press using hand set type combined with relief printing using P22 Blox, collagraphs, and polymer plates from Boxcar Press to make the images. Printed on white Pescia paper with gray Pescia end sheets. Bound in a modified dos a do binding to hold the sewn text block slice book on one side and the drum leaf text block on the other side. The hard covers are covered with Arrestox book cloth and three vivid colored cotton papers color matched and custom made by Katie MacGregor."--emilymartin.com.
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Mutually Exclusive
Emily Martin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
5 magic wallets (Jacob's ladder module), enclosed in an Asian-style cloth covered portfolio with bone clasps; portfolio cover; magic wallets open and closed. Each booklet features conflicting text from media reports following the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Opinions and beliefs, formed from the same information, are often opposing.
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So On And So On
Emily Martin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
dos à dos coptic stitch binding; first cover; interior spreads; next cover; interior spreads; end of second narrative and beginning again of first. The dos à dos structure conveys the cyclical nature of alcoholism. No matter which direction the story is told, the resulting disruption of family life is portrayed.
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The Anxiety Alphabet
Emily Martin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
coptic stitch binding, paper covered boards with common pins and needles inserted; cover; interior pages; back cover. The subject of anxiety is conveyed with humorous alphabetic verse.
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The House Detective (abridged)
Emily Martin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
Japanese folding screen, dos à dos accordion variation, with paper hinges mounted over foam core house-shaped boards; title page; interior foldouts; back cover. Phrases commonly found in detective novels are illustrated in a cartoon-like caper.
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The Vicious Circle Series
Emily Martin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
3 dimensional hexa-flexagon; hexa-flexagons, detail; five hexa-flexagons; two hexa-flexagons (of five). Turning the ring of connected pyramids reveals a text that repeats over and over, just like many life situations.
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Blue Yodo Waltz
Kyoko Matsunaga, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 scroll. "Rivers are the source of all development, and civilizations are made up of individuals. The original of this scroll was a collage on a QRS player piano roll of Blue Danube Waltz (Strauss) which I happened to find at an antique shop. When I lived in Osaka, I took pictures of ordinary local people while walking along the city's iconic Yodo river all the way to the bay as a collection of slice-of-life scenes of people in the limited area and time that I could experience at first hand, and laid them on the stream of the elegant waltz. Even though Japanese society is highly homogeneous and (she) tends to avoid making outstanding individuals, Osakans steadily carry down its unique culture just as modern European culture had been passed down in the people around Danube river"--Artist's statement, 23 Sandy Gallery website. Issued in a box of ajio washi, persimmon dyed Kurotani washi, and Skivertex Nuba over boards. Scroll is wrapped in a silk cloth and laid into an inner drawer, which slides into the outer box
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Moonset Cordiero
Kyoko Matsunaga, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : chiefly color illustrations. Title from artist's website; publication information from 23 Sandy Gallery Booksellers' website. Limited edition of 15 copies, signed and numbered by the artist. "'Moonset Cordiero' is an ancient site of typography, mentioned on a television show in the artist's dreams of June 16th, 2012. This book is an assemblage of connections between this imaginary locale and realtime experiences. She traces memories, recalling scenes from her domestic and international travels. Viewers observe the dream's reflection from the mirror, which includes a glimpse of their own eye"--23 Sandy Gallery Booksellers' website, viewed on March 4, 2015. "Inkjet print, laser print on Japanese paper. Bugra paper (Black), bees wax, mirror"--Artist's website, viewed on August 21, 2014. Images are inkjet and laser printed on Kozo, Mitsumata, and Bugra Japanese paper. The book opens into a tunnel book with a small hole in the front and a mirror at the back. When viewers look through the hole, they can see four illustrated panels and a reflection of their own eye. The colophon is collaged to the bookboard backing next to the mirror. Library has copy no. 11. Signed by the artist 2013. Sally Hume Lincoln Memorial Fund.
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Curio
Melanie Mauro, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume. "Curio was designed and printed by Melanie Mauro at The University of the Arts and Heirloom Press. The text is adapted from the 1868 collection of articles, Modern Women and What Is, and Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening". This book is printed using letterpress, screenprint and lithography on paper handmade by the artist" --Colophon. Includes inkblot imagery; some screen printed using black thermo-chromic ink that turns white when heated. Edition of 5, signed and numbered by the artist. Sewn on seven raised cords and bound in full white (alum-tawed) leather. Curio is a collection of "quotidian objects" that speaks to the idea of woman as domestic curator and as weaker vessel. The bisected halves of vases, a candlestick, a chandelier, a soup tureen, and fancy glassware are rendered in mismatched pairings interspersed with inkblots that evoke, in the manner of a Rorschach Test, the trappings of middle-class existence. "My prints and artist books explore the feminine sphere. Drawing from historical texts about and by women, my works are investigations of the female body and mind, and of women's traditional domestic and societal roles. As I seek to understand the legacy of suppression, surrender, and expectation, I overlap, juxtapose and intersect images and symbols. Quotidian objects struggle against the boundaries of symmetry in an examination of the enduring concerns of women.I use handmade materials and labor-intensive processes, such as handmade paper, alternative process photography, letterpress and lithography. These materials and processes imbue my images of bone, inkblot, vessels and text with the weight of the past, illuminating the parallel between historical and contemporary womanhood"--Artist's Statement, 2018 Thesis Exhibition, University of the Arts.
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Abecadarian
Ashley May, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
volumes : color illustrations . Vol. 1. A-M. Using high quality scans of vintage postcards, artist Ashley May creates kaleidoscopic digital collages. She re-purposes the traditional use of post-cards into a 21st century communiqué: the GIF animation. In collaboration with Endless Editions, Ashley May designed an artist book inspired by her GIF animations. This 14-page, accordion-bound book spirals outwards into a 28 x 28 inch circle, mimicking an animation in physical space. -- Limited Editions website. Accordion variation, fan binding. Book can be folded into a carousel variation structure.
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Alphabook 3
Scott McCarney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
2 accordion fold books with pop-up elements, enclosed in vellum wrapper; cover; interior views, pop-up. Cut outs unfold to reveal in one accordion book the letters A-M and in the other N-Z.
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Far Horizons
Scott McCarney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
maze book, folded and enclosed in a printed wrapper; cover; interior; interior, folded out. An accordion variation made by folding a piece of paper printed on one side into 12ths and cutting it so that the resulting accordion flow turns in multiple directions. Once unfolded, the resulting poster resembles a tradional quilt pattern called "Far Horizons".
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In Case of Emergency
Scott McCarney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
pamphlet stitch variation with shaped pages and fold outs, enclosed in a triangular wrapper; cover; first opening; flat view; folded out; detail . When folded, the book wrapper represents a nuclear hazard warning. Inside the pages unfold in a dizzying confusion as images of planes and bombs are revealed.
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Index to the Encyclopedia
Scott McCarney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
perfect bound with soft cover, cover image foil stamped; cover; interior page and spreads. This book, though an artist book in itself, functions as an Index to "The Encyclopedia" a separate but related sculptural bookwork.
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Memory Loss
Scott McCarney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 sheet folded. Folded accordion style; binding consists of end boards and cord tie.
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State of the Union: live, evil, vile
Scott McCarney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
stab bound with soft cover and duct tape reinforced spine; cover; interior pages and spreads. President George W. Bush's televised 2003 State of the Union speech is captured in full screen head shots. The overlaying text, similar to close captioning, reveals nonsensical phrases made from the letters in the book's subtitle.
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The Field
Mary McCarthy, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
case bound in suede covered boards, enclosed in a suede covered box; box exterior; first opening; cover; interior spreads and pages. The day unfolds as the mist rises in a country field, little by little revealing the teeming wildlife found there.
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Tribal Alphabet
Mary McCarthy, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
case bound with cloth covered boards, endbands; cover; title page; interior pages; colophon. Twenty-six African tribes are represented with their masks, in alphabetical order. This book is the facsimile version of the original collage copy.
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Bird Watching
Paula McCartney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
31 unnumbered pages : color illustrations "Additional support was provided by the Minnesota Center for Books Arts, Minneapolis, MN"--Page 31 "Comprised of twelve chromogenic photographs mounted on Rising Stonehenge 100% cotton paper. The printed text is in Souvenir Lt BT and the written text is the artist's handwriting on Zerkall Nideggen sand paper, and the endsheets are printed on Canson Mi-Teintes flannel gray paper. The book is covered in olive and brown Iris bookcloth"--Page 31 Includes "Field notes" (3 postcard sized items in mounted pocket), inside back cover. "Edition ... of 40"--Page 31 Summary: Bird Watching explores the idea of constructed landscape and is inspired by natural history illustrations and botany journals. The book documents how nature and fabricated elements can combine to create a scene that questions what is natural. The hard bound book is composed of twelve color photographs of fake birds placed in various landscapes, specimen labels, field notes, and diagrams. "This artist book combines photographic recordings of my bird sightings with specimen labels, field notes and diagrams to mirror a personal bird watcher’s journal. Both the photographs and text are a mix of truth and fiction. The images combine varied natural settings with carefully placed craft store songbirds to create an enhanced landscape, allowing the viewer to consider the landscape and the ways it can be elaborated upon."--artist's webpage. Perfect bound codex. Library has copy no. 32, signed by the artist. Library has a related book by the artist published by Princeton Architectual Press, 2010: TR729.B5 M425 2010
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On Thin Ice In a Blizzard
Paula McCartney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
36 unnumbered pages : all black and white illustrations Edition of 500. "Snow begins to fall, grows denser, and obliterates my view while exposing the cosmos. Ice shifts, opening a beautiful black void. A wondrous view as I begin my descent. On Thin Ice, In a Blizzard is a subseries of my project, A Field Guide to Snow and Ice. While all of the images in the field guide are excerpts of natural landscapes--just not all snow and ice--the images in this book were constructed in the darkroom. A winter of my imagination."--Paulamccartney.com. Stapled. Black paper cover cut-out in a shape, white paper inside with title displayed. Offset printed.
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What Doesn't Kill You Will Likely Try Again
Paula McCartney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
4 volumes : all illustrations A set of four spiral bound square volumes. Book One published in 2017. Book Two, Book Three and Book Four published in 2018. Digitally press printed books. "Edition of 50"--The artist's website "'What doesn't kill you will likely try again' is a four-part book that continues my exploration into the repetition of form across disparate elements. Tracking and recording the light throughout the year in my home and studio encouraged me to slow down and be present in my surroundings. Patience was rewarded with moments of connection and balance, uncommon within the daily routine of life. The individual books act as thoughts and the set as a conversation and record the illuminated moments that align with existing or constructed architecture."--Melani McWhorter's webpage Risograph printed covers, grey lines on black paper. Library has copy no. 36, signed by the artist.
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Book of Trees : Both Native and Introduced
Paula McCartney, Andy Sturdevant, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
36 unnumbered pages : color illustrations, portraits "Digital press printed by Conveyor Arts, with letterpress printed cover and rounded corners"--Paulamccartney.com. Cover title. Limited edition of 250. Endpaper sheet in wood-grain pattern. Stapled.
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In a cafe
Frances McConihe, Richard Brautigan, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 12 pages. The book is an accordion fold (15 x 116 cm) mounted onto a cloth covered binding. Intaglio and photocopy printing. This book was completed for the "Private Press" course spring semester, 1997, RISD. The instructors were Russell Jones and Duane Slick.
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Pot calling the kettle black
Kevin McCoy, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 28 unnumbered pages. Black people in America have been taxonomized as "savages" or "lazy" and dehumanized by mainstream media which are derivatives of early scientific racism. Back in the 19th century, blackface was used primarily by white performers to demean Black people and as a source of entertainment. The titling of this publication, Pot Calling the Kettle Black, is an idiom used in the Black household to underscore blatant hypocrisy. This publication offers critical observation of the use of blackface and its variations found deeply embedded in cartoons, pop culture, the fashion industry, and beyond.-- Work / Play.
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Octopus
Elizabeth McDevitt, Julie Chen, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume. Title from case. Accordion style binding to produce a three-dimensional effect. In case. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates; collographic prints. Edition of 100 copies.
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Life Signs
Bonnie McLesky, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[14] pages : color illustrations. "...made by The Blue Press and Bindery of Berkeley, CA. Cutouts, text, binding and letterpress work by Bonnie McLeskey. Printed on Canford Cover in Gill Sans; at Mills College in Oakland, CA. Flag structure by Hedi Kyle. First made 2/98. Reworked 6/99. No. 1 of 6."--Colophon. In binder with author note laid in ([1] page) "Life Signs began as a project for my bookbinding class with Julie Chen at Mills College in February 1998."--Note laid in binder. Accordion fold binding. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition By Hand: Women & Books Exhibit fall, 2021.
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Wild Waves
Barton McNeil, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[11] leaves : illustration. "Conceived and printed letterpress in an edition of 200 by Barton McNeil, 1979"--colophon. Unbound, [11] folded leaves, in paper cover. Most leaves printed with the single word, "splash." Printed in various fonts, and sizes. Address of the Press printed on page [4] of cover. Gift of Jan Baker.
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Long slow March
Clifton Meador, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : illustrations (some color) ; 21 cm. Contents: Introduction -- Distant rancorous voices 1 -- Every mile between Selma and Montgomery -- Persistence of evil -- Conflagration. "The textual pieces are drawn from a variety of primary sources, from mid-nineteenth-century slave narratives, to slavery apologists, to mid-twentieth-century segregationist crazy people. Some have been slightly fictionalized."--Colophon. "This book was produced and printed at the Center for Editions, Purchase College, Purchase, New York. Summer 1994 to fall 1996"--colophon. Maps on lining pages, Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Text includes photographs from the same route and images from the marches and demonstrations. Offset printing. Case binding with illustrated dust jacket. RISD Alumnus, BFA, Photography, 1980. Fleet Library at RISD Alumni Collection.
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Palpung Parkhang
Clifton Meador, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
[22], 7 pages : chiefly illustrations (some color), map. Printed and produced at the Center for Book and Paper, Columbia College, Chicago. 1 hand sewn binding (two signatures) and 1 stapled fold (notes section); paper cover. "This collection of black and white and color photographs were taken in the Palpung Monastery in Palpung Parkhang, Tibet. Each spread consists of one numbered photograph. Each number matches a note in the back of the book which details the artist's experience while walking through the monastery: what he sees, what enlivens his senses, and more concrete facts about the people and what they are doing in the photographs. The footnotes create a dual narrative of the artist's experience and the converse experience of the monastery's inhabitants. The book lies flat so that the photograph's composition is unhindered by a gutter." --Printed Matter website. RISD Alumnus, BFA, Photography, 1980. Fleet Library at RISD Alumni Collection.
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Pig 05049 : 1:1
Christien Meindertsma, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (various pagings) : chiefly ill. (chiefly color). "Concept, photography, design & illustrations, Christien Meindertsma"--title page verso. The project was exhibited in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam in 2008. 3rd printing, Oct. 2009. Includes index. "Christien Meindertsma has spent three years researching all the products made from a single pig. Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel. Meindertsma makes the subject more approachable by reducing everything to the scale of one animal. After it's death, Pig number 05049 was shipped in parts throughout the world. Some products remain close to their original form and function while others diverge dramatically. In an almost surgical way a pig is dissected in the pages of the book - resulting in a startling photo book where all the products are shown at their true scale (1:1)."--artists' website (2.4.2014) A yellow plastic tag with the title is attached to the spine of the paper book jacket. Texts in English and Dutch.
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I Sit and Sew
Lise Melhorn-Boe, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : illustrations . Limited edition of 12 copies signed and numbered by the artist. Pages sewn in fold cloth wrapper. Set in Goudy Old Style. Screen printed. "Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson's poem was published in Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets (1927)".--Cf. Colophon. "Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson's poem is in the voice of a woman, during WW1, who wishes she were doing something more active to help the soldiers, rather than sitting and sewing. The book's format is modelled on a WW1 'housewife,' a soldier's sewing kit. As it unfolds, the viewer will find sewing tools and eventually the text."--Cf. Vamp & Tramp website. Tri-fold cloth wrapper, with buttons, straight pins, safety pins, sewing needles, thread card, mounted scissors either sewn or pinned to the wrapper. Includes embroidery, mounted lace and linens. Library has copy no. 5.
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Voyagers
Catanese, Melissa; Special Collections; and Fleet Library
1 volume. 'Voyagers' consists almost entirely of anonymous black-and-white snapshots of people in various postures of reading in living rooms, on beds, at the beach, eating breakfast. We can't see what these readers are thinking, but Catanese occasionally breaks the hypnotic typological rhythm to reveal a new photographic element - a pyramid, a starry night, sunlight blindingly glowing through a window - giving us brief glimpses of the readers' potential narrative journeys. A wordless book with the size and feel of a vintage paperback found at a flea market, 'Voyagers' reminds us of the power and intimacy of our relationship to reading devices, and evokes an exotic nostalgia for our recent predigital culture. As with Catanese's prior books (Dive Dark Dream Slow [2012], Hells Hollow, Fallen Monarch [2016]), the images were judiciously selected from the collection of Peter J. Cohen, a celebrated trove of more than 20,000 vernacular photographs from the early to mid-20th century. Gathered from flea markets, dealers, and eBay, these images have been acquired, exhibited, and included in a range of major museum publications.
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On display in a gallery that no longer exists
Walker Mettling, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 36 pages. Color illustrated title page. Includes ten color risograph prints. Silkscreen cover with stitch binding. This book is a visual document of the RISD Museum 2017 Artist Fellow, Walker Mettling. It includes his drawings and observations from his time in RISD Museum (particularly storage). "I drew all the artifacts in the book with my left hand, using a superstition against handling sacred objects with your right hand (to ward off curses) as a way of trying to respect these objects." - walkermettling.tumblr.com/page/2 "Writen and drawn in January/February 2018.. Book binding by Julia Gualtieri. Screen printed at AS220 Industries in Providence RI."- colophon.
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Emissions Book
Katharine Meynell, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
pamphlet stitch variation with parchment reinforced spine, some acetate double layer pages enclose tiny ziploc bags, stitched in place; interior spreads; cover . Disturbing images and unknown substances sealed in ziploc bags suggest that the reader should be careful touching this book. Fear of disease is now associated with the pleasures of physical intimacy.
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Seas of the Moon
Katharine Meynell, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
hand sewn signatures with metallic paper hand stitched to the cover pages, book enclosed in a denim cloth slipcase; cover; title page; interior spreads. Images of the poetically named "seas" of the moon's surface are conveyed with images of parts of baby clothes, implying the relationship between the full moon and childbirth.
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Volumes (of Vulnerability)
Katharine Meynell, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
pamphlet, saddle stitch, spiral bound, accordion, portfolio, all enclosed in a metal box; front of box; covers of assorted books. Twenty artists create small bookworks focusing on the vulnerability of our current society as the clock ticks toward the year 2000. This box recreates the touring exhibition, curated by Susan Johanknecht and Katherine Meynell.
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Erotica Botanica
Catherine Michaelis, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
16 unnumbered pages : illustrations. Artist's book written, designed and created by Catherine Michaelis. Limited edition of 40 copies, signed "Catherine Alice" by the artist. "Enter the sensual Erotica Botanica through an unfolding caress of its leaf shaped pages. Delicate flowers with enticing organs float up from the folds above a bed of leaves and seed pods. Erotic verse, written by flowers and pollinators, inspires the viewer to contemplate the sexual desire of plants."--May Day Press blog, viewed 12/6/10. The deluxe edition ... has a ... wrapper with supporting top and bottom flaps and five pop-ups, (one delicately concealed in the top flap) ... There are two blue flaps inside that hold the book in at the top and bottom ... All the imagery for the book was printed from stencils I designed and cut. Except [one] flower which Billy [Michaelis's husband] made. I think this is the only stencil that was cut once. All the other stencils for the book were cut at least twice, and some (including the leaf pages) three times! There are four different flowers and they pop-up from the folds."--Vamp & Tramp website. "Hand-set type, letterpress printed over relief-printed stencils on Domestic Etching. Folded accordion style and pamphlet stitched. Enclosed in a wrapper."--Vamp & Tramp Booksellers website. Hand-cut leaves and flowers letterpress printed. The pages are 17 x 66 cm, folded to 17 x 11 cm and placed in a 4-flap paper wrapper. Four different flower pop-ups emerge from the folds of the pages, and a butterfly pop-up from the wrapper. Images are pressure prints. Library has copy no. 21.
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Duane Michals : Photographs, Sequences, Texts, 1958-1984
Duane Michals, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
104 pages : illus. (some color), ports. Catalog of an exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, December 9, 1984-February 3, 1985 and other museums. Text: Marco Livingstone ; also includes an interview with the artist. Bibliography: p. [98-100]
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Endless Bridge
Mikhail Mishin, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 80 pages. "A visual retelling of creation, Mikhail Mishin's Endless Bridge utilizes juxtapositions and stark comparisons in a narrative that spans from birth to death and back again. iPhone photos, newspaper clippings and other found materials are the vocabulary used in this book in which light is separated from dark, and order emerges from chaos, only to revert back into nothingness. Images in this book have the quality of archaeological artifacts, where the transient qualities of an inflated tarp, a light reflection on the pavement or footprint in the concrete are highlighted. We know what comes after, we see what came before. Yet these fleeting moments hold great weight in the larger context of this cycle."--Publisher's website, viewed April 25, 2019. Limited edition of 100 copies. Black on black illustration on paper cover. Perfect binding.
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Ni Queue Ni Tête
Vera Molnar, Jean-Yves Bosseur, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 folded sheet (46 unnumbered pages) : illustrations Issued in a clamshell box with paper cover label and compact disc mounted inside front cover. Includes a pamphlet with text by Jean-Yves Bosseur. Edition of 100 copies. Inkjet print on paper. Accordion book. In French. Library has copy no. 46. Purchased for Fleet Library at RISD through the Anne (MFA 92), Michael, and Amelia Spalter Fund. SEI
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Blink
Nearing Mongirdaite, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
144 unnumbered pages . Cover title. The winner from the Napa Flipbook Competition 2017 by Lithuanian artist Neringa Mongirdaite. Edition of 500 copies. Edition number from Printed Matter website. Offset printing. Perfect binding.
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Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful
Kellee Morgado, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
3 volumes : color illustrations Edition of 50. Each volume has 24 unnumbered pages, bound so that the reader can lift the center illustration to reveal a larger illustration within. The gatherings are unopened throughout, obscuring text and illustrations. In a cloth-covered portfolio, held closed with a printed paper band. "The work questions personal rituals surrounding hair, constructs associated with hair in Western culture, and the shift in value when hair is unattached to bodies. In this ongoing inquiry I explore my own experience with femininity, womanhood, my relationship with my own hair, and how it conforms to or disrupts constructed norms"--Paper band. "The third artist book of the biennial Parley Project"--Portfolio. "Offset printing on Ultra Green Film (text pages), Bugra Antique Rose (paste downs), hand set lead type (News Gothic Bold & Century Bold Italic), Hollanders starched linen book cloth (Natural/Kennett), photopolymer plates, Rising Museum board, monofilament, Arches Cream (belly band)."--Artist's website. "Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful began as an exhibition in which I explored hair as both a material and a concept through experimental printing processes. The work questions personal rituals surrounding hair, constructs associated with hair in Western culture, and the shift in value when hair is unattached to bodies. In this ongoing inquiry I explore my own experience with femininity, womanhood, my relationship with my own hair and how it conforms to or disrupts constructed norms.... This work is continued by Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful in an effort to disrupt and explore the relationship between hair that is considered valuable and hair that must be hidden, removed, and made invisible. The book includes contributions from twelve creatives in particular, but not limited to, those working with hair as a subject or material. These individuals were invited to respond to one of several prompts or to generate their own response about hair on the body. They could also choose to include an image, either found or made. These twelve writings provide thoughts and experiences surrounding hair, multiple points of access, and themes connected to hair on the body including: shame, resistance, and identity...."--inside belly band. Three pamphlet stitch booklets in portfolio with paper belly band. Library has copy no. 22. Jan Baker Fund.
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A Visit From St. Alphabet
Dave Morice, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
16 unnumbered pages : color illustrations. "Composition & rubyliths by A.B. Presswork by A.K. Poliphilus, type on Ragston. 2,000 copies in this second printing."--Title page verso St. Alphabet slides down the bookcase, fills the pages, and rides off on his "A." Title page printed in green, black, and red. Pamphlet stitch, red paper wrapper with illustration. Inscribed in pencil to Jan, from Lorraine, dated 12.1985. Gift of Jan Baker.
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A recuerdo for Ste. Ostrich
Lois Morrison, Julie Chen, Elizabeth Collins, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 object with removable objects. Title from cover. Edition of 50 numbered copies. Date of publication from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers website. House-shaped, shrine-shaped structure with front cover as doors that open to a three-dimensional scene with a movable part using pull tab and a pullout drawer containing miniature artifacts to the satirical story, a shovel and bucket of sand. Pullout drawer with artifacts and colophon. Printed letterpress on a variety of papers including paper made at Papeterie Saint-Armand.Book and artifacts made and assembled at Flying Fish Press. "A recuerdo for Ste. Ostrich was written and illustrated by Lois Morrison, with book design and paper engineering by Julie Chen. The ex-voto painting was created by Elizabeth Collins. The edition of 50 copies was letterpress printed on a variety of papers including paper made at Papeterie Saint-Armand."--Colophon. Text in English and Spanish. Book artists Lois Morrison and Julie Chen have been friends for 40 years and have worked together on three artists' book collaborations including Ste. Ostrich in Manhattan: The Visitations of a Martyr (1990) and this most recent work: A Recuredo for Ste. Ostrich. A recuerdo is a memento, here a votive offering to a saint or divinity given in gratitude or devotion. In Mexico there is a long tradition of these offerings, giving thanks for a miracle or favor. This house-shaped votive recounts several stories about Ste. Ostrich. The outside tells and shows the intercession of the Sainte when a breakdown strands a mother and daughter in the desert. Inside are a series of connected stories recounting the ostrich's saga - her unappreciated gift of sand, unappreciated first at the birth of the baby Jesus, then by the sisters in a convent, then by the people of the Mexico. All this leads to her martyrdom and subsequent beatification. As in all of Morrison's religious work, this one has an element of quirkiness and dark humor. Though this seems to be looking through the glass darkly - only gift the ostrich has is rejected by all, the ostrich breaks her neck trying to bury her head at the bottom of a swimming pool -- ultimately the positive wins out. Even the seemingly most unworthy, even the lowly ostrich who "God hath deprived.. of wisdom..[and] understanding" (Job 39: 13-17) is valuable and able to perform miracles. -- Vamp & Tramp Booksellers WWW site, viewed June 9, 2017.
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Ste. Ostrich in Manhattan: the visitations of a martyr
Lois Morrison, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations. "Ste. Ostrich ... was written and illustrated by Lois Morrison. It was designed and printed by Julie Chen with the assistance of Elizabeth McDevitt ... In an edition of 125 copies this is number: 70." Gift of Freshman Foundation. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition By Hand: Women & Books Exhibit fall, 2021.
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The Mexican Dog-Tosser
Lois Morrison, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations . Title from cover. "Gone back into with water-color and ink. Lettering is hand printed. The cover is chisel cut banana; the case, Mexican bandana ... edition of 25, This is no. 13."--Colophon. Accordion fold format with jointed figure in pocket. In cloth envelope, fastened with button.
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Reconfigured Families
Alexander Mouton, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
110 unnumbered pages : all color illustrations Title page and size of book designed in the format of a Southwest Airlines boarding pass. Edition of 25. Reconfigured Families follows the experience of one 21st century family, sometimes referred to as the "postmodern family" or even the "brave new family," through photographs that document the long-distance relationship I share with my two children who have been living in Bloomington, Indiana during the school year while I reside in Seattle, Washington. This sequence of images was made during our monthly travels to be together over the six-year period 2009--2015. During this time, I also learned of other parents who traverse geographies to juggle career and family, moving between Seattle and Hong Kong, Berlin and Bonn, Columbus, OH and Melbourne, Australia, Los Angeles and London, and Boston and Berkeley, CA, to name just a few configurations. In the image sequence that makes up the book, images of the kids are paired with a composition I photographed over and over again from a particular seat on the airplane looking out the window in various seasons, cities, times of day, and weather conditions. The juxtaposition of these images with images of the kids as they grow up brings to the fore the repetitive nature of the travel involved in our relationship. The experiences of this one reconfigured family shed light on the broader social, economic, and environmental reverberations felt throughout our ever-widening globalized culture. They also reveal the beauty and richness of urban culture and the surrounding natural environs and the tenderness of the siblings' evolving relationship. Illustrated cloth binding. Author, title, press name and date of 2020 on spine. Library has copy 10. Jan Baker Artists' Books Fund.
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50 Years: Roe v. Wade...
Greer Muldowney, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
16 unnumbered pages : color illustrations Title from cover. "Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, decided on January 22nd, 1973. The Court ruled that the constitution protected the right to have an abortion, securing choice and bodily autonomy for American women. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. nullified the precedent of Roe v. Wade on June 24th, 2022. This decision has left reproductive rights to be decided on a state by state basis, compromising the health and access on healthcare for half of the country after 49.5 years of the constitutional right to do so. The following is a musing on the shifting political and cultural icons that have had a longer liftspan than Roe v. Wade. We may want to ask ourselves why certain things have endured, and why they may not in the future."--page [2], signed by the artist. Pagination includes cover.
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Saluti E Baci
Bruno Munari, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
93 pages illustrations (some color). Block notes. A collection of photographic postcard images which have been altered by interpolating and transposing geometric figures or parts of the same or other photographs. Text in Italian and English. Translated by Isobel Butters. Cover has a cut-out window with a piece of string "coming" out of the window of the postcard reproduced on the title page. Library has 3rd reprint, 2005. Signatures glued into paper cover. Gift of Jan Baker.
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Bernoulli Equation for unsteady potential flow
Amandine Nabarra-Piomelli, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 sewn book in slipcase. Title from colophon. Edition of 40 numbered and signed copies. Bernoulli's equation for unsteady potential flow in Greek symbols above title on colophon and on first leaf. "This book visually and tactilely mimics the action of a body in water. The Bernoulli equation for unsteady potential flow (named for Daniel Bernoulli, 18th-century Dutch-Swiss mathematician is used, among other places, in the theory of ocean surface waves and acoustics."--Artist's website. Artist's book by Amandine Nabarra-Piomelli, comprised of a sequence of strips of photos which represents the nature and meaning of water, traditionally associated with the qualities of emotion and intuition. Book is constructed in a palm leaf structure, sewn with thread through the body of the book, intended to be manipulated to allow pages to fall. The wavy patterns of each strip, as well as the book as a whole when extended, suggest the flow of waves on the surface of the ocean, described in mathematical theory by Bernoulli's equation for unsteady potential flow. "Digital pigment prints on Epson Premium Luster Paper, 2008"--Colophon. "A nine photo series of bodies in water that when held in a hand can flow in the other or can behave like waves"--Artist's statement from Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, website. In box (29 x 18 x 4.5 cm), green paper throughout, magnetized closing-clasp. Box has equation printed on cover.
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Tempus Fugit
Amandine Nabarra-Piomelli, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 circular flexagon : color illustrations ; 20 cm in diameter. "While watching clouds that were passing over the port of Genoa (Italy) I was inspired to create this artist's book. In the midst of thoughts about nature's forces and movements, tragic events in my life let me take stock of my existence. The movement of clouds creates an unpredictable and mysterious energy that colors our thoughts. In this atmospheric energy I found the strength to contemplate my past and imagine my future. I even glanced at my horoscope to counter nostalgia, sadness and anxiety about my destiny. These coded messages, sometimes prophetic, often funny, became my travel companions. As clouds and astrological predictions came and went, I found a new equilibrium that enabled me to envision my new life"--Colophon. "An artist's book creates a space to tell a story. To the question 'how to represent clouds?' I constructed a three dimensional structure that turns and eddies on itself while embodying a visual tale. Like a book, the structure opens to allow a linear reading of the photographs and texts.. Vellum, bristol, Mohab Entrada, brass"--Colophon. A vellum flexagon structure with color printed Mohab Entrada paper and brass, board, ribbon and magnet closure. When closed, the flexagon forms a circle. Twelve circular cards are attached to the inside of the structure, one for each month of the year. The cards are printed with reproductions of photographs of clouds on one side and horoscope texts on the other. A paper and board title label is attached to the outside of the flexagon. Issued in a clamshell box of glossy-white-paper-covered boards with magnetic closure. Paper title label attached to box lid. The box is lined with blue paper, with a signed and numbered colophon sheet attached. The flexagon rests inside the box underneath the colophon sheet.
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The Killing Machine, Kosovo 1999
Louise Odes Neaderland, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
4 pages : all ill. Title from cover. Photocopies mounted on a leaf of folded red paper.
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The Nuclear Fan
Louise Odes Neaderland, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
10 leaves : chiefly color ill.. Paper fan in paper sleeve. Sleeve has a red tassle looped and tied from the base. Title from sleeve.
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Trump Circus
Louise Odes Neaderland, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
2 unnumbered pages : color illustrations, portraits. Paper cover sleeve with cut-out windows. Two sheets of illustrations designed to slide in and out of the sleeve. Edition of 24 numbered and signed by the artist. "Artist ... Neaderland responds to the Trump presidency: a cage-like sleeve provides frames for images of Trump, clowns, and wild animals as two interchangable viewing cards slip through the structure."--Vampandtramp.com (distributor's website).
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Complexities
Bea Nettles, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
perfect bound with soft cover; cover; interior pages. With each photograph, the artist recounts stories revealing the complexities of her life as a mother, artist, and professor and the balancing act it requires to play all those roles.
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Flamingo in the Dark
Bea Nettles, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
case bound in hard cover, foil stamped cover text; cover; interior pages. A series of complex layered photo montages in color.
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Mountain Dream Tarot: 78 photographic cards
Bea Nettles, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
printed cards in cardboard box with printed instruction accordion fold booklet; cover; cards. A set of 78 photographic Tarot cards.
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Seasonal Turns: four accordion books
Bea Nettles, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
4 accordion fold books, enclosed in a plastic box; cover; four small books; three accordion books; two interior spreads . The four seasons are depicted through images of nature and human interactions with it.
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A Hypothetical Analysis of the Twinkle in Stars: (as told by a child to a teacher)
Katherine Ng, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 art work : color illustration. Consists of a single sheet of paper (5 x 64 cm.) folded into a pentagonal shape (9 cm.) that stores five folded paper colored stars (1-2 cm.) permanently constructed in the same manner. "Book structure based on the wishing stars (lucky stars) from Hong Kong. Handset in Centaur, letterpress printed on Mohawk"--Colophon. Library has copy 92 of 100. Initialed by the author. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition By Hand: Women & Books Exhibit fall, 2021.
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Silty Loam
Sara Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume (unnumbered) : illustrations "Brain Washing from Phone Towers" informational pamphlets series. Cover title. Edition of 250. Limited edition statement from artist's website, viewed May 9, 2023. Letterpress and relief printing on paper. Pamphlet stitch binding; accordion fold out; printed paper covers. "Silty Loam looks at all the different ways food can be grown in an urban environment, and why one might want to. Today, agriculture largely is practiced in isolation from the places where the majority of the population lives and works, and there is very little direct engagement of people with the land that provides the means for their survival. Rural and urban are perceived as polar opposites, in similar kinds of ways that nature and manmade are held as separate concepts. Silty Loam looks at all the different ways city residents have pushed back against this, including community gardens, community land trusts, and rooftop gardens. "-- https://www.sarahnicholls.com/portfolio/silty-loam/ "Brain Washing From Phone Towers is a series of informative and entertaining Informational Pamphlets produced by hand on a seasonal basis. These small-scale publications combine text (handset in metal type) and image (carved in wood or linoleum) produced via obsolete technology in editioned works which are distributed at will to a chosen audience. The content of the series aims for historical interest, commemorative intent and a healthy dose of humor, and the distribution methods are based on the values of the gift economy."--Provided by artist Brown paper cover with printer's ornaments printed in patterns in blue and gold.
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Flyway
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume 8 pages. "Second in a series of three about Jamaica Bay. Edition of 200. Printed letterpress from metal type and lino blocks in July & August 2017"--Colophon. Four folded sheets (24 x 30 cm) lift-up from the printed text pages to reveal large, color illustrations. "Brain Washing from Phone Towers, Informational pamphlets, Summer 2017, New York City, Sarah Nicholls, pamphleteer"--Page [4] of cover. Accordion fold binding.
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Fresh Creek
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 folded leaf, 20 pages . "The last pamphlet of 2019 is about: transportation networks, bicycling in the city, the Jamaica Bay Greenway, landfills, Robert Moses, how to get where you need to go, Starrett City and their seaside view, and finally, the Shirley Chisholm State Park out in East New York. It follows a bike ride that I took last fall that I particularly enjoyed."-- artists' website.
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Glasshouse
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume, 40 pages. ".. printed in an edition of 35 in the fall of 2016 from wood, metal, and plastic on a Vandercook Universal III housed at the Center for Book Arts, New York. Papers used are Sakamoto Heavy, Thai Kozo, and Zerkyll Ingres. Studio support for the development of the edition was also provided by Guttenberg Arts in NJ. Polymer plates were made by Boxcar Press in Syracuse, NY." -- Colophon. Limited edition of 35 copies; numbered and signed by Sarah Nicholls. Pamphlet stich binding; in two gatherings, attached to the heavy purple paper cover. Issued in a blue cloth covered clamshell case, print with title mounted to case cover. "'Glasshouse' is a limited edition artist book that looks at the history of greenhouses, a technology made to cultivate foreign plants in a controlled environment, originally in service to empire."--artist's website.
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Homesteading for the Urban Coyote
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 sheet folded to 5 pages. Edition of 250. "Fall 2018 NYC"--page [4] of cover. Letterpress and linoleum (linocut) block prints on paper folded accordion style and sewn into printed cardstock cover with pamphlet stitch.
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Intertidal
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
20 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; Brain washing from phone towers informational pamphlets. Title from cover. "Printed in an edition of 200 from linoleum blocks and handset metal type during the fall of 2017. Third in a series of three on the history, ecology, and communities around Jamaica Bay."--page [2] of cover. Continuous illustrations on each side of the folded sheet. Accordion fold binding, text hand sewn into cover. "Brain Washing from Phone Towers, Informational pamphlets, Fall 2017, New York City, Sarah Nicholls, pamphleteer"--Page 4 of cover. Library has copy no. 72, initialed by the artist.
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Make the earth say beans
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 volume. Cover title [Edition of 250] Linoleum cut and letterpress prints on paper. Do-si-do binding, instant book format, that unfolds to reveal additional text and illustrations. Enclosed in printed, paper cover. "Brain Washing From Phone Towers is a series of informative and entertaining Informational Pamphlets produced by hand on a seasonal basis."--Provided by artist. "Summer 2019 NYC"--back cover.
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Plant out of Place
Sarah Nicholls, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
1 folded leaf . Cover title. "A special publication from Brain Washing from Phone Towers Information Pamphlets"--page [4] of cover. "Spring 2019 NYC" Pamphlet stitch, interior is printed on single folded sheet. Metal type and linocut printing.