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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Ornatvs ecclsiasticvs : hoc est compendivm praecipvarvm rervm, qvibvs qvaevis rite decenterqve compositae ecclesiae exornari, ac redimiri debent: omnibus ecclesiarum praelatis & rectoribus, pr totam ratisbonensem dioecesin cum primus necessarium, latinè & germanic̀, adiectis etiam quarundam supellectilium figuris / conscriptum a Iacobo Myllero ...
Jacob Müller, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
2 volumes in 1 ([16] pages, 143 pages ; [8] pages, 168 pages : woodcut decorations and illustrations. Second volume has separate paging and signatures, and separate title page with title: Kirchen Geschmuck, das ist, Kurtzer Begriff der fürnembsten Dingen, damit ein jede recht vnd wol zugerichte Kirchen geziert vnd auffgebutzt seyn solle : allen Prelaten vnd Pfarrherren durch das gantze Bistumb Regenspurg sehr notwendig / in Lateinischer vnd Teutscher Sprache, sambt beygesetzten etlichen schönen Figuren, beschrieben durch Herrn Jacob Müllern ... Illustrations (in German text only): 42 prints : woodcut ; image 41 x 30 cm (1), 19 x 29 cm (1)--and full-page (23) or smaller. Some apparently printed from multiple blocks; Lipperheide (1st ed., no. 1798) records 72 prints (14 full-page). Some full-page illustrations printed within type flower borders. Vignette on title pages: 2 prints from 1 block : woodcut ; image 11 x 16 cm. Signed with monogram IN. Subject: Arms of the dedicatee, Phillip of Bavaria, Bishop of Regensburg. -- Historiated and floriated initials; tailpieces. Signatures: A-B⁴ A-²S⁴ Title vignette; initials; borders; frames. Vellum binding. Each volume printed with an index or table of contents. In Latin and German. The 2 folded leaves of plates are on a sheet signed "P" (paged 113)--and a half-sheet signed "R" (paged 122), respectively. Paper label on front end page: Ex Libris, Franz Xaver Zettler, Muenchen. Re-sewn into binding? Writing on spine is upside down from text. Purchased in 1946 from the Metcalf Fund. Library accession no. 46-58. In library made cloth-covered slipcase.
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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.