The MFA Writing students in the Art of the Book seminar last Spring were challenged by Matvei Yankelevich to create their own artists books. More than just text on paper, artists books use technique, materials and structure – images as well as words – to express their content.

The book above is Richard Quigley's Monstress, printed on a laser printer using a simple variation on an accordion structure to bring together poetry and images.

Meg Matich's Goldbeating uses Thai handmade papers (the covers are gilded paper). The photopolymer plates with the text  were printed by hand rather than letterpress on the delicate papers, with a rough result very suitable to the text.

For The SuperHero Book, Catherine Kirch used rubber stamps and translucent paper to express two related texts in a dos-a-dos binding structure. The flip-side pamphlet is on display along with the rest of the books by the class in the exhibition cases on the west side of the third floor of Butler Library (to the right of the circulation desk) until the end of the Spring semester. Check them all out and pick your favorites!

Exhibition: Art of the Book

Butler Library, 3rd Floor west side cases

November 2013 – May 2014