BookTalk with May Castleberry: Artists’ Books for MoMA’s Library Council
Please join us on January 22 at Center for Book Arts for an in-person BookTalk at 6.30pm with May Castleberry. May Castleberry will present a small selection of the many artist’s book projects she edited and produced to benefit the Whitney Museum Library between 1984 and 2000 and the Archives, Library, and Research Collections of The Museum of Modern Art, since 2000. This talk for the CBA will focus on the bookbinders, printers, designers, paper cutters and other makers who helped shape each project. The books to be discussed include: The Magic Magic Book by author and sleight of hand artist Ricky Jay, with contributions by Vija Celmins, Jane Hammond, Glenn Ligon, Justen Ladda, Philip Taaffe, and William Wegman (Whitney Museum, 1992); Coisa Linda by Beatriz Milhazes (MoMA, 2022) The Island of Rota, by Abelardo Morell, Ted Muehling, and Oliver Sacks (MoMA, 2012); From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia, by Tomás Saraceno (MoMA, 2022); and Um Poema Desenhada, by Sonia Gomes, a work in progress to be published in 2024.
This is part of Center for Book Arts ongoing BookTalk series—presentations related to the book arts curated and moderated by CBA Instructor Roni Gross.
May Castleberry, has been editor of the Contemporary Editions series published by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art since 2000. Between 1984 and 2000, she was librarian at the Whitney Museum as well as editor of a series of limited edition artist’s books that brought together original art and new writing. At the Whitney and elsewhere, she organized numerous exhibitions focused on books, photographs, and works on paper. By way of her library and book-focused education, she received an M.S. in Library Service from Columbia University in 1978 (with a thesis on artist’s books inspired by many visits to the MoMA Library) and took weekend classes at the Center for Book Arts and the Dieu Donné Paper Mill. in the 1980s. She continues to learn about artist’s books by visiting collections of rare books, artist’s books, prints, and photographs whenever possible. She recommends attendees of this talk visit library collections that are free and open to most students and serious researchers who book an appointment. To name a few favorites: MoMA’s Archives, Library, and Research Collections;, the Whitney Museum Library; the New York Public Library’s Spencer Collection; the Metropolitan Museum Library, New York; Princeton University Library Special Collections, the Bienecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven; and The Getty Center Library, Los Angeles.
