Resources → Places
Artist’s Book Library Collections
ACA Library
Savannah College of Arts and Design
Savannah, GA, USA
SCAD Libraries in Atlanta have a collection of over 2,300 artists’ books. SCAD’s collection contains unique works by individual artists as well as small editions and items from fine arts presses. The collection is unusual in its variety; it includes works from more than 1,000 artists and has a deep holding of books ranging from the 1960s through contemporary works. Of particular note is a large collection of Nexus Press books produced right here in Atlanta from 1978-2003.
Artexte
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Artexte’s collection documents the visual arts since 1965 with a particular focus on practices from Canada and Quebec. You will find various types of publications, including over 1000 artists’ books, 8000 artist files as well as ephemera such as posters, pamphlets, invitation cards, press clippings and visual documentation. These documents reflect a distinct interest in critical approaches to creativity, exhibition, research and interpretation in the visual arts.
Artexte’s catalogue and digital repository e-artexte is available online: e-artexte.ca.
The Athenaeum’s Erika & Fred Torri Artists’ Books Collection
Athenaeum Music and Arts Library
La Jolla, CA, USA
Collection consists of close to 2,000 books. The mission of the collection was established with a focus on regional artists and presses and on artists who emphasized art and/or music in their works, and to add certain additional genres or presses from time to time which seemed important to the depth of the collection.
Baylor University Book Arts Collection
Baylor University
Waco, TX, USA
The Baylor Book Arts Collection began in 2007, with the acquisition of a collection of works by artist Maddy Rosenberg. Since that time, the collection has grown to nearly 1400 hundred items representing many artists and presses. The collection includes works in nearly every genre of artist’s book from single page construction to elaborate and complex structures. Fine press examples include partnerships between artists, poets, and presses, resulting in exquisite examples of the physical book.
Columbus College of Art and Design
Columbus, OH, USA
Collection of artists’ books includes examples of democratic multiples, fine press books, livres d’artiste and sculptural books. It also includes reference works about artists’ books.
Corcoran Artists’ Books Collection
George Washington University
Washington, DC, USA
The Art & Design Collection from the Corcoran contains over 300 artists’ books focusing broadly on the theme of social justice. The artists’ books collection serves as a teaching collection in support of the the Corcoran School’s Art and the Book program.
Crossett Library
Bennington College
Bennington, VT, USA
Listed subjects include: Abecedarian, Architecture, Artistic Process, Bennington Faculty, Books / Libraries / Archives, Cities, Collaborations / Projects, Color, Education, Environment, Exhibitions, Family, Food, Gender, History, Human Rights, Humor, Identity, Incarceration / Judicial, Journals / Notebooks, Literature, Loss / Mourning, Maps, Media, Migration / Borders, Multilingual, Music, Natural History, Nautical, Photography, Philosophy, Poetry, Police, Protest / Activism, Postal / Mail, Puppets, Race, Relationships, Ruscha Redux, Science, Sexuality, Shapes, Text Design / Typography, Textiles / Sewing, Time, Water, Wordless.
David M. Rubenstein Rare and Manuscript Library
Duke University
Durham, NC, USA
The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of Duke’s Rubenstein Library, has been collecting artists’ books since 1998, and currently holds over 350 artists’ books by women about gender issues. It has been argued that a book published through traditional means—along with the ideology of authorship implied by these conventions—is an inherently patriarchal object. These artists’ books by women can be viewed as a means of subverting established concepts of power and order. The Bingham Center’s collection of artists’ books by women documents how women artists use the book format to address issues of gender. Whether self-published or issued by small presses, this artistic format can combine the crafts of papermaking, typography, and bookbinding with each artist’s unique sensibility and artistic vision.
Deninson University Archives and Special Collections
Deninson University
Granville, OH, USA
Subjects listed: fine arts, social sciences, natural sciences, humanities.
Franklin and Marshall College Library
Franklin and Marshall College
Fairfax, VA, USA
Franklin & Marshall College Library began collecting artists’ books–Books As Art as opposed to books about art or on artists–in a deliberate way in 2006. In nearly every sense the books comprise a teaching collection, the exception being the inclusion of books that relate to institutional identity. “Successful” artists’ books have good marriages of form and (often-conceptual) content. The library’s collection represents many such unions. And every work relates to the interdisciplinary nature of liberal arts education in some way. Associated areas of collecting include artists’ book scholarship and technique books. Both types enable students to incorporate the genre into their own academic and studio practices.
George Mason University Library
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA, USA
Mason Libraries own over 300 artists’ books, from handmade objects to more traditionally-printed photobooks. The collection is housed in the Special Collections Research Center at Fenwick Library on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The artists’ book collection at Mason continues to grow, with several areas of collection strength: Book artists from the D.C./Northern Virginia/Maryland region Books by and about women and women-identifying artists Social justice and activism, including environmental justice
Robert B. Haas Family Library
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
Has Artists’ Books Collection
Arts of the Book Collection is a non-circulating collection that includes examples of and material relating to the book and its attendant arts: binding, typography, illustration, book design, paper making, and the history of the book. The special collections also include archival materials and thesis projects from the Schools of Art, Architecture, and Drama.
Harvard University Fine Arts Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, USA
Artists’ books are art works created in a wide variety of print media and issued in all types of book formats. Artists’ books have been an important part of the Library’s collections since the 1960s. Our collection features works from artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Piero Manzoni, Hanne Darboven, the German collaborative Unica T, Ed Ruscha and Rebecca Horn. We collect parodies like Joe Zane’s versions of Parkett and artists’ magazines like Scott Hug’s K48. We have a strong selection of gay and feminist artists’ books as well as books created by artists associated with Lettrism and Fluxus. These items run the entire range of artistic expression from the abstract and the conceptual to the personal and the political and originate from all over the U.S. and Europe.
Hunt Library, Fine Arts and Special Collections
Carnegie Mellon
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
The Artists’ Books Collection is housed in the Arts Library and the Fine and Rare Book Room at Hunt Library and now in its third decade of development, currently containing over 1,000 works. The collection has evolved into a viable tool for teaching, research and exhibitions as a component to the curriculums of The College of Fine Arts, BXA and to others across disciplines on campus, locally, regionally and nationally who are drawn to the diversity of ideas, themes and formats characterized by the collection. The Carnegie Mellon collection includes works from the exquisitely crafted original to the cheap copy: book sculptures, flip-books, sound works, “virtual installations”, matchbooks, books you can’t “open”, revealing diaries, activist manuals, interactive postcards, and poetic metamorphoses, to name a few. Most of the works date from 1980 to the present, with some prime examples from the 1960s and 1970s. We collect artists’ books from many sources, including individual international artists and established artist book distributors and publishers as well as works by students, faculty and alumni of Carnegie Mellon.
Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library
Cleveland Institute of Art
Cleveland, OH, USA
The Institute’s nationally recognized collection of artists’ books contains more than 1700 books from the 1960s to the present, and is international in scope. The collection is especially strong in early conceptual artists’ books and contains many of the most historically significant books of this genre, including Edward Ruscha’s seminal Twentysix Gasoline Stations plus an additional 13 books by Ruscha spanning his long career. Other important classics include Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler…(known as the “Xerox Book”), John Baldassari’s Brutus Killed Caesar, Michael Snow’s Cover to Cover, and Sol Lewitt’s Autobiography. The collection also includes artists who have focused more on the book’s physical characteristics, such as Emily Martin, Keith A. Smith, and Brian Dettmer. In total, the collection reflects the history of this dynamic art form since the genre’s emergence in the second half of the 20th century.
John Hay Library
Brown University
Providence, RI, USA
Includes multiple collections relating to the history of bookmaking and printing.
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Columbia University
New York, NY, USA
The Book Arts Collection is both a major collection of examples of fine printing and book illustration, and a collection of books about various phases of bookmaking and related subjects. The collection of type specimens is one of the best in this country. Book Arts was established in 1938, and contains over 15,000 volumes. The older part of the collection is shelved in Dewey classification. In 1975, we switched to a slightly-modified Library of Congress classification.
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Libraries
Emory University
Atlanta, GA, USA
Modern and contemporary art are also represented by our broad collection of artist and fine press books which include productions by such noted artists as Sol Lewitt, Philip Ruscha, Tracey Emin and Gilbert & George.
Herron School of Art & Design, Herron Art Library
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
West Lafayette, IN, USA
The Herron Art Library has approximately 400 fine press and artists’ books in the collection, including several books by prominent book artists Julie Chen, Rebecca Goodale, Lois Morrison, Carol Schwartzot, Bonnie Stahlecker, Karen Baldner, and Paul Brown.
Jannes Library
Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City, MO, USA
Collection includes over 100 artists’ books.
Brooklyn Campus Library
Long Island University
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Within the library’s Special Collections at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University resides a collection of over 400 artists’ books. Initiated in 1997, this collection contains the work of local, regional and national contemporary artists working in the book form.
Hill Memorial Library, Special Collections
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Over 1000 items in the collection related to artists’ books, including a collection of artists’ books.
Decker Library
Maryland Institute College of Art
Baltimore, MD, USA
The Decker Library Book Arts Collection is a teaching collection of unique, limited-edition artists’ books and fine press editions. Authors include nationally and internationally renowned artists, and among them are MICA alumni, faculty, and staff. Purchase of these materials has been made possible in part by the Elizabeth Shannahan McShane Book Endowment Fund and the Friends of the Library. The expanding collection of 800+ items is available for study by individuals and class groups.
Murray Library Artists’ Books Collection
Messiah University
Mechanicsburg, PA, USA
Murray Library has a fine collection of more than 100 Artists’ books—simply defined as books created as works of art. These books are not only fascinating and often feasts for the eyes, but also they challenge the notion of what “book” means. Included in the collection are books created by Messiah faculty members, Christine Forsythe and Kathy Hettinga.
Massachusetts College of Art and Design Library
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Boston, MA, USA
There are over 300 artists’ books housed at the MassArt Library. Among the artists represented in our collection are Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Sol Lewitt, Andy Warhol, Allan Kaprow, Bruce Nauman, Michael Kirby, Robert Smithson, Christo, Angela Lorenz, Tamara Oppenheimer, Laura Davidson, Stephanie Stigliano, Julie Chen, and Laurie Anderson.
Center for the Book
Mills College
Oakland, CA, USA
The Fine Press Collection consists of fine and private press, limited edition, and artists’ books, including examples of unique books, and ephemera. The collection is especially strong in books written or made by women and local artists. Fine press bibliographies, exhibition catalogues for fine press printers, book artists, the book arts, and printing history are well represented. The collection includes books and broadsides by students from the Mills College Book Art Program. The bookbinding collection consists of approximately 250 examples of different types of bindings, illustrating technical, artistic, and historical features. Includes some unique bindings by important bookbinders such as Rose Adler, Paul Bonet, and Henri Creuzevault.
Clarence Ward Art Library
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH, USA
Approximately 1,200 titles in the collection.
Millard Sheets Library
Otis College of Art and Design
Los Angeles, CA, USA
The collection of artists’ books at Otis College of Art and Design began and grew significantly during the 1960s and 1970s due largely to the efforts of librarian Joan Hugo, a recognized expert in the field. The Otis Library’s current collection is approximately 2,500 works. Among the holdings are books by important contemporary artists such as Ed Ruscha and Joseph Beuys as well as work by recent graduates of MFA programs in the book arts such as Sarah Bryant and Daniel Mellis.
Brooklyn Campus Library
Pratt Institute
Brooklyn, NY, USA
The Artists’ Books collection encompasses books crafted, published, produced, or altered by an artist, including works resulting from an artist’s collaboration with artist-run organizations, colleges, universities, galleries, and museums. The collection also includes non-book works that represent a conceptual renegotiation of the traditional book form. In general, the artists books we collect have been conceived as artworks in their own right and produced in open or limited editions, as well as democratic multiples.
Reed College Special Collections and Archives Library
Reed College
Portland, OR, USA
The artists’ book collection holds significant works of 20th century and contemporary book arts. The spectrum of books in the collection include traditional letterpress printed books of poetry, conceptual book works, sculptural and visual works, and concrete poetry.
Fleet Library, Special Collections
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, RI, USA
The Library’s collection of artists’ books, now numbering over 1,400, began in the mid 1960’s with the acquisition of several inexpensive early “multiples” created by Fluxus inspired artists, conceptual artists, and photographers. Books by George Maciunas, Dick Higgins, Dieter Rot, Emmett Williams, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Ed Ruscha were among those early titles, many of which were printed offset in black and white and staple bound.
Eventually, books were added to the collection which were more hand-crafted, using traditional printing and printmaking techniques such as letterpress (hand set lead and wooden type), woodcut, linocut, silkscreen, etching, monoprint and photogravure processes. Many books were hand bound in small “Chap Book” or Fine Press editions, which reproduced the poetry or writing of a well known author.
Many artists began writing their own content, using the book form as a vehicle to convey their ideas with integrated text, image, structure, and materials, creating highly crafted “artisan” books. Books by artists such as Walter Hamady (Perishable Press); Julie Chen (Flying Fish Press); Angela Lorenz; Ruth Laxson (Press 63+); Women’s Studio Workshop Press and many more can be found in our collection. Artists also use handmade paper or other unusual materials and movable elements to create more sculptural book structures that relate physically with the content. These can be found in the work of Carol Barton (Popular Kinetics Press); Judith Hoffman; and Sandra Lopez.
Alfred R. Goldstein Library
Ringling College of Art and Design
Sarasota, FL, USA
The collections namely consist of artists’ books and photo-bookworks from the 1960s to the present; illustrated books and periodicals from the 1700s forward; historic and contemporary prints and printed matter from the 1450s forward; specialty archives and collections; and a new institutional archive. You’ll find: broadsides, campus materials, democratic multiples, documentation of time-based and performance projects, engravings, exhibition publications, experimental writing, fine press books, flip books, handmade editions, historic facsimiles, parlor toys, photographs, pop-up books, prints, rare books, zines, and more.
Cary Graphic Arts Collection
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY, USA
The Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT Libraries is one of the world’s premier libraries on graphic communication history and practices. Our growing library holds over 45,000 volumes and over 130 archival collections.
Rutgers University Library, Special Collections and University Archives
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ, USA
The Book Arts, Artists and Press Books collections comprise Artists’ Books, the artistic output and archives of individual book artists and illustrators, examples of fine press books and broadsides: paintings of Al Blaustein; papercuts, drafts and slides by the artist Béatrice Coron; archival material, books, proofs and broadsides from Morris Gelfand’s Stone House Press; Suellen Glashausser artists’ books and archives; calligraphy and archives of Frances Manola; prints and paintings by Clare Romano and John Ross; drawings, drafts, lettering and architectural drawings by Ben Shahn, and etchings by Bernarda Bryson Shahn. Holdings also include press books and miniature books.
Ella Strong Denison Library, Rare Book Room
Scripps College
Claremont, CA, USA
The Scripps College Press Collection includes books, broadsides, bookplates, and bindings produced by students from 1941 to the present.
Lucy Scribner Library, Special Collections
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY, USA
Works from over 100 artists and 300 titles are represented in this collection.
Mortimer Rare Book Collection
Smith College
Northampton, MA, USA
Book Arts Collection, which covers all aspects of historical and contemporary book arts, including examples of illustration types, modern fine press books and artists’ books, collections of bookplates, a modest assortment of fore-edge paintings, and a large collection of primarily twentieth-century American decorated cloth bookbindings. The Mortimer Rare Book Collection also collects objects related to the history of the book.
Hilton C. Buley Library
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT, USA
The Artists’ Book Collection at Buley Library is a special collection of approximately 125 unique and limited edition books, representing the range of contemporary practice in the field of artists’ books today. Students, classes, faculty, staff, as well as individuals and community groups are all welcome to visit the collection. The collection is shown by appointment.
Stanford Libraries
Stanford University
Stanford, CA, USA
The special collections include aritsts books.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Williamstown, MA, USA
The Artists’ Books collection includes over 4400 titles that represent a wide range of creative activity dating from the 1960s to the present, including works by seminal conceptual artists.
McCabe Library, Rare Book Room
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, PA, USA
Swarthmore College is home to a vibrant and continually growing collection of contemporary artists’ books. The collection, with over 6,000 items dating back to 1540, is cataloged and available in Tripod. The Book Arts and Private Press Collection is committed to the acquisition of fine printing and artists’ books, and strives to represent all aspects of the physical book including bookbinding, typography, letterpress and offset printing, hand papermaking, illustration, and book design. Housed in the Rare Book Room in McCabe Library, this collection currently contains examples from nearly 1,000 different presses, from historically significant presses like Kelmscott Press, Doves Press, the Roycrofters, Nonesuch Press, and Golden Cockerel Press, to the works of important contemporary book artisits such as Tia Blassingame, Islam Aly, Russell Maret, Maureen Cummins, Xu Bing, and Donald Glaister.
The Special Collections Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ, USA
The University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections provides primary research materials chiefly in the fields of Literature, Arizona and Southwestern History, and the Sciences.
Langson Library, Special Collections and Archives
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA, USA
We are actively building a collection of artists’ books dating from the 1960s to the present (more than 700 volumes to date, most of them published after 1990), encompassing nearly all aspects of the genre from “normal” published works to altered, sculptural, painted, and unique books. The collection has three major foci: works that explore gender and sexuality; works that engage contemporary American politics; and works produced in Latin American countries or by Latina/o artists.
Arts Library
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA, USA
The UCLA Libraries’ holdings of artists’ books include over 1,000 editions and unique works, ranging from fine press editions to sculptural and dynamic books with movable parts, to newly imagined forms and definitions of what a book can be and how its message can be conveyed.
Tomás Rivera Library, Special Collections Department
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA, USA
The artist’s book collection includes works by important 20th century figures including visual artists like Dieter Roth, Sol LeWitt, Robert Heinecken, Mel Bochner; performance artists like Alan Kaprow, La Monte Young, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, Michael Snow; and photographers ranging from Ansel Adams and Edward Weston to Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, and William Wegman. The collection has over 20 books by Southern California artist Ed Ruscha and several from his Los Angeles-based contemporaries, including Barbara Kruger and John Baldessari.
Arts Library (and Special Collections)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
The Hobart O. Skofield Printers Collection contains more than 30,000 volumes and over 80 manuscript collections related to the history of the book, printing, and book arts. The emphasis of the printed collections includes California presses, artists’ books, fine printing, bindings, papermaking, the history of the book, writing and printing, typography, bookplates, and miniature books.
Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
Chicago, IL, USA
Special collections includes artists’ books, reference works, and other materials related to book arts.
Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
Chicago, IL, USA
Special collections includes artists’ books, reference works, and other materials related to book arts.
Norlin Library, Special Collections
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, CO, USA
Over 1500 items in the special collections related to artists’ books.
Morris Library, Special Collections
University of Delaware
Newark, DE, USA
The book arts collection in Special Collections offers many examples of significant and innovative developments in printing history, technology and design. Holdings include material relating to the history of the book, fine press books; material relating to the history and technology of letterpress printing and bookbinding, from traditional fine binding to contemporary fine press books; and extensive collections of ephemera, manuscripts, and archival materials relating to printing, papermaking, and the book arts. Special Collections holds a significant collection of artists books, dating from the 1960s to the present. Many well-known book artists and publishers are represented as are a variety of styles and materials.
Special Collections, University of Georgia Library
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA
The Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, part of UGA Libraries Special Collections, has an extensive collection of artists’ books, used by researchers in Art, Literature, Textiles, and other fields. The UGA Main Library houses collections in fine arts, history of books and bookmaking that include supporting materials on artists’ books and book arts in general.
Special Collections, University of Iowa Library
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA, USA
The University of Iowa Special Collections is home to over 4,500 artists’ books, in addition to examples of papermaking, calligraphy and lettering arts—from early manuscripts to contemporary artists, and fine press printing. The collection spans a wide range—tiny books (less than three inches high!) to extra-large volumes and broadside prints—and includes important examples by Claire Van Vliet, Hedi Kyle, Jan Voss, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse, Andy Warhol, Tia Blassingame, Julie Chen, Russell Maret, Emily Martin, Louise Bourgeois, Carolee Schneeman, and Patty M. Smith, among others. Book Arts at The University of Iowa Special Collections encompasses all of the following: Artists’ books, Book works, Bookbinding, Broadside prints, Calligraphy and lettering arts, Fine Press Printing, Print Ephemera, Zines.
Little Fine Arts Library
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY, USA
The collection at the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library has a wide-ranging variety of shapes and sizes, some more book-like than others. We have an emphasis on books that are 3-dimensional or have a sculptural quality, collecting objects that can be displayed in our display cases at the Little Library, which were provided by the Donovan Trust at the University of Kentucky for this purpose.
Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY, USA
Collection of handmade and fine press books.
Art, Architecture & Engineering Library, Special Collections
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Highlights of the collection include examples from Julie Chen’s Flying Fish Press, Ben Denzer’s 20 Slices, a large collection of Latin American artists’ books, as well as books from Printed Matter, Nexus Press, and Coracle Press. We also collect monographs and periodicals related to artists’ books, such as The Journal of Artists Books, Uppercase, and subscriptions to the work of the Women’s Studio Workshop and Primary Information. The collection is particularly strong with works by Michigan artists.
Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Manuscript collections at the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections shed light on the political, economic, social and cultural history of New Mexico and also contain materials relating to the greater Southwest, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America.
Robert Frost Library
Amherst College
Amherst, MA, USA
Supplementing a large collection in the Library’s open stacks of multiples and small-press artists’ books, Archives and Special Collections holds some more elaborate and delicate bookworks. Special strengths include pioneering works of visual literature, especially material related to the Fluxus movement and one of its eminent participants, Geoff Hendricks, Class of 1953.
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection (JFABC) digital library is an online guide and finding aid for the rich collection of artists’ publications available in Flaxman Library Special Collections. The JFABC brings together close to ten thousand artists’ publications in all formats and media including: books, zines, multiples, video and audio recordings, digital works, periodicals, and other intimate works of art created by artists of local, national, and international significance. Focusing on materials published from the 1960s to the present, it is complemented by collections of reference works and exhibition catalogues to support in-depth research on artists’ publishing.
Columbia College Chicago College Archives and Special Collections
Columbia College Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
The Focused Collections Book Room features printed contemporary and research rare works in published and serial formats in three collecting areas: 1) Typography: individuals’ work on typefaces and fonts and interpretations of alphabet letters and numbers; 2) Photography: limited edition publications and photobook publications; and 3) Design: examples of innovative ways to create visual identity focusing on promotional design to create public awareness of services or products and works of art in book form.
Sherman Art Library
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, USA
The Art Special Collection includes artists’ books, facsimiles, catalogue raisonnes, brittle books, and other rare items.
Joanne Waxman Library
Maine College of Art
Portland, ME, USA
455 titles that include artists’ books and zines.
Princeton University Library Special Collections
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ, USA
The Graphic Arts Collection began in 1940, when Elmer Adler brought his collection of 8,000 books and 4,000 prints to Princeton for an experiment in the study and teaching of graphic arts. Today the collection holds closer to 60,000 prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, sculpture, and printed ephemera along with an international book collection specializing in fine press, artists’ books, and illustrated editions. Research collections support the study of paper and papermaking, printing, printmaking, typography, and book design. A world-class reference collection holds over 600 volumes on all aspects of printing and print making.
University of California, San Diego, Art and Architecture Library (and Mandeville Special Collections Library)
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, CA, USA
The Library’s Special Collections & Archives, holds one of the largest and most diverse collections of artists’ books in the Western U.S., and comprises more than 3,000 items, representing a rich variety of creative works in a wide array of media formats. While artists’ books can take their cue from the book format, some adopt the book’s narrative approach but depart from the linear constraints and predictability of a traditional book. Others are entirely handmade, and bear no resemblance to the book format. The artists’ book collection in Special Collections & Archives includes gorgeous works of art representing more traditional artistic collaborations, such as a rare edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” with original lithographs by impressionist painter Edouard Manet. The collection also includes the “mass mailings” of Ed Ruscha, and creative works by artists Tom Phillips and Ian Tyson, which meld poetry and other forms of writing with imagery.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sloane Art Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Special areas of strength in our collection are: work from major artists’ book presses such as Nexus Press, Visual Studies Workshop, and Women’s Studio Workshop, among others; Latin American artists’ books, especially from Argentina, Cuba, and Mexico; books featuring fine examples of different printmaking methods; and work by North Carolina artists.
University of North Texas Denton, Special Collections
University of North Texas Denton
Denton, TX, USA
UNT Special Collections has been collecting artists’ books since the 1990s, and the collection has steadily grown to represent some of the best-known book artists in the world. The Artists’ Book Collection continues to grow through strategic purchases from artists and publishers, as well as through the Biennial Artists’ Book Competition.
University of Notre Dame, Hesburgh Libraries
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN, USA
Artists books form a small but growing collection. Most prominent are books produced under the name Ediciones Vigía, a publishing house in Mantanzas, Cuba. Special Collections holds over 200 books produced by Vigía artists. There are also numerous pieces produced by American book artists including Julie Chen, Johanna Drucker, Karen Hanmer, Susan King, Edward Ruscha, and others. Also housed the Indiana University School of Fine Arts artists’ books collection: A collection of 67 artists’ books created under the direction of Thomas (Tom) Coleman, professor emeritus at Indiana University School of Fine Arts. Several of the books were created in homage to Bradbury Thompson, who for many years was a visiting critic and visiting professor at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture and was a teacher of Tom Coleman.
University of Oregon, Design Library
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR, USA
The collection at the University of Oregon’s Design Library, which is supported and extended by artists’ books in Knight Library’s Special Collections, spans the history of these works of art in book form from 1957 to books by artists today with special emphasis on artists working in the Pacific Northwest. The collection is represented here with images and data describing binding style, structure type, technique, literary style and materials. It includes over 800 artists’ books
University of Pittsburgh, Frick Fine Art Library
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Our rare and archival holdings complement ULS Archives & Special Collections. Our rare materials consist primarily of Medieval manuscript facsimiles, Chinese and Japanese scroll facsimiles, 19th-century architectural texts, limited edition catalogues raisonnés, boxed-sets of artist-produced broadsides and posters, artists’ books, art comics, and zines. We’re increasing our focus on locally produced artists’ books, art comics, and zines. Our archival holdings include two processed collections, Art Subject Files and Artist Files, as well as two unprocessed collections, Auction Catalogs, and Exhibition Catalogs. Ask Us for more information about these unique materials.
University of Tennessee, Knoxville University Libraries
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Knoxville, TN, USA
Focused on the history of book creation, special binding and printing techniques, the development of illustrations, and artist’s books.
Harry Ransom Center
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX, USA
The Ransom Center holds over 400 titles cataloged under the broad heading of artists’ books. This large collection reflects the evolution of this twentieth-century art form and includes various examples of its development from deluxe suites of prints and livres d’artiste, to the more conceptual and self-reflexive form referred to today as an artist’s book. Early modern works in the collection include Henri Matisse’s Jazz and his illustrations for Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal, Georges Rouault’s Cirque de L’étoile filante, and Joan Miró’s Constellations. The strengths of the collection are found in titles of the late twentieth century, particularly 1970–1985. Highlights include the collaborative efforts of artists and writers such as Foirades by Jasper Johns and Samuel Beckett, Traces suspectes en surface by Robert Rauschenberg and Alain Robbe-Grillet, Stones by Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, and Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror by poet John Ashbery. The collection also embraces the work of modern and contemporary artists, including Laurie Anderson, Ida Applebroog, John Baldessari, Johanna Drucker, Jenny Holzer, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Jacob Lawrence, Ed Ruscha, Lucas Samaras, Betye Saar, Terry Southern, and Richard Tuttle.
University of Texas at Austin, Fine Arts Library
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TN, USA
The artists’ books at the Fine Arts Library are part of the FAL Artists’ Publication collection. This collection includes other artistic creations, including zines. There are over 200 titles of artists’ books that vary in materials, aesthetic styles, and subject matter, created by artists from all over the world.
University of the Arts Greenfield Library
University of the Arts
Philadelphia, PA, USA
A collection of over 500 artists’ books.
University of Utah, J. Williard Marriot Library
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT, USA
The Katherine W. Dumke Fine Arts & Architecture Library and the Rare Books Division of Special Collections have artists’ books in their holdings.
University of Vermont, Special Collections Library
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT, USA
The Rare Book Collection provides many resources for the study of historical and contemporary book production, including papermaking, printing, illustration, and binding. British and American fine and private presses are well represented. A large collection of North American and British artists’ books includes works by Vermont book artists and UVM faculty and students. The UVM collection of artists’ books is eclectic, broad, and deep. It contains different kinds of works by many artists and presses, as well as all or significant portions of the body of work produced by a number of individual artists. It emphasizes elaborate books made by hand, but also includes fine printing, illustrated books, and some livres d’artistes. Vermont book artists are well represented among the North American and British artists in the collection. The collection also includes works by UVM students and faculty.
Kohler Art Library
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI, USA
Presently, the Artists’ Book Collection contains over 1400 titles. The database indexes nearly 1200 of those titles, most of which have one to four images to visually represent the structure and/or content of the book. With the goal to create a “visual finding aid” to the entire Artists’ Book Collection, the database will be expanded and updated on a periodic basis. The artists’ books are finely crafted and visually stimulating works made by more than 200 presses and artists worldwide. They comprise limited edition, one-of-a-kind, and offset books, representative of major book artists working during the past thirty years, including many who trained in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Art Department. Forming a body of information on typography, papermaking, paper engineering, graphics, bookmaking, design, and creative writing, the Artists’ Book Collection is an important laboratory for students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students from institutions around the state.
Golda Meir Library
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI, USA
The collection’s main focus is on examples of artists’ books from the late nineteenth century to the present. Largely represented are examples of American book arts, especially those of the Upper Midwest. The collection includes artist-designed and handmade books, examples of fine printing, uses of handmade papers, examples of fine binding, innovative book structures, and typographic design and experimentation.
James Branch Cabell Library, Special Collections and Archives
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA, USA
The VCU Book Art Collection includes over 4,000 items and is housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library. The collection is international in scope and is strongest in publications from the 1960s to the present. It encompasses all aspects of contemporary book art publications ranging from photobooks to sculptural book works. Seminal works such as Edward Ruscha’s Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Dieter Roth’s 246 Little Clouds, and Barbara Kruger’s No Progress in Pleasure are featured in the collection. In addition to artists’ books, the collection includes serials, exhibition catalogs, and reference materials. A selection of concrete, sound, and visual poetry is also housed within the collection.
Margaret Clapp Library, Special Collections
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA, USA
The research component of the collection consists of over 3,500 volumes documenting all aspects of book production: papermaking, printing, illustration, binding, bibliography, and publishing. In addition, there are over 4,000 volumes of specimens, ranging from the great typographers such as Aldus, Baskerville and Bodoni up to the twentieth-century renaissance of modern fine printing. Here, for example, one can find works from the Kelmscott Press side by side with works by contemporary book artists, such as Claire Van Vliet and Ron King, including limited editions, innovative binding structures, handmade papers, and unique artists’ books.
Olin Memorial Library, Special Collections and Archives
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT, USA
Artists’ books are works of art using the format of the book. Many artists’ books challenge the reader to think about the nature of the book and the act of reading in new ways. We hold more than 1000 artists’ books, and we actively collect them. Strengths include: Social justice, environmental issues, responses to books of the pastt, ext and textiles. books by women, and many more.
Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library
Boston, MA, USA
The Kleist Collection contains about 5,000 volumes of miniatures, pulp fiction, children’s books, Christmas books, late 19th century, and early 20th century imprints. The collector’s focus on decorative covers, dust jackets, and illustration is the overriding theme of the collection which documents the work of well-known, obscure, and forgotten designers and illustrators. The Wheeler, Leeds Armstrong Collection includes many black and white lithographs and chromolithography from the Boston firm of Armstrong and Company, active from about 1870 to 1900. Included are photographs and memorabilia of Armstrong, and pictures, documents, and notes relating to the Armstrong business, which for a time was the Lithographic Department of the Riverside Press, Cambridge, part of Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Cerritos Library
Cerritos, CA, USA
The aim of the collection is to showcase books that are beautifully designed and produced using both traditional and unusual techniques. Works that challenge the traditional ideas about the architecture of book design are deemed especially appropriate for inclusion. Titles may be part of an edition or one-of-a-kind. The works of both student and professional contemporary book artists are included, and the scope is international.
Free Library of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA, USA
The Print and Picture Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia (PIX) is home to a variety of collections of fine art prints, photographs, drawings, and artists’ books, as well as extensive research collections of Philadelphia images, both historical and modern.
Artist Book Collection at Paper Machine
Paper Machine
New Orleans, LA, USA
The Artist Book Collection at Paper Machine (ABC@PM) houses a rich resource of artist’s books for the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas. ABC@PM collects artists’ books in all media, editioned and one-of-a-kind, on all variety of subject matter. Interdisciplinary by nature, artists’ books move through the crossroads of visual art, literary art, graphic design, printmaking, bookbinding, papermaking, and publishing. ABC@PM is particularly interested in books in which the structure and actions of reading are integral to the content and the ideas within.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery Library Collection
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo, NY, USA
The Library’s collection of more than 550 artists’ books includes seminal works like Ed Ruscha’s Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, as well as lesser-known works by emerging and local artists.
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Permanent Art Collection
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
The collection includes various media such as painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramics, glass, wood, artist’s books, fiber, and jewelry art featuring artists from the Puget Sound Region.
Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Collection have over 4,000 items the include reference works about artists’ books and artists’ books themselves.
The Getty Research Institute Special Collections
The Getty Research Institute
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Collection of more than 5,000 artists’ books and small press publications. Collections include well-known makers such as Ken Campbell, Johanna Drucker, Anselm Kiefer, Susan King, Raymond Pettibon, and Ed Ruscha, together with books by artists best known for art work in other media, such as Louise Bourgeois or Josiah McElheny. Substantial collections of works by small presses and fine printers feature the Coracle Press of Simon Cutts and Erica van Horn, Edition Jacob Samuel, Kaldewey Editions, and Dick Higgins’ and Alison Knowles’ Something Else Press.
Menil Library
Menil Collection
Houston, TX, USA
In 2014 the Menil Collection Library received 84 artists’ books highlighting modernist book arts from Édouard Manet through Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
Artists’ Publications Study Collection
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library
New York, NY, USA
The artists’ publications study collection supports research and scholarship on these important works. This collection, international in scope, includes artists’ books, zines, bookworks, artist magazines, pamphlets, artists’ files, reference books, dealer catalogues, pricelists, journals, and all forms of artists’ publishing.
Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace/Artist Book Collection
Franklin Furnace, the Museum of Modern Art Library, Pratt Institute Library
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Franklin Furnace’s international collection of contemporary artist’s books was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art’s Library Collection in 1993, forming the world’s premier repository, and entitled the Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace/Artist Book Collection. Over 7,700 artist’s books are included in MOMA Library’s searchable database. To this day, Franklin Furnace maintains this mutually beneficial relationship with MoMA by contributing additional copies of artists’ books to the Museum of Modern Art / Franklin Furnace/ Artist Book Collection as well as maintaining its own collection on the campus of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Library and Research Center, National Museum of Women in the Arts
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, DC, USA
Artists’ books have been an important part of the Library and Research Center since the museum’s beginnings. The collection formally started in 1986, when NMWA founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay purchased Caroline (1985) by Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim. The museum collection now comprises more than 1,000 unique books and limited editions created by women artists in a variety of formats, from scrolls and accordions to codices and sculptures. The library holds over 800 of these artists’ books, including works by prominent book artists such as Ida Applebroog, Mirella Bentivoglio, Michele Burgess, Julie Chen, Laura Davidson, Johanna Drucker, Colette Fu, Carol Schwartzott, Clarissa Sligh, and Kiki Smith. In addition to artists’ books, the library contains print materials about the book arts.
New Mexico State University, University Art Museum Collection
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM, USA
Highlights from this collection include Ken Leslie, Warren Lehrer, Kevin Hamilton, and works printed by Palace Press.
Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, IA, USA
Founded by Ruth and Marvin Sackner in 1979 in Miami Beach, Florida, the Sackner Archive is the largest collection of concrete and visual poetry in the world. The archive includes over 75,000 annotated books, periodicals, typewritings, drawings, letters, print portfolios, ephemera, and rare and out of print artist’s books and manuscripts representing twentieth century art movements such as Italian Futurism, Russian and Eastern European Avant Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Ultra, Tabu-Dada, Lettrisme, and Ultra-Lettrisme.
Seattle Art Museum, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library
Seattle Art Museum
Seattle, WA, USA
Over 200 items in the Book Arts Collection
The Smithsonian Libraries Artists’ Books Collection
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC, USA
The Smithsonian Libraries Artists’ Books Collection contains records for most of the Smithsonian museums, archives, libraries, and research units that have artists’ books in their collections. The collection spans numerous formats, styles, and countries, and the works are available to researchers for study and inspiration. Includes works by artists such as Georges Adéagbo, Ida Applebroog, Julie Chen, Laura Davidson, William Kentridge, Barbara Kruger, Sol LeWitt, Luan Nel, Yoko Ono, Ed Ruscha, and Claire Van Vliet. While some are widely available, many are limited editions, and quite a number of the books are unique and cannot be seen anywhere else but at the Smithsonian Libraries. Consists of over 600 titles.
Rosemary Furtak Artist Book Collection
Walker Art Center
Minneapolis, MN, USA
This important collection includes books by artists represented in the Walker Art Center’s permanent collection, such as Sol LeWitt, Dieter Roth, Edward Ruscha, and Lawrence Weiner. It includes books by artists working primarily with the book form, as well as exemplary work by local book artists. It is named after Rosemary Furtak, the Walker’s librarian of 29 years, who is recognized as a visionary in her field for building this distinguished collection of artist books. Rosemary Furtak defined artist books as “books that refuse to behave like books.”
Frances Mulhall Achilles Library
Whitney Museum
New York, NY, USA
The Library’s Special Collections consist of artists’ books, editions, rare artist’s publications and periodicals, posters, and unique ephemera that relate to and expand on the Museum’s permanent collection through illustrating the trajectory of the contemporary artist’s book and editions and their continued relevance to contemporary artistic practice.
The Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection at Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Fl, USA
Houses over 6,000 items including artist’s books, fine press books, miniature books, children’s books, movable books and ephemera.
Nathan Lyons Research Center
Visual Studies Workshop
Rochester, NY, USA
Holds research collections of photography, independent film and video, periodicals, and artist’s books. VSW’s focus on the aesthetics, cultural history, and social use of images, has inspired a collecting policy that encompasses both creative work and vernacular objects, as well as items that represent the history of media use.
The James & Marilynn Alcott Library
Minnesota Center for the Book
Minneapolis, MN, USA
The Alcott Library houses over 2,700 artists’ books, reference books, periodicals, prints and broadsides, over a quarter of which represent Minnesota history, art, and culture. This unique collection also serves as an archive of artwork created through MCBA’s many artistic programs—including the fine press publication, Winter Book, which features Minnesota book artists, writers, and illustrators, and its related process materials. While not a circulating library, patrons are welcome to browse reference books during MCBA’s regular business hours.
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ, USA
Rare Books and Manuscripts’ collection of Contemporary Artists’ Books include about 300 items (not including those in Open Stacks), most published after 1980. Represented in this collection are Susan Allix, Julie Chen, Joe D’Ambrosio, Johanna Drucker, Ron King, Susan Elizabeth King, Clifton Meador, John Risseeuw, Dieter Roth among many others. Complementing and enhancing RBM’s collection are new artists’ books from Mexico and Brazil that are being acquired for the Latin Americana Collection. Also includes collections of book arts and fine printing and pop-up books.
W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library at SMFA
Tufts University
Boston, MA, USA
The artists’ book collection showcases a wide range of binding types and conceptual approaches to book-making. The SMFA Library collects zines created by SMFA students, faculty, and alums and by local artists.
International
Banner Repeater Reading Room
Hackney Downs train station, platform 1, United Kingdom
Public archive of Artists’ Publishing
The reading room holds a permanently sited public archive of Artists’ Publishing, that provides an important bibliographic resource that all visitors to BR can browse, alongside a digital archive of Artists’ Publishing; an interactive user-driven database that constitutes a working research model – a tool as well as an electronic commons for the exchange of detailed information.
The Bristol Art Library
Bristol, United Kingdom
Portable/Traveling Library
The Bristol Art Library is a fully functioning public library housed in a traveling wooden cabinet the size of a small suitcase. Annabel Other, the artist, created the library in 1998 and is the Head Librarian. The library’s volumes cover a wide range of subjects, from palaeontology to astronomy, with 250 books (all 5 in x 4 in) made by artists and practitioners from all areas of the arts and sciences.
York Univeristy Artists’ Books Collection, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections
York University
Toronto, Canada
YUL Artists’ Books collection includes books created by an artist or artist collective. Exceeding 2,000 titles, the collection includes unique and limited editions and books produced in multiple editions. Works that are published by independent and mainstream presses and works that are self-published are collected. Also represented in the collection are works that reflect collaborations between illustrators, designers, typographers, book binders, printers, visual artists, poets and writers. The collection is international in scope with an emphasis on the 1960s to present and a focus on Canadian artists. Publishers that are represented in the collection include: Granary Books, Coracle Press, Onestar Press and Ugly Ducking Presse.
Special Collections at Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow School of Art
Glasgow, Scotland
United Kingdom
GSA Library holds over 2000 artists’ books, featuring examples by internationally important artists such as Doug Aitken, Angela Bulloch, Olafur Eliasson, David Shrigley, Peter Greenaway, and Mike Nelson. A number of small presses also feature in the collection. Built up since the 1980s, the collection provides a comprehensive snapshot of book arts activities within the UK and internationally. Emphasis is placed on the purchase on small-press editions that are inexpensive and intended for mass distribution. Expensive livres d’artistes are not acquired. The definition of an artists’ book is kept deliberately broad, and the collection therefore features many object-based works and multiples. A number of student-made books by GSA alumni feature, along with books by internationally recognised artists.
Artists’ Books Collection Dundee (abcD) at the Library of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design
University of Dundee
Dundee, Scotland
United Kingdom
Comprised of over 1400 books by many major Scottish and international artists including David Bellingham, Roderick Buchanan, John Cage, Nathan Coley, Marcel Duchamp, David Faithfull, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon, Zoe Irvine, Yoko Ono, Julian Opie, Toby Paterson, Olivia Plender, David Shrigley, Edward Summerton and Andy Warhol.
Art & Design Library
Edinburgh Central Library
Edinburgh, Scotland
The Art & Design Library collection of artists’ books numbers just under 200 items and is housed within the Art & Design Library, Central Library. Founded in the 1990s, the collection started with an international focus on small press and limited editions and includes work dating from the 1960s by the artists Edward Ruscha, Sol Lewitt, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Kate Whiteford, Marcel Duchamp and Natalie D’Arbeloff.
Heritage Collection of Artists’ Books and Bibliophile Books
Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec
Montréal, Canada
BAnQ’s heritage collection of artists’ books and bibliophile books houses over 3,400 titles, for the most part published in Québec or Québec-related. Though the collection covers the 20th and 21st centuries, publications produced after 1970 are markedly more abundant. The collection was primarily put together when legal deposit was introduced in 1968, but also expanded through purchase and donation. The result, which makes up BAnQ’s current collection of artists’ books and bibliophile books, bears witness to the myriad of approaches associated with this form of expression.
Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Banff, Canada
Over 5,500 artists’ books and multiples. The library created a tumblr to showcase a number of items from the collection each day.
Art Gallery of Ontario Library and Archives Collection
Art Gallery of Ontario
Toronto, Canada
The library’s artists’ books collection includes significant examples by both international and Canadian artists from each decade since the 1950s, representing an excellent overview of the history and evolution of this area of artistic practice. Within the collection is a concentration on historical and contemporary photographers’ books, with significant holdings for a select number of photographers including Robert Frank, Geoffrey James, Rinko Kawauchi, and Taryn Simon. In addition, we have eight titles from the important series of artists’ books commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art’s Library Council, donated by Nance Gelber and Dan Bjarnason. The library has a representative selection of over 400 artists’ multiples by Canadian, American, and International artists from the 1950s through to the present day, including significant works by Marcel Duchamp, Fluxus, and General Idea. The “multiple” represents a field of artistic practice where the rigor of the formally realised work of art destined for the museum or collector gives way to a freer, more informal, playful and often humourous working out of ideas and concerns, and where the very idea of the object can be subverted, challenged, and redefined. Multiples undermine the aura of the unique and singular work of art in favour of reaching a larger and more diversified audience.
National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, Canada
Special Collections contain exceptional materials such as rare Canadian and foreign imprints, early illustrated books, Canadian bookplates and contemporary artist books and multiples, as well as notable subject collections.
National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
The V&A holds a very large and varied collection of artists’ books.
State Library of Queensland Artists’ Book Collection
Australian Library of Art
South Brisbane, Australia
The Artists’ Books Collection, one of the component collections of the Australian Library of Art, is one of the largest publicly available collections of artists’ books in Australia, and is recognised as one of the best in the country. It consists of around 1700 works featuring both Australian and overseas artists.
Book Arts Centers & Related Places
Artists Book House
Evanston, IL, USA
Artists Book House is a new organization devoted to the Book Arts: writing, reading, printing, bookbinding, papermaking, typography, calligraphy, poetry, fiction, memoir, artist’s books, publishing, comics, zines, and much, much more.
Asheville Book Works
West Asheville, NC, USA
An incubator for creative breakthrough, fundamentally focused on the artists’ book and print arts.
Austin Book Arts Center
Austin, TX, USA
The mission of Austin Book Arts Center is to engage people of all ages in creative, interpretive, and educational experiences related to the arts of the book. ABAC regularly offers workshops in letterpress printing, bookbinding, papermaking, typography, book history and design, and various arts of the book. In addition, ABAC provides access to equipment for qualified users during regularly scheduled Open Studio times. Through its activities, ABAC seeks to advance the book as a vital contemporary art form, preserve the traditional and robust crafts related to making books, promote the contemporary arts of making books, inspire diverse artists and learners, and engage the community in creative, interpretive, and educational experiences, including the improvement of literacy for people of all ages.
BookArtsLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Book Arts LA is a nonprofit organization devoted to bringing the beauty of printing, binding and collecting artists’ and other hand made books to the public.
Booklyn
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Booklyn’s mission is to promote artists’ books as art and research material and to assist artists and organizations in documenting, exhibiting, and distributing their artwork and archives. We specifically assist artists and organizations committed to environmental and social justice. We work towards our mission by documenting, exhibiting, promoting, and distributing their work within educational institutions worldwide. We envision a world in which art and bookmaking are tools for education, personal agency, community engagement, and activism.
Centre for the Book at the University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand
The Centre for the Book aims to Enhance the wide range of book-centred activities that take place throughout Dunedin Emphasise Dunedin’s rich cultural heritage in print, as producer, consumer, and preserver of books Encourage research in all facets of the book (in its broadest sense) by utilising the diverse resources available Promote interaction and communication on the book within the University of Otago, and other local, national and international institutions.
Creative Arts Workshop
New Haven, CT, USA
Creative Arts Workshop is a nonprofit regional center for creativity that has served the Greater New Haven area since 1961. As an anchor institution located in the heart of the award-winning Audubon Arts District, CAW offers a wide range of visual arts classes and engagement in creativity in its own three-story building with fully-equipped studios in eight disciplines, and an active exhibition and public programming schedule.
Frederick Book Arts Center
Frederick, MD, USA
The Mission of the Frederick Book Arts Center is to teach the craft and techniques associated with the Art of the Book. Letterpress printing, printmaking, book binding, photography, and language arts will be taught through a combination of workshops, field trips, school visits, and classes. All members of the community will have the opportunity to learn, intern, and display work at the Center.
International Printing Museum
Carson , CA, USA
The International Printing Museum is a dynamic museum devoted to bringing the history of printing and books to life for diverse audiences. The Museum is home to one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of antique printing machinery and graphic arts equipment.
Jaffe Center for Book Arts
Boca Raton, FL, USA
The Jaffe Center for book arts is a book arts library that is part of the Florida Atlantic University Library. They have exhibtions and workshops and an artist in residence program. It was founded in 2000 with the donation of the artist book collection of Arthur Jaffe to Florida Atlantic University.
Kalamazoo Book Arts Center
Kalamazoo, MI, USA
The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center (KBAC) practices, teaches, and promotes the collaborative arts of the book: papermaking, printmaking, letterpress, bookbinding, and creative writing, through preserving and employing traditional technologies and combining them with contemporary ideas and techniques to reinvigorate the collaborative arts of the book. The KBAC was founded in 2005 by artists and writers with a passion for book arts. Their vision is now a creative public space where artists and book enthusiasts of all kinds gather to collaborate and celebrate books and the many arts that inform them.
Letterpress and Book Arts Center at Ringling College
Sarasota, FL, USA
The Letterpress and Book Arts Center at the Ringling College of Art and Design is an interdisciplinary facility for education, creative research, collaboration, and production. The mission of the center is to bring together students, faculty, staff, visiting artists, alumni, friends, and other members of our community to honor, explore, and advance the potential of artists’ publications to serve as connections between art, media, technology, and theory. The Center hosts undergraduate classes, lectures, workshops, and demonstrations, and facilitates the production of artists’ publications by students, faculty, staff, and visiting artists.
Library of Congress Center for the Book
Washington, DC, USA
The Library of Congress Center for the Book, which also administers the Poetry and Literature Center, promotes books and libraries, literacy and reading, and poetry and literature. Our programs include a diverse range of events, series, lectures, partnerships, prizes, contests and awards.
London Centre for Book Arts
London, England
Based in what was once the heart of London’s print industry, the London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA) is an artist-run, open-access studio offering education programmes for the community and affordable access to resources for artists and designers. The Centre’s mission is to foster and promote book arts and artist-led publishing in the UK through collaboration, education, distribution, and by providing open-access to printing, binding and publishing facilities. The unique facilities at LCBA are available to everyone regardless of background, education or experience. After several years of planning and acquiring hard-to-find equipment and machinery, the studio was established in October 2012, becoming the first and only centre of its kind in the country. LCBA was founded and is run by artists Simon Goode and Ira Yonemura.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Founded in 1985, A respected and dedicated champion of the field, Minnesota Center for Book Arts is the largest and most comprehensive center of its kind. We celebrate the book as a dynamic contemporary art form that takes many shapes. Our mission is to ignite artistic practice, inspire learning, and foster diverse creative communities through the book arts. We do this by creating access to specialized book arts tools, equipment, and knowledge; supporting interdisciplinary artistic development; expanding opportunities for people who have been historically underrepresented in the field; and presenting exhibitions and educational programs that create connections around the art of the book, promote innovation, and advance the future of the field.
Morgan Paper Conservatory
Cleveland, OH, USA
The Morgan Conservatory is the largest arts center in the United States dedicated to every facet of papermaking, book arts and letterpress printing and to cultivating the talents of established and emerging artists. An international destination that is free and open to the public, the Morgan Conservatory is a working studio, gallery, gathering place for the community, educational hub and purveyor of some of the finest handmade papers in the world. Since opening to the public in 2008, the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation has been a rising star in the Cleveland arts community and the papermaking world. The Morgan Conservatory’s 15,000 square foot converted industrial space is home to professional and aspiring artists dedicated to the ancient art of papermaking, book arts and letterpress printing.
Udatsu Paper & Craft Museum
Echizen, Fukui, Japan
An old papermakering house from the mid-Edo era which was dismantled and reconstructed. Inside of the museum, you can see Japanese paper making process. Specialists of the traditional craft make Japanese paper using traditional tools.
Sugihara Paper Institute
Kamiku Torima, Taka Gun Taka Cho, Hyogo Ken, Japan
With a history of 1,300 years, this institute offers papermaking workshops and produces products using Sugihara paper, which is designated as an important intangible cultural property and traditional craft of Hyogo Prefecture.
Nebraska Center for the Book
Lincoln, NE, USA
The Nebraska Center for the Book is a 501(c)(3) organization. Our Nebraska Center supports programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. We have been an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book since 1990. The Nebraska Center for the Book brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators and scholars to build the community of the book. We are the people who know and love books, and who value the richness they bring to our lives.
New Jersey Center for the Book
New Brunswick, NJ, USA
New Jersey Center for the Book is the state affiliate of the Library of Congress’s Centers for the Book. Established in 2001, NJCFB celebrates books, libraries, the craft of writing and the unique literary heritage of the state of New Jersey.
El Ombligo del Libro
Mexico City, Mexico
El Ombligo del Libro offers the public Specialization courses and workshops in artisan binding, Artisan binding, Stabilization and conservation of bound material, Consulting for editorial and graphic work production projects, Movable type printing (Letterpress). El Ombligo del Libro is an artisan binding workshop whose processes are improved on a daily basis. We strive to offer the client a wide variety of solutions for gallery and editorial projects. In its conservation section we offer the client the trust and respect for their old bindings. Our teaching work considers students as an essential part of our space, encouraging an open information environment that develops their criteria and skills. El Ombligo del Libro seeks to be a reference of high quality in its services, based on a methodical work we try to create a space of constant exchange for the knowledge and dissemination of the arts of the book in Mexico.
Philadelphia Center for the Book
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Founded in 2003 by Jude Robison and Caitlin Perkins with the goal of acting as a bridge between Philadelphia’s cultural riches and its passionate bibliophiles, artists, collectors, librarians, educators, and students of all ages.
Printing Places of Interest Map
Compiled by Sara Halpert
A resource for printers and others interested in book arts to find a little printing everywhere they travel. It is a map of printing museums, book art centers, paper history museums, rare book collections, historic sites of interest, and other related places of interest.
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center
Hyattsville, MD, USA
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center was founded in 1981 by noted artist and teacher Helen C. Frederick to provide a setting for artistic collaboration and dialogue. We are located in the historic Arcade building in the Hyattsville Gateway Arts District. The facility features a papermaking studio, print shop, letterpress studio, bindery, and a darkroom. We also have private studios for artists to rent and a gallery for exhibitions. Pyramid Atlantic is a nonprofit contemporary art center fostering the creative disciplines of papermaking, printmaking, and book arts within a collaborative community. We equip, educate, and exhibit in our historic Hyattsville home.
San Diego Book Arts
San Diego, CA, USA
The mission of San Diego Book Arts is to serve as an educational and creative resource for the community and to advance the book as a vital contemporary art form.
San Francisco Center for the Book
San Francisco, CA, USA
The San Francisco Center for the Book was co-founded by Mary Austin and Kathleen Burch, who recognized a growing need in San Francisco, the Bay Area and on the West Coast for a facility specifically designed and equipped to support the appreciation, teaching and creation of book arts. The first center of its kind on the West Coast, San Francisco Center for the Arts was incorporated in March of 1996 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Currently, San Francisco Center for the Book offers over 400 workshops and and serves thousands of students of all ages each year. In addition to our workshops, San Francisco Center for the Book also presents exhibitions and events, hosts special visits and hands-on demonstrations, and much more.
The International School of Typography & Letters at Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press
Ashuelot, NH, USA
The International School of Typography & Letters at Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press holds classes and workshop retreats in Letterpress Printing, Typographic design, and the Book Arts as well as having a focus on the transformative effect of craft on creativity and process in art and music. Formed in 2013, after 30 years of making books as Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press, the school offers ongoing internships to students.
The University of Iowa Center for the Book
Iowa City, IA, USA
The University of Iowa Center for the Book is a research program dedicated to the past, present, and future of the book. Located in the University of Iowa Graduate College, the Center integrates practice in the art of the book with study of the book in society. The Center offers curricula in the arts of printing, binding, papermaking, and calligraphy, in the history and culture of books as a field of study, and in the expressive power of the book form. The Center hosts visiting lectures and workshops with book scholars and artists, including the annual Brownell Lecture on the History of the Book and Mitchell Lecture on the Arts of the Book.
Virginia Center for the Book
Charlottesville, VA, USA
Working across the Commonwealth to unite communities of readers, writers, artists, and book lovers through year-round programs and partnership initiatives, the Center recognizes the enduring power of literature, storytelling, and the book arts to engage in public dialogue and promote intercultural understanding.
Visual Studies Workshop
Rochester, NY, USA
VSW is an internationally recognized center for media studies, including photography, visual books, electronic imaging and film.
Wells College Book Arts Center
Aurora, NY, USA
The Wells College Book Arts Center, established in 1993, provides a broad learning opportunity for Wells students and the Aurora community in the arts and crafts of the book. Students learn first-hand the traditions and history of the book through letterpress printing and hand bookbinding courses, a History of the Book course, an introduction to calligraphy course, and special topics courses such as Digital Design and the Artist Book, Boxmaking, Inspiration and the Medieval Binding, and the Printed Book. The Center also serves the campus and community with a variety of lectures, workshops, and symposia, and an annual Summer Institute. Begun in 2005, the Institute’s week-long intensive courses in letterpress printing, hand bookbinding, artist’s books, letterings arts and font design are taught by some of the foremost book artists in the U.S. and Europe.
Western New York Book Arts Center
Buffalo, NY, USA
THE WESTERN NEW YORK BOOK ARTS CENTER promotes greater understanding of printing and book-related arts through education, creation, and exhibition for a broad and diverse community.
Wisconsin Center for the Book
Madison, WI, USA
Created to celebrate the culture of the book, the Center honors all aspects of the literary world and provides a link between our citizens and writers, illustrators, publishers, librarians, and educators. The Center is affiliated with the Library of Congress Center for the Book and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies.
Women’s Studio Workshop
Rosendale, NY, USA
Women’s Studio Workshop envisions a society where women’s visual art is integral to the cultural mainstream and permanently recorded in history. Our mission is to operate and maintain an artists’ workspace that encourages the voice and vision of individual women artists, provides professional opportunities for artists at various stages of their careers, and promotes programs designed to stimulate public involvement, awareness, and support for the visual arts. An early proponent of the [Artists Book] medium, WSW has produced over 200 limited edition artists’ books, and is the largest publisher in North America. Our books are in collections world-wide. WSW’s artists’ books—chosen through an open, international juried competition—reflect a wide range of subject matter, cultural diversity, and aesthetic perspectives of the artists who come to work in our studios. Our books are characterized by the combination of medias available at WSW, and may incorporate handmade paper, letterpress, silkscreen, photography, intaglio, or ceramics.
Washi-no-Sato
Higashichichibu, Saitama, Japan
Visitors can see the production of handmade Japanese paper that has been continuing for approximately 1,300 years and experience papermaking through several papermaking experience courses. The facilities exhibit Hosokawa-gami (local specialty paper). The facilities include a 300-year old house where tools for the production of Japanese paper are exhibited.
Iiyama Handicraft Paper Studio
Iiyama, Iiyama, Nagano
Iiyama City has produced uchiyama-gami, a type of traditional Japanese paper, for more than 350 years. Visitors can experience the centuries-old tradition for themselves through the studio’s workshops.
Book Shops
Berl’s Poetry Shop
Normally, Wednesday – Saturday 2ish to lateish. Tuesday evening, Monday morning. Occasionally other times by appointment (feel free to give us a call- we live close to the shop).
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Carefully curated selection of only poetry from small local publishers & independent presses, plus readings & events.
Printed Matter
New York, NY, USA
Artist’s Books, Democratic Multiples
Mast
New York, NY, USA
Used, rare and iconic new books on art, photography, design, fashion and cinema, also carrying artists’ books, poetry and modern literature, as well as related ephemera, multiples and artworks.
Mercer Street Books and Records
New York, NY, USA
Used and out-of-print books
Rizzoli Bookstore
New York, NY, USA
Illustrated books on architecture, interior design, fashion, photography, cookery, and the fine and applied arts, as well as literature, and foreign language books.
Housingworks Bookstore & Cafe
New York, NY, USA
Donated books with 100% of profits funding Housing Works’ lifesaving services.
192 Books
New York, NY, USA
Literary fiction, works in translation, art and photography, film, poetry, music, history, biography, natural history, science, current affairs, and books for children and young adults.
Quimby’s Bookstore
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Unusual publications, aberrant periodicals, saucy comic booklets, independent zines.
Desert Island Comics
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Illustrated publications from around the world.
Argosy Book Store
New York, NY, USA
Antiquarian and out-of-print; Americana, modern first editions, autographs, art, antique maps & prints, and the history of science & medicine.
Alabaster Bookshop
New York, NY, USA
Codex
New York, NY, USA
Used and new books of all kinds, with an emphasis on literary fiction and art books.
Picture Room
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Work by emerging and established contemporary artists as well as rare prints, posters, artists’ books, and art publications.
Kinokuniya San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
Manga, graphic novels, art and design books, cookbooks, travel books, children’s books, and more, both in English and Japanese.
Artwords Bookshop
Hackney, London, United Kingdom
Books on the contemporary visual arts and visual culture, covering the subjects; fashion, graphic design, architecture, photography, fine art and visual & critical theory.
Marcus Campbell Art Books
London, United Kingdom
Out of print, second-hand and rare books on 20th century and contemporary art, photography, architecture and design; including monographs, exhibition catalogues, artists’ books, private view invitation cards, ephemera, periodicals, prints, posters and original artworks.
Bookartbookshop
London, United Kingdom
Artist presses and publishers of artists’ books, as well as books from abroad.
Greenlight
New York, NY, USA
Used and out-of-print books.
Aeon Books
New York, NY, USA
Spiritual, Occult, Fiction, Philosophy, Art, Design, Poetry, Film, Nature, Politics, Avant & Esoteric
McNally Jackson
Multiple Locations New York, NY, USA
Independent bookstore, literature arranged by nation.
Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers
Brooklyn, NY, USA
New, second-hand and rare books on Contemporary Art, Literature, Philosophy and various Design fields.
Dashwood Books
New York, NY, USA
Specializing in contemporary photography; including importing books that have no or very limited distribution in the United States, limited press runs from Japan, Germany and The Netherlands, artists’ self-published books, signed books and a carefully curated selection of collectible post-war titles.
Ursus Books & Gallery
New York, NY, USA
Art reference books, superb copies of rare books in all fields, and decorative prints.
Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe & Activist Center
New York, NY, USA
Feminism, queer and gender studies, global capitalism, climate & environment, political theory, police and prisons, race and black studies, radical education.
23 Sandy
Portland, OR, USA
Unique & edition artist books and paper art.
Assouline at The Plaza Hotel
New York, NY, USA
“Beautiful books” covering travel, art, fashion and design.
Karma Bookstore
New York, NY, USA
Artists’ books and editions.
Iconic Magazines
New York, NY, USA
Hard to find international magazines.
Hennessey & Ingalls
Santa Monica, CA, USA
Architecture and design.
The Last Book Store
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Independent used & new bookstore.
871 Fine Arts
San Francisco, CA, USA
New and out-of-print books on contemporary art; plus prints, paintings, drawings and sculpture.
Adobe Books & Arts Cooperative
San Francisco, CA, USA
Books in English, with a significant collection of Spanish titles as well as some in French, German and Italian.
Wittenborn Art Books
San Francisco, CA, USA
Print publisher and dealer in antiquarian books and art.
Thomas Heneage Art Books
St. James’, London, United Kingdom
Books for the art market; catalogues raisonnés, monographs and international exhibition catalogues.
Tenderbooks
Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom
Independent artist publications, artist research and original print editions.
Book Arts Academic Programs
American Academy of Bookbinding
Telluride, CO, USA
Founded in Telluride, Colorado in 1993 by Tini Miura, Einen Miura and Daniel Tucker, the American Academy of Bookbinding is an internationally known diploma-oriented bookbinding school where students of all levels have the opportunity to initiate and improve their skills in a generous and supportive learning environment. A program of the Ah Haa School for the Arts, the American Academy of Bookbinding conducts intensive courses in the art of fine leather binding, book repair, paper conservation, book history, and other related subjects. Our goal is to provide a superior bookbinding education and to award professional-level diplomas to those students who develop the knowledge and skills to produce the highest quality of work.
Anderson Ranch Arts Center
Snowmass Village, CO, USA
Anderson Ranch Arts Center enriches lives with art, inspiration and community. Offerinf educational programs and artists residencies, including book arts and printmaking classes.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
Gatlinburgh, TN, USA
Craft School offering classes and artists residencies. Including Book Arts, printmaking and paper making
Banff Center for Arts and Creativity
Banff, Alberta, Canada
Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential. Offers artists residencies in book arts, printmaking and papermaking.
Buchbinder College
Stuttgart, Germany
Bookbinding School in Germany
Centro Del bel Libro
Bellinzona, Switzerland
The Department of Bookbinding and Design offers hand bookbinders, graphic designers, conservators, and interested persons with appropriate experience a forum for learning and engagement that encompasses both technical and creative aspects of bookbinding and design. Course participants have the opportunity to further their education and broaden their skills by learning new techniques and methods from internationally recognized instructors who stand at the forefront of their craft. The unique environment of the CBL allows for unparalleled creative exchange with other professionals in the field, provides new inspiration and fresh approaches to your creative practice, as well as an opportunity for self-reflection away from daily stresses and work-life demands.
Columbia College Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
We have everything you’ll need to explore book arts, hand papermaking, letterpress, and printmaking. With four distinct studios spread across two buildings, you’ll have plenty of space to experiment.
Cooper Union
New York, NY, USA
Dartmouth Library
Hanover, NH, USA
We offer the unique opportunity to work with historical equipment through traditional and contemporary methods. Not only can you explore the arts and history of bookbinding, printing and typography, but also express your ideas and research in tangible form.
Florence School of Fine Arts
Florence, Italy
Undergraduate program in printmaking, book arts, and papermaking
IKA
Mechelen, Belgium
IKA is a school for part-time art education, organized by the GO! education of the Flemish Community. The IKA is part of School Group 5 of the GO! The school is an academy of visual and audiovisual arts.The studios work in the evenings during the week and during the day on weekends. She is open to the neophyte and the advanced, from 18 years to. The school was founded in 1959 by a group of idealists who wanted to save the art crafts from extinction, to develop them further and to give the students an artistic and aesthetic training in addition to the already known techniques.Today IKA offers a thorough practical, theoretical and artistic training, carried out by master teachers. About 250 students / artists take lessons in various disciplines, in particular book art (book binding), jewelery design / precious metal (goldsmithing), photo art, ceramics and a unique specialty for Belgium and Luxembourg, namely the glass art department with its hot glass oven.
Lesley University College of Art and Design
Cambridge, MA, USA
Offers Book Arts Minor
Maine Media Workshops and College
Rockport, ME, USA
various workshops in bookbinding
Massachusettes College of Art and Design
Boston, MA, USA
Memphis College of Art
Memphis, TN, USA
Mills Book Arts Program
Oakland, CA, USA
Mills offers one of the most comprehensive undergraduate programs in book art in the nation. Our minor will immerse you in the creation and study of traditional and contemporary artists’ books, an exciting and rapidly evolving art form.
Montesserat College of Art
Beverly, MA, USA
Book Arts covers all aspects of book creation, including writing, image creation, editing, design, typesetting, preparation of images for reproduction, printing and binding. From letterpress printing to traditional bookbinding, students learn how to make a book from start to finish. Create customized programs from electives in virtually every department at the college. And choose from seminar and capstone options that best serve your own orientation within Book Arts—an offering that is unique to Montserrat.
Otis College of Art & Design: Book Arts Minor
Los Angeles, CA, USA
The Book Arts Minor offers students the opportunity to deepen their exploration and creation of contemporary artists’ books as grounded in the conceptual, theoretical, and craft foundations of the field. This interdisciplinary minor includes studio courses in letterpress, printmaking, and bookmaking supplemented with English and Art History electives related to creative writing, image/text relationships and history of Book Arts.
Paper and Book Intensive
Tuscaloosa, AL, USA / Saugutuck, MI, USA
Paper and Book Intensive is an annual working sabbatical in the book arts, papermaking, and conservation for seasoned practitioners and motivated beginners. For more than thirty years, participants have gathered together from around the world for two weeks of daily workshops to promote unusual levels of exchange, knowledge and inspiration.
Penland School of Craft
Penland, NC, USA
Penland is an international center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Penland offers one-, two-, and eight-week workshops in books, paper, clay, drawing, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking, letterpress, textiles, and wood. The school also offers artists’ residencies, local programs, and a gallery and information center.
Pratt Institute
Brooklyn, NY, USA
The Book minor at Pratt is a unique offering that brings together courses in design, history, art and theory to investigate the forms and functions of the book in our society. The book has served as a record of human existence and, over thousands of years, has changed in form and meaning. What does it mean to be a book in the twenty first century? Exposure to both critical theory and physical construction techniques prepare students to explore their interests in the history and theory of the book, as well as book design and book arts. Through a varied selection of course offerings that combine studio work with intellectual rigor, students in Pratt’s Book Minor receive grounding in the conceptual, craft, historical and aesthetic foundations of the contemporary fields related to the book as idea, object, artwork and cultural artifact.
Rare Book School
Charlottesville, VA, USA
At the University of Virginia. At various times during the year, RBS offers about 40 five-day, non-credit courses on topics concerning old and rare books, manuscripts, and special collections.
Rhode Island School of Design
Provincetown, RI, USA
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah and Atlanta, GA, USA
Offers Book Arts Minor through the printmaking program
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
Scripps College Press Book Arts Program
Claremont, CA, USA
Letterpress printing and book making program led by Kitty Maryatt at Scripps College.
Scuola Intarnazionale di Grafica
Venice, Italy
Founded in 1969 and is one of the main centers for Printmaking and the Artists Book in Venice, Italy.
SRISA
Florence, Italy
The SRISA Printmaking Department offers one of the best-equipped and most broad-ranging print facilities in Italy. Students have a full range of technical possibilities, including Relief Printing, Etching, Stone Lithography, Photo-mechanical Processes, Oil and Water-based Mono-printing, Letterpress, Bookbinding, Papermaking, and Digital Technology.
St. Ambrose University Book Arts Program
Davenport, IA, USA
If you are an artist with a passion for working with diverse materials, our Book Arts program gives you a unique opportunity to excel at what you love and gain skills that are highly-desired within the field of graphic arts.
The New School Parsons School of Design
New York, NY, USA
The Old Ways of making books – Jim Croft and Melody Eckworth
Santa, ID, USA
Intensive workshops in medieval bookbinding, tool making and more in rural Idaho
The University of Iowa Center for the Book
Iowa City, IA, USA
The University of Iowa Center for the Book is a research program dedicated to the past, present, and future of the book. Located in the University of Iowa Graduate College, the Center integrates practice in the art of the book with study of the book in society. The Center offers curricula in the arts of printing, binding, papermaking, and calligraphy, in the history and culture of books as a field of study, and in the expressive power of the book form. The Center hosts visiting lectures and workshops with book scholars and artists, including the annual Brownell Lecture on the History of the Book and Mitchell Lecture on the Arts of the Book.
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
MFA program. The Book Arts Program at The University of Alabama was established in1985 as the first of its kind. The program emphasizes development of original creative scholarship and creative practice by educating and preparing students to become technically proficient in book arts, cognizant of the historical background in which these various crafts evolved, and knowledgeable about the professional environments in which our graduates will work. Courses explore the reconciliation of modern sensibilities with historic craft.
University of Arizona College of Fine Art
Tuscon, AZ, USA
The Book Art and Letterpress Lab supports on campus letterpress printing, experimental printing, paper techniques, binding and bookery
University of Arts, London
London, England
Our Short Courses for Book Arts cover a range of creative crafts, from paper-making and bookbinding, to box-making and creating pop-up books. Be inspired today and explore the joys of creating art in book-form.
University of Maine
Machias, ME, USA
The Book Arts Certificate is a one-year, 27-credit program of study that immerses the students into the world of bookmaking as a means of artistic expression. Students will gain access to UMM’s Book Arts studio, containing an operational printing press and papermaking studio. In addition to foundational courses in book arts, students will takes courses in electronic and periodical production, papermaking, and will choose a studio arts elective in drawing, painting, photography or graphic design.
University of the Arts: Book Arts & Printmaking MFA
Philadelphia, PA, USA
University of the West of England Book Arts Program
Bristol, England
As part of our research we explore many aspects of artists’ publishing: from the conception and history of the artist’s book to creative processes and output, current developments and critical assessments of the subject. Through our research projects and collaborations, we hope to widen critical discourse within the book arts field.
University of Utah, J. Willard Marriot Library
Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Part of the J. Willard Marriott Library since 1995, the Book Arts Program champions wide-ranging explorations of the book. In our fully equipped studio, bookbinders, printers, and book artists utilize type, letterpress, photo engravings and bookbinding equipment as they combine traditional techniques with modern aesthetics and technology.
Visual Studies Workshop
Rochester, NY, USA
VSW is an internationally recognized center for media studies, including photography, visual books, electronic imaging and film.
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA, USA
The Book Arts Program at Wellesley College encompasses historical scholarship and creative studio artwork through hands-on study of the arts of the book.
Wells College Book Arts Center
Aurora, NY, USA
The Wells College Book Arts Center, established in 1993, provides a broad learning opportunity for Wells students and the Aurora community in the arts and crafts of the book. Students learn first-hand the traditions and history of the book through letterpress printing and hand bookbinding courses, a History of the Book course, an introduction to calligraphy course, and special topics courses such as Digital Design and the Artist Book, Boxmaking, Inspiration and the Medieval Binding, and the Printed Book. The Center also serves the campus and community with a variety of lectures, workshops, and symposia, and an annual Summer Institute. Begun in 2005, the Institute’s week-long intensive courses in letterpress printing, hand bookbinding, artist’s books, letterings arts and font design are taught by some of the foremost book artists in the U.S. and Europe.
Suppliers
Talas
M-F, 9am-5:30pm
330 Morgan Ave
Brooklyn, NY, USA
bookbinding supplies, conservation supplies, specialty papers
Hollanders
M-F, 10am-4pm
410 N 4th Ave
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
bookbinding supplies, decorative papers, leather
Legion Paper
New York, NY, USA
all sorts of paper
Paper Connection
appointment only
Providence, RI, USA
Asian papers
Boxcar Press
appointment only
509 West Fayette Street
Syracuse, NY, USA
photopolymer plates, letterpress inks
Renaissance Graphics
66 Steamwhistle Drive
Ivyland, PA, USA
printmaking supplies
Glodan
PO Box 245
Mount Carmel, PA, USA
large quantity papers
French Paper
M-F, 8am-5pm
1950 Industrial Drive
Niles, MI, USA
budget, medium-quality paper
Gaylord Archival
PO Box 4901
Syracuse, NY, USA
archival preservation materials
Saint Armand
3700, rue Saint-Patrick
Montreal, QC, Canada
handmade paper for sale
Hiromi Paper
9469 Jefferson Blvd Suite 117
Culver City, CA, USA
selection of different art papers, decorative papers, conservation papers.
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Submit a place for listing.
CBA is committed to supporting the book arts community in every way possible. In an effort to connect as many people to the book arts resources available internationally as possible, we have created this listing. Please submit your place here.