An exhibition of artits’ books that emphasize the power of image to convey ideas.
Brian Hannon, former Executive Director, said of this exhibition: “…In an effort to represent the current diversity of artistic styles, this exhibition features artists’ books which emphasize the power of the image to convey ideas rather than merely augmenting text.
This exhibition contains books which employ various methods of image-making…The works are both established and emerging artists and illustrators, and utilize traditional and contemporary bookmaking techniques, as well as unusual materials. The exhibition also demonstrates how the book format functions in the artistic process: serving as a vessel for collecting images and sketches for works-in-progress, or as in an integral part of the final vision of an artwork. Many of the books in the exhibition are one-of-a-kind journals by professional illustrators whose works have been featured in magazines like The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Esquire; other books are handmade limited edition works produced by small presses, or are collaborations between illustrators and bookbinders; still others are unique works conceived and created by artists who have altered existing books, including sculptural elements, or designed alternative structures to express their own individual sensibility. All of the works are related in that each in some way responds to the notion of a book as a cultural artifact and a container for information.”
Support for the Center for Book Arts’ visual arts programming is provided, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
