{"id":3707,"date":"2015-08-19T11:19:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T11:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/?p=3707"},"modified":"2026-01-14T19:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:00:52","slug":"additions-to-the-artists-book-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/2015\/08\/19\/additions-to-the-artists-book-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Additions to the Artists’ Book Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The over seven hundred artists\u2019 books housed in the Libraries\u2019 Special Collections Research Center <\/a>are a rich resource for Temple faculty and students in a variety of art and humanities disciplines. Artists\u2019 books often defy standard descriptions but are broadly described as any work of original art created in book format or which takes the book as its primary mode of expression. Students, many from the Tyler School of Art, studying topics such as book structures, narrative, 2D foundation principles, and book arts in general, have visited the SCRC reading room to explore and be inspired by examples from the SCRC\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Clock Work Fish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the first weeks of this fall semester, there are already three different courses, two from the Graphic and Interactive Design program in Tyler and one from the English department, whose instructors have integrated the use of SCRC\u2019s artists\u2019 books into their syllabuses. Collecting artists\u2019 books and making them available to users serves our mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible unique materials to enrich teaching and learning at Temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artists\u2019 books collection, which includes titles from the former library at Tyler School of Art, has grown exponentially over the last few years with several new titles added annually. The following artists\u2019 books have recently been added to the SCRC\u2019s collections, and we invite users to visit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artists\u2019 book shown above demonstrates the often whimsical quality of the book arts. Created by Guy Himber, Clock Work Fish<\/em> is made entirely from LEGOs and consists of illustrations printed on vinyl pages. It is fully functional and consists of over 200 LEGO parts. More information and images can be found in the Libraries\u2019 catalog record<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Echoes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Another recent acquisition, this artists\u2019 book by an Egyptian artist, Islam Mahmoud Mohamed Aly, is entitled Echoes<\/em>. It is a finely wrought piece of craftsmanship, combining a traditional Coptic binding with the modern technology of laser engraved image and laser etched wooden boards. Inspired by the chants of protestors during the Egyptian Spring of 2011, the Arabic words for Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice are repeated throughout the design. More information and images can be found in the Libraries\u2019 catalog record<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cosmeceutical Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Unlike the first two examples which fuse unusual materials and illustrative techniques with the familiar codex structure, this artists\u2019 book by Alicia Bailey entitled Cosmeceutical Collection<\/em>, uses non-traditional \u201cbook\u201d structures in the form of cosmetic containers, including an eyeshadow case, a mascara wand, and a compact case, to house her three miniature books. Bailey writes of the work: \u201c\u2026given my mistrust of both consumerism and culturally dictated notions of female beauty, I am also repulsed by these shrines to artificial beauty.\u201d This title is so new to the collection that it\u2019s not yet cataloged, but will be available soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kimberly Tully
Curator of Rare Books
Special Collections Research Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The over seven hundred artists\u2019 books housed in the Libraries\u2019 Special Collections Research Center are a rich resource for Temple faculty and students in a variety of art and humanities disciplines. Artists\u2019 books often defy standard descriptions but are broadly described as any work of original art created in book format or which takes the … Continue reading Additions to the Artists’ Book Collection<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":987,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[22,25,14,6],"class_list":["post-3707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-news","tag-artists-books","tag-history-news","tag-rare-books","tag-top-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/987"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3707"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5767,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions\/5767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/historynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}