Artists' Books in the special collections of the SMFA library:
In our world, the book is a potent object: a symbol of knowledge, a mark of authority, an intellectual signifier, a barometer of democracy. It can be all these things and more, and yet at the end of the day, a book is a stack of paper with ink smeared on it somehow stuck onto slightly harder material to protect it.
…Except when it isn't. When, instead, a book is 20 slices of American cheese. Or a complex diagramatic game made of styrofoam, popsicle sticks and recycled pencils. Or an intimate, one-of-a-kind interactive sculpture.
For years, artists have been turning to the book as a malleable and mutable format to discuss a variety of ideas, all while pushing the definition of a book to its absolute limits. Producing works that are at times ironically self-referential but also dedicated to historical craftsmanship; satirical or hyper-personal; extravagantly unique or radically democratic: This is the world of artists' books.