The Book: A Contemporary View

Exhibit Dates: Dec 22, 2010 - Apr 17, 2011
Location: Carole Bieber and Marc Ham Gallery
at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts

This exhibition addresses the themes of the book as object, subject, and concept. Stretching the definition of book, the show includes artist-made books, deconstructed books, and book installations. In an age where the printed book may soon be an anachronism, artists remain fascinated by the subject and materials of the book.

There are graduate programs devoted to the art of making books, guilds and organizations both national and regional around bookmaking that support the activities of small presses, artist-made books, and collectors of limited edition and one-of-a-kind books. Additionally, there are a number of artists who use books as a medium for their works. They carve books into sculptures and deconstruct books, turning the spines and pages of books into works of art. Some artists are fascinated by the printed page and concentrate on the lettering and language of books to create one-of-a-kind two- and three-dimensional works. Others are inspired to create installations and works that suggest book forms. The show also includes a boxed collection of paintings, a tradition used by artists for making “books” with removable pages, and an accordion book of prints by a group of Cuban artists. J. Susan Isaacs, PhD., Curator of Special Projects, has organized this exhibition to take into account all of these approaches.

Participating artists include Blanka Amezkua (manipulated Mexican adult comic book), Melissa Jay Craig (wall installation of book forms), Colette Fu (pop-up books), Jody Alexander (book installation), Buzz Spector (artist-made book), Brian Dettmer (altered book), Doug Beube (altered book), and Ula Einstein (the deconstructed “book”). The exhibition will present, through the work of 48 nationally-known artists, various conceptual and formal approaches related to the idea of the “book.”

There will be a symposium on the theme of the exhibition with presentations by artists Buzz Spector, Brian Dettmer, Doug Beube, Melissa Jay Craig, and the Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Mark Dimunation on Friday evening, March 25th and Saturday, March 26th at the DCCA.

Learn more about the Gretchen Hupfel Symposium: The Art of the Book in the 21st Century

The exhibition will later travel to Towson University in Maryland where it will be on display in the Center for the Arts Gallery from September 8—November 5, 2011.