Artists’ Books: Primary Sources to Foster Creativity and Imagination

Transforming Hate: an Artist's Book by Clarissa Sligh is a project that turns hateful words into a beautiful art subject. Its evolution helped the artist to fully understand the many levels of oppression and violence that form the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. It asks the viewer to question their own perceptions about history, reality, identity, and voice. You can also check out more of the book's pages at Sligh's website here.

Reading Dick and Jane with Me is an artist’s book by Clarissa Sligh created to interrupt the authority of elementary school texts from the 1940’s and ‘50’s called The Dick and Jane Readers. Although at the time, the average American was working class, the readers presented a white upper middle class suburban family as the epitome of normal and the artist felt that meant her family was an aberration. Sligh uses the children from her old neighborhood to stand in for the children who were never represented in those readers. You can also check out more of the book's pages at Sligh's website here.

Erase the Hate by Katie Delay is an artist’s book with an Italian cloth center spread that includes a pop-up construction. It explores bullying, race/ethnicity, sexual preference, religion, and women’s issues. Each topic is addressed in its own sewn signature placed into a handmade envelope.

Anything Helps by Laura Russell is an artist’s book that surveys the cardboard signs used by panhandlers and those who are unhoused. Photographs of these signs fit into the credit card slots that make up part of the artist’s book. The book is pamphlet stitched and sewn into a vintage billfold wallet with six cards that tell the story behind each of the photographs.

The Fortune Teller by Malini Gupta is an artist’s book bound using Japanese stab binding method and created to mimic a fortune teller game (cootie catcher structure) and issued in a hinged, red cloth-covered, five panel box held together with a red cloth-covered lid. The work investigates deeply entrenched gender biases in Indian society.

What's in a Name: Cowgirl Blues by Elsi Vassdal Ellis is a pamphlet sewn text block with a single signature and a paper wrap cover. The images are inkjet printed. The theme of the artist’s book is bullying, specifically the author’s victimization in 6th grade at the hands of classmates.

Sanctus Sonorensis by Philip Zimmerman is a four-color offset lithography printed book with a panoramic view of a desert in southern Arizona. The book is a commentary on Americans’ views of undocumented immigrants in the USA. The pages show the progression of a typical high desert day from dawn to sunset in one of the most dangerous entry points for undocumented immigrants entering the United States.

Executive Order 9066 by Mary Jeanne Linford is an accordion folded artist’s book attached to boards covered with printed Japanese paper. The pockets in the accordion hold reproductions of photographs taken during the evacuation and forced relocation of Japanese-American citizens during World War II. With each photo is a small card of text that contains reports and editorials from local newspapers, as well as text by Kay Nakao and Joseph Conrad.

Deeply Honored by Fred Hagstrom is an accordion folded artist’s book that is printed entirely in silk-screen. The text follows the correspondence between the Shigemura family and Carleton College President Laurence M. Gould after the Shigemura’s son, Frank Maseo Shigemura, a Carleton alumnus, was killed fighting for the United States in World War II. The Shigemura letters were printed in Lucinda Handwriting, a font that approximated the beautiful writing of Mrs. Shigemura.

Souvenirs by Ann Tyler is a letterpress printed artist’s book bound to resemble a photo album. The book contains quotes from accounts of lynchings between 1983 and 1926 and each quote is accompanied by a color photograph of a rabbit. The photographs are tipped with scrapbook picture corners.

Billy Rabbit: an American Adaptation by Ann Tyler uses images and text from various public sources combined with a cautionary English children’s story to weave a narrative about lynching. On some pages, the text is covered by images of old, well-used tools such as saws, a hammer, and knives. The images are sewn to the page so that the reader has to lift the image and becomes symbolically complicit in the story.

But What Should I Wear?: a choose your own outfit adventure by Megan Miller is a spiral bound artist’s book with clear plastic covers and computer-printed images with a hand-crafted removable paper doll and nine removable hand drawn articles of clothing. The book represents the objectification women face with objectification points awarded for each outfit of clothing chosen by the reader. The author intentionally chose not to create a way to reach zero in an effort to represent how women ‘cannot win’ no matter what they wear.

Nisqually Delta Restoration Puzzle by Lucia Harrison is an artist’s book in the form of a puzzle with 32 watercolor illustrations. The artist’s book shows the restoration on the land between Olympia and DuPont. Each tile has two sides - one that shows the dikes and invasive Reed Canary Grass, and the other that shows the restoration of the salt marshes estuary. The full text of the pamphlet and printable tiles are available here.

Local Conditions: One Hundred Views of Mount Rainier (at least) by Chandler O'Leary consists of 120 card-sized letterpress prints in a container box and a viewing box with slats for inserting the cards to create different views of Mount Rainier. O’Leary created this artist’s box as a reminder of Mount Rainier’s impermanence. Images of the artist's book and box are available on the artist's website here.

R & J: the text message edition by Elizabeth Pendergrass was created as an attempt to see how a Shakespearean play could survive the translation by a modern teenager. Pendergrass’s 16-year-old granddaughter rewrote the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene as if it was between two teens text messaging. Pages are accordion folded and fitted into a plastic cell phone cover.

Bless this House by Laura Russell is created from original photographs and texts documenting the community in Beaverton, Oregon whose mobile homes were demolished for redevelopment. It carries a list of the residents who were evicted and portraits of the residents. The other side shows the destruction of the mobile home park and the empty lots left behind.