The Book as Art showcases a selection of artists’ books from the collections of the Art History/Classics and Environmental Design libraries. The selected items span several decades and include artists’ books from Ed Ruscha, Sol LeWitt, Kiki Smith, Jenny Holzer, and many more.
The exhibit will be up in the Bernice Layne Brown Gallery in Doe Library until February 28, 2025.
Curated by: Nina Bayley, Lynn Cunningham, Abby Scheel
See the Library events calendar for more information
Al Manar Éditions is an independent publishing house dedicated to the art and literatures of the Mediterranean with a notable focus on the Arab world. Established in 1996 within the Galerie Al Manar in Casablanca, directed by Alain and Christine Gorius from 1994 to 2003, the editorial house is now based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and has published nearly 400 titles to date. Whether in translation or in original language, the majority of their books are in French. Well-known writers in their catalog from the global south include Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Adonis, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Mohammed Bennis, Abdellatif Laâbi, Mostafa Nissabouri, and Salah Stétié. From Europe and among others, there is Sylvie Germain, Jean-Pierre Millecam, Nicole de Pontcharra, as well as Kabila, a French painter of Andalusian Roma origin. Others include Syrian poets Aïcha Arnaout and Maram Al-Masri, Lebanese writers Etel Adnan, Georgia Makhlouf, Leïla Sebbar and Albert Bensoussan, who, by virtue of their family origins and their background, belong to both shores of the Mediterranean, like Anne Rothschild, an Ashkenazi poet and engraver who is often met in Tahar Bekri Ramallah—a Tunisian poet, or Özdemir Ince a—Turkish poet and man of letters as well as the Catalan translator and literary critic Jaume Pont.
Al Manar serves as a reputable vehicle of dissemination for the staggering diversity of thought and creative talent in the Mediterranean region. The UC Berkeley Library is proud to hold more than 40 of its imprints with several of the more precious artists’ books shelved in The Bancroft Library. The publishing house regularly exhibits at the Codex Book Fair and Symposium held biannually in Richmond and Berkeley.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to the artist and the creator of Lake of Darkness, Karen Fitzgerald and Kohler Foundation for their support in the acquisition of Lake of Darkness – artists book for our Slavic collections that will be housed in Bancroft Library. This acquisition could not have been possible if not for the generosity of the Kohler Foundation who purchased this rather expensive but unique item and gifted it to UC Berkeley Library in July 2020. During COVID-19 mandated work, I also convey special thanks to Bancroft Library’s Steven Black and Amelia Grounds as without their help it would not have been possible to acquire this 20″x14″ portfolio. The project was printed on 300gm Somerset paper. The text was letterpress printed by Leslie Miller of Grenfel press; box created by Claudia Cohen.
According to the NYC based artist Karen Fitzgerald, “Lake of Darkness was created as a response to Czeslaw Milosz’s poetry and what it means to be in the earth, to be embedded within the landscape.” I note that Milosz was the 1980 Nobel Prize winner and taught at UC Berkeley’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
The images below are provided courtesy of Karen Fitzgerald.
EXHIBITION EVENT
HANDS ON 15: WOMEN AND ARTISTS’ BOOKS
Friday, March 1, 2019
4:00PM – 6:00PM
Environmental Design Library
Wurster Hall, Room 210
Artists’ books are simply books made by artists. Whether tactile or conceptual, they range in thematic content including the political, the sentimental, the instructive, or the purely beautiful. Our Hands On Artists’ Book events allow you to handle books from our rare book vault.
In honor of International Women’s Day, the Environmental Design Library invites you to experience 20 artists’ books by and about women.
More Information: Hands On 15: Women and Artist’s Books
Wine and light refreshments will be served.
Hosted by David Eifler, Jennifer Osgood, Molly Rose and Lauri Twitchell.
**The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please contact the event sponsor, David Eifler, at 510-643-7422, or at [email protected], at least two weeks prior to the event.
EXHIBITION
THE BOOK AS PLACE: Visions of the Built Environment
An Exhibition of Artists’ Books curated by Julie Chen
January 15, 2019 – May 17, 2019
Environmental Design Library
Wurster Hall, Room 210
This exhibition of artists’ books centers on ideas about the built environment and has been curated by Berkeley-based book artist Julie Chen for UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library. Featuring works by 25 artists including Robbin Ami Silverberg, Clifton Meador, Inge Bruggeman, Karen Kunc, Sarah Bryant and Barbara Tetenbaum, the exhibition explores the built environment through text, image, materials and the architectural capabilities of book structures.
Artists’ books are simply books made by artists. Whether tactile or conceptual, they range in thematic content including the political, the sentimental, or just about ideas of beauty. Artists’ books defy conventional “reading” and involve the viewer though sight, touch, and physical manipulation. Too often locked behind exhibit cases, Hands On events make them available for you to touch, turn pages, and explore.
More Information: Hands-On 14
*The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please contact the event sponsor, David Eifler (510-643-7422, [email protected]), ideally at least two weeks prior to the event.
Artists’ books are simply books made by artists. Whether tactile or conceptual, they range in thematic content including the political, the sentimental, the instructive, or the purely beautiful. Our Hands On Artists’ Book events allow you to handle 25 books from our rare book vaults.
Found objects, whether natural or debris found in the landscape, evoke a dialogue between maker and object. Drawn, collages, or photographed, these objects and ideas are turned into a meaningful form: the book.
Lauri Twitchell is a graduate of UC Berkeley. She is a gardener, naturalist, and artist. As an artist’s book maker, she finds meaning in found materials such as fallen branches, rocks, bark, and birdsong.
More information: Hands On 13: Debris
Hosted by David Eifler, Jennifer Osgood, Molly Rose and Lauri Twitchell.
*The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please contact the event sponsor, David Eifler (510-643-7422, [email protected]), ideally at least two weeks prior to the event.
Thank you to everyone who attended our successful event on Tuesday, February 13th, showcasing many of the Library’s treasures from around campus:
Open House + Arts/Visual Collections Showcase
Students, faculty, staff, and members of the public enjoyed seeing rare and special collection items from collections such as: the Bancroft Pictorial Collections; Artists’ books from the Environmental Design Library and the Bancroft Library; prints from the Graphic Arts Loan Collection at Morrison Library; media resources from the Media Resources Center; image collections from the Visual Resources Center in the History of Art Department and the College of Environment Design; and many more!
Libraries are not the only places in the Bay Area where print culture is alive and well. This exciting fair at the South San Francisco Conference Center next Friday and Saturday features more than 120 exhibitors of books, maps, photographs, posters, and other print ephemera. For details, see: sfbookandpaperfair.com.
Artists’ books defy conventional “reading” and involve the viewer through sight, touch and physical manipulation. Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations was seminal in bringing the concept of artists’ books into common consciousness. The Environmental Design Library will have several Ruscha books on hand and a number of other derivative and related works for you to touch, turn pages, and explore.
