Cool Books

Artist Valerie Bower's brother participated in Los Angeles lowrider culture and invited her to attend word-of-mouth rallies, which are the subjects of her photographs in By Word of Mouth (New York: Von Zos, 2016).

«The phrase "cool books" is used to describe innovative publications published or produced by artists, photographers, designers, curators, and other creatives.»

I first heard the phrase from Tim Young, curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, when we were both on a conference panel at Stanford University in 2015. Whenever he provided orientations in the library—showing examples of zines, photobooks, artists' books, and examples of artists' publishing—he found that students would revisit the library and ask to see the "cool books."

Anyone who has studied criticism about 20th- and 21st-century artists' books and publications knows of the inevitable quagmire when it comes to defining these publications. Duncan Chappell's article "Typologising the Artist's Book" attempted to add clarity to discussions and writings from the last few decades of the 20th century. However, I find "cool books" to be an apt phrase in describing the many publications by creatives at the start of this century and the end of the last. I hope you will too. All of these books are available, or will be available soon, for viewing.

Phillip Zimmermann, High Tension (Rochester, NY: Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1993).

This book by Phillip Zimmermann was produced and printed by the Visual Studies Workshop Press for Montage 93: International Festival of the Image. Words and images include depictions of stressful situations and solutions.

Eve Rhymer, Legendary, Lexical, Loquacious Love (Chicago: Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 1996).

This alphabetized romance novel has an intriguing blurb on the cover: "An Adult Romance for the Post Structuralist Woman."

Forwards? March! (Amsterdam: Boekie Woekie, 1986).

This early dealer catalogue for the bookshop Boekie Woekie in Amsterdam was published in May 1986. The publication date is significant. The shop first opened in January 1986 as a collaborative effort to promote the work of several artists: Jan Voss, Pétur Magnússon, Henriette van Egten, Rúna Thorkelsdóttir, Saskia de Vriendt, and Kees Visser. Publications by other artists are also listed in the catalogue. Because dealer catalogues are so ephemeral, acquiring them is vital in supporting research related to cool books.

Asha Schechter, Transparency Book (Los Angeles: Self-published, 2017).

This book was purchased at the Ooga Booga vendor table at the 2017 New York Art Book Fair. Each book is unique.

Satoshi Fujiwara, Code Unknown (Tokyo: Hironobu Shindo, 2015).

In this Japanese photobook, all the images are cropped to obscure the identity of each face; pages range in size throughout the book. The photographer took pictures of passengers on subway lines throughout Berlin over the course of several months.

Elena Schlenker, Sunset Sample (Menlo Park: Analog Research Lab, 2016).

Corey Presha and Bill Sullivan, Black Panther Coloring Book (New York: The Sun Solar, 2015).

Riffing off the original 1968 version of the Black Panther Coloring Book created by the FBI, this new edition was published in 2015 to bring the drawings into a new context.

Tauba Auerbach, BbeehHilloTy (Self-published, 2006).

In this book, Tauba Auerbach alphabetized all the letters in an edition of the Holy Bible.

Laurie Atzmon and Ryan Molloy, Open Book Project (Ypsilanti, Michigan: Eastern Michigan University Galleries, 2014).

This book includes laser-cut wood boards secured by rubber bands. Eight essays focus on "the book." Authors include Denise Gonzales Crisp, Phil Jones, Johanna Drucker, Tony White, Penelope Umbrico, Danielle Aubert, Emily McVarish, Bonnie Mak and Julia Pollack.

Moore Lande and Doug Huston, VAST (Chicago: Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 1994).

This book, which I first discovered in 1995, was "written" entirely using footnotes from Western pulp novels.

Toshiyuki Horie, Shoji Ueda (France: Chose Commune, 2016).

I attended a program at the International Center of Photography in New York in the summer of 2016 where the publishers behind Chose Commune were giving a talk and showing copies of their photobooks. Each edition is different and exquisite. The books often sell out in Japan and are rarely sold in the United States. I found out-of-print titles in Paris last summer.

Colorama Color and Drama Colorsheet (Berlin: Colorama, 2017).

Colorama is a risoprinting and publishing studio based in Berlin. This small publication showcases sample printing, color swatches, and related examples.

Jeong Hwa Min, A Trick of the Light—Folds in Folds (Berlin: Colorama, 2017).

These recent acquisition highlights, made through gift and purchase, are selected examples of photo zines, photobooks, artists' books and publications, dealer catalogues, coloring books, limited-edition trade monographs, alphabet books, and swatch books/promotional materials. Each of these are representative specimens within their own subset genres of printing and production.