Artists' Publications Study Collection

The Artists Publications Study Collection was established in the past few years in acknowledgement of the intentional collection development activities of librarians at the Thomas J. Watson Library. As noted on our website:

The artists' publications study collection supports research and scholarship on these important works. This collection, international in scope, includes artists' books, zines, bookworks, artist magazines, pamphlets, artists' files, reference books, dealer catalogues, pricelists, journals, and all forms of artists' publishing. Books are acquired through gift and purchase.

Hansjörg Mayer's Hardy Annual is an assembling that he printed with students and faculty at the Watford School of Art using a single-color offset press. It is a great artifact of experimental printmaking that emphasizes a freestyle approach to illustration and color on the printed page. The book comes in a wooden box with paper board inserts as padding to keep the book from moving around too much. The book has metal offset printing plates adhered to the paper covers of the book block. The edition size was a hundred, with the first fifty retained by Mayer, and the school retaining the last fifty.

How to Make Your Own Cheap Inexpensive Artists' Book—by the offset lithography artist-printer Michael Goodman—was printed at Nexus Press in Atlanta, Georgia in 1990. Goodman was the founder of Nexus Press in the mid-1970s. He created this miniature book for students in a class he was teaching on artists' books. Page texts include such aphorisms as "use some large type for visual impact" and "centerfold: save your best artwork for here." Watson Library acquired this copy directly from Nexus Press.

The study collection has greatly benefitted from the donation of two significant collections of artists books. The first is from Yvonne Korshak and Robert Ruben, who are making a multi-year donation of books to the library.

A.S.C. Rower designed and editioned this book object under his imprint, Flockophobic Press. The "book" text is made up of strips of paper inside an actual wine bottle. The bottle label includes the text "Appellation Controller mis en mot par Steven J. Bernstein. A Seattle—Domaine des Cieux Gris. Nogociant A New York, U.S.A. mis en Bouteille Exclusivement par A.S.C. Rower." The bottle is corked and sealed with foil. The wine tag is used as the book's colophon with the edition number and author's signature, including the year of publication.

In Tax Forms, by Stephanie Brooks, the artist has printed what look like blank paper copies of the 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ. However, it is the careful reader who quickly realizes that the questions on the form are more personal in nature. Tax Forms is "a parody of the IRS forms—but watch when you look up your filing status, or more moral exemptions, inventory and adjustments. One could really feel better paying taxes if one could fill out a form that has moral and emotional criteria. Let's adopt this new form!"

Pen in Hand's covers are the size and shape of a black plastic pen, hinged at cap, with a metal slip ring, and are issued in a plastic pocket protector inserted in a cloth shirt-pocket, fastened with a shirt button. The artist's website has additional information and images for this book.

Another significant recent acquisition is the donation of over one thousand conceptual and arte povera titles from the Italian art dealer and collector Liliana DeMatteis.

La Via del Sangue includes seven burn wood matches, each mounted onto a singed page labeled with the day of the week near the bottom edge. The artist created this bookwork as part of the "Apollo" exhibition at the Galleria La Salita, Rome, 1973, in an edition of two hundred-fifty.

Bruno Munari was a highly regarded designer with an intensely playful streak evident in many of his inventive publications. The text block consists of blank pages cut in different shapes that allow for moments of surprise and discovery upon each new page turn.

An exhibition of a selection of these books is planned at the Italian Institute in Manhattan at a time when we can once again freely assemble. In the meantime, a catalogue for the exhibition with essays by Melania Gazotti and myself, plus an introduction by Watson's chief librarian, Ken Soehner, will be published soon.

Other donations and acquisitions have come from Monica Strauss, Conrad Gleber, and Gail Rubini of Chicago Books, Nexus Press, Cynthia Marsh, Rachel Youdelman, and many others.

The Sporting Life includes nine printed sheets on card stock in an oversized format. The printing is offset with screen printing. The book is housed in a manila mailing envelope with the year rubber stamp-printed in the center of the envelope. As a young artist and printer in Los Angeles at this time, she was heavily influenced by the photobooks produced by Ed Ruscha.

Her book, Water and Power, includes images of rulers and dictators in and nearby water. This book was hugely influential on Susan E. King, who knew Youdelman and encouraged her to refine the concept. King acknowledges that Youdelman's book greatly influenced her to publish a book titled Women and Cars using Heidi Kyle's flag-book structure.

In At the Theater, Youdelman shares with us the various vignettes of aggravation some of us experience when we go to the movies: others talking too loudly, smoking in the theater, etc. This book's theme is timeless.

In early 2020 Watson Library acquired ten titles by the Fluxus book artist and concrete poet Davi Det Hompson. His book, 1(a,b)18 (seen at the top of the post), is made up of a large sheet folded twice, with text on both recto and verso. Several foldout tabs are sewn onto the sheet, along with a small booklet on yellow paper that is also sewn to the larger sheet. Hompson was included in the exhibition Ray Johnson: New York Correspondence School at the Whitney Museum in New York, and his works were featured in over thirty solo exhibitions.

Watson Library recently acquired M-Maybe that has been collaged, redacted, and reprinted in the format of a comic book. According to Boekie Woekie, "No superhero was able to prevent the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Sebastian Utzni collected comics that were published between 1973 and 2001 and that show shockingly similar images to those of the 9/11 attacks." It includes selected bits and pieces from American comic books that seem to predict or foreshadow the events of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, with text contributions by Daniel Baumann, Manuel Gerber, Gino Leoni, Thomas Milic, Katharina Ammann, Maxim Keller & Friedrich Melzer (futurzwei) and Siri, and is edited by J. Steinbach.

Art Metropole was founded in 1974 to act as a distributor of artists' books and related publications. Catalogue No. 7 includes "Books, Special Editions, Records, Periodicals." Two years later, in 1976, Printed Matter was founded in New York City by either Pat Steir, or the duo of Lucy Lippard and Sol LeWitt; depending on which foundation story you prefer. Art Metropole is the longest running shop in North America dedicated to selling artists publications.

Editions Hansjörg Mayer printed nearly all of Dieter Roth's books, those of Richard Hamilton, as well as many other artists. His reputation as an exceptional printer and designer is well known among those who appreciate exceptionally published books. One little known example of his high printing standards is the comparison of Dieter Roth's book 246 Little Clouds. Compare the 1968 edition by Dick Higgins' Something Else Press to the 1976 edition published by Mayer. Mayer's skills and ability to translate an artist's vision accurately to the printed page is peerless.

Recently we acquired this ReFlux edition by Yoko Ono. You as a reader/visitor activate the object by opening the box, looking into the mirror at the bottom, and smiling. Those who choose not to smile while looking into the box may not fully appreciate the pleasing effect that the mirror can provide.

The Artists' Publications Study Collection is open to all visitors to Watson Library. If you have any questions about access to any of these books and many others please email the reference desk at Watson.Library@MetMuseum.org and a staff member will follow up shortly. Books held in this collection can be found using our online catalogue, Watsonline.