Associate Director for Collections Management
Lower Level
speccoll.library@pratt.edu
About the Collection
The Artists' Books collection encompasses books crafted, published, produced, or altered by an artist, including works resulting from an artist's collaboration with artist-run organizations, colleges, universities, galleries, and museums. The collection also includes non-book works that represent a conceptual renegotiation of the traditional book form. In general, the artists books we collect have been conceived as artworks in their own right and produced in open or limited editions, as well as democratic multiples.
This collection is developed in close cooperation with faculty members teaching courses related to the Book Minor, and is particularly geared toward serving as documentation of a variety of Artist Book practices and formats that can serve as examples and inspiration to students engaged in creating their own book-based works. For research tips and information on how to make your own books, visit the Artists Books' Guide.
To schedule an appointment to view special collections materials or for more information about access to Special Collections, please contact speccoll.library@pratt.edu.
Don't see an artists' book you think we should have? Use our Suggest a Purchase Form, and we will take your request into consideration as we make our collection decisions.
Video of How Books Work (Flying Fish Press, 2010) used with permission of Julie Chen and Clifton Meador. Flying Fish Press, 2010.
New to the Collection
Parallel planes by Call Number: 709.04075 K1437PPublication Date: 2022Rhea Karam's PARALLEL PLANES explores the forms, colors, and textures found in the architecture of New York City. The title is a nod to the symbolism of urban living, where people live side by side in great density, yet their lives rarely overlap. However, within PARALLEL PLANES, Karam suggests that, once a straight line is just slightly angled, it can eventually lead to exciting and unexpected interactions.
Book of Hours by Call Number: 709.04075 C42039Publication Date: 2021A blow book in two sequences, Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem, musing on the artists' perceptions of time during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Illustrated with portraits of the artists' friends and family, musings on time, illustrations of and statistics about the COVID-19 virus, and sequences of the Doomsday Clock, all on tabbed leaves. Housed in a four-flap folding case; the table of contents, colophon, and instructions on how to read the book are printed on the inside of the case.
Allochronologies by Call Number: 709.04075 H8793Publication Date: 2024Allochronologies explores alternate notions of time, all conceivable according to the laws of science, that do not adhere to our ordinary experience. Hulsey takes some of the more surprising ideas of modern physics (multiple universes, a universe that oscillates, reversal of time's arrow) and translates them into a multi-volume artist book. Each volume takes one kind of chronology and, using fragments of fiction by some of the great 20th century writers, creates a book that physically embodies that conception of time.