In the 1930s, Walker Evans established a style
often mimicked in subsequent photography books,
with the photographs placed on the right-hand
page and the left-hand page usually left blank.
Many artists’ books are constructed with this gal-
lery-in-hand presentation.
In the 1950s, the German-born provocateur
Dieter Roth shredded, then boiled paper that he
stuffed into animal intestines to make ‘‘literary
sausages.’’ Considered one of the instigators of
the contemporary movement in artists’ books,
Roth used a variety of found materials, such as
overruns from commercial printers, as well as rub-
berstamping to establish many of the conventions
of the field. Another seminal figure is the Califor-
nia painter Ed Ruscha. In the 1960s, Ruscha pub-
lishedTwenty-six Gasoline Stationsand made clear
his intent to explore book art as primary material,
not as support for his other explorations in art.
Ruscha’s books have been highly sought-after,
despite their original modest intent to reach a
wider audience in expensive, unlimited editions.
By the 1980s, book art branched out into the per-
forming arts. In a review on performing arts in the
1990s, British editor Claire MacDonald refers to
the theatrical manuscript, describing a new interest
in questioning conventional relationships between
oral and written texts.
In 1984, in the United States, the National
Endowment for the Arts added bookmaking to its
categories for funding. This fund was eliminated
several years later.
In the last decades of the twentieth century,
Great Britain, Europe, Japan, and the United
States saw a number of new printing establish-
ments, mixing craft techniques in paper making
and book binding. These establishments are some-
times part of a university or art school, sometimes a
private institution such as New York City’s Center
for Book Arts or the Purgatory Pie Press. Book art
centers may provide facilities for the production of
work as well as funding and an infrastructure to
showcase results. In 1965, Stan Bevington set up
Coach House Press in Toronto primarily to publish
Canadian authors but also to make more craft
laden books. Since 1972, under the direction of
Joan Lyons, the Visual Studies Workshop in
Rochester, New York, has produced more than
200 books, including artists’ books as well as criti-
cal or historical visual art titles. Other book art
centers include the Pacific Center for the Book
Arts (California), Printed Matter Bookstore and
the Franklin Furnace (New York City), Book-
works (London), Art Metropole (Toronto), Wo-
men’s Study Workshop (Rosendale, New York).
Franklin Furnace, founded in 1976, has pursued
an active and often controversial roll in the produc-
tion and distribution of artistic works not sup-
ported by existing artistic organizations. In 1979,
Franklin Furnace exhibited work curated by sev-
eral prominent figures from the art world including
Clive Phillpot, whose curating, writing, and other
activities made a significant contribution to the
book arts in the twentieth century. The Nexus
Press (Atlanta) is run by and for photographers
who want to publish their own books. In 1976,
Chicago Books appeared, inviting six to ten artists
a year to produce a book at its facilities. In 1977,
the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland,
expanded its activities to include the production
of artists’ books. Pyramid Atlantic, a book art
center in Maryland, opened in 1981 under the
direction of Helen Fredrick.
Thus, the expansion of funds and facilities for the
production of artists’ books progressed but diffu-
sion of such objects remained problematic through-
out the century. Their singularity often makes them
both precious and inaccessible. Sometimes, artists’
books can be showcased in traditional venues for
books, such as bookstores, coffee houses, reading
rooms, or libraries. Sometimes, such objects are
best distributed through more traditional art
venues such as galleries, museums, and art fairs.
Art fairs devoted specifically to books provide fer-
tile ground for artists and collectors to compare
otherwise singular isolated works. Pyramid Atlan-
tic hosted half a dozen such book fairs in Washing-
ton, DC, in the 1990s. In New York City, the
Brooke Alexander Gallery showcased artists’
books concurrent to the yearly Armory Show of
prints and drawings. By the end of the century,
many individuals, universities, and museums
began to collect and exhibit artists’ books, includ-
ing the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the
Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, France, The School
of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Manchester
Metropolitan University, and the Carnegie Mellon
Libraries, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Fear that mechanical and digital technological
changes throughout the twentieth century would
bring an end to the artist’s book did not prove true
and the book as object remained a leading genre
in the art world. Technology advances made desk-
top publishing an increasingly democratic possibi-
lity, supplementing works with precious materials
with works available to low-budget projects. By the
end of the century, immaterial books existed on the
computer screen via the world wide web.BRUCEMcKaigARTISTS’ BOOKS