• Art of the Book: Experimental Instruction in the CalArts Library

    Author(s):
    Sam Regal (see profile)
    Date:
    2023
    Subject(s):
    Artists' books, Education, Art--Study and teaching, Libraries--Special collections, Academic libraries
    Item Type:
    Conference poster
    Tag(s):
    2023 ARLIS/NA Conference, Book Arts, artists books, instruction, special collections
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/wm1t-ya16
    Abstract:
    For CalArts’ 2023 Winter Session, Sam Regal, Reference and Instruction Librarian, and Joan Jocson-Singh, Institute Librarian, collaboratively developed Art of the Book, CalArts Library’s first credit-bearing course. Over the course of two weeks, students were challenged to consider the structure and concept of books as an artist’s medium. Participants engaged with materials from the CalArts Archives, Artists’ Books, and Special Collections, and closely examined contemporary avant-garde artists’ books and practices. The instructors led hands-on workshops to accompany historical and theoretical discussion, teaching binding techniques, papermaking, and printmaking. Students also surveyed collections materials, utilizing standardized library preservation techniques, including pH testing, measuring physical degradation of the materials, and accessing reformatting/replacement needs. Participants were ultimately tasked with producing an original artists’ book project that synthesized their knowledge of materials, narrative, and form. Students generously shared the trajectories of their work from conceptualization to physical articulation and discussed the vectors through which they align their various affiliations of self/identity when creating art. Some projects took the form of experimental structures and other variations on the codex, and students were asked to defend their projects’ inherent book-ness, however abstract. The course was open to undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines, and art, animation, creative writing, dance, and theater students participated. Their final projects vividly reflected their diverse creative and cultural backgrounds, and each book object was approached with thought and intention–to dazzling results.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 months ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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