Artists' Books: Visual Studies Workshop Press 1971–2008
Edited and with a Preface by Joan Lyons
Introduction by Johanna Drucker, Afterword by Tate Shaw
176 pages, 7 x 10 inches, 226 color reproductions, section-sewn with paper covers, 2009
The beginnings of Visual Studies Workshop Press were based on equal parts of enthusiasm, synchronicity, happenstance, and a bit of conjuring. Thirty-seven years and over four hundred and fifty books later, this bibliography is an opportunity to review the accomplishments of a Press that was at once publisher, printer, access shop and teaching facility. Present when the emergent phenomenon of artists' books was taking shape, the Press became a site for collaboration. As Johanna Drucker notes in her introduction, "Learning what a book was and how it worked so that it was not just an inert vehicle for reproduction took a community of individuals groping towards innovation through experiment."
Central to this bibliography is an illustrated selection of one hundred and ten books with statements, in most cases, by their artist-authors. In addition to serving as the record of a prolific and long-lived artists' press, this book provides a representative sampling of bookworks produced by artists over the past three decades—as described in their own words. Also included is a complete bibliography and an illustrated timeline.
ISBN:978-0-89822-126-8
List Price $35.00
