The Cooper Union Library: The Cooper Union Archives &amp; Special Collections: Artists' Books & Book Arts

Artists' Books & Book Arts Collection

The Artists’ Book (AB) subcollection aligns with Lucy Lippard's definition of an artist’s book "as a work of art on its own, conceived specifically for the book form and often published by the artist.” In the 1960s era, artists’ books transcended the traditional functions of books, considering the format as a means of dissemination.

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A Performance by Ida Applebroog
Publication Date: 1979

Applebroog’s modest books address a variety of interpersonal problems, including loneliness, abandonment, need, voyeurism, and abuse. Understatement and humor are the artist’s most effective devices.
Thirty-Four Parking Lots in Los Angeles by Ed Rucsha
Publication Date: 1967

One of Ed Ruscha’s classic artist’s books, this volume features aerial photographs of empty parking lots in Los Angeles with captions indicating each location, including Dodger Stadium, Gilmore Drive-In Theatre, Century City, and Universal Studios. The photographs were taken by Art Alanis with direction by the artist from a helicopter that Ruscha hired for the shoot. These facilities are depicted both as abstract geometric compositions and as liminal sites that bespeak and punctuate a rapidly developing cityscape. First published by the artist in 1967, this edition of Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles is in a slightly larger format than other of his best-known artist’s books such as Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966), a change made in order to better accommodate the images.
Carpoolers #4 by Alejandro Cartagena
Publication Date: 2021

Alejandro Cartagena's subjects are the numerous pick-up trucks on their way to work and back in Monterrey. This change of perspective reveals to us a hidden world or culture even. Passengers are laid out in the back of each truck, surrounded by their various possessions. Tight cropping excludes everything around the truck except a small section of the road, emphasizing the frame-like quality, presenting us the contents as tableaux, in belief-defying sharpness. A quality which, though it casts some doubt as to the actual spontaneity and verisimilitude of the images, certainly lends to the idea of the image as a painting. Each person or grouping is so still, so perfectly composed that these confined spaces take on an almost religious significance, resembling the grave good arrangements found on prehistoric burial sites. This religious aspect is emphasized by the sporadic addition of images of the sky over their heads
The Shadow by Nguyen, Tammy, 1984- ; Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian), 1805-1875, contributor.; Julo, Hunter, contributor; Chai, Sabine, contributor; Greene, Holly, editor
Publication Date: 2024

Martha's quarterly ; issue 32, Summer 2024. Edition of 240. Issued in box with the silhouette of an apple and a boxer cut out from the top. Box contains: a small light and two shadow puppets, one of an apple and the other of a boxer. Pasted onto the bottom of the box is an image of a barren apple tree. Text by: Hunter Julo, Hans Christian Anderson, Sabine Chai, and ChatGPT Muhammad Ali, an AI-generated digital persona of Muhammad Ali that was developed by Artificial intelligence.

Find other issues for Martha's Quarterly in the catalog.

Book Arts

Livre d’artiste, artists' books, book arts, book works, or book objects – including exhibition catalogs, magazines, pamphlets, manifestos? Historically, these terms have been used interchangeably, resulting in ambiguous definitions and arbitrary categories. The Artists’ Book and Book Arts Collection (ABBA) establishes two distinct categories to demonstrate the history of book arts and the range of techniques employed by artists.

The Book Arts (BA) subcollection reflects the traditional definition of livre d’artiste – finely bound books published in small editions, studied by the members of Typophiles, The Grolier Club, and The Limited Editions Club. The former Cooper Union Provost Ed Colker donated his collection of Limited Editions Club (LEC), Heritage Press, and Haybarn Press. Dean of the School of Architecture John Hejduk was also a member of the Limited Editions Club and illustrator for LEC’s edition of Thomas Mann’s The Black Swan. In 2024, Hejduk’s collection of LEC was added to the Book Arts collection, after being held by the Architecture Archives for School of Architecture’s Study Collection.

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The Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, Balthus (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 1997

These fifty-five sonnets, published in 1923, three years before the poet’s death, describe his relationship to every aspect of creation, and view death as a continuation not a termination of life. Our special edition offers a selection of twenty-nine of the sonnets in the original German with the superb English verse translation by Stephen Mitchell on facing pages. Balthus was encouraged by Rilke to dedicate his life to the arts. The two illustrations for this edition are a tribute to his childhood friend.
For My People by Margaret Walker, Elizabeth Catlett (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 1992

Born in 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama, Margaret Walker is one of the most talented poets to come out of the American South and one of the most powerful voices of America. “When she speaks of and for her people, older voices are mixed with hers-the voices of Methodist forebears and preachers who preached the Word, the anonymous voices of many who lived and were forgotten and yet out of bondage and hope made a lasting music,” wrote Stephen Vincent Benet.
To illustrate Margaret Walker’s best‑known poem, For My People, Elizabeth Catlett has created six multi-colored lithographs. Beautiful and striking, Catlett’s images borrow from the African tradition of using form to communicate spirit and purpose.
The worlds of Kafka & Cuevas : an unsettling flight to the fantasy world of Franz Kafka by the Mexican artist, José Luis Cuevas by Franz Kafka, José Luis Cuevas (Illustrator)
Publication Date: Edited and designed by Louis R. Glessmann and Eugene Feldman. Falcon Press 1959

This is an inspired combination of Franz Kafka's disturbing words and Mexican artist José Luis Cuevas' equally disturbing images. Cuevas (1934-2017) began illustrating books in his native Mexico City when he was just 14, and had risen to international stature by the time Eugene Feldman of the Falcon Press sought him out to illustrate this work. A serious bout of rheumatic fever in childhood interrupted Cuevas' education, permanently affected his health, and contributed to a dark world view, preoccupied with suffering, decay, and death, that is reflected in his work.