Research-based Art Practices

For some artists, research doesn't just inform their work, but research is the material, an essential component of its content. Whether you call your art a "research-based practice" or not, library research can provide context and theoretical concepts in your studio practice. Researching and critically thinking about art will help you write about your work, apply to residencies, and share your work with others.

Artists' Books

Livre d’artiste? Artists' books, book arts, book works, or book objects, or art objects... including exhibition catalogs, photo books, magazines, pamphlets, and manifestos… In this guide, you'll find a few different approaches and definitions of the category of books authored by artists. Search the Subject "artists' book" in the Cooper Union Catalog.

Artist - Author by Cornelia Lauf; Clive Phillpot;
Publication Date: 1998
The personal immediacy of artists' books capture the imagination and involve the "reader" in developing alternative ways of viewing the world. Carefully compiled by Lauf and Phillpot, an independent art historian and a former librarian at the Museum of Modern Art, respectively, this book's informative essays and striking collection of graphic images make it a fine example of the genre it attempts to define. Ranging from limited editions to posters to comics, the works presented here mirror the multiple styles and varied concerns of today's creative community. New technology has led to innovations in graphic design, computer-generated publications, and the blurring of distinctions between art and advertising, expanding and shifting artistic boundaries. This book provides both an intelligent study of these myriad topics for students of contemporary art and a visual delight for casual readers.
Bookwork by Garrett Stewart
ISBN: 0226773914
Publication Date: 2011
"There they rest, inert, impertinent, in gallery space--those book forms either imitated or mutilated, replicas of reading matter or its vestiges. Strange, after its long and robust career, for the book to take early retirement in a museum, not as rare manuscript but as functionless sculpture. Readymade or constructed, such book shapes are canceled as text when deposited as gallery objects, shut off from their normal reading when not, in some yet more drastic way, dismembered or reassembled." So begins Bookwork, which follows our passion for books to its logical extreme in artists who employ found or simulated books as a sculptural medium. Investigating the conceptual labor behind this proliferating international art practice, Garrett Stewart looks at hundreds of book-like objects, alone or as part of gallery installations, in this original account of works that force attention upon a book's material identity and cultural resonance. Less an inquiry into the artist's book than an exploration of the book form's contemporary objecthood, Stewart's interdisciplinary approach traces the lineage of these aggressive artifacts from the 1919 Unhappy Readymade of Marcel Duchamp down to the current crisis of paper-based media in the digital era. Bookwork surveys and illustrates a stunning variety of appropriated and fabricated books alike, ranging from hacksawed discards to the giant lead folios of Anselm Kiefer. The unreadable books Stewart engages with in this timely study are found, again and again, to generate graphic metaphors for the textual experience they preclude, becoming in this sense legible after all.

This is not a comprehensive list... please check the catalog for more!

Index (Book) by Andy Warhol
Publication Date: 1967
The classic work of Pop Art in book form by Andy Warhol- silly, surreal & psychedelic. A statement by an enigma defined as much by the entourage at his Factory as by his own blank presence. contains all ten famous & fragile interior elements: An elaborate pop-up paper castle attached to two pages above the declaration "We're attacked constantly;" a bright red paper accordion attached to the intersection of a folded page; a colorful pop-up paper airplane attached between two pages; a paper disc with announcement & blurbs about Warhol's film Chelsea Girls, now loose but complete with loose spring & clear adhesive stickers; a folded paper geodesic structure with images of a nude, hairy-chested photographer, attached with black string to a circular sticker attached to a page; a 7" flexi-disc, paper with plastic grooved film on front side with image of Lou Reed, said to contain a recording by The Velvet Underground & Nico which may not have otherwise been released.
Le Cadran Scolarie by Marcel Broothaers
Publication Date: 1989
Originally published by the artist in 1974, this facsimile edition of Le Cadran S©olaire juxtaposes cutouts of found images of everyday objects with found letters of the alphabet, handwritten and in print. Broodthaers’ use of collage allows him to experiment and play with object and language associations, designing a publication that resembles an elementary alphabet picture book. The title itself is a play with letters and meaning, translating to “The Sun Dial” if the “c” is omitted or to “The School Dial” if kept.
A Blow of Dice Never Will Abolish Chance: a Poem by Stéphane Mallarmé; Holly Cundiff (Translator)
Publication Date: 2018
Among the most influential works of the French poet St phane Mallarm (1842-98), Un Coup de d s jamais n'abolira le Hasard feels to this day revolutionary and resoundingly contemporary, both for the suggestive power of its unconventional free verse and for its striking visual impact. For the poet, the white spaces, or scattered "silences," are as integral to the reading as the words on the page, and the very design--the typographical layers and the arrangement of lines and words upon the page and across spreads--carries meaning and content. At the time of his death in 1898, Mallarm was close to realizing his vision of a deluxe, large-format publication of the poem that would meet his precise specifications with regard to dimensions, typography and page design, and would include commissioned lithographs by his friend Odilon Redon, an artist he admired for the tonal richness and symbolic power of his images. This two-volume edition brings all of these elements together for the first time in an English-language edition. Separate French and English volumes allow for individual readings of the original poem and this fresh new translation (A Blow of Dice Never Will Abolish Chance), each produced at full scale, meticulously typeset and accompanied by Redon's evocative illustrations.
Thirty-Four Parking Lots in Los Angeles by Ed Rucsha
Publication Date: 1967
Aerial photographs of vast, empty parking lots in Los Angeles with captions indicating locations which include Dodgers Stadium, Gilmore Drive-In Theatre, Century City, Universal Studios, Church of Christ, Lockheed Air Terminal, Eileen Feather Salon, Good Year Tires, Sears Roebuck & Co., among others. Ruscha depicts the parking lots both as geometric compositions with abstract patterns and as sites indicative of the city’s rapidly developing landscape.
He lost his mind, undressed, ran away naked by Ilya Kabakov
Publication Date: 1990

This is not a comprehensive list... please check the catalog for more!

Dirty Pictures by Jeanette Ingberman (Introduction by); Papo Colo (Editor)
Publication Date: 1982
Twelve loose 5"x 7" black and white plates plus one tipped onto a die-cut, gatefold cardboard case. With a folded exhibition flyer plus accordion-fold card with an essay by the curator Jeanette Ingberman. Cards bright and fresh with little wear, card case with very little discernible wear. Exhibition catalaogue for a group show at legendary alternative exhibition space EXIT ART focusing not on pornography "in its traditional definition as a manifestation of a diseased society. but rather the valid expression of an extreme human experience, the secrets of eroticism portrayed by individual artists as they emphasize, in a subjective way, a particular fantasy". With art by Martha Boyden, Papo Colo, Jane Dickson, Dan Freeman, Michael Hafftka, Kim Keever, Komar & Melamid, Roberto Llimos, Carey Marvin, Richard Mock, Mike Roddy, and Betsy Rosenwald
Vertical Gardens by Papo Colo (Concept by, Designed by); Sujin Lee (Assisted by); Lauren Rosati (Produced by)
Publication Date: 2009
Published by Chupacabra Publications / Exit Art Press. The catalog for Vertical Gardens is housed in an 8 x 10" box and includes black and white reproductions and texts of each work included in the exhibition; public program information; and an 11 x 17" frontispiece with an artist list and information on exhibition support.
EPA (Environmental Performance Actions) by Papo Colo (Concept by, Designed by); Sujin Lee (Assisted by); Lauren Rosati (Produced by)
Publication Date: 2009-10-01
Published by Chupacabra Publications / Exit Art Press. The catalog for EPA (Environmental Performance Actions) is housed in an 8 x 10" box and includes black and white reproductions and texts of each work included in the exhibition; public program information; an 11 x 17" frontispiece with an artist list and information on exhibition support; and a full-color glossy poster for EPA.

This is not a comprehensive list... please check the catalog for more!

Notations by John. Cage
Publication Date: 1969
One of the best of John Cage's published books, a work that shows his ability to move fluidly between music and visual art. A collection of musical scores that demonstrates how the written form of music can emerge as a two-dimensional artwork. Features musical scores from Cage's collection and includes works by The Beatles, Satie, Nam June Paik, Igor Stravinsky, and numerous others
Night Life by Laurie Anderson
Publication Date: 2006
Night Life is Laurie Anderson's diary of a year of dreams. Its pages recreate each night's mental show as a work of art, employing Anderson's skill in theater, lyrics and narrative to investigate the workings of her mind in the languages of dreams, drawings and text. She describes the book thus: For the last year I've been on the road with a solo performance. Every night another theater, another hotel room. Gradually my dreams became wild, vivid, more and more relentless. Headless singing squirrels, vast empty spaces, bizarre clatterings and invasions. My own dark and private theater was slowly taking over. I began to draw these dreams literally out of self-defense. I kept the computer drawing tablet next to the bed and tried to capture them in their most raw state. After many months of drawing my dreams I was drawn into the odd language and logic of the images. Often I drew my own head in the foreground. What did that mean? Who's watching who? Often the dreams were alternate versions of the day's events. Sometimes they were heavily charged atmospheres, sensations, emotions. Depictions of bewilderment, ecstasy, weightlessness, abandonment, freedom.

This is not a comprehensive list... please check the catalog for more!

COOP by Fia Backström
ISBN: 9780990689645
Publication Date: 2016
COOP documents Swedish artist Fia Backstr m's (born 1970) performances of two recent scripts, continuing her exploration of language, marketing, disorders and performance. The first script operates according to two distinct logics: a four-part linear base structure and text material that was chosen and read during the performance through chance movement of the performer's body across a grid. This publication was especially designed to reflect this type of unpredictable and spontaneous movement. Mathematical symbols have been embedded into the text and these symbols link to ones on the upper corner of pages with nonlinear material. These indicate where the text could be inserted during a performance, thus incorporating the form of performance into the book. The second script serves as an epilogue to the first and was performed by four voices, reading from beginning to end without assigned lines, sometimes simultaneously.
Walk-through by Walid Raad
ISBN: 9781908966087
Publication Date: 2014
Walid Raad, is a Lebanese artist and founder of the fictional collective The Atlas Group whose work is concerned with researching, documenting and producing audio and visual installations that shed light on the contemporary history of Lebanon. Walkthrough documents the results of Walid Raad's summer school at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Italy, looking at his work as an exhibition of objects, stories, and documents, a mixture of fact-based research with poetic reflections on colors, lines and shapes, accompanied by a series of 'walkthrough' tours led by the artist. One of the pieces featured, Scratching on Things I Could Disavow, is a series of one-hour 'walkthroughs' for visitors guided by the artist through his installation of miniature artworks. The project revolves around the art history of the Arab world, its present and its future, and oscillates between fact and fiction, documentation and interpretation. Scratching on Things I Could Disavow is to some extent a research project that focuses on three areas--technological innovations in finance and their manifestations in art funds; the conditions for contemporary art in the Gulf region; the third concern is the effect that certain wars have had on culture and tradition, both materially and immaterially. Walkthrough is a significant contribution to the understanding of Walid Raad's creative process and looks at the collaborative nature of the workshops and the collective narrative that is created by his 'walkthrough' installations and as such provides an invaluable resource for students, curators and artists alike.
Dangerous Moves by Coco Fusco
ISBN: 9781849763264
Publication Date: 2015
Examining performance and politics in post-revolutionary Cuba, Dangerous Moves challenges the understanding of performance art and political engagement through a sustained analysis of the contemporary experience in Cuba. Coco Fusco analyzes the ways that the Cuban state has wielded influence over artists in recent times, arguing that in a context in which overt political speech is subject to censorship, the language of performance emerges as the favored means of social commentary. Focusing on a range of performative practices in visual art, music, poetry, and political activism, Fusco examines the relationship between the abject body in performance and the greater body politic of a state officially defined as revolutionary yet seeking to limit and constrain dissent. Dangerous Moves is a key addition to the canon of writing on contemporary performance art.
Socorro! by Lucy Raven
ISBN: 9781913620998
Publication Date: 2023
Between 2021 and 2022, artist Lucy Raven created a series of more than sixty unique silver gelatin shadowgrams at an explosives range in New Mexico, often used as a test site by the US Department of Defense and private munition companies. From within a custom-built room-sized black box purpose-built on the site, Raven recorded the elemental pressures of air and the raw materials that constitute the explosive event by exposing photosensitive paper for micro-seconds. These empirical experiments resulted in the subtly inflected abstractions that are collected in this artist’s book.

This is not a comprehensive list... please check the catalog for more! Also, check out Cooper Union Archives for Student Publications.

Art Research Databases

Art Index Retrospective (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Index to articles published from 1929-1984. Subjects covered: Advertising Art, Antiques, Archaeology, Architecture and Architectural History, Art History, Crafts, Decorative Arts, Folk Art, Graphic Arts, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Motion Pictures, Museology, Non-Western Art, Painting, Photography, Pottery, Sculpture, Television, Textiles.
Arts & Humanities (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 600 scholarly journals, magazines, and trade publications in the visual arts, applied arts, and cultural studies.
Bibliography of the History of Art This link opens in a new window
This site searches the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) 1990-2007 as well as Répertoire international de la littérature de l'art (RILA) 1975-1989. BHA and RILA cover European and American visual arts material including citations to articles from over 1,200 journals.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
The DPLA is a discovery tool, or union catalog, for public domain and openly licensed content held by the United States' archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions.
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) This link opens in a new window
EAI’s Educational Streaming Service is a unique subscription-based resource that transforms EAI’s Online Catalogue into a “digital textbook.” Almost 1,200 titles by 65 artists are currently available for streaming via this digital delivery platform. Eventually, the Service will encompass EAI’s entire collection of 3,800 media artworks.
Interaction of Color This link opens in a new window
Users must set up an individual login account. Access the text, plates, and commentaries—including videos of experts discussing Josef Albers's work. View and interact with the plates, access your bookmarked plates, chapters, and saved designs.
Research Library: The Arts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Coverage of the Arts, Architecture, Music, Theatre, Film, TV, Dance, Design - scholarly journal articles, trade publications, and consumer publications.This resource covers publications on the arts for researchers of all levels.
Smithsonian Open Access This link opens in a new window
Download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 4.4 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
UbuWeb This link opens in a new window
Founded in 1996, UbuWeb is a pirate shadow library consisting of hundreds of thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts. By the letter of the law, the site is questionable; openly violating copyright norms and almost never asking for permission.