The Art of Moveable Books from VCU Libraries’ collection
Showing through summer.
The Art of Moveable Books exhibition includes selected titles from James Branch Cabell Library’s Book Art Collection that pop-up to form complex sculptures or have kinetic parts that provide an interactive experience.
One Red Dot is a popular children’s title by David Carter that features 10 pages of brightly colored abstract shapes that pop-pop, flip, and curl to hide a red dot that seems to move across the pages. Vasarely: Pop-Up Op-Art, pays homage to Victor Vasarely’s optical art through pop-up reconstructions of his visually challenging work. Tauba Auerbach’s [2,3] is a limited edition artists’ pop-up book consisting of six oversized volumes that open into elaborate geometric sculptures. Paper Blossoms: A Book of Beautiful Bouquets for the Table by Ray Marshall includes beautifully engineered arrangements of paper tulips, roses, and lillies.
Cabell Library’s Special Collections and Archives holds nearly 1,000 moveable books dating from late 1800s to the present. The majority of these titles were donated by Betty Tisinger, a professor emerita of VCU’s Department of Art Education. Special Collections and Archives is located on the fourth floor of Cabell Library and is open 9 am to 5 pm, Mondays through Fridays.
In order of appearance on the Big Screen:
- Ug, Phillippe. Vasarely: Pop-Up Op-Art. New York: Prestel, 2014. N6853.V3 U4 2014
- Carter, David. One Red Dot. New York: Little Simon, 2005. QA113 .C3779 2005
- Marshall, Ray. Paper Blossoms: A Book of Beautiful Bouquets for the Table. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2010. N7680 .M377 2010
- Auerbach, Tauba. [2,3]. New York: Printed Matter: 2010. Book Art 4-173