New Book Art in 2025
VCU Libraries Special Collections & Archives added several new, exciting artist books to their collection in 2025. Here are a few highlights:
The things we take (and the things we couldn’t) (2024), edition of 16
By Gino Romero, published by Booklyn, New York
Wooden box, 4 artworks, relief print, sticker, screws, glue, packing paper
“I did not know the last time I visited Venezuela would be the last (at least for the foreseeable future). This set of books is inspired by what one is able to take and what one is forced to leave behind. These books explore the political crisis in Venezuela, diasporic grief, and religion through personal narratives and poems.”- Gino Romero
A Monument to What Remains (2024), edition of 30
By Julie Chen, Published by Flying Fish Press
Six accordions, letterpress printed
“A Monument to What Remains commemorates the overlooked moments and everyday experiences that often go unrecognized or forgotten, raising questions about what is deemed worthy of remembrance—and who gets to make that decision.” – flyingfish.com
Colored people : a collaborative book project (1991) edition of 1000.
By Adrian Piper, Published by Book Works, London
Offset printed, perfect bound
“Tickled pink. Scarlet with embarrassment. Purple with anger. Blue. Green with envy. Jaundiced yellow. White with fear. Black depression.” Adrian Piper’s book is a collaboration with sixteen people who were asked to cut out these ‘metaphorical moods’ and record them as photographs which Piper then took responsibility for sorting, depending on her response to the expressions. According to Piper, the book “was intended as a light-hearted conceptual gesture with serious implications”.- bookworks.org
SEA BEAN (1978), edition of 80
By Allison Knowles
Cardboard box, beans, plastic container, and printed instructions
Fluxus work that reads: “emty [sic] out the bean put cylinder to the ear hear the sea.”
Dream State (2024), edition of 150
By Maysaa Almumin, Nathan Ross Davis, and Hagar Allam, published by Water with Water, Qatar
4 Colour Risograph, saddle-stitched
“In 2023, a severe health crisis nearly ended Kadhmia’s life. During her recovery, she drifted between consciousness and another state, where she mysteriously communicated with a friend who was also close to death…This publication collects fragments of her conversations with her daughter Maysaa about this true experience in a Dream State.”- waterwithwater.com
gender liberators (2024), edition of 88
By Sky Syzygy, published by Women’s Studio Workshop, NY
Risograph, Letterpress, Digital Offset, perfect bound
“gender liberators is an anthology of writing, poetry, correspondence, photos, paintings, flyers, and other ephemera by trans*, Two-spirit, nonbinary, and trans-adjacent authors and creators from 20th-century Turtle Island/North America.” – wsworshop.org
To schedule a visit to Special Collections and Archives at Cabell Library to view these titles or other collection materials, contact [email protected].
Categories Book Art, Special Collections and Archives