Toward Another Land by Paul Johnson

The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney

Many people have seen the National Gallery of Art’s copy of Henri Matisse’s Jazz. But few visitors are aware of the Gallery’s large collection of books by contemporary artists. The Gallery’s library is hidden away in a back corner of the East Wing. Executive Librarian Neal Turtell met me at the library’s entrance, to show me around and talk about the Gallery’s artists’ books. The library has a small but pleasant reading room, surrounded by stacks. There are a few glass cases arranged around the room, only enough to display a tiny fraction of the books the library owns. “The books are exhibited in the library cases from time to time,” Mr. Turtell said, “but they are not primarily for exhibition purposes. They are for study purposes.” Because artists’ books have become a major force in late 20th century artistic expression, Mr. Turtell feels that the library needs to have this important resource available for scholars. “This is a medium that does not easily lend itself to reproduction. You can have books about artists’ books, articles about them and photographs of them, but these never really convey the totality of the object. You have to have some examples of artists’ books in order to understand them and adequately explain them. They are not easily absorbed any other way except by looking at them and touching them.”

The bulk of the collection consists of a large gift of about 450 artists’ books from Patricia England. The rest of the books are either gifts by other donors or purchases made by Mr. Turtell. The books are of all types. There are unique books as well as offset books with enormous editions. Mr. Turtell explained that, since the idea is to have representation of different kinds of artist’s book expressions for study and teaching, the collection is quite varied, and the artists that are represented work in many different mediums. Most of the works, however, do tend to be by artists who use the book as their primary method of expression, rather than painting or printmaking or sculpture.

Mr. Turtell described the collection as ‘happy books’, “a group of material with a lot of humor to it.” Many of them are unusual shapes, forms and bright colors. We walked around the library cases to see the current exhibit of Barry Moser’s books. The books are filled with intricate black-and-white wood engravings and woodcuts, reminiscent of the work of Gustave Doré. Moser has illustrated the Bible, Moby Dick, and The Wizard of Oz, as well as many other texts. In a book called Wood Engraving: Notes on the Craft, he has engraved a self-portrait of his face being squashed as it’s being run through a press.

The collection is mostly American, from the last 20-25 years. It’s not an historical collection, but is fleshed out to a certain extent by some European publications, primarily English. There are a lot of affinities between them. There are certain groups of artists represented who worked with each other or influenced each other. For example, there are books by Claire Van Vliet and by people who worked with her or were students of hers. There are also books by a whole group of people who were associated with or were influenced by Walter Hamady. “And then you have people who do beautiful work, like Barry Moser. We have beautifully executed woodcuts combined with really beautiful book production, paper, and bindings, all coming together to make a very satisfying whole.”

The artists’ books Mr. Turtell himself has purchased are often based on the work of earlier artists, such as Henri Matisse, Josef Albers or Casimir Malevich, or even some of the old Masters. An example of the latter would be Judy Jashinsky’s book Roman Fever, which relates to the life of 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. “It’s a personal interest of mine to have a group of artists’ books that are wonderful by themselves as artists’ books, but also have a connection to the kind of art that the National Gallery collects,” he said.

I asked Mr. Turtell to explain his statement about artists’ books being an important medium in the 20th century. “Artists have always dabbled in books; there’s a natural affinity there, particularly for those artists who’ve worked in paper. But certainly in the latter half of the 20th century, it is a form of artistic medium that has really blossomed. It has become a force to be reckoned with all by itself, not in comparison or conjunction with other mediums. It has taken on its own life, in addition to the lives of painting, drawing, sculpture and other mediums of expression. And the nice thing about this is that in some ways they combine facets of all of those. Many of the books, in addition to being visual and expressive in terms of their illustrative matter, are also often sculptural. I think that this may be one of the things that appeals to an artist - that you have more flexibility and more scope for imagination in producing an artist’s book than you might have in another medium.”

He went on to say that the artist’s book movement started as a way of trying to make art more accessible. Many artists’ books, particularly offset books, came out in very inexpensive and large editions of 1000 or more. “Also, at the moment there is no dominant art form – there is no one type of painting or printmaking or sculpture that predominates.” Thus there has been a vacuum that needed to be filled by something. “In a period where nothing predominates there is probably more room for more varied forms of expression. So artists’ books became more able to be produced, and people did not dismiss them because they were different, because everything was different.”

While artists’ books have become an important medium for artists, Mr. Turtell said that they have not yet seeped into the general consciousness as a new art form. At this point many people simply don’t know about them. It is a medium that certainly attracts its share of partisans, and many of its partisans are quite passionate, but it is not widely familiar to the public. “One of the problems for art through all times is that only a small percentage of the population is even interested in art, and each medium has its own adherents, painting probably being the most popular in terms of viewer reaction. People move on to other mediums as they learn more about them, but many people just don’t take the time or the effort to learn about art. Also, artists’ books have difficulty in being displayed because they are often fragile, particularly those that have unusual forms, shapes or materials –we have some books that are on paper so fragile that I don’t even like to touch them. The edges of some papers have deep deckles, where the edge of the paper is almost lace-like in its feel, and you can only touch them so many times before they start to wear away or rip, and so there’s a certain fragility. Also, when we exhibit an artist’s book it becomes a static thing, and I don’t see them as static things. I see them as a sort of mobile art where you are meant to pick them up and turn the pages and hear how the paper sounds when you turn the sheets. Some of them are pop-ups; there are also other aspects that prevent you from experiencing them the way they are meant to be experienced, except by holding them in your hands. Obviously you have to balance preservation with viewing, and in the public forum you cannot let people touch them. Partly the medium is its own enemy in terms of the viewing, both in getting the viewer to be able to see it, and then in getting them to understand what they’re seeing when they do see it.”

I asked Mr. Turtell whether, in order to educate a viewer, it would be important to be able to define the term “artist’s book.” He said that we are at a point in art when artists have come to say that art is whatever they say it is, so the book arts are no different in that respect. However, he said, “there are others who want to codify what makes up the concept of an artist’s book; I suppose there’s room for both meanings and even for different shades in between. At the very least, an artist’s book has to be book-like. Book art does not have to be in codex form; it doesn’t have to be oblong or rectangular. It can have a varied shape; it should have some kind of surface that can have writing or visual information applied to it. We have a book in the collection called The Mirror Book – no text whatsoever – it has glass mirror bindings, and silver mylar pages, so that the entire book is totally reflective. But it is bound like a book, it is shaped like a book, so in my mind it is a book even though it is not readable. It does not have to be readable, but does need to be book-like in some way.”

I left the National Gallery, inspired by the work I had seen and anxious to see more of the collection. Anyone can make an appointment to see the books. There are also artists’ books in the prints and drawings department. Call the library at 202-842-6511 to make arrangements to see them.