A selection of Artists' Books in the collection Photo © London Met
An artist's book is a work of art that uses the form or concept of the book as a canvas. Unlike traditional books, created for conveying information, artists' books are designed as standalone art objects. They can be created in small editions or as one-of-a-kind objects, often hand-bound, incorporating a wide variety of materials, techniques, and formats.
Some may resemble traditional codices (books bound with pages), while others may break entirely from that form, existing as scrolls, fold-out objects, or sculptural pieces.
London Met Library Special Collections has a collection of around 300 Artists’ Books, which can be viewed by staff and students. They cover subjects including Fine Art, Graphic design, Illustration and Photography. Usually these are held in the Special Collections Reading Room, but while they are being re-located and refurbished, the Artists’ Book Collection is available to view, by appointment, in Aldgate Library.
If you would like to make an appointment to browse the collection, please contact Special Collections by email specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk.
You can see what books are in the collection on this Reading List , and they are also listed on the library catalogue, if you select Special Collections – Artists' Books under Library Location in the filters in the Advanced Search.
We have also put together a small display of books about Artists’ Books in Aldgate library, so if you want to find out more about them as a subject, come and check it out.
A display of books about Artists' books Photo © London Met
Other places to research artists books include
The National Art Library at the V&A
Some extra resources
bookRoom - VADS - online resource for visual arts
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), 12 Sunsets: Exploring Ed Ruscha's Archive, which is an interactive website allowing you to browse through more than 65,000 photographs taken by artist Ed Ruscha between 1965 and 2007 of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and the inspiration for one of his most famous artists books Every Building on the Sunset Strip. This is part of Ed Ruschas's Streets of Los Angeles Archive, acquired by the GRI in 2012, which has more than one million images, many of which have been digitised, and some can be viewed on line, just in case 65,000 isn't enough to keep you busy!
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