Iowa Bibliophiles - Artists' Books: Critical Writing in the Field

Artists’ books continue to be a hard-to-define and multifaceted field of work made at the intersections of conceptual art, the craft of the book, independent publishing, alternative culture, and other aesthetic motivations. No simple single lineage is shared by these works, and even tracking them to an origin point--such as illuminated manuscripts, the books of William Blake, or the 20th-century avant-garde-- can be problematic. Artists’ books have remained more marginalized in the mainstream art world than other forms like video or performance art, in part because they are also difficult to exhibit in a way that lets them be read and experienced. The challenges for critical writing in the field are thus logistical as well as aesthetic. For a quarter of a century, JAB: The Journal of Artists’ Books (JAB) created a vital forum for critical writing. Literally hundreds of writers from dozens of countries contributed under the editorial vision of Brad Freeman. The University of Iowa Press recently issued The JAB Anthology, a selection of works published from the journal.

This talk looks at the contributions of JAB, relates these to other work in the field including The Century of Artists’ Books (1994, Granary Books), and includes Johanna Drucker’s personal note on the dilemmas of producing one’s own artists’ books for decades. Brief interview clips with Brad Freeman will also be part of the talk.

Johanna Drucker is an artist, writer, and scholar, Emerita Breslauer, and distinguished professor at, UCLA, who has written and published widely on topics related to visual forms of knowledge production, the historiography of the alphabet, experimental visual poetry, art history, and other topics. Her recent titles include Affluvia: The Toxic Off-Gassing of Affluent Culture (Bridge Books, 2025), Inventing the Alphabet (University of Chicago Press, 2022), and Iliazd: Meta-Biography of a Modernist (Hopkins University Press (2020).

This event is free and will be held on Oct. 8 in Shambaugh Auditorium in the UI Main Library (125 W. Washington St., Iowa City) at 6 p.m. This event is part of the Iowa City Book Festival.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Elizabeth Riordan in advance at 319-384-2802 or [email protected]