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Book Arts |
WBN United Artists invite you to read and respond to a text or book about rivers, seas or marine life.
WBN is organised by Sarah Bodman and Linda Parr with input from Nancy Campbell and this year’s tribute to Rachel Carson’s book The Sea Around Us (1951), was suggested by Rachel Marsh | Semple Press. Rachel also recommends this podcast of a lecture by Alice Oswald talking about poetry, rivers and reality.
We invite you to make a 2D or 3D work (which must fold flat to fit into an A5 envelope for mailing) inspired by rivers or seas to send for an exhibition and mail art exchange.
You can make a text or image (or both) contribution, using any media you wish* but it must fit into an A5 envelope (which means it must be smaller when folded than 14.8 x 21 cm). Deadline 2nd March 2027 – Early submissions are very welcome.
Download the full brief here.
Our Autumn – Winter edition is the second of two issues publishing presentations from abbe 2025 – a two-day conference held at Artspace Mackay, Queensland, Australia, bringing into focus the innovative world of artists book practice in the region. Practicing artists, postgraduate students and professionals in the field presented papers examining two distinct themes – ‘Contemporary Artists Book Practice’ and ‘Mapping Australia’s Artists Book Histories: A Group Effort’.
The The six papers in this volume of The Blue Notebook combined with the seven published in the previous volume provide a broad view on the nature of contemporary artists’ books and book arts practice and the associated discourse within Australia.
Essays by: Lyn Ashby, Jorge Mariño Brito, Marian Crawford, Annique Goldenberg, Clyde McGill, Monica Oppen & Julie Barratt.
Cheng (Christine) Dong has designed these two special editions. Cover and featured artist pages for this issue by Dianne Longley.
Download your free copy and browse all back issues here.
Image: Detail from Aberrant Observance, a folio of works by Dianne Longley.
The Artist’s Book Yearbook is a resource for artists, collectors, librarians, academics, students, curators, publishers, researchers and anyone interested in artists’ books!
The new edition of the ABYB 2026 – 2027 has essays and features on contemporary book arts, interviews, and investigations of artists’ practices. In a special celebration of 40 years of collaborative practice by Uta Schneider and Ulrike Stoltz as ‹usus›, we publish two essays reflecting on their work as artists utilising books, letterpress, sound and installation.
Artists have listed 470+ recent book works. You will also find information on bookshops, print studios, binderies, artist’s book fairs, supplier services, galleries, institutions, libraries and collections, reference books, journal, societies, organisations, workshops and courses etc. Edited by Sarah Bodman. Published by Impact Press at The Centre for Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol. Cover design by Tom Sowden, celebrating ‹usus›. B&W print throughout, 288pp, 21 x 29.7 cm. ISBN 978-1-906501-40-2.
Order your copy with:
UK postage here.
International postage here. Thank you.
Image: Detail from the ABYB 2026 – 2027 cover, designed by Tom Sowden.
Congratulations to the MA Fine Art Printmaking student Sadie Pedersen Sharp, who has been awarded this year’s Agassi Book Arts Prize.
The image here is a detail from copystates – artist’s book and cassette. “I was told to bring my “music” more into print things. this is the result. side a is repeated photocopies of a blank sheet of paper, with audio captured directly from the copier via handy recorder and contact mics. side b is made of scans – as these scans were made, light-dependent volume controllers were moved across the glass. when the light of the scanner hit the controllers, a feedback loop between a guitar and one of two high-powered amplifiers was completed. audio for both sides was then fed through overdubbing loops, allowing layers to accumulate and simple sounds to expand, saturate, and transform into something greater. the cassette and book document the creation of one another, both generated through ritual and repeated process.
The book is made entirely from perfect bound copier paper, as seems appropriate. audio very kindly recorded to cassette by @scrunttapes, edition of 10 #xeroxart #noise #artistsbooks #cassettes.
Image: Detail from copystates – artist’s book and cassette. Find out more about Sadie’s work here.
Exhibition – Thurs 3rd September – Tues 27th October 2026: How we read books (for Stephen Emmerson) is a collaboration between Sarah Bodman, Stephen Emmerson, Artist’s Book Club at UWE and book friends.
Following Stephen Emmerson’s talk here at UWE Bristol in November 2025 our students, staff and visitors were thrilled to discover different ways into ‘reading’ and approaching books that suited their own paths and inspired new understanding and ideas.
We invited Stephen to run a workshop showing us some of his methods for reading books in January and met again for a show and tell in February 2026. We then set about making our own non textual readings or creating templates and using tools to create our pages for a collaborative book.
Our artist’s book was printed in a limited edition of 150 copies, shared between contributors and the library, it launched at BABE in June 2026, and is followed by the exhibition of the original works made for the book from September – October 2026 here at Bower Ashton Library.
Image: Detail from: Paul Laidler reads Philip K. Dick.
This touring exhibition is part of the ongoing al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition projects. The online Inventory gallery was launched to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street on 5th March 2012, for which project partners around the world held commemorative readings and events. The gallery pages show images and information for each of the 260 books completed for the project.
Exhibitions held since the launch of the tour include:
The Westminster Reference Library, Westminster, UK; The Powell Library Rotunda, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA; Salt & Cedar Letterpress Studio, Detroit, Michigan, USA; The Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; The Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; The John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK; The San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, California, USA; Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, California USA; the Center for Book Arts, New York in association with Alwan for the Arts, Columbia University Libraries Butler Library, International Print Center New, Poets House, New York, USA; Literary & Philosophical Society Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, USA; Curry College, Milton, Massachusetts, USA; American University in Cairo, Egypt; Arab – British Centre, London, UK; The Mosaic Rooms, London, UK; Kate Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts at the University Of Southern Maine, USA; The Hague Public Library, The Netherlands; Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada; Jaffe Center for Books Arts, Florida Atlantic University, USA; Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, Rochester, New York, USA; Goddard College, Vermont, USA; Arab American National Museum, Dearborn/Detroit, Michigan, USA; Idaho Center for the Book in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Institute at Boise State University, USA; George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA; Herron School of Art and Design, The Herron Art Library of IUPUI University library, USA; Keats House and the Iraqi Cultural Centre, London; the Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, USA; Idaho Center for the Book in partnership with The Arts and Humanities Institute at Boise State University; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016 a partnership between George Mason University’s School of Art and George Mason University Libraries, Split This Rock, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, McLean Project for the Arts, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University, Busboys and Poets, Georgetown University, Cultural DC, Smithsonian Libraries, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Northern Virginia Community College, George Mason University Student Media and Fourth Estate Newspaper; Rosenberg Library at the City College of San Francisco, USA; Konstlitografiska museet, Helliden, Sweden; Hatcher Library, University of Michigan, USA; UC Santa Barbara Library, California, USA.
Image: Detail from World of Books by Sas Colby. You can find out more about the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project on the LAAF Festival website.
