Book Arts Collection
Connect to the BOOK ARTS COLLECTION - Libraries PRIMO Catalog
The Book Arts Collection at the Libraries Archives & Special Collections comprises historical and contemporary examples of publications created as artworks in various formats, such as books, letterpress, broadsides, and chapbooks. The collection encourages an interdisciplinary curriculum that promotes multi-sensorial communication and learning within the art and art history department and deepens connections with the larger Colorado book arts community.
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CGI Snake by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/divider/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/
Book Arts Collection - Resources
- Book Watson WorkGail Watson - Artists’ Books + Letterpress Editions Catalogue Raisonné 1987 to 2023
- Lasting legacies: Following the ’50sThis significant accession of letterpress, chapbooks, and broadsides to Archives & Special Collections in addition to the 2021 acquisition of Colorado Book Arts pieces, created the Book Arts Collection.
- Off the Shelf: Contemporary Book Arts in ColoradoOff the Shelf showcases work by 17 artists in Colorado. Exhibition pieces are drawn from GAMA’s permanent holdings and book arts collections around the state, with loans from the Fine Press and Artists’ Books collection at the University of Denver Special Collections; The Press at Colorado College; University of Colorado, Boulder Rare and Distinctive Collections; and several artists themselves. Many of the works featured in the exhibition are also courtesy of the CSU Libraries Archives & Special Collections, partners in the exhibition and with CABIN.
- Take a look inside some of the artists' books in Off the Shelf: Contemporary Book Arts in ColoradoClick the arrows to view all the videos in this series, including:
Alicia Bailey's Lipstips (2001) and Endangered Volume II (2019)
Gail Watson's The Language of Trees (2021)
Alicia McKim & Nancy Eastman's The West Being What It Is (2008)
and Aaron Cohick's Orpheus the Stutterer: A Poetics of Silence with text by Alan Loney (2013) - The Power of Artists’ Books Catalysts for Creative Thinking Across the CurriculumArtists’ books in the classroom—and really in any setting where people can engage with them—provide rich opportunities to explore artistic expression and commentary. We are called to engage kinesthetically in this art, and through the works of these artists, we are called to be active participants in the unfolding of their voices and messages. Just as these artists challenge our notion of art and book, they also challenge us to think in new ways about ourselves and our world.
Librarian

Mark Shelstad
Contact:
Coordinator of Archives & Special Collections
Coordinator of Digital Collection Services
Morgan Library
Colorado State University Libraries
1019 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019
Coordinator of Digital Collection Services
Morgan Library
Colorado State University Libraries
1019 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019
(970) 491-2820