Books as Art (Special Collections): Home

This subject guide identifies all of the artists' books in the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives. 

Artists’ books are meant as works of art that convey an idea through engagement with their form and sequence as much as by their content. Their artists are very involved in their production, and their readers are expected to interact with them physically as part of the experience. Some books open or are held together in unusual ways. Others feature handmade paper, often from material other than wood fiber. There are also books about bindings in general and making paper.

The artists' books in this subject guide are organized by their creators' last name, press/publisher, subject, material, and process, and every title is hyperlinked to their catalog listing in UTK OneSearch. 

In addition to searching for "artists' books" (use quotes so you don't get records with only one or the other word), you can try typography, woodcuts, bookbinding, colophon (information at the back of a book, especially one that doesn't have a title page), "book history," "book art," and letterpress.  Another tactic is to search by publisher's name, because some publishers specialize in this type of work.