For students from Assistant Professor Dan Starling’s most recent Visual Arts 376 course, this summer’s exhibit at the Music, Art and Architecture (MAA) Library easily earns an A+. That’s because the exhibit, developed with Art and Visual Literacy Librarian Sara Ellis, features artists’ books created by the students themselves.
This show is a first for the MAA Library, part of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. While exhibits typically feature library materials, this summer’s student display is the result of a long-standing and ongoing collaboration between the MAA Library, UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections, and Prof. Starling.
Since 2021, students in Starling’s Visual Arts (VISA) 376 course have had the opportunity to explore artists’ books as a modern art format, including through a special class arranged with UBC Library.
“Visual artists often go to galleries to see and learn from other works. Our class about artists’ books goes to the library,” explains Starling.
For the special class of VISA 376, Ellis and Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian Chelsea Shriver select and share several artist books from the UBC collections. These books can range from works made with found materials (e.g. Dieter Roth’s Bok 3b und bok 3d), to limited edition objects from British Columbia artists (such as Image Bank Post Card Show) or notable international artists, as in the case of Henri Matisse’s Jazz. Each can be requested for viewing from UBC Library at any time.
“Bringing my students to view the artist books in the UBC collection provides a different and hands-on kind of experience,” says Starling. In fact, it’s often a source of inspiration.
Having engaged with the diversity of artist books in UBC’s collection, students are challenged to create their own for the course assignments and final grade. The result from the most recent semester led to the summer exhibit at MAA Library.
The MAA displays include student creations from three course projects: multiple versions of a collaborative class book inspired by modernist poet Raymond Roussell’s New Impressions of Africa (1932); a project on considering the book as object; and an additional class book inspired by William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794).
For Ellis, sharing the artist books in UBC’s collection with the class each year, as well as putting together the exhibit, has been its own unique experience.
“Taking out the artist books for the class really exposes the students to this format and invites their curiosity. I can see connections being made and how different artist books resonate with students as they engage in critical thinking about them,” says Ellis. “But I don’t usually get to see the final projects that were informed by those materials. Putting together this exhibit was like seeing Professor Starling’s class come full circle.”
Starling adds, “I think it’s important that the students get to encounter the physicality of materials to inspire their learning. The UBC librarians help expose the students to materials that they might not otherwise know to look or ask for, and there’s something very liberating about that experience for everyone.”
The exhibit, Artists’ Books as Form and Idea, will be on display on the 3rd floor of MAA Library until the fall.
Other artists’ books in UBC’s collections that have been highlighted in the special class of VISA 376 have included:
from the Music, Art and Architecture Library:
- Dossier No. 2357 : Thirteen Most Wanted Men (Andy Warhol, 1967)
- 955,000; an exhibition (Vancouver Art Gallery 1970)
- Cover to Cover (Michael Snow, 1975)
- True Patriot Love (Joyce Weiland, 1971)
from Rare Books and Special Collections:
- Micro/Macro (Bettina Matzkuhn, 2022)
- #lostfoundsound (Alison Bigg, 2023)
- Folding paper : technique, design, obsession (Barbara Hodgson, Claudia Cohen, 2017)
- The fortune teller (Jan Kellett, 2002)
and more.
