In 2024, I curated my first exhibition of artist books. The exhibition entitled Duality: Artists’ Books Exploring Multiple Sides featured 16 books from my college, The College of Saint Benedict’s artist book collection, and two copies of my first completed artist book. I chose the theme of duality after spending a lot of time looking through the collection, finding commonalities among my favorite books and in the theme present in my own book.
The displayed artist books used their approach to the page, binding, and tactile materials to explore multiple perspectives of the artist’s chosen concepts. My hope was that the theme would inspire further exploration of artist books and the social contexts they encompass. One chosen book, Reading Dick and Jane with Me by Clarrisa Sligh, explored the idea that the Dick and Jane textbooks do not portray a universal childhood experience of the 1940s and 1950s, especially for Black children. Another book in the exhibition, My Heart’s Page, commissioned by the organization Organik, uses the traditional codex form to outline mass book-burning events from around the world. One example was Bebelplatz (colloquially known as Opernplatz) in Berlin, Germany, where 25,000 books were burned on May 10th, 1933. In memory of this tragedy, there is a copper plaque in Berlin with the quote from German poet Heinrich Heine: “Those who will burn books, will in the end burn people.” I saw this plaque on my 2023 trip to Germany. The quote inspired my first completed artist book and serves as the epigraph to one of my poems in that book. I stumbled upon My Heart’s Page when going through the collection and loved the connection it had to my artist book and the larger theme forming.
Bebelplatz Plaque in Berlin. Photo by Kathryn Schug
The poems in my dos-á-dos artist book, Blooming Books/Burning Blooming Books, highlight the importance of words. The poem, “Blooming Books," argues for the importance of words, while the other poem, “Burning Blooming Books,” explains the destructive and ill-advised activity of burning books.
“Burning Blooming Books” side, featuring singed edges. Photo by Kathryn Schug
Another displayed book, Wild Girls Redux: An Operator’s Manual by Ellen Knudson, overlays images of pin-up girls on the Missouri Department of Revenue Motorcycle Operator Manual, whose words Knudson satirically adapts to be about “operating” women. Philip Gallo controls both sides of the narrative in Electric Tulips 5.1. Writing under the pseudonym Alessandro S. Strega, a revered literary critic, Gallo authors the essay “Future Preterite” about his poem “Electric Tulips 5.1.” This artist book alludes to a similar move made by James Joyce in the Sylvia Beach Publication of 1929, where he praised his novel Ulysses under the pseudonym Vladimir Dixon.
One of the artist books I felt was most important to display was Glass House by Ann Lovett. In her book, Lovett writes a poem about Ann Lovett, a 15-year-old from Ireland with the same name, whose life was very different from her own. In 1984, Ann (the child) died after giving birth to a stillborn in a Grotto of the Virgin Mary. As the artist Lovett wrote, the poem explores “sensuality and the failures of Catholicism in her [Ann’s] life.” It was important to me to highlight the effect abortion bans have on young people, especially at a college rooted in Benedictine Values with its own Virgin Mary Grotto, which has a pro-life club but fails to support a pro-choice club.
The final page in Glass House, featured in the exhibit. Photo by Kathryn Schug
The Virgin Mary Grotto at the College of Saint Benedict. Photo by Kathryn Schug
Duality is present throughout life. Only viewing one side of a debate is how echo chambers begin and thrive, ultimately hindering the dissemination of knowledge and open conversations. My goal in displaying artist books whose themes fit duality was to invite conversations around larger social issues.
Kathryn Schug (she/her) is a writer and book artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She works
as a Historic Interpreter/Youth Specialist at the Edina Historical Society. As a recent book arts
minor graduate, Schug is exploring affordable ways to practice book arts at home.
