Proposal Abstract

Artists’ books appear as a fully developed art form at the same time as collaborative practices in art. Taking this phenomenon as a starting point, this paper is focused on showcasing different ways of collaboration in the field of artists’ books from a selection of works from the 2nd half of the 20th century until nowadays. Analysing and exploring the collaborative artistic practices reveal to us on what basis a collaboration in the creation of an artists’ book can be noticed. After considering many case studies, the conclusion is the distinction of three main ways of collaboration: (1) when multiple artists contribute to the same topic and all the artworks are becoming a book; (2) when artists work on their own parts and then exchange and keep on working on top of the other artists’ works; (3) when the artists work together from conception, through execution, until conclusion. Additionally, artists’ books are becoming more and more often a framework for socially engaged practices which involve people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction (the artworks created often hold equal or less importance to the collaborative act of creating them). The presentation is a wide case study illustrating collaborative artists’ books created with various collaborative practices. All books presented include but are not limited to those employing printmaking techniques (traditional or experimental).