When I wrote earlier that knot theory seems to be having a moment this year, I was unaware that the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret in London was hosting an exhibition called Knots: Medicine and Superstition, 25 September through 30 November 2025. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the Bookscape Collective’s sculpture “After dark vapors have oppress’d our plains” (2025). Hanging…

Land Forms and Air Currents (2014) Land Forms and Air Currents (2014) Carol Barton Leporello (with 11 pop-ups) fixed to inside cover of case, cloth over board, debossed with fitted, pastedown artwork on front cover and spine. Cover: H292 x W192 x D50 mm. Leporello: H275 x W175 mm. 37 panels. Edition of 25, of which this is #21. Acquired from the artist, 27 October 2023. Photos: Books On Books…

Books On Books Collection – Helen Malone

Alphabetic Codes (2005)

Alphabetic Codes (2005)

Helen Malone

Box containing three books: two concertina books of different sizes and one tetrahedron shape of three pages. Two layered canvases painted with acrylic paint mounted on both sides of Perspex pages in Perspex box. Box: H230 x W160 x D80 mm. Unique edition. Acquired from the artist, 2 July 2020. Photos above: Courtesy of the…

Books On Books Collection – Jaz Graf

Trophic Avulsions (2016)

Trophic Avulsions (2016) Jaz Graf Cyanotype accordion book with thread drawing, paper lithography and laser engraving on wood. Closed: H6 x W8.5 x D1.0 inches; Open: W80 inches. Unique. Acquired from the artist, 14 March 2018. Photos: Books On Books Collection.

Graf has used satellite photos of various river deltas around the world to create the cyanotype prints in…

Books On Books Collection – Chris Ruston

Holuhraun (2015)

Holuhraun (2015) Chris Ruston Box: Exterior – Greyboard covered with Nepalese Lokta paper painted with Indian ink; Interior –  Greyboard covered with Washi paper with fibre inclusions and painted with Indian ink. Closed: H215 x WW224 x 78 mm. Open: H110-210 x W484 x D625. Acquired from the artist, 9 March 2017. Photo: Books On Books

On 31 August 2014, the active Bárðarbunga…

Bookmarking Book Art – “Very Like a Whale”, the Bodleian Bibliographical Press’s Exhibition

For the 200th anniversary of Herman Melville’s birth (1819), the Bodleian’s Bibliographical Press invited letterpress printers and artists to claim one of the eighty prefatory “Extracts” from Moby-Dick (1851) and create an artwork in response.

The Blackwell Hall exhibition case accommodates thirty of the eighty contributors‘ artworks, plus the rare three-volume version of the novel published…