May 6 2024 - Aug 29 2024
Washington, DC
In the East Building, Ground Level - Library
Inspired by Alfred Stieglitz and William Morris, each work is a unique expression of the group of eight to twelve artists and artisans involved in the project, which typically requires two to four years to realize.
The work of photographers including Sally Mann, Josephine Sacabo, Masao Yamamoto, Adger Cowans, and Arthur Tress are given exquisite form by master printers such as John Marcy, Martin Axon, and Stan Klimek, and then paired with texts as diverse as William Shakespeare’s sonnets, the color theories of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and contemporary poetry by Keagan LeJeune.
Through the editorial skills of John Wood, John Stauffer, and Collier Brown and the artistry of bookmakers such as binders Sarah Creighton, Mark Tomlinson, Amy Borezo, Erin Fletcher, Daniel Kelm, Kylin Lee, Lisa van Pelt, and Peter Geraty, typographer Chrissy Welzen, and printers Michael Russem, Michael and Winifred Bixler, and Arthur Larson, these works are transformed into exquisite book objects.
From sculptural housings, to finely textured papers, luminous platinum prints, to the monumental scale of the volumes, each book takes us to a new world, providing a structure and framing for the union of text and image, intertwining and illuminating one another through designs referencing themes of the underlying work.
The National Gallery of Art Library Special Collections and the University of Minnesota Libraries’ Gorman Rare Art Books and Media Collection each preserve a complete set of 21st Editions works. The latter also houses the publisher’s archive which includes correspondence between the collaborative partners for each project and documentation of the processes of ideation, iteration, and fabrication involved in their production.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website
Exhibition Venues & Dates
May 6 2024 - Aug 29 2024
Washington, DC