Library Subject Guides

Art: Artists' books

Artists' books at UC

The list of artists' books on this page was primarily compiled by Sophie Davis, a Postgraduate student in Art History and Theory, for a UC Summer Scholarship Scheme Project 2013-2014, under the Project Leadership of Dr. Barbara Garrie.

This document can be accessed via the UC Research Repository at here.

Other titles have been retrieved and added using the "artists' books" subject headings (see box at right).

Various types or subcategories of these artists' books include:

  • Exhibition catalogues
  • Fine printing (modern)
  • Limited editions
  • Mass editions
  • Photobooks
  • Poetry

Some indication of type may be given by the classification, eg. photobooks are classified with photography at TR.

New Zealand artists' books, a large minority of those listed, are held either in the Macmillan Brown Library or Central Library. In some cases, there are copies in both locations.

Selected list of artists' books in the UC Library

The artists' books below (including photobooks, etc.) are sorted by primary author, according to how each title has been catalogued. Full catalogue details can be viewed by clicking on titles.

Library subject headings

The UC Library, following the LC (Library of Congress) system, defines artists' books as "books that are produced by artists and intended as visual art objects".

Click this classification number to browse artists' books (as defined above) in the UC Library, along with general works about artists' books:

Another way to find artists' books in the Library catalogue is to do a Subject Keywords search, to retrieve all catalogue records with "artists' books" included in the subject headings: