Multiple, Limited, Unique:
Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Center for Book Arts
February 3 - May 1, 2012

Monday, April 30; 7pm
Curator's talk with CBA Executive Director Alexander Campos

MCBA is proud to present Multiple, Limited, Unique, a touring exhibition of work from the permanent collection of the Center for Book Arts (CBA) in New York City.

Since 2008, the Center for Book Arts has been involved in a Collections Initiative, which includes the in-depth cataloguing and preservation of the center's extensive collection of artist books, prints, catalogues, and ephemera. Multiple, Limited, Unique represents the culmination of the center's three-year Collections Initiative. This exhibition soon arrives in Minneapolis, where it will be featured in MCBA's Star Tribune Foundation gallery from February 3 through April 20, 2012.

"It is a great honor to partner once again with CBA, our oldest colleague and fellow leader in the field, to host Multiple, Limited, Unique," says MCBA Executive Director Jeff Rathermel. "Our two centers share a passion for the artist’s book and its power to inform and inspire audiences, past, present and future. This exhibition provides an insightful historical overview of modern and contemporary book arts, as well as a tantalizing look into CBA’s world-class collection of artists' books. Serving as host for this exhibition helps us fulfill that most critical aspect of our mission: to engage and inspire a diverse public, and to broaden the appreciation of, and love for, the book arts."

MCBA and CBA share a long history. In the early 1980s, a young CBA inspired and encouraged the establishment of a fledgling book arts center in Minneapolis. Today, over 25 years later, both centers -- now fully mature organizations with distinguished pasts and bright futures -- serve as models for similar endeavors all around the world. The two organizations’ missions are driven by shared goals: to advance the book as a vital contemporary art form, and to preserve the traditional crafts of bookmaking. MCBA and CBA are champions of the book arts -- stewards of historic equipment and practices, and evangelists for the use and evolution of these practices by contemporary artists.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive catalogue with essays by noted curators and collectors, including: Johanna Drucker, author, book artist, visual theorist, and cultural critic; Erin Riley-Lopez, Independent Curator and former Associate Curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts; Nina M. Schneider, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA; Amanda Stevenson, Curator, Museum of Printing History; and Tony White, Director, Fine Arts Library, Indiana University in Bloomington. In addition, the catalogue includes an essay by Executive Director Alexander Campos and an introduction by Jen Larson.

This exhibition was originally presented at the Center for Book Arts (New York City) from July 6 through September 10, 2011, then appeared at the Savannah College of Arts and Design's Atlanta campus (Fall 2011). Upon leaving MCBA, the exhibition will tour to the Museum of Printing History in Houston, Texas (Summer 2012); Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania (Fall 2012); and the Book Club of California in San Francisco (Winter 2013). Multiple, Limited, Unique was organized by Alexander Campos, CBA Executive Director, with assistance from Jen Larson, CBA Collections Specialist.

Artists featured in this exhibition, in alphabetical order:
Shana Agid, Rosaire Appel, Tomie Arai, Eileen Arnow-Levine, Dennis Ashbaugh/ Kevin Begos/ William Gibson/ Karl Foulkes/ Peter Pettingill, Lynne Avadenka, Bryan Baker, Delphi Basilicato, Barton Lidice Benes, Doug Beube, Karl Beveridge, Michael and Winifred Bixler, Helen M. Brunner, Julie Chen and Clifton Meador, Deborah Chodoff, Carole Condé, Ana Cordeiro, Beatrice Coron, Maureen Cummins, Guy Davenport and Barry Magid, Donna Maria de Creeft, Sylvia de Swaan, Sue Donym and Marie Guise, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Dikko Faust, Ann Fessler, Ellie Ga, Chitra Ganesh, Anne Gilman, Kathe Gregory, Roni Gross, Joshua Harris, Pablo Helguera, Barbara Henry, Candace Hicks, Ellen Holtzblatt, Wennie Huang, Gautam Kansara, Matt Knannlein, Kumi Korf, Carole P. Kunstadt, Hedi Kyle, Suzanne Lacy, Guy Laramée, Edna Lazaron, Warren Lehrer, Catarina Leitão, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Nancy Loeber, Hilary Lorenz, Margot Lovejoy, Isabelle Lumpkin, Mikhail Magaril, Russell Maret, Franco Marinai, Barbara Mauriello, Scott McCarney, Jean McGarry, Amber McMillan, Susan Mills, Richard Minsky, Tadashi Mitsui, Roni Mocán, Ivan Monforte, Carlos Motta, Mark Murray/Caliban Press, Rick Myers, Bruce Nauman, Shervone Neckles, Jánis Rudolfs Nedéla, Heidi Neilson and Chris Petrone, Sarah Nicholls, Sarah Paul Ocampo/ Rachel LaRue Kessler/ Sierra Nelson, Alfonso Ossorio, Shani Peters, Michalis Pichler, Catya Plate, Sarah Plimpton, Fa Poonvoralak, Lilliana Porter, James Prez, Robin Price, John Randle, Gary Richman, Benjamin D. Rinehart, John L. Risseeuw, Martha Rosler, John Ross, A.S.C. Rower, Ed Ruscha, Marian St. Laurent, Peter Schell, Norman Shapiro, Zoe Sheehan-Saldaña, Masumi Shibata, George K. Shortess, Robbin Ami Silverberg, SKART, Skutá, Karina Skvirsky, Kiki Smith, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Tattfoo Tan, Barbara Tetenbaum, Danny Tisdale, Juana Valdes, Claire van Vliet, John Frederick Walker, James Walsh, Marshall Weber, Cory Wheelock, Michael Winkler, Sam Winston, Simon Woolham, Paul Woodbine, Shanna Yarbrough, Ewa Monika Zebrowski, Paul Zelevansky, and Marilyn Zornado.

CBA Collections Initiative sponsors include the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation; additional funding for the development of this exhibition was provided to CBA from the Delmas Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts
is open to the public seven days a week:
Mon, Weds-Sat: 10am-5pm
Tues: 10am-9pm
Sun: 12-4pm

Minnesota Center for Book Arts is located in
the Open Book Building in downtown Minneapolis;
1011 Washington Ave S, First Floor
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: 612 215 2520
Fax: 612 215 2545
Email: mcba@mnbookarts.org

© 2012 Minnesota Center for Book Arts