James Ford Bell Annual Lecture: “Past in Present: The Book’s Evolving Persona”
Presented by Dr. Betty Bright
September 28, 2017; 7:30pm-9pm
Free and open to the public
For over 50 years the book arts have tracked and anticipated our evolving relationship with books. Beyond preservation and scholarly access, resources such as the James Ford Bell Library also act as treasure troves that inspire book artists to reconfigure the past into an artistic voice for the future. After situating the book through recent neurological research and book art history, we will consider a few key works that demonstrate how book artists have responded to a focus shared by the James Ford Bell Library: that of mapping and how we communicate our presence in this digitized world.
Betty Bright is a writer, curator, and historian who helped to start Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) in 1985, and authored No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America 1960-1980 in 2005. She currently writes and speaks on issues related to contemporary letterpress printing, craft’s evolving identity, and the intersecting realms of art and the body. Her recent involvements include a feature article on Claire Van Vliet’s work in American Craft magazine (January 2016) and an Oral History Project launched in celebration of MCBA’s 30th Anniversary in 2015. “Lines of Force: The Hand, The Book, & the Body Electric,” a paper delivered at the 2017 CODEX symposium and book fair, will be published later this year by CODEX in its monograph series, CODE(X) + 1 (no. 14).
This event is co-sponsored by the Associates of the James Ford Bell Library, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries.