On Friday, September 12, the Special Collections Research Center participated in a satellite event to the North Carolina Museum of Art’s End Paper Art Book Fair, which will take place at the museum on September 20-21. Book artists and Department of Art faculty, Jessica Greenfield, Stephen Parks, and Jody Servon organized the event, “Preface,” at App State and collaborated with us to hold an artist book viewing of several of Special Collections' examples.
On display were works by Julie Chen, Clifton Meador, Islam Aly, Ellen Knudson, Marion Bataille, Robert Sabuda, Lucio Santoro, Alice Austin, Sarah Nichols, Anne Covell, Jan Owen, Thomas Parker Williams, Michelle Wilson, and Lisa Melhorn-Boe. Also included were artists’ books by student artists Kinsey Kegley, Chloe Cooke, and Savannah Baker. Two student course-produced books were also on display: Jody Servon’s Honors 3515, Collaboration and Participation in Art (Spring 2023) and April Flanders’ Art 3410, Book Arts (Fall 2024).
Many Hands by Julie Chen (foreground) and Thank You Note for a Quilt by Lisa Melhorn-Boe
Common Rocks & Other Problems by Ellen Knudson (foreground).
Students enjoy the elaborate pop-up books, or paper engineering.
App State student book artists' work on this table. In the foreground is Chloe Cooke's Endangered Appalachia.
Blanket Bog by Alice Austin.
All of these books are available for research and viewing if you would like to see any again, or for the first time. Not all are cataloged yet, however, so before you make an appointment, please contact Greta Browning (browningge@appstate.edu) so that she can help you identify which ones you saw.
Special thanks to Public Services Lecturer Librarian Hannah Helmey, graduate student assistant Melody Oxendine, student assistant Lily Lovejoy-Johnson, and student assistant Nicole Bejan for their help with the event.
– Contributed by Greta Browning, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts
Colorful pages from Common Rocks & Other Problems artist book
Common Rocks & Other Problems detail