Search
Account
Search
Account
Kai Alexis Smith, Architecture & Planning Librarian, kaias@mit.edu
Matt Saba, Program Head, AKDC, mdsaba@mit.edu
Gwendolyn Collaco, Collections Curator, AKDC, gcollaco@mit.edu
Rami Alafandi, Collections Curator, AKDC, alafandi@mit.edu
Jana Dambrogio, Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator, jld@mit.edu
Julie Chen
2009
With this book, Chen takes a look at the experiential process of acquiring knowledge on both academic and personal levels. The piece is designed to give the reader a physical reading experience that mirrors the complex meaning of the content. Eight sections of rigid square pages are hinged together in unexpected ways, and when the book is fully unfolded it reveals an intricate and fascinating visual pattern of information.
Request to view from the catalog.
PARS, Hester Aardse and Astrid Alben
2021
This three volume set takes a multidisciplinary approach to fundamental subjects of everyday life. “Each issue deals with a single core theme that bears relevance to a multitude of creative research practices. Based on the idea that creativity and curiosity are fundamental to both art and science.” This set is a collection of research and art work, complemented with photography.
Titles include the complete Atlas of Creative Thinking series, including Findings on Ice (2007), Findings on Elasticity (2010) and Findings on Light (2016).
Request to view in the catalog.
Rachel Simmons
2021
This artist adapts text from Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” to meditate on the passing of time. The book started at the beginning of the global pandemic in 2020 and explores themes of time travel, grief, identity, and aging. “The duality and complexity of the structure echoes the difficulty of understanding our personal relationships and our place in space-time.”
Request to view in the catalog.
Lars Mueller Publishers
2019
Holding all 14 Bauhaus books in a protective slipcase, this limited edition box set features the legendary Bauhaus design school publications (between 1925-1930) that explore core ideas of the Bauhaus in art, design, and architecture, and offer deep insights into a movement that greatly influenced modern aesthetics.
Request to view in the catalog.
Lise Melhorn-Boe
2018
This artists’ book must be unbuttoned to read, where the reader will encounter a poem by acclaimed Canadian poet and author Lorna Crozier. The fabric books were screen-printed in an eccentric edition of 10 in 2018. The poem is from Crozier’s The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things.
Request to view in the catalog.
Insiya Dhatt
2021
This work was created in response to experiences the artist thought they had moved beyond. The experience of being physically confined due to the pandemic and the toxic political environment exacerbated the feeling of being compartmentalized and categorized.
This book touches upon privilege, bias and isolation. The artist explains that “Even though as individuals, we do not choose our race, gender, color, environment, family and country we are born in, throughout our lives we face some advantages and some disadvantages based on these rigid structures.”
The three separate books come into a singular form posing questions about what we are boxed in by, where did these associations come from, and why is one disadvantaged due to these biases.
Request to view from the catalog.
Robbin Ami Silverberg/ Letterpress printing by Peter Kruty Editions on Dobbin Mill
2001
Yes, this is an artists’ book! Duster 2 is a part of a series of "tool" books where the artist was working with the forms, mechanics, or parts of common tools. These book objects reflect on the meaning of the tool and of "the book," particularly when each is transformed by its "dual" function.
Request to view in the catalog.
Hafez (Author), Mahmoud Farshchian (Illustrator), Mehdi Firoozi (Translator)
Tehran: Zarrin-o Simin.
2007
Those who are familiar with tarot cards will immediately relate to the Fal-e-Hafez, or the practice of divination using the poetry of the famous Sufi mystic, Hafez. Such cards provide hours of entertainment at parties or gatherings (majlis in Persian). The believers say that when the reader turns over a randomly drawn card, or chooses a design that is most appealing at the moment, the first line that catches the reader's eye is the answer to their question. The rest of the poem can then be read for additional enlightenment or meditation on the matter. This set includes a helpful interpretation of the "omen" at the bottom of each card. In pre-modern times practitioners would have flipped through the pages of a poetry book or a dedicated “book of omens” (falnama). Ottoman travelers, like Evliya Çelebi, also wrote about how commercial painters sold omen paintings in the bazaars of Istanbul during the mid-seventeenth century. By the twentieth century commercial printers began creating easy-to-shuffle decks for buyers, transforming the tradition for a new era. This deck is written in Persian with brief English translations.
Request to view from catalog.
Aslı Canpolat, author, designer.
Atglen, PA : Red Feather, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
2018
Falnama is the name of a genre used in Turkish and Iranian literature hailing from the seventeenth century. Inspired by a book at Topkapı Palace Museum presented to Sultan I. Ahmed, the falnama was used by oracles, miniaturized in vignette workshops, and written by Turkish and Persian poets of that era. This version uses 40 beautifully illustrated cards with historical imagery that are re-illustrated with contemporary perspectives. Keywords on the cards and short stories written as poems in the guidebook present modern interpretations, giving readers answers to their important questions, or “wishes,” in an easy-to-understand format. Using unique combination spreads, one can view an issue of the day, make short-term and ordinary decisions, find past-present-future solutions, and acquire advice that relates to each card topic.
Request to view from the catalog.
Andrew Castrucci
2021
This is a massive, 25-pound book, bound in sheet metal, which takes on the subject of fracking with a focus on the history of the resistance to this extraction practice in New York State and beyond. The book features 50 screenprints by a diverse and inter-generational selection of artists.
Request to view from the catalog.
Nanette Wylde and with contributions by Karen Chew
2010
This work came about after the artist had an experience with someone who was unnecessarily mean to them and digested it through conversations around types, reasons, stereotypes, and more. In the resulting book by Wylde and Chew "is a light-hearted yet poignant play on catty behaviors couched by a feline perspective." Designed as a movable board book, each spread contains user-interactive elements such as wheels, pop-ups, pulls, spinners, windows, flaps, a game, and ephemera.
Request to view from the catalog.
Anne Covell
2019
This book explores the impacts on nature that political decisions (like border and deforestation) can create.
In 1846, the United States and Great Britain signed the Oregon Treaty to make the 49th Parallel the boundary between the United States and British North America, later known as Canada. The two countries formed the International Boundary Commission to survey and establish what is now Washington State's northern border with British Columbia. A team of workers physically marked the border by clear-cutting a 20-foot wide swath through the rugged, previously undisturbed terrain. By 1860, a primitive line from the Pacific Ocean east to the summit of the Northern Rockies was established. It took another 15 years to clear-cut the 5,525 miles in total separating the US from present day Canada. Today, the swath cuts through numerous protected parks and natural reserves, severing common ecologies and shared landscapes simply because they straddle this political divide.
This title was first conceived in 2014 and eventually became the artists’ graduate thesis, 'Towards a Just Landscape,' in 2015. While the US/Mexico border drew global attention for the deeply contentious debate over securing the southern border with a border wall, the artist decided to revisit the history of the US/Canada border felling. Both border conflicts remain isolated, however, their ethical and environmental costs deserve equal scrutiny. Over 150 years later, the deforestation continues. Nature inevitably begins to rebound - trees, shrubs, and grasses grow - and every six years the swath is cleared through exhaustive manual labor.
Request to view from the catalog.
Rachid Koraïchi
Lithograph on Arches paper.
Paris: Place des Arts.
2009
This lithographic design pays hommage to Ibn ‘Arabi, a 13th c. Sufi mystic, philosopher, poet, and sage. Ibn ‘Arabi was born in al-Andalus (medieval Iberia), a center of exchange between Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures. He later traveled across the Mediterranean for Hajj (pilgrimage), and after several years in Mecca, moved to Damascus where he later died. He wrote over 350 major works detailing his various insights along the mystical path, such as Fusūs al-Hikam (Bezels of Wisdom), his collection (dīvān) of poetry, and his magnum opus Futūhāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Openings), an encyclopedia of spiritual knowledge. These writings propose a harmonious vision of reality that integrates all apparent differences without destroying their inherent truths.
Rachid Koraïchi commemorated one of his traveling installations to Ibn ‘Arabi, retracing in reverse, Ibn ‘Arabi’s journey from Damascus across North Africa. In remapping al-‘Arabi’s journey in mirror form, Koraïchi proposes a virtual reconnection of this sage with his spiritual roots in the west and a reaffirmation of the ongoing links between east and west. Elements of this design were later translated into textile banners featured in the series Invisible Masters (2010). In it, cursive scripts form calligrammes within characters, which reveal the spirit of the individual that they re-presented - in the truest sense of that word.
Request to view in the catalog.
Suze Woolf
2016
Iceberg Volume III, The Last Iceberg, by Suze Woolf, is the last of a three volume set. This series explores the decline in Arctic ice due to the climate crisis. This volume consists of two books. One represents the bottom of the iceberg and the other is the top. The top book includes subtle white text of ice and glacier terms that are gradually replaced by liquid and water terms throughout the 25 page book.
Request to view in the catalog.
Beldan Sezen
2023
The German word Brandstifter describes someone who intentionally or negligently ignites a fire. The sound of tearing off the unbound pages resembles that of a striking match. A fire can also be caused verbally by fueling people’s mind to inflict harm or to wage wars. The dreamlike, haunting images of soldiers feel like looking at relics of timeless wars. Instead of keeping acts of war a mystery cult experience – contrary to the Mysteria, the “Mouth Closed Festival” of the ancient Mediterranean world where you were not allowed to speak under penalty of death – here the pictures show soldiers forcing their way out of the depicted mouths. The need to be seen and heard either as a reminder of atrocities or again as a fire starter. Using lead as a material relates to the inbetween, shapeshifting, since lead is considered a solid metal but is so soft that it bends its shape when touching it, reminding us that nothing is static.
Text typed on lead page (excerpt):
“Who am I? What forces drive me that I so relentlessly wage wars, dismiss lives, to satisfy what? Is it my need to fulfill every wish, every whim? Or am I occupied by this bottomless hunger that swallows each and everything that crosses my way. Bigger, larger, higher – stretch out and claim as much as I can. Anything I can slap a price tag on. Slap, slap, slap – Slap to get it, slap to sell it. Slap, slap, slap. Bulldoze roads, deprive whole areas, dig craters into planets, boldly go. Air rights, human rights, free speech. Turn shit into gold – an illusion I relentlessly use again and again.”
Text stamped into lead covers:
Brecht quote in German: First comes eating and then comes morality.
Not knowing, knowing, this faint memory to call my needs and desires my own and not something I feast upon.
Request to view in the catalog.
Abu al-Qasim Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Iraqi Al-Simawi
Likely Bombay, circa 1880.
This lithographic volume from India preserves a medieval Arabic grimoire. The text is arranged into thirty chapters which include sections on alchemy, natural magic, demonology, and ceremonial magic, and there are specific instructions on the construction of magical rings and amulets, magical lamps, devices for divination, incenses, medicines, dyes, as well as commentaries on blood sacrifices. It also includes details on the composition of Greek Fire.
Request to view in the catalog.
Huda Lutfi
Mixed media on paper
Cairo
2019
Inspired by the mechanical designs of Ismail al-Jazari, a 12th century Arab engineer and craftsman, this new series of paper works is an endeavor to enter zones of unvisited historical memory. Lutfi takes Ismail al-Jazari’s mechanical devices a step further, creating a variety of imaginary healing devices and textual formulas which negotiate notions of inner healing and repair. In the face of subjective states of constraints and anxiety, the actual making of these devices brings about not only emotional relief, but also a playful and open process spurred on by the surprises of experimentation.
Huda Lutfi (b. Cairo, 1947) is a cultural and gender historian by professional training whose work in the field of the visual arts translates these affiliations in multiple complex ways. In 1983, she received her PhD in Arab Muslim Cultural History from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Request to view in the catalog, here and here.
Uthman Wahaab
Pastel Electrons on galvanized metal plate
2022
In Nigeria, wooden writing tablets are essential tools in teaching the Arabic alphabet and Quranic verse. Students typically cover their surfaces with carbon ink text, which they can wash away with water. Some practitioners also imbibe the ink-stained water for its healing properties as the word of God. Uthman Wahaab transformed this ephemeral form of writing into a permanent piece, complete with letters, words, and magic numbers inscribed in pastel electrons on this galvanized metal plate. The writing and symbols on its surface invoke similar talismanic designs and word combinations as its historical wooden counterparts. Wahaab studied the Quran with such wooden tablets under his father, who was an imam. The work constitutes part of Wahaab’s “Spiritual Healing Series,” which is an exploration of protective charms with the use of the use of text, images, and Quranic verses as form of representation.
Outside of this work, Wahaab is known for his intricate, expansive and imaginative figure drawings. He draws on paper as well as on canvas. Drawing is a driving force behind Wahaab’s practice, although he also works in painting, graphics design, film, photography and installation. His work ranges from whimsical and playful observations, to re-imagined histories of the African continent, and critical commentary on the current social dilemmas in West Africa. Wahaab is keenly critical of the impact of technology on shifting cultural structures in his country, and the complexities of navigating traditional values and economic progress. Wahaab uses a critical lens to comment on social phenomena not only within Africa; Wahaab’s work has been shown internationally, with significant exhibitions in Lagos, London, and New York. He has participated in the Lagos Biennale with a large commissioned wall painting.
Request to view in the catalog.
Multiple authors
2021
Explore audiovisual storytelling, co produced with Radiotopia from PRX
This issue features:
A short fiction piece with two alternative audio endings by American short story writer Rion Amilcar Scott;
Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer Kate Soper with a transhumanist, interactive software upload;
DeafBlind poet John Lee Clark on the limits of accessibility;
Claudia Dey, Jason Reynolds, Renee Gladman, Sharon Mashihi, and more, taking us on audio tours of our own homes;
Aliya Pabani with a radio drama whose plot is complicated by a 24″ x 30″ illustrated poster;
Ian Chillag with an absurdist, interactive phone tree;
James T. Green, Catherine Lacey, and This American Life’s Sean Cole with voicemail dispatches to the editor;
National Book Award-finalist Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Aimee Bender, and Kelli Jo Ford with short stories that braid in audio; and so much more.
Request to view.
Dorothy Yule
1996
Accordion style with pop ups. Artist Dorthy Yule recalls her early years as a young scientist when she was fascinated with the subject. She wanted to understand how the universe worked, what made things tick, where everything came from.
Winner:
Librarian's Choice Award in 2012 juried exhibition "Infinite possibilities"
Distinguished Book Award from the Miniature Book Society in 2013
Meggendorfer Prize for Artist Books from the Movable Book Society in 2014
Request to view from the catalog and watch a video on MIT Libraries Youtube about the book.
Julie Chen
2008
Panorama explores the issue of climate change from Chen’s artistic perspective, simultaneously expressing hope and helplessness in the face of this growing crisis. Opening to a full width of 5 feet, this book engulfs the reader/viewer in an experience both moving and surprising with large format pop-ups and interactive folded sections that interlace personal thought with aspects of a more universal reality.
Request to view from the catalog.
Joey Gage
2021
This book imagines the sonification of light waves in the visual spectrum as fine-tuned pluckable aluminum prongs. Colors represent converse visualization of sound waves.
Request to view from the catalog.
Robbin Ami Silverberg
2006
Yes, these are artists' books too! These three titles are a part of the Proverbial Threads series. The artist explores how proverbs from cultures around the world describe women’s work. The texts are manipulated to create textile-weaving patterns on the paper sound around industrial textile bobbins. The three titles in our collection in some way are connected to the architecture of the home.
(Not all nice houses are good to spend the night in - BAMBARA, MALI)
(A good wife is the best piece of furniture - DUTCH, GERMAN, DANISH)
Select the titles above to request to view.
Nigeria, Hausa Peoples
Ink on wood
W 29 centimeters; H 56 centimeters
dated 1970s
This wooden writing board is embellished with magic squares and others with non-figurative designs in addition to Arabic script. The boards are most often used by young Muslim students who are learning to read, write and recite suras or passages from the Quran. Once lessons are completed, boards are washed for reuse. Writing boards may also be used in contexts that suggest a synthesis of earlier beliefs and the Islamic faith that superseded it. In some cases, a practitioner seeking protection against disease or misfortune may visit a ritual practitioner who writes passages from the Quran or another source onto the writing board (or an animal skin). In a magical practice that augments the potency of the written words for protection, the practitioner collects the liquid used to rinse the writing boards and drinks it. This example preserves layers of writing on both sides along with talismanic geometric designs. The handle on this particular board has been broken due to extensive use, all that is left is a small stump.
Request to view from the catalog.
Sam Treadway
2013, 2015, 2018, 2023
In 2011, Sam Treadaway and Ricarda Vidal started Revolve:R which is a multidisciplinary and international collaboration. The project explores a transmission of ideas through collaborative forms of communication, from the physical and tactile to the digital and intangible, in which contemporary artists, poets, filmmakers, and musicians produce original artworks, poetry, films, soundscapes, and music in response to a series of artworks and the collective work.
Treadway will create an artwork for each of the 6 chapters in each book. Then it is shared with invited artists who respond with an artwork by a specific date. This sets in motion a multitude of alternative creative responses reflecting various ways of reading, interpretation, and responding. The collective artworks of each Revolve then form the basis for further works including poetry, films, songs, and soundscapes.
Request to view in the catalog.
Yelimane Fall
Collage and acrylic on canvas board
Dakar
2013
Protections is a special series wherein the artist used a collage process to create the broken-tiling effect (broken tiles are often used in Senegalese architecture). This feature is unique in Mr. Fall's body of work. According to his son Fallou, who recalls his father’s words during the creation of this series, the base of these paintings is papier canson, which is a high quality heavy art paper from France. As you can see on close inspection, some of the collage includes recycled materials Yelimane would get in his neighborhood; he liked to include the blessing of everyday life in Senegal in many of his pieces. After setting down the collage with crate paper and recycled materials, the calligraphy was painted in acrylic on top of that layer. The colors also have a meaning/significance as Mr. Fall was very conscientious of the mystical relationships between letters, words, colors, the elements, and sufi knowledge.
Concerning the suras Mr. Fall selected, these are parts of the Quran that are special to Mourides, and their significance lies in the Senegalese experience of colonial resistance to the French. Their importance and meaning was conveyed by Ahmadou Bamba to his followers as sustenance and inner fortification against the difficulties of those times. If you read them carefully it is easy to understand how they respond to their oppression and provide blessing to Mourides in establishing their independence from the French government and their preeminent dedication to Allah and their path/aspirations.
Request to view from the catalog.
Heather Weston
2005
Shedding Light explores the book as a tactile object in the extreme, and the importance of light and touch within the reading process. Taking away the book’s usual visual narrative clues, the seeing reader is left with little traditional visual information with which to decode the presented "text," but instead is faced with a Braille text implicitly inviting them to feel the narrative. A "key" is provided in the form of a visual Braille alphabet card to assist readers to decipher the Braille and read the narrative that is hidden from conventional view.
By shedding light through the page, the sighted reader may discover a textual narrative on the reverse of the page which is a textual translation of the Braille. This act emphasizes the need for light within the reading process. The ambiguous title, Shedding Light, relates to both the "loss of light" implied by the Braille, as well as the "casting of light across" the book needed to complete the text-based reading.
Request to be view in the catalog.
a+t research group: Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas
2023
These three decks are part of the a+t research group's research on Density, which promotes compact city and desirable housing.
50 Urban Blocks and 50 Urban Blocks 2 show how to design a block, organize spaces and propose urban forms. 50 Urban Blocks 2 progresses in the development of the block through families of forms, which combine different densities, included the design of housing units.
50 Housing Floor Plans is a collection of different sizes and shapes (Z-shape, Butterfly, Spine, Empty Circle, Cactus ...). Each of the cards in the deck shows a floor plan on the front and an enlarged housing unit on the back.
Request to view in the catalog.
Natalie Draz
Women’s Studio Workshop
2016
Artist's book as a sculptural piece. This work resembles a ribcage, and the artist plays with the way in which her body and the city (Montreal) interact. Screen print ribs held together by accordion city. The narrative of the book is hidden within the ribs, and can be read several different ways: left to right, back to front, however each viewer personally approaches the bookwork.
Request to view in the catalog and watch a video on MIT Libraries Youtube about the book.
Sara Bryant
2019
This artist's book was built entirely out of language found in Plato’s Republic and Le Corbusier’s The Radiant City. In these texts, separated by more than two thousand years, Plato and Le Corbusier each describe a city plan designed to provide a framework for morality and ethics. These works are revered, but they are also deeply troubling.
In The Radiant Republic, language from Plato and Le Corbusier has been combined to create a narrative in five parts. Each part is bound separately, and features a portion of an interlocking landscape with no fixed beginning or end. The project is housed in an elaborate enclosure featuring elements of wood, cement, and glass.
Request to view from the catalog.
Robbin Ami Silverberg
1996-1998
20 artists, writers, and one musician, were asked via letter to send, inform or instruct the artist about a secret. As the secret keeper, she used their responses to create this artwork.
titok is not a linear narrative, since secrets, a priori, cannot be known or they cease to exist. titok consists of twenty-seven blocks that form a larger cube (three layers of nine cubes each). The block surfaces are covered with over two-hundred images and texts, produced by photography, photocopy and drawing (and other techniques). The imaging on the blocks functions like a maze through which the viewer/participant proceeds, exploring ideas and feelings suggestive of these secrets.
Some of the boxes are fully closed, some have peepholes and others can open with additional boxes within. Each block also has hidden material within that makes noise and/or scent; and, a 27-part violin and voice piece, Music for Boxes, was composed and recorded for the viewing of titok.
Request to view in the catalog.
Anne Covell
2017
“The history of libraries is one of loss. Libraries like ours are susceptible to different fault lines: earthquakes, legal regimes, institutional failure.”
– Brewster Kahle, Founder & Digital Librarian at Internet Archive
On January 20th, 2017, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. That same day, the official White House website (whitehouse.gov) began the digital transition to archive and replace Obama’s policies with those of the new administration. People began to notice that key issues like health care, education, and immigration were nowhere to be found. Keyword searches for terms such as “climate change,” “LGBT,” and “civil rights” all returned 404 errors. Even the Spanish-language version and the disabled-accessible version of the site were no longer available.
Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library that archives webpages, captured 167 snapshots of whitehouse.gov. This book records the last snapshots taken of Obama’s policies before they came down, the 404 errors that followed, as well as the Internet Archive timestamps for when the information was last available and when it disappeared.
Request to view from the catalog.
Rhiannon Skye Tafoya
Women’s Studio Workshop
2019
Ul’nigid is a Cherokee word that means strong. Indigenous artist Rhiannon Skye Tafoya made this book to honor her artist Grandmother, Martha Reed-Bark. This moveable book structure is able to take on multiple renderings, and utilizes letterpress printing with Cherokee syllabary metal type and weaving processes similar to those of a traditional Cherokee white oak basket. Ul’nigid’ is a demonstration of love and remembrance. Each technical process portrays strength and delicacy, allowing the artist to communicate a contemporary indigenous voice with deep influences from her traditional grandmother.
Request to view from the catalog.
Julie Chen
2019
Wayfinding examines the relationship between physical and mental learning through the context of navigation through time and space. The piece focuses the reader’s experience on the physicality of the book as object with the inclusion of three-dimensional cast paper panels and pages that rattle when turned, all housed in a series of shallow boxes that are hinged together in layers. The inclusion of a three-dimensional alphabet abstracted from diagrams of flag semaphore addresses the activities of signaling, translation, and gesture, highlighting how information is taken in by all the senses and not just through the eyes.
Request to view from the catalog.
Andrew Castrucci
1993
This book is a history of the 1980s and 90s Lower East Side activist art movement, which centered on housing, economics, healthcare, gay and lesbian rights, and other civil rights issues. It is also a public art project that featured some of the most well-known artists of that movement and the American art world of that time.
29 posters were printed in an edition of approximately 300; half formed the book and half were posted in the neighborhood. These posters dialogue with the ongoing issues of gentrification, conservation, urban development, and social justice that form the bedrock of the Lower East Side experience.
Request to view from the catalog.
Lise Melhorn-Boe
2018
Produced as a companion piece to the book Button and inspired by acclaimed Canadian poet and author Lorna Crozier, Zipper must be unzipped to read the text. As the title indicates, the poem and book are about the characteristics of a zipper – its uses and connotations.
Request to view from the catalog
A zine is a hand-made, self-published book. This sampling of zines addresses topics such as mental health, how-to guides, gender identity, sex, art, science, technology, self-care and love, feminism, film and media, politics, LGBTQIA, consent, and more.
Request to be notified when the title is requestable.