Heather Gendron
Art Librarian
hgendron@email.unc.edu
919-962-1061

Josh Hockensmith
Art Library Assistant
hockensm@email.unc.edu
919-962-2397

Can't find the article, book, or report you need at our library? You can request it from another library through interlibrary loan.

Off-campus access is limited to UNC faculty, students, and staff, unless otherwise noted.

Artists' Books in the Sloane Art Library's Collection (publicly available)
The art library has a growing collection of over 600 artists' books. Our artists' books are divided into circulating and non-circulating collections. The circulating artists' books can be found in the stacks on the 2nd floor with call numbers beginning 'N7433.4.' They circulate for 2 weeks at a time. Our non-circulating artists' books are kept behind the circulation desk. We're happy to pull them by request for use in the library. Follow the link above to see a complete list of artists and titles in our collection. If you're interested in seeing a selection of highlights, contact us and we'll be happy to make an appointment with you.

You can see our Collection Development policy for artists' books here.

Artists' Books Online (publicly available)
"Artists' Books Online is designed to promote critical engagement with artists books and to provide access to a digital repository of metadata, scans, and commentary. The project serves several different communities: artists, scholars and critics, librarians and curators, and interested readers."(From the web site)

Journal of Artists' Books
"The Journal of Artists' Books provides a platform for both theoretical and creative expression. As a forum for the study of artists' books, JAB publishes critical and theoretical articles, reviews of artists' books and exhibitions, and commentary on conferences and and other book art-related activities. JAB also regularly showcases creative work in the form of artists' statements and artist-designed pages and covers."
(from the JAB web site)

The print edition -- which often features specially printed covers and supplemental artworks -- is also available in the Sloane Art Library's periodicals collection.

Art Full Text
A core database for art and art historical research. Art Full Text indexes and offers full text for a wide array of journals in the fields of art history, architecture, craft, design, landscape architecture, museology, photography and video, and much more.

Art Full Text indexes several major artists' book journals, including The Bonefolder, Journal of Artists' Books, and Umbrella. [more info]

Most books about artists' books are located in the Sloane Art Library, although some can also be found in the Rare Books Collection and the SILS Library. Most will have a call number beginning with N7433.3 or N7433.4 (Art Library, 2nd Floor).

Begin searching the catalog with a simple keyword search:

Keyword Search: Artists' books

UNC Libraries' online catalog can be searched by author, title, subject, and call number, among other options. Here are a few examples:

Author search: Drucker, Johanna

Title search: when will the book be done

Subject search: artists' books

Call Number search: n7433.4

Once you have located a relevant title, look at the Subject links in the item's Full Record. Follow the relevant subject heading links to find other, similar books. In the case of artists' books, we do include subject headings to describe features that are of special importance to them (e.g. binding structure, printing method, etc.). For example, to see all of our artists' books bound with an accordion-fold structure, you could click on the "Accordion fold format (binding)" subject heading link.

Worldcat To see what books and other materials libraries around the country own related to Artists' Books, search the Worldcat database. Request materials not owned by UNC Libraries via Interlibrary Services.