Artists' Books draft workflow

^{Draft workflow - December 2021}

Full draft workflow for Art Book Room location. Suggested improvements are welcome.

Dueling definitions

“Books that are produced by artists and intended as visual art objects.”--Library of Congress Genre/Form Headings

“Books, whether unique items or multiples, made or conceived by artists, including commercial
publications (usually in limited editions), as well as unique items formed or arranged by the
artist.”--Getty Research Institute

“An artist’s book is a medium of artistic expression that uses the form or function of “book” as inspiration. It is the artistic initiative seen in the illustration, choice of materials, creation process, layout and design that makes it an art object.” --Anne Evenhaugen, What is an artist’s book? (Unbound (Smithsonian), June 1, 2012).

“Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.”--Wikipedia, accessed November 30, 2021.

“The field of artists’ books includes work that spans the full spectrum of cultural objects, handmade originals, calligraphic and typographic experimentation, conceptual productions, and works produced in the traditions of fine printing and independent publishing.”--Rare Books School, accessed November 30, 2021.

“Artists' books are books made or conceived by artists. There are fine artists who make books and book artists who produce work exclusively in that medium, as well as illustrators, typographers, writers, poets, book binders, printers and many others who work collaboratively or alone to produce artists' books. Many artists' books are self-published, or are produced by small presses or by artists' groups or collectives, usually in limited editions.”--Victoria and Albert Museum, Artists' Books.

Whether or not item does or doesn’t match the above, catalog according to the artist’s intention: if an artist states that the item is an Artist’s Book, then it is an Artist’s Book.

See also our attempt to further pin Artists' Books (and their near relatives) below (Artist’s book, Private press, Small press, or Livre d’artiste?)

Draft Workflow

Fixed Fields

Most commonly cataloged as Monographic Book or Visual Materials format

Book format:

• The item’s primary content is textual (or wordless with relatively flat pictures)

• The item’s format is that of a “regular” book (has page(s) of some kind, arranged within a binding-structure)

Visual Materials format:

• The item’s primary content is non-textual

• The item is a deck of cards, kit, 3D object, found object, or other non-book format

• The item is more of a sculpture than a “book”--but don’t completely disregard another’s cataloger’s judgement if using a previously cataloged record.

These categories are fluid, especially in Artists' books:

• Use cataloger’s judgment: the item may not be clearly one or the other.

• If the item is unclear as to format, choose one, and add 33x fields and lots of artefactual notes.

• But--don’t completely redo another catalogers judgement in format when copy cataloging

050/090 LC call numbers:

• N7433.4.A-Z (Special artists), A-Z
  Under each artist:
  .xA7-.xZ6 Individual artists' books. By title, A-Z

100 and 700 artists and other creators:

Common relationship designators include:
Work-level:

• $e book artist

• $e artist

• $e author

Manifestation-level:

• $e engraver

• $e lithographer

• $e papermaker

• $e printer

• $e publisher
  
  

Item-level:

• $e binder

245 Title statement

250 Edition statement

3xx Description and format fields

Artists' books can be difficult to describe concisely, especially more the more unusual items. The unusual aspects of the Artist’s book can be obscured by brief 300’s. To augment a brief 300, give lots of detail in 500 Artefactual details notes (see below). Often dealer’s websites or publisher’s description sheets are a useful source for 500 artefactual notes which can be quoted in full or part.

300 Concise physical description

Specific examples:

• 245 10 [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 /|cby April Chabries Haws and Cerese
  Vaden].

• 300 1 box :|billustrations ;|c27 x 29 x 25 cm.

• 520 Artist's book in the form of a three-dimensional
  triangular box, bound in blue cloth; with triangular lids
  on top and bottom, and three hinged doors with closures;
  both top lid and doors may be opened to reveal star maps
  and small structures of copper wire and brass pieces
  within four separate compartments; bottom lid serves as a
  base.

• 245 10 Biosphere.

• 300 1 volume (unpaged) ; ǂc 12 x 9 x 3 cm + ǂe 4 sphere books + custom box (24 x 11 x 6 cm)

• 500 "Box divided into two sections by wooden piece. Sections contain Coptic bound book on left side and four wooden spheres with accordion books on right side ... Spheres measure 1.5" diameter with each a different color. Each sphere is halved to contain an accordion structure book and has a magnetic closure"--Vamp & Tramp website, viewed on September 30, 2019.

336/337/338 fields format/type

• Add more 33x terms to highlight other format details, as needed. In many cases text is minimal and the content is driven more by the illustrations. Other format types might be enclosed such as sound or video discs.

Specific example:

• 245 10 Celsius 233 / ǂc Philip Zimmermann.

• 300 40 unnumbered pages : ǂb illustrations, ǂc 17 x 23 cm ǂe 1 Blu-ray HD DVD in box.

• 336 text ǂb txt ǂ2 rdacontent

• 336 still image ǂb sti ǂ2 rdacontent

• 336 two-dimensional moving image ǂb tdi ǂ2 rdacontent

• 337 unmediated ǂb n ǂ2 rdamedia

• 337 video ǂb v ǂ2 rdamedia

• 338 volume ǂb nc ǂ2 rdacarrier

• 338 video disc ǂb vd ǂ2 rdacarrier

• 500 "[H]andbound using a multi-needle Coptic stitch with sewn-on hard covers made of acid-free solid-core black museum board. The paper is acid-free Pop-Tone French Paper. The images are printed using archival inkjet ink with three-color foil stamping on the cover, the title page and back cover. The interior flame sheets are loose-inserted in a slot in each interior folio. It is printed in a signed and numbered edition of 50 and comes in an acid-free phase box. A DVD is included with a one-channel video that can be used to create a viewing environment"--Publication information sheet

5xx Notes

500     Artefactual details

Often dealer’s websites or publisher’s description sheets are a useful source for 500 artefactual notes which can be quoted in full or part. But briefer notes may be all that is needed.

Specific example:

• 245 10 Spring opens the mountain green : ǂb a poem for Yosemite ; with a quote by John Muir / ǂc Peter and Donna Thomas.

• 500 One-of-a-kind artist’s book.

• 500 Four original watercolor paintings of named locations in Yosemite on handmade paper, mounted on double leaves, accompanied by text or maps on alternating leaves. Lettering in black, with illumination in blue and green.

• 500 Nested double-leaved accordion-fold book; endpapers attached to bound covers, double leaves not attached to spine; marbled paper strips woven into page edges. Covers bound in brown leather with colored leather inlays depicting mountain landscape, front and back. Issued in blue-grey paper-covered clamshell box with watercolor title label mounted on top.

500     Limitation Statement, signatures, etc.

590 Number our library owns, etc.

Subject and Genre fields

Artist’s book, Private press, Small press, or Livre d’artiste?

• Artists books are produced by artists and intended as visual art objects; they often play with the form or idea of a book.

• Small press are put out by a small press and finely produced (handmade paper, etc.) with runs of less than 500 (but can at same time be an Artist’s book). May also be called a “Fine Press” book.

• Private press is a “guy in a garage” (but can also be used for an Artist’s book)

• Livre d’artiste is an overlapping term for books containing collections of original works of art, usually printed directly from a source created by the artist themselves, rather than from a source that was created by a technician from the artist's design. Originated in France around the turn of the 20th century.

• However: if an artist states that the item is an Artist’s Book, then catalog it as an Artist’s Book

650 Library of Congress Subject Headings:

When using LCSH to describe what the item is, always follow the a genre term by Specimens to distinguish it from a book about the format. Consider adding a geographical and/or time subdivision to a 650 heading, as well (especially for the term Artists; books).

655 Genre and Format terms:

There is an overabundance of genre & format thesauri out there. In the past, we tended to add just a single genre type: Artists' books. As our collection of Artists' books grew, that practice has become inadequate, leaving the patron or librarian paging through long pages of results. Current records tend to have numerous genre/format headings. most drawn from the thesauri listed below. The few rules we have are noted for each.

• Library of Congress Genre and Format Terms: https://classweb.org/ or OCLC Authority Files (search term ge)

  • Generally, prefer lcgft for ABR items, unless the term does not exist in there, or another thesaurus has a better descriptive genre/form term. Use cataloger’s judgement.

• RBMS Rare Books Thesaurus (often used in SCA) https://rbms.info/vocabularies/index.shtml

  • When constructing RBMS terms, use the individual thesaurus as a parenthetical qualifier (except for RBMS Genre);

  • We have been subdividing these with place and/or time, but RBMS would prefer we don’t.

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/ Can be used when the above thesauri don’t have the term.

• FAST genre (and other fast) headings:

  • We leave in all OCLC fast genre headings, just as we leave in other OCLC FAST headings, but we don’t require catalogers to assign them to original records. However, if you do want to add FAST headings; this handy site will generate FAST headings from entire block of copy/pasted 650/655 fields: But FAST headings are not required for original cataloging.

Genre/Form examples from various thesauri:

• Mixed 650 and 655 lgft & fast headings in the same record:

  • 650 0 Artists' books |v Specimens.

  • 650 7 Artists' books. ǂ2 fast ǂ0 (OCoLC)fst00817660

  • 655 7 Specimens. ǂ2 fast ǂ0 (OCoLC)fst01423861

  • 655 7 Artists' books |y 20th century. |2 lcgft

710 Name of the Press/Publisher

The name of the producer of the Artists book is useful to add to records, if missing. Sometimes it is difficult to find. If there is no publisher information on or with the item, check the title in dealer’s catalogs; they will often have the publisher/press and other useful details listed. Sometimes this will be the artist themselves (in which case, they may have the relator term of |e book artist).

• 710 2 Midnight Moon Press, |e publisher. ← check authority record for form, if available

Art Book Room Sierra codes, Locations, and labels:

949 Automatic item creation field

907 Overlay Sierra Bibliographic Record field

909 CMS signature/statistics field

See 909 full guide here:

Selection of training resources

• Lewis, N., McCormack, A., Skeen, B., Wiederhold, R. (2019, May 15). Beyond Books: Cataloging Special
  Format Items [Pre-conference training workshop]. Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT

  • USU Digital Commons copy here: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=lib_present – see slides 36-66 for Cataloging Artists’ Books by Allison McCormack.

• Opening Artists' Books to the User: an example with potential approaches / Ann K.D. Myers and William Andrews Myers, 2014.

Open

• Cataloging Artists Books / Nina Schneider. 47th Annual RBMS PreConference, June 21, 2006. Still useful; downloadable PDF here: https://ninaschneider.com/Nina-Schneider-Cataloging-Artists-Books.pdf and online version here:

• Artists' books : a cataloguers' manual / by Maria White, Patrick Perratt and Liz Lawes ; on behalf of ARLIS/UK & Ireland Cataloguing and Classification Committee. London : ARLIS/UK and Ireland, 2006/reprinted 2012. In print only. Dated (no RDA), but still has a practices to adapt.