Undergraduate students in the Spring 2021 “Museum Object” course (FSU Department of Art History) spent the semester developing and curating Show & Tell, an online exhibition of artists’ books. They collaborated with FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives and the Small Craft Advisory Press (SCAP) and endeavored to use this year’s non-traditional exhibition format to their advantage. The students combined photographs, video documentation, and audio narration to convey the multimedia experiences inherent to the books themselves. Visit the online exhibition at www.fsumuseumobject.com.
Show & Tell Curatorial Statement
Show & Tell presents twelve artists’ books in a manner that challenges what the viewer would expect from a typical show-and-tell event. Rather than having children share their toys and mementos with an audience of their classmates, the artists provoke auditory and visual engagement through stories, reminiscences, and interactivity. This exhibition shows the potential of books when thought of outside of the standard codex (a set of pages bound along one edge), and how surprising shapes and arrangements can pair with messages and meanings. Some works present in a way that relies on form and visual elements to tell a story (show), others rely on written narratives (tell), and some involve both.
More information about the artists’ books in the FSU Special Collections & Archives collection can be found in the Artists’ Books Research Guide.
Illuminations 