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Home>Exhibitions>2024>In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection 

# In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection

Upcoming Exhibition

## May 6 – August 29, 2024East Building, Ground Level - Library

**Weekdays, 11:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.**

Publishing the work of photographers who represent a range of disciplines, 21st Editions brings together a team of book and print artists to create handcrafted book objects that combine real photographic prints with finely printed texts and artisan bindings that highlight trends in contemporary photography. The National Gallery of Art and University of Minnesota Libraries have partnered to produce concurrent exhibitions featuring these works. The National Gallery of Art Library’s installation highlights twelve examples from the diverse range of more than sixty handmade artists’ books published over the past twenty-five years under the direction of Steven Albahari, and since 2005, production manager Pam Clark. 

Inspired by Alfred Stieglitz and William Morris, each work is a unique expression of the group of eight to twelve artists and artisans involved in the project, which typically requires two to four years to realize. The work of photographers including Sally Mann, Josephine Sacabo, Masao Yamamoto, Adger Cowans, and Arthur Tress are given exquisite form by master printers such as John Marcy, Martin Axon, and Stan Klimek, and then paired with texts as diverse as William Shakespeare’s sonnets, the color theories of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and contemporary poetry by Keagan LeJeune. Through the editorial skills of John Wood, John Stauffer, and Collier Brown and the artistry of bookmakers such as binders Sarah Creighton, Mark Tomlinson, Amy Borezo, Erin Fletcher, Daniel Kelm, Kylin Lee, Lisa van Pelt, and Peter Geraty, typographer Chrissy Welzen, and printers Michael Russem, Michael and Winifred Bixler, and Arthur Larson, these works are transformed into exquisite book objects. From sculptural housings, to finely textured papers, luminous platinum prints, to the monumental scale of the volumes, each book takes us to a new world, providing a structure and framing for the union of text and image, intertwining and illuminating one another through designs referencing themes of the underlying work. 

The National Gallery of Art Library Special Collections and the University of Minnesota Libraries’ Gorman Rare Art Books and Media Collection each preserve a complete set of 21st Editions works. The latter also houses the publisher’s archive which includes correspondence between the collaborative partners for each project and documentation of the processes of ideation, iteration, and fabrication involved in their production.

## Selected Works

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Sally Mann (photographer), John Stauffer (author), John Wood (editor and contributor), John Marcy (printmaker), Pam Clark (production manager), Crissy Welzen (typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Travis Becker (papermaker), Amy Borezo (binder), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Southern Landscape*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2014, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Sheila Metzner (photographer), Hart Crane (author), John Wood (editor and contributor), John Marcy (printmaker), Winifred Bixler (typographer), Michael Bixler (typographer), Michael Russem (printer), Sarah Creighton (binder), Pam Clark (production manager), Steven Albahari (publisher), *The Bridge*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2008, David K. E. Bruce Fund 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Timothy Duffy (photographer), Denise Duffy (introduction), Abigail Nover (interviewer), John Wood (editor), John Marcy (printmaker), Pam Clark (production manager), Crissy Welzen (typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Travis Becker (papermaker), Mark Tomlinson (binder), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Blue*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2017, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Imogen Cunningham (photographer), William Morris (author), John Wood (editor and contributor), Stan Klimek (printmaker), Crissy Welzen (typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Travis Becker (papermaker), Sarah Creighton (binder), Pam Clark (production manager), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Imogen Cunningham: Symbolist; with poetry and prose by William Morris*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2013, David K. E. Bruce Fund 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Eikoh Hosoe (photographer and contributor), Charles Baudelaire (author), John Wood (editor, contributor and translator), Stan Klimek (printmaker), Kathryn Clark (papermaker), Travis Becker (papermaker), Winifred Bixler (typographer), Michael Bixler (typographer), Michael Russem (printer), Peter Geraty (binder), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Fleurs du mal / Flowers of Evil*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2006, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Flor Garduno (photographer), William Shakespeare (author), John Wood (editor and contributor), John Marcy (printmaker), Martin Axon (printmaker), Winifred Bixler (typographer), Michael Bixler (typographer), Michael Russem (printer), Sarah Creighton (binder), Mark Tomlinson (binder), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Sonnets of Shakespeare*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2006, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Josephine Sacabo (photographer), Keagan LeJeune (author), John Wood (editor and contributor), John Marcy (printmaker), Crissy Welzen (typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Mark Tomlinson (binder), Pam Clark (production manager), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Gilded Circles and Sure Trouble: the art of Josephine Sacabo and Keagan LeJeune*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2012, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Adger Cowans (photographer and author), Collier Brown (editor and poet), Nadira Husain (artist’s agent), Martin Axon (printmaker), Arthur Larson (letterpress printer), Suzanne Salinetti (printer), Travis Becker (papermaker), Mike Roswell (binder), Crissy Welzen (designer and typographer), Pam Clark (production manager), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Adger*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2022, Gift of Steven Albahari 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Masao Yamamoto (photographer), John Wood (editor and contributor), Crissy Welzen (design and typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Mark Tomlinson (binder), Christopher Lenaerts (box maker), Pam Clark (production manager), Steven Albahari, (publisher), *Yamamoto Masao*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2010, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Robert Farber (photographer), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (author), Collier Brown (editor and contributor), Alan Blazar (printmaker), Travis Becker (papermaker), Crissy Welzen (typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Erin Fletcher (binder), Pam Clark (production manager), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Colour: Goethe’s Theory of Colours (from Part VI)*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2017, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Joel-Peter Witkin (photographer), William Blake (author), John Wood (editor), Leo & Wolfe Photography (publisher), Steven Albahari (publisher), Carolyn Eckert (book designer), *Song of Innocence and Experience*, South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions; Brewster, MA: Leo and Wolfe Photography, 2004, David K. E. Bruce Fund 

In the Library: Photography and the Book Arts from the 21st Editions Collection
Arthur Tress (photographer), Guillaume Apollinaire (author), Dafydd Wood (translator), John Wood (editor and contributor), Martin Axon (printmaker), Winifred Bixler (compositor), Michael Bixler (compositor), Michael Russem (printer), Peter Geraty (binder), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Memories*, South Dennis, MA:  21st Editions, 2003, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation

## Events

June 1
Celebrating 25 Years of Photography and the Book Arts with 21st Editions
Join us for a conversation with 21st Editions’ founder and publisher Steven Albahari, production manager Pam Clark, contributing photographer Josephine Sacabo, and typographer Crissy Welzen. The National Gallery of Art Library and the University of Minnesota Libraries each preserve a complete set of 21st Editions artist books and celebrate this anniversary with concurrent exhibitions.

**Organization**                        Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington                    

**Passes** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Banner detail**: Sally Mann (photographer), John Stauffer (author), John Wood (editor and contributor), John Marcy (printmaker), Pam Clark (production manager), Crissy Welzen (typographer), Arthur Larson (printer), Travis Becker (papermaker), Amy Borezo (binder), Steven Albahari (publisher), *Southern Landscape* (detail), South Dennis, MA: 21st Editions, 2014, Gift of the Thompson Family Foundation 

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