Book as collaborative mode

Though many book artists self-publish or produce their work alone, the overall field of artist's books is a fairly tight-knit community around the world, where collaboration, exchange, participation and inspiration abound. Many artists produce bookworks in extended partnership with each other, or as part of collectives or presses.

Artists' book presses have historically taken on a variety of roles. Some, like Nexus Press (1977-2003) functioned through collaborations with visiting artists, almost like a residency, where the press would help them design and print their books for publication. Other presses are run directly by collaborating artists, who often divide their labor both creatively and materially to allow for a full showcasing of disparate talents. Julie Chen, who runs Flying Fish Press, is a well-established book artist, educator and paper engineer, and often collaborates with conceptual or text-based artists like Barbara Tetenbaum to help them create interactive and unique book formats. Other collaborators might choose to work together to highlight a disparity in perspectives, such as Mike Mandel and Chantal Zakari, who run 18 Publications together. As a married couple of different ages, ethnic and religious origins, and artistic backgrounds, they've produced books like The Turk and the Jew, The State of Ata, and They Came to Baghdad, which comment on both personal and political exchanges and experiences in their lives.

There are also collectives that band together around long-term projects, such as the National Bitter Melon Council. Formed in 2008 by Hiroko Kikuchi, Jeremy Liu, Misa Saburi and SMFA alum Andi Sutton, the NMBC created a variety of printed matter, including artists' books such as 'Better living through Bitter Melon : a manual', that supported and presented their participatory and community-based performance work. Through their idiosyncratic lens and the direct address of the artists' book format, they invite the reader to collaborate with them in broadening both artistic and cultural horizons through philosophical texts, recipe development, community restaurant crawls, and medical research, all centered on the benefits of eating, cooking, growing and sharing bitter melon.