LnS GALLERY, WINTER EXHIBITIONS, Miami, 2019

THE ARTFUL BOOK 2019, a focus installation of artist-made books by South Florida artists, celebrating the Miami Book Fair and recognizing South Florida as a literary and cultural center. In 1983, librarians from the Miami-Dade Public Library System met with independent booksellers at the old Main Library in Bayfront Park to plan a book fair. Through the efforts of South Florida literary advocates including Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, then president of Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, and Mitchell Kaplan, one of the fair’s initial founders and owner of local Books and Books stores, the Miami Book Fair’s first iteration took place at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in 1984. It has since grown into an eight-day literary party with six nights of authors’ events, and a three-day street fair with over 250 publishers and booksellers, an event now recognized as the nation’s finest literary festival. THE ARTFUL BOOK 2019, organized by Barbara Young, Art Librarian/Curator and conceptualized by Mitchell Kaplan and local artist and literary dynamo Margarita Cano, will be on exhibit at LnS GALLERY, and is designed to align with the 2019 Miami Book Fair.

As Barbara Young notes in her accompanying essay to the exhibition: “While the artist book is, first and foremost, a book made by an artist, it is not necessarily about art. It is art. Sometimes these art objects are referred to as book art. They are amazingly diverse in their form and content. They may be crafted of the finest leathers and papers or assembled from repurposed materials or books. They are often made of delightfully textured materials. In content they are as varied as their creators. Sometimes they are unique objects. At other times artists’ books are produced in editions. In multiples, like zines, they are a practical, inexpensive, and portable means to reach a wide audience. Some artists create these book-like artworks exclusively. Other artists may be more recognized for their work in other media – painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video art, and more. What the artists who make books have in common is a love for the physical quality, intimacy, and magic of traditional books, which has led them to use the book format to express their individual concepts.”

THE ARTFUL BOOK 2019 is comprised of art books by John William Bailly, Mario Bencomo, Margarita Cano, Pablo Cano, Martin Casuso, Rosemarie Chiarlone with poet Susan Weiner, lou anne colodny, Natalia Garcia-Lee, Maria A. Gonzalez, Pedro Hernandez, Robert Huff, Jeff Larson, Emilio Adán Martinez, Gary Moore, Barbara Neijna, Lydia Rubio, Donna Ruff, Claire Jeanine Satin, Carol Todaro, César Trasobares, Tony Vazquez-Figueroa, Tom Virgin, and Purvis Young.