The Art Book Tradition in Twentieth-Century Europe

Exploring various ways in which a range of twentieth-century European artists and writers challenged the boundary between visual and linguistic expression in the content, production and physical form of books, these essays challenge the roles played by visual and bodily sensation in recent histories of literary modernism. The collection argues that examples of the art book tradition both test and celebrate vision, while contextualizing it among other sensory experiences.

Investigating the complex history of visual art’s engagement with literature, this collection demonstrates that the art of the book is a fully interdisciplinary and distinctly modern form. The essays in the collection develop new critical approaches to the analysis of twentieth-century bookworks and explore ways in which European writers and painters challenged the boundary between visual and linguistic expression in the content, production, and physical form of books. The Art Book Tradition in Twentieth-Century Europe offers a detailed examination of word-image relations in forms ranging from the livre d’artiste to personal diaries and almanacs. It analyzes innovative attempts to challenge familiar hierarchies between texts and images, to fuse different expressive media, and to reconceptualize traditional notions of ekphrasis. Giving consideration to the material qualities of books, the works discussed in this collection also test and celebrate the act of reading, while locating it in the context of other sensory experiences. Essays examine works by Dufy, Matisse, Beckett, Kandinsky, Braque, and Ponge, among other European artists and writers active during the twentieth century.