Twenty Questions: A Curious Approach to Artists’ Books

January 21–April 12, 2025
Curated by Levi Sherman, PhD Student, Art History

Have you ever wondered how to understand or engage with an artists’ book? Who better to ask than Levi Sherman, PhD student in the Art History Department and course instructor for The Book as Art: A Hands-On History from 1750 to Today, which meets here in the Kohler Art Library? Sherman is also the curator of our current exhibit, Twenty Questions: A Curious Approach to Artists’ Books, which offers viewers a method through which to explore this distinctive form of contemporary art.

“I try to approach each book with the same inquisitiveness that first captured my imagination, when I discovered artists’ books,” says Sherman. He selected books for the exhibit from those he’s reviewed for his publication, “Artists’ Book Reviews,” in addition to items from the Kohler Art Library’s Artists’ Book Collection. 

The exhibit is organized around five key questions that Sherman considers when he’s looking at an artists’ book:

What is it? How is it a book? Why is it a book? What does it mean? Why does it matter?

These questions delve into the material, structure, content, and context of each piece, encouraging viewers to think about the distinctive parts of a book that coalesce to create a work of art. Artists’ books–works of art that use the idea of a book as their form–can be deceptively simple in their appearance or outlandishly obtuse–but Sherman’s framework helps a viewer isolate and identify the parts that make a whole. The title Twenty Questions reflects the interplay of inquiry and discovery. Each book prompts individual reflection, while broader themes emerge—marking time, measuring space, bearing witness, exchanging ideas, and transforming meaning.

Hartmut Abendschein, Asemic Walks

Alexandra Agostinho, meu coração bate sem mim

Islam Aly, Mare Nostrum, Al Motawaset

Carol Chase Bjerke, STONE/FIELD: field/stone

Maria Brito and Bruno Neiva, Ballroom Etiquette

Combat Paper Project, Freedom

Maureen Cummins, Newark 1967

Shannon Davis, Controlled Burn

Marc Fischer, Public Collectors Police Scanner

Tara Homasi, The Circus

Michelle Maguire, Kelsey McClellan, and Kristin Texeira, New Color in the Times of Slow Coffee

Kevin Osborn, Tropos

Benjamin Rinehart and Rachel Simmons, Fractured fathers

Niki de Saint-Phalle, My Love

Buzz Spector, A Passage

Claire Van Vliet, Night street

Heather Weston, A Diction

Hartmut Abendschein, Alexandra Agostinho, Islam Aly, Carol Chase Bjerke, Combat Paper Project, Maria Brito, Maureen Cummins, Shannon Davis, Marc Fischer, Tara Homasi, Michelle Maguire, Kelsey McClellan, Kevin Osborn, Bruno Neiva, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Benjamin Rinehart, Rachel Simmons, Buzz Spector, Kristin Texeira, Claire Van Vliet, Heather Weston