Twenty Questions: A Curious Approach to Artists’ Books

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

Have you ever wondered how to understand or engage with an artists’ book? The exhibit Twenty Questions: A Curious Approach to Artists’ Books offers viewers a method through which to explore this distinctive form of contemporary art. Drawing on his experience as an artists’ book critic, curator Levi Sherman shares how his years of experience have shaped the way he views and interprets these creative works.

“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.