Special Collections & Archives at Wesleyan University
A place for news and information about rare books, manuscripts and university archives.
This morning the Introduction to Environmental Studies class (E&ES 197) taught by Helen Poulos visited Special Collections & Archives to learn about artists’ books that address environmental issues. It’s a large class, so students were split into two groups. Their backpacks and other paraphernalia more than filled our closet! Making an artist’s book that expresses … Read more
Here’s one of our newly-cataloged artists’ books: Everyone Sang, by Siegfried Sassoon, with woodcuts by Terry Schupbach-Gordon (Tobaccoville, N.C.: Catbird Press, 2009). Siegfried Sasson is best known as a poet of World War I, along with Robert Graves and Wilfred Owens. He wrote this short poem called “Everyone Sings” in celebration of the end of … Read more
This week, we just added a new artist’s book to our collection: HERetic: Joan of Arc, by Dorothy Simpson Krause (Marshfield Hills, Mass. : Viewpoint Editions, 2009). What’s an artist’s book, you say? One short definition, by scholar Stephen Bury, says that “Artists’ books are books or book-like objects over the final appearance of which … Read more
The pick this week is our new exhibition, John Cage Writes, that opened on Monday, December 3rd. It focuses primarily on the five books influential experimental music composer, writer, and artist John Cage wrote that were published by Wesleyan University Press: Silence (1961), A Year from Monday (1967), M (1973), Empty Words (1979), and X … Read more
On October 24, noted book artist Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. visited Wesleyan University for a Friends of the Wesleyan Library event. He gave a talk titled, “Put the Message in the hands of the people and move on: a TIRADE by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.” Kennedy’s provocative, powerful, and humorous lecture touched on his career … Read more
