 | Richard Minsky's 2001 piece "The First Amendment" is a reliquary containing a burned book, the controversial "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. Stamped in 23K gold on the felt-covered wood base is the text of the First Amendment. |
The Arts of the Book Collection of the Arts Library at Yale has acquired the archive of Richard Minsky, a critically acclaimed artist whose innovative use of materials and pioneering techniques have contributed to the expanding field of the book arts for over 30 years.
Minsky has said he views his approach to art as the meeting of "material and metaphor" where the binding represents the ideas contained inside. "In Minsky's hands, the well-known cliché becomes untrue: A book can be judged by its cover," says Jae Rossman, special collections librarian in the Arts Library.
Examples of Minsky's work are held in major museum and library collections worldwide, including The Getty Research Library, Los Angeles, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the McMillan Library, Nairobi.
Dedicated to promoting the book arts in education, Minsky lectures actively and conducts workshops in the United States and around the world. He is also the founder of the renowned Center for Book Arts in New York City organization, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
The Richard Minsky Archive at Yale provides an overview of the artist's creative process and participation in the book arts community. Holdings range from the artist's first experiments with letterpress printing as a teenager to the sketches and maquettes for recent one-of-a-kind binding commissions. The archive also includes correspondence as well as holographic manuscripts and early versions of select works. It documents Minsky's exploration of printing technologies over 45 years from the mimeograph and spirit duplicator to his early use of inkjet printing on handmade paper.
While the archive will not be made public until processing is finished, a complete set of Minsky's editioned work (non-commissioned work made in multiple copies) is currently available in the Arts of the Book Collection reading room, located in the Sterling Memorial Library. More information about Minsky and his work is available online at www.minsky.com. For more information about the Minsky Archive and the Arts of the Book Collection, contact Jae Rossman at jae.rossman@yale.edu.
The Arts Library at Yale consists of five operating units: Art and Architecture, Arts of the Book, Classics, Drama and Visual Resources. Together, the Arts Library supports the arts area programs at Yale, including the Schools of Architecture, Art and Drama, and the Departments of Classics and the History of Art, as well as the teaching and research needs of the Yale community outside the arts.
T H I S
Arts Library acquires the archive of
pioneering book artist Richard Minsky
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