On Collecting Artists' Books

In 2018, the Turin-based gallery owner Liliana Dematteis decided to entrust her invaluable collection of artists' books to the Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The volume On collecting artists' books aims to pay homage to this important collection, born from Dematteis' experience as a scholar, publisher and director of Galleria Martano, by proposing a comparison between Italian and American artists who, between the 1960s and 1970s, approached this practice. In both countries, in fact, different artistic movements saw in this everyday object not only an alternative and effective vehicle of content, but also a stimulating ground for experimentation.

This selection of volumes, which compares some of the most emblematic books of Arte Povera, Minimal Art, Performance Art, Fluxus and Visual Poetry, is edited by Melania Gazzotti, and is introduced by texts by Liliana Dematteis, Giorgio Di Domenico, Ken Soehner, and Tony White.