The Book Arts collection at Camberwell College of Arts Library

Recently, I have been working on a project to audit, catalogue, and rehouse the Book Arts collection in Camberwell College of Arts Library’s Special Collections.

The Book Arts collection initially began as a collection of works made by students from the MA Book Arts course at Camberwell (circa 1990s-2020). But it has grown to include book works made by students and staff across the range of courses at the college. There are also some examples from external artists and publishers. In addition the collection includes ephemera from the previous MA Book Arts course, including exhibition invitations and catalogues.

Colour photograph of small books and booklets in conservation friendly blue grey box files, with tidy labels on them — Image of the Book Arts collection inside the Special Collections room in Camberwell College of Arts Library. Photograph by Vanessa Walters.

Cataloguing the collection

The project involved making new records for previously uncatalogued items. I also enhanced and streamlined existing records with both visual and content descriptions of each item. This will all help to make the items more discoverable on the library search catalogue. I also rehoused the book works in archival box files and suitable packaging where needed. This will preserve their condition and also increase their visibility and accessibility within our special collections room.

Colour photograph of a blue and white folded book. Includes a cut-out reproduction of a black and white photo reproduction of a cuddly toy rabbit holding a sign. — ‘The Moth’ by Sophia Vlazaki. Photograph by Vanessa Walters.

Examples within the collection

I was lucky to spend time with each individual book work and have become more familiar with the collection as a whole. In it, you can find creative methods used to create, fold, and bind pages. You can find filled envelopes-as-pages and a piece of string representing a telephone wire thread through a book’s centre.

Colour photograph of a cream and grey folding book. One page features a simple illustration of a table near a window with a plantpot, telephone, a notebook, and the sun shining through a window — ‘By this time (in London)’ by Young-Ju Choi. Photograph by Vanessa Walters.

The books demonstrate different ways of using written text, through print, or absence. These include embossing, abstraction and concrete poetry, cut-outs, and pyrography. There is also a breadth of formats which stretch the concept of ‘the book’ towards sculptural object. There are fold-out maps, playing cards, and even miniature model landscapes.

Colour photograph of two small clear plastic boxes resting on a table. Inside the boxes are small models of landscape scenes — ‘Landscape Box 49’ [left] and ‘Landscape Box 36’ [right] by Anna Williams. Photograph by Vanessa Walters

Find out more

While auditing the items, I put together a list of commonly occurring themes across the collection. These have been published on the library search catalogue to support research.

These include: Architecture and Urbanisation / Graphic Arts and Illustration / Health and Wellness / Imagination, Dreams, Memory / Languages and Translation / London / Material Exploration / Photography / Poetry / Pop-up and Flip-books / Printmaking / Science and Technology / Text and Words in Art / The Body / The Natural World.

Of the over 200 titles in the Book Arts collection, around 150 of these were part of the previous MA Book Arts course.

A full list of the Book Arts collection can be found here: Camberwell Book Arts Collection.

The Book Arts collection is also part of a wider collection of Artists’ Books at Camberwell, of which the full list can be found here: Camberwell Artists’ Books.

Colour photograph of an intricate folded book with cut out maps and text. The text appears to read 'London, Paris, Tokyo' but is seen in the photograph backwards, from the other side of the page. — ‘Capital cities’ by Unknown Artist. Photograph by Vanessa Walters.

How to see items from the collection

Access to items within this collection is available Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm.

Staff and students can request items at the library information desk which will then be made available for viewing within the hour.

If you are an external visitor or you are travelling to the Camberwell site to see a specific item, or items, contact us via ASK. Please submit your question 48 hours in advance of your planned visit. This is to make sure the items are available and ready for you. Please add the line 'Camberwell special collection request' in the question field on the form. We will get back to you as soon as we can confirm availability of the item.

For external visitors and alumni, you will also need to make a visitor booking.