Greetings!

It has been a startling and difficult year on many levels. Between the many ways we've grieved a semblance of normalcy in a global pandemic, to witnessing, experiencing, and contending with grave injustice in our communities, it is challenging to look toward the things that bring us joy. We've seen many dear ones pass, from illustrious printmaker Zarina Hashmi, to ever inspiring graphic designer and typographer Ed Benguiat, it is important to hold those who inspire us close, and to celebrate their lives and contributions.
Today, we invite you to celebrate the lives of Ruth E. Edwards, esteemed book artist, former Board Member of Center for Book Arts, and founder of Books in Black, a collective of African American book makers, and Dr. Marvin Sackner, physician, inventor, and co-creator of one of the world’s foremost collections of word-oriented art.
Ruth E. Edwards was not only a trailblazer in the book arts, but a kindly eye and mentor to so many throughout her life, from the dozens of classes she taught at CBA, to her workshops with Bronx youth through the Scholarship Incentive Awards Program, which she founded. The accordion book (pictured above), titled President Obama’s to Do List which she made with her students was acquired by the Smithsonian in 2009. Edwards created and published many unique and limited-edition artists' books of various structures such as accordion, miniature, eight-page single sheet, pop-up, scrolls, and star or carousel books under her artist name Ruth·ology. Her work Black Rodeo, a star book structure with a leather cover was included in the 2007 exhibit We, Too, Are Book Artists. The exhibition, curated by Amos Kennedy for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, was the “first large-scale exhibit of African-American book art.
Edwards paved the way for the work of Black book makers with her collective, Books in Black, including curating and exhibiting work in The First One Who…! at CBA in 2004 in which, exhibited 32 structural books by Black makers, profiling artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, singers Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin, comedian Moms Mabley, businessman Ernest Stanley O’Neal, and other newsworthy 'firsts.'" Check out our exhibition archive page for more information. We are so grateful to have worked so closely with Edwards and to have witnessed her visual and curatorial practice, and dedication to Black-centered book art.
Dr. Marvin Sackner (1932-2020) and his wife Ruth Sackner (1936-2015) filled their Miami Beach home with more than 75,000 works of art. Their collection included visual poetry from the early Modern era to the concrete poetry movement of the 1960's as well as contemporary work type-focused work, including annotated books, periodicals, typewritings, drawings, letters, print portfolios, ephemera, and rare and artist’s books and manuscripts.

Marvin invented a new system of cataloging for the collection, and presented it at our 1990 conference on Book Arts in the USA. Together, Marvin and Ruth authored The art of typewriting (Thames and Hudson, 2015). Every copy in the edition has a unique cover. Published October 5, 2015, five days before Ruth's untimely passing.

CBA's 1988 exhibition, The Altered Page, curated by Steve Woodall, featured gorgeous selections from The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry (which moved to the University of Iowa Libraries in 2019), including several works by Tom Phillips, a multidisciplinary British artist whose work served as the foundation of their collection.
Here is the exhibition catalog, designed by Laurie Jewell, for download. The Catalog includes an introduction by Marvin Sackner, and explores verbal-visual arts representing alterations. Works of the following seven categories are present: 1) Hidden meaning; 2) cancelled; 3) cut, torn, crumpled, perforated; 4) fragmented; 5) layered; 6) sculptured; 7) sewn and woven. You can read more about the exhibition in our archive. We are thankful to have been able to exhibit part of the Sackner collection at CBA.

We hope that Dr. Sackner's passion for type, print, and book art and Edwards' commitment to community, visibility, and collective making are tangible things you can bring into your personal practice, celebrating them both today and always.
Warmly,
Corina Reynolds
Executive Director
Center for Book Arts promotes active explorations of both contemporary and traditional artistic practices related to the book as an art object. CBA seeks to facilitate communication between the book arts community and the larger spheres of contemporary visual and literary arts, while being a model organization locally, nationally, and internationally within the field.
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