Artists’ Books Unshelved
Artists’ Books Unshelved is an ongoing video series that takes the viewers directly into the pages, techniques, and perspectives from selected works in the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Informed by research and interviews, Artist’s Books Unshelved offers an intimate viewing that highlights the artists’ vision and process.
The original host, Catherine Alice Michaelis, Associate Director of the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection, created the series during the pandemic, when the collection was closed to the public. Yuka has researched, written, and hosted Artist’s Books Unshelved since 2021.
Find details about featured books and links to watch episodes hosted by Yuka in the list below.
New episodes are released on the first and third Saturday of each month on BIMA’s YouTube channel, from September through June. View the full playlist on YouTube.
Episode Title: Toward Abortion Rights (video link)
Featured Books:
Glass House by Ann Lovett
A Meditation on Human Rights and a Woman's Life by Ellen Sollod
Description: We examine two artists’ books that amplify each artist's voice on the issue of abortion access and reproductive rights.
Air Date: October 19, 2024
Episode Title: Material Roots (video link)
Featured Books:
Inheritance by Alisa Banks
Mycorrhizae by Jillian Sico
Description: We look at books that are developed with meaningful material collected by each artist, and then transformed into art through intentionally selected processes. Both books place an emphasis on connections across people, ritual, and nature.
Air Date: October 5, 2024
Episode Title: Unconventional Lexicons (video link)
Featured Books:
Hawk/Dove and Head Lines: Worlds Warning, by Bea Nettles
Coral Dictionary Vol. 1: 2019-2022, by Chang Yuchen
Description: We look at books from artists who assemble and invent their own vocabularies and language.
Air Date: September 21, 2024
Episode Title: Behind Hidden Walls (video link)
Featured Books:
The Diary of a Sparrow, by Kazuko Watanabe
Indignity and Resistance in the Foothills of the Andes: a Case Study of Villa Grimaldi, Chile, by María Verónica San Martín
Description: We look behind the paper walls of two artists' books that unfold to create enclosed spaces.
Air Date: September 7, 2024
Episode Title: Overlapping Time (video link)
Featured Books:
Intersection; Gion, Kyoto, by Kyoko Matsunaga
Maneater, by Hannah Batsel
Description: We look at two books that use interactive structures that visually and physically explore the relationship between time and narrative.
Air Date: June 15, 2024
Episode Title: Flow and Spin (video link)
Featured Books:
Bernoulli’s Equation for Unsteady Potential Flow, by Amandine Nabarra
Helianthus, by Gail Wight
Description: Exploring the possibilities of movement and reader interaction are some of the hallmarks of artists’ books. In this episode of Artists’ Books Unshelved, we look at two books that create unexpected experiences by interacting with their pages.
Air Date: June 1, 2024
Episode Title: How it Unfolds (video link)
Featured Books:
Reliquary, by Keri Miki-Lani Schroeder
unpacking, by bel duffy
Description: In this episode we look at sculptural artists’ books that unroll stories of memory and relationships.
Air Date: May 18, 2024
Episode Title: Stories in Fragments (video link)
Featured Books:
Eavesdrop, by Jess Atkinson
old songs – new songs, by Rita Fürstenau
Description: This episode presents compilations that evoke humorous and puzzling stories, and inspire us to look and listen closely to recognize larger patterns.
Air Date: May 4, 2024
Episode Title: Trigger Report (video link)
Featured Books:
Safety is Not Promised, by Ellen Knudson
Report US, by Eileen Boxer
Description: In this episode, we look at two artists’ responses to the overabundance of guns and gun violence in the United States.
Air Date: April 20, 2024
Episode Title: Whose Facts? Whose Story? (video link)
Featured Books:
Newark 1967: A Narrative in Black and White, by Maureen Cummins
11033, by IBe’ Bulinda Crawley
Description: Whose story gets told and by whom? In this episode of Artists’ Books Unshelved, we look at two books that examine accounts from “official stories” and highlight the humanity found in historic narratives.
Air Date: April 6, 2024
Episode Title: Passing Borders (video link)
Featured Books:
Nansen’s Pastport, by Anneli Skaar
Errant Passport, by Alan Sobrino
Description: In this episode, we look at two artists’ books that use the familiar form of passports to critically examine international boundaries and their relationship to climate change and the transit of people and information
Air Date: March 16, 2024
Episode Title: (Not) Your Everyday Chicken (video link)
Featured Books:
Homeless Chickens, by Jihae Kwon
FELT FELT, by Sandra March
Description: These artists’ books shift the context of ordinary chickens, presenting humorous personal perspectives and stories.
Air Date: March 2, 2024
Episode Title: Drawing from Memory (video link)
Featured Books:
Flowers of Pakistan, by Sana Masud
where are we now, by Kyung Eun You
Description: In this episode, we look at two distinct artist books that face the grief that arose after each artist lost their mother at a young age. Each book engages the questions and memories surrounding the impacts of their loss.
Air Date: February 17, 2024
Episode Title: Looking Back/Printing Forward (video link)
Featured Books:
Transparency, Reflection, Light, Space: A Response by Leah Mackin
Memento Civitatem by Alice Maher and Jamie Murphy
Description: In this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved, we look at two artists’ books that respond to artistic predecessors and invite consideration of our social, political and creative relationships with them now.
Air Date: February 3, 2024
Episode Title: Spaces We Knew (video link)
Featured Books:
Unfolding Architecture, by Emily Speed
elude, by Jule Claudia Mahn
Description: In this episode, we look at two artists’ books that respond to artistic predecessors and invite consideration of our social, political and creative relationships with them now.
Air Date: January 20, 2024
Episode Title: Into the Blue (video link)
Featured Books:
Childhood Memories III: Growing up in Ecuador, by Sandra C. Fernandez
Light/Folds, by Haein Song
Description: In this episode, we look at two books that incorporate cyanotypes with traditional cultural techniques to create artists' books that speak to distance and memory.
Air Date: December 2, 2023
Episode Title: Sampling The Books (video link)
Featured Books:
Exuberant Resilience, by Mary Tremonte
Fairmont Color Card, by Sarah Bryant
Description: In this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved, we look at two distinct examples of how artists have used and been inspired by sample books.
Air Date: November 18, 2023
Episode Title: Bookending 45 (video link)
Featured Books:
November 8, 2016, by Emily Larned
Flags, Placards, and Illicit Climbers of the Capitol Insurrection, by Tyler Starr
Description: In this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved, we look at artist books that respond to events surrounding the tumultuous 2016 and 2020 elections.
Air Date: November 7, 2023
Episode Title: We Are The 99% (video link)
Featured Books:
You Can Help Yourself, by John Risseeuw
Tipping Point, by Art Hazelwood
Description: In this episode, we look at two artists’ books that respond to artistic predecessors and invite consideration of our social, political and creative relationships with them now.
Air Date: October 21, 2023
Episode Title: One Body, Two Homes (video link)
Featured Books:
Two Homes, by Kazumi Seki
Home and Back, by Eleonora Gomez Bas
Description: In this episode we look at artist books that explore the artists’ relationships to their two homes as touchpoints for stories of reflection, adaptation and growth..
Air Date: October 7. 2023
Episode Title: For The Record (video link)
Featured Books:
When You Hear This Sound, by Keg de Souza
Uluhaimalama–Legacies of Lili'uokalani, by Alison Leialoha Milham
Description: In this episode, we look and listen to artists’ books that include vinyl records. The featured artist books connect not just books and music, but also the unique people and histories of specific places.
*The full recording for “When You Hear This Sound” is available on Vimeo
*The complete text of Milham’s booklet can be found on Issuu
Air Date: September 2, 2023
Episode Title: Gorgeous or Grotesque? (video link)
Featured Books:
Vellicate, by Karen Hardy
Don’t Cut Your Hair It’s Beautiful, by Kellee Morgado
Description: Is it gorgeous or grotesque? In this episode of Artists’ Books Unshelved, we look at two interactive artist’s books that question our intimate assumptions and responses to hair.
Air Date: September 16, 2023
Episode Title: Performing The Book (video link)
Featured Books:
I wish to say…vol 2, by Sheryl Oring
Selected Durations, by David Abel
Description: In this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved, we look at some of the ways artists create relationships between performance and their artists' books.
Air Date: June 17, 2023
Episode Title: Somewhere in the Universe (video link)
Featured Books:
Based on Your Current Trajectory, by Rachel Simmons
Some Bubble Universe, by Dong Dong
Description: In this episode, we look at artist books that connect personal relationships and experiences to complex theories of the universe and beyond.
Air Date: June 3, 2024
Episode Title: Immigrate, Relocate (video link)
Featured Books:
This Land: Anna's Journal of Migration & Internment, by Lesia Maruschak
Koryo Saram, by Evgenia Kim
Description: In this episode, we look at two carefully researched and crafted artist books that explore immigration. Each artist has crafted stories that illuminate the experiences of their Ukranian-Canadian and Post-Soviet Korean ancestors and families, and how migration, forced incarceration, and exile impacts individuals across generations.
Air Date: May 20, 2023
Episode Title: Across Sea and Sky (video link)
Featured Books:
Send a Rescue Ship, by Lisa Onstad
A Thousand Starlings, by Rhinanon Alpers
Description: Helping to steer loved ones to comfort and stability, we take journeys across sea and sky in this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved.
Air Date: May 6, 2023
Episode Title: Images of All Sorts (video link)
Featured Books:
Dance Party with the Girls of Starshaped Press, by Jennifer Farrell
It is bitter to leave your home: a true story depicted in typographic images, by Romano Hänni
Description: In this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved, we look at two artists’ books that respond to artistic predecessors and invite consideration of our social, political and creative relationships with them now.
Air Date: April 15, 2023
Episode Title: Small Changes, Big Transformation (video link)
Featured Books:
Metamorphosis IIII, by Islam Aly
Mary Ann Waters is a free Black woman, by Kadin Henningsen
Description: This episode examines books that use small changes to reveal immense complexity.
Air Date: April 4, 2023
Episode Title: Here and Gone (video link)
Featured Books:
The Record, by Anne Covell
After, by Josh Hockensmith
Description: This episode looks at books that examine erasure and transfer of information.
Air Date: March 4, 2023
Episode Title: Hand to Hand (video link)
Featured Books:
All My Relations, by Susan Lowdermilk
Ul’nigid’, by Rhiannon Skye Tafoya
Description: In this episode, we explore two books created by artists connecting to their ancestry through their own hands.
Air Date: February 18, 2023
Episode Title: Artificial Reality (video link)
Featured Books:
Los Angeles Palm Trees, by Franticham
Fake Snow Collection, by Heidi Neilson
Description: In this episode, we look at two books that play with the lines between natural and man-made.
Air Date: January 21, 2023
Episode Title: In Search Of (video link)
Featured Books:
Random Passions, by Karen Hanmer
Dating, by Jenny Craig
Description: There’s lots of passion to find between the covers in this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved!
Air Date: February 4, 2023
Episode Title: Beetle Mania (video link)
Featured Books:
Bark Beetle Book Vol XX: Unwinding through Time, Suze Woolf
Bark Beetle Book Vol. XXII: Scolytid Lifecycle, Suze Woolf
Chronicles of a Coleopterists Strikingly Curious Swarm, by Gabby Cooksey
Description: We caught the bug in this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved!
Air Date: January 7, 2023
Episode Title: Red (video link)
Featured Books:
Little Red Book, by Winnie van der Rijn
Love Letter III, by Halah Khan
Description: In this episode, we look at two books that capture the power of the color red.
Air Date: December 17, 2022
Episode Title: From the Fans (video link)
Featured Books:
Dead Wrestlers: Their Words, by Judith Baumann
The Life and Times of Butch Dykes Zine Series, by Eloisa Aquino
Description: In this episode of Artist’s Books Unshelved we explore books that highlight the empathy and camaraderie of being a fan.
Air Date: November 19, 2022
Episode Title: Words in Hand (video link)
Featured Books:
We Are All Speaking at the Same Time, by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Anything Helps, by Laura Russell
Description: This episode features books that harness the power of drawn words to tell someone’s story.
Air Date: June 3, 2022
Episode Title: Looking In (video link)
Featured Books:
Birds of Prey, by Kyle Holland
Imagined Futures, by Rafael Soldi
Description: The books in this episode share perspectives from men reflecting on their pasts and futures in the context of the masculine cultures in which they grew up.
Air Date: April 30, 2022
Episode Title: Deep In Place (video link)
Featured Books:
17927, by Jaime Lynn Shafer
Local Conditions, by Chandler O’Leary
Description: This episode features books that use the layering of tunnel books to explore our relationship with land and place.
Air Date: May 21, 2022
Episode Title: How We See and What We Hear (video link)
Featured Books:
Shedding Light, by Heather Weston
Everything You Hear, by Melissa-Wagner Lawler
Description: In this episode, Heather Weston’s “Shedding Light” examines the role the senses play in reading. Then we look at ideas of legibility and communication breakdowns in “Everything You Hear” by Melissa-Wagner Lawler.
Air Date: April 16, 2022
Episode Title: In Their Own Words (video link)
Featured Books:
Dress Code, Strictly Enforced, by Tona Wilson
Desdemona, In Her Own Words, by Emily Martin
Description: In this episode, we look at two books that rearrange and shift control of characters’ dialogue. Featured books are “Dress Code, Strictly Enforced” by Tona Wilson and “Desdemona, In Her Own Words” by Emily Martin.
Air Date: April 2, 2022
Episode Title: Activating Tradition (video link)
Featured Books:
American Manifesto, by Todd M. Thyberg
Make the Earth Say Beans, by Sarah Nicholls
Description: In this episode, we explore two contemporary artist’s books that take inspiration from, and update the tradition of the activist printers of history.
Air Date: March 19, 2022
Episode Title: Delightful Journeys (video link)
Featured Books:
Gone Fishin’, by Asuka Ohsawa
Animals on Wheels, by Stephanie Krause
Description: In this episode, we look at two books that take us through luscious settings with sprinkles of humor throughout.
Air Date: February 26, 2022