Join us on Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 6pm EST for an online talk by 2025 Center for Book Arts Research Fellow Eli Rodriguez Fielder.
Through the intertwined histories of book arts and anatomy, this talk explores the conversation between early anatomy books and contemporary artist books that contemplate body and book. Luigi Castiglioni claims in Anatomy of Bookbinding, “The binding is seen as living, organic architecture,” suggesting that we bind some of our lifeforce into the bookmaking process. Artist books breathe with moveable text that pop up and accordion out, with membranes that overlap and intertwine. In the process, paper becomes alive. What emerges in the flaps between the book and the body? Or between the art of bookmaking and the science of anatomy? Highlighting works from the Center for Book Arts archive, Rodriguez-Fielder weaves through the science, erotics, humor, and critiques of the slippages between our skin and the page. They show how artists embrace the book as a tool for understanding our bodies and use its technology to explore disability and sensory experience as well as imagine posthuman possibilities.
The talk will last 40-45 minutes, followed by a Q&A with the Book Arts Research Fellow