On View Now: Artists’ Books from the Rosemary Furtak Collection

Walker Publishing Filed to Visual Arts

Rosemary Furtak, 1986. Image courtesy of the Walker Art Center.

Did you know that the Walker Art Center collects more than paintings and sculptures? There are many types of artworks in the Walker Collections including prints, drawings, film, sound, and books. The Rosemary Furtak Collection housed in the Walker’s Library contains over 2,000 artists’ books from the 1940s to today. An art form whose definition is often debated; artists’ books are broadly artworks in book form. While some artists’ books are one-of-a-kind artworks, others are editioned and distributed to reach a wider audience. And because of the distribution potential, many artists have used artists’ books to express a particular viewpoint or sentiment on politics, economics, or society. The works in the Rosemary Furtak Collection are all limited edition works.  

The collection began in the early 1980s by Walker’s longtime Librarian, Rosemary Furtak. When Furtak began collecting, there were few collections of artists’ books in museums or libraries. Over the years, with Furtak’s encouragement other librarians began to see the value in collecting artists’ books and today there are artist book collections across the country. In the Twin Cities we are fortunate to have a wealth of artist book collections, including Minneapolis College of Art and Design, University of Minnesota, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. After years of raising awareness and building the Walker’s own collection, the Art Libraries Association of North America honored Furtak for her advocacy at their 2012 national conference. 

Today, assistant librarian, Jennifer Riestenberg Pepin, oversees the Rosemary Furtak Collection. Riestenberg Pepin collects works by important 20^th century artists including Stanley Brouwn, and Shohachi Kimura, both important innovators and influencers in artist books, as well as collecting contemporary 21^st century artists with a particular interest in diversifying the collection to include more women, LGBTQ, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists. New acquisitions include works by Paul Chan, Michaela Eichwald, Adam Pendleton, and Paula McCartney.  

To make this wonderful collection more accessible to museum visitors, the Best Buy Aperture located in the corridor near the Cargill Lounge will feature artists’ books on a rotating basis. For the installation currently on view from December 14, 2022, to June 4, 2023, works were chosen based on three themes: 1. Color and Line 2. Shape and Space 3. Unusual and Unbound.

For the first theme, Sol LeWitt’s artist book Lines & Color was essential to display. LeWitt was a prolific artist, and this important work highlights the beauty and elegance of his book practice. Also included in the case is Bruno Munari's cleverly constructed, Libro illegible N.Y. 1, in which a string guides the reader through each page of the book revealing and hiding objects as the pages are turned. Each of these works are structured, vibrant and eye catching to visitors.

The second theme Shape and Space occupies the alcove case and includes architectural and geometric works such as Robert The’s ever popular Reader’s Digest constructed from a volume of the popular publisher in the shape of a piece of cake complete with realistic looking white frosting. This case also includes examples of artists using space to create shapes rather than solid materials like Reader’s Digest. The absence of matter creates shape or negative space. In Rein Jansma’s Stairs each page opens to a different configuration of a stairway cut out of paper. The negative space between each bend gives the illusion of a solid step. Likewise, Urtod by Hyewon Jang with text by August Stramm uses negative space to create a book that opens into a honeycomb-like pattern, with each word occupying a single cell within the structure. The books in this case are subdued in color adding to the focus on their construction.

Works demonstrating the final theme Unusual and Unbound, include Xu Bing’s Tobacco Project: Red Book made from cigarettes in a metal tin with text from Mao Tse-tung’s Little Red Book printed on the cigarette papers. Other works include Angela Lorenz’s whimsical Maxims by the Yard: Some in Meter with witticisms woven into a spool of pink ribbon, and 2 dé-coll/age-happenings by Wolf Vostell made from wooden sheets held together by a metal clamp. The artists’ books in this case, besides being made from unusual materials and unbound, are also movable. The wooden sheets in 2 dé- coll/age-happenings are meant to be removed from the metal clamp and separated. Vostell invented the word de ’collage expressly as a counter to collage or the coming together of materials.

In Robert Fillou’s The Frozen Exhibition, also on display, the book includes individual photographs in a cardboard hat to be moved and handled at the discretion of the viewer or reader. There is great variability and delicacy to the numerous elements in these works, displayed here in a low hanging vitrine so visitors can see them up close. 

We are delighted to be able to display these books from the Rosemary Furtak Collection, an exemplary and historic, but often hidden trove of works. While the books are on display, some works such as [2,3] will be rotated to show different pages every month. The rotation of pages will help preserve the pristine condition of the books and be a pleasant surprise for frequent museum visitors. In addition, the installation will be refreshed with new work every six months.  

In addition to the Best Buy Aperture display, there are other ways to enjoy the Rosemary Furtak Collection. Join us this winter during Free Thursday Nights (January 26, February 2 and 9), when the library will be hosting an open house series focusing on artists’ books, mail art, and multiples. And should you wish to visit the library at other times, visitors are welcomed by appointment Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 5pm.

For remote access, the artists’ books can also be found on the Walker’s online collection. With multiple ways to engage with the collection we hope that more people will discover these remarkable books.▪︎

View selections from the Rosemary Furtak Collection as well as the Walker’s Library for free during normal museum hours.