Buzz Spector: verso / recto by Bruno David Gallery

A VERSO AND A RECTO

BY BUZZ SPECTOR

The halves of an opened page spread have names, verso for the left, recto the right. Both terms are from the New Latin, coined with regard to reading, then turning, pages in bound books. According to Mirriam-Webster, the earliest use of these positional descriptions was in 1810, but I have not yet discovered which 19th century book had its pages so named.

Rectitude, the concept of the right order of things, is sensibly applied to the page meant to be read first, but only page one lives entirely up to this name. All other recto pages in any bound book provide the continuation of reading from the bottom of the verso. The Cambridge Dictionary offers the left-hand page in an open book as the reverse side of the right. In describing coins, the two sides of the disk are the obverse and the reverse, but every nickel can be spun on its axis, or tossed in the air, making “heads or tails” more a valuation of motif than an order of priorities.

A librarian at the Library of Congress once described to me the physical proximity of Herman Melville’s copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass on a shelf directly across the aisle from Whitman’s copy of Melville’s Moby Dick. The authors met only once, each bringing their books for this occasion to be given to the other, and the librarian’s narrative continued on through the decades that these copies, having outlasted their authors and prior ownership, made their way from shelf to shelf, collection to collection, uncannily enroute to the same aisle in a repository of the nation’s greatest literature. I’m sure that LoC has multiple copies of Moby Dick and Leaves of Grass. The latter volume, especially, was published in several versions during the lifetime of its author. The essence of the narrative, then, was that the specific copies of these books, brought to the encounter of the men who wrote them, exist in posterity at approximately the same physical distance as the authors stood at that meeting.

The press release for this exhibit begins with a question: “What is a book in a frame?” A book behind glass is always something other. Every unread volume on a shelf, table, or in someone else’s hands, is the surface of a form we know is understood by plumbing its depths. We can pick out books from shelves, lift them from whatever table, or raise our hands to take ones being offered, so that we can then open them and begin to read. Books in vitrines are removed from handling. We scrutinize them with the understanding that their presence is exemplary rather than accessible. In a display case, though, the book retains its functionality. We can inspect the binding if the volume is closed and peruse a single spread of its pages if it is open. For that matter, we can ask the keeper of the vitrine to unlock it for us to lay hands on the item. In a frame, though, the isolation of the artwork is permanent, and the function of protection is inseparable from further mediations, of preciosity, but also of viewpoint. Frames present a space between the artwork and the situation where it is encountered. Less obviously, the frame encourages a distance of regard, and this viewing point is almost always too far away to read when the thing in the frame is a conventionally printed book.

The first book I tore pages from to make a work of art was a copy of Henry Truro Bray, The Evolution of a Life, Chicago: Holt Publishing Company, 1890. This action took place in the spring of 1980, and I’d already been working for eight years with torn edges as templates for my process-oriented drawings. I purchased the book at a benefit sale on the campus of the University of Chicago, where I was then working as a publications coordinator in the Graduate School of Business. I was attracted by its embossed gold leaf title, but also by the references to geological evolution made by Bray, in explanation of his changed attitude about organized religion in relation to matters of spiritual faith. I will say about Bray that his writing was of its time, but the farthest thing from my mind was to tear pages from the text block as a form of literary criticism. I first excised the frontispiece engraving of the author, leaving intact the protective tissue leaf that had absorbed a vestigial ink trace of the engraved image. Then I began tearing out, page-by-page, the entire text block to make a wedge-shaped cross section. These incremental detachments had to be carefully executed so as to leave what remained with a contour the book’s cover would rest upon. I’d systematically removed perhaps 30 printed leaves (out of 232), when a hallucinatory aspect of my process became visible to me. It was as if the random letters at the edges of each tearing were somehow scrambling around, trying to make themselves back into words.

I had an additional reason for my alteration of Evolution of a Life, to make a maquette for William Anthony, the esteemed Chicago bookbinder who had already executed several exotic binding structures for books of my drawings. The volume I had in mind was to be titled Chapman’s Homer, and its text block would be wedge shaped, with each subsequent page a little wider than the one before. The first page would be, literally, a fringe of paper while the final page would be intact, in a volume 24 inches wide. I intended to fill all the recto pages with graphite drawings so that the field of torn edges would resemble the surface of a body of water. This was a reference to the John Keats sonnet whose title I was paraphrasing, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.” Written in 1819, the poem is Keats’s response to reading George Chapman’s first English translation of the Odyssey and the Iliad. It is one of the greatest English language poems about the mind-expanding experience of reading, and the paper waves I had in mind referred to the sonnet’s concluding image, of Spanish explorers reaching the summit of a hill and seeing, what was to them, a new ocean.

On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer —John Keats

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men

Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

By the time I finished my alteration of The Evolution of a Life its field of torn pages, flecked with letters, was profoundly more interesting than any previous gesture I’d made in the studio. Accidental juxtapositions of letters on successive pages invited me to decipher this word or that, while the paper tears made reference to collage. My attention vacillated between reading and scanning, and I set aside my intentions for Chapman’s Homer to experiment with other ways of altering blocks of printed text. In subsequent book alterations I recognized my connection with Concrete Poetry and Poesia Visiva, from the standpoint of literature, and Décollage artists, such as Wolf Vostell, Jacques Villeglé, Mimmo Rotella and Raymond Hains, in relation to lacerated posters exported to serve as objects of delectation. During the first couple of years I devoted to altering books, I frequently applied various small objects to them after the tearing, but since the mid-1980s the tear itself has remained the central feature of my actions.

This most recent suite of book alterations is closer in appearance to Décollage, both because the opened volumes include previously excised pages that I have “re-leafed” into them, and because the books are mounted inside frames. The verso / recto alterations make more use of images—photographic and diagrammatic—than my previous altered books. These more visible elements are recognizable, providing clues to other words and images in the books’ divided fields. I aspire to add value to my gestures of taking away by restoring some small measure of recognizability to what the viewer / reader can see.

AFTERWORDS

BY BRUNO L. DAVID

I am pleased to present verso / recto, an exhibition by Buzz Spector. This is Spector’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

For verso / recto, Spector is showing new framed and wall-mounted book alterations. Spector has made art with books as subject and object for more than forty years. He has stacked them by the thousands in installations on three continents, systematically torn pages from them to make what’s left into sculpture, and collaged portions of dust jackets in collages that refer to the posing repertoire of authors and the poetry to be found in the last lines of blurbs.

Buzz Spector is an artist and critical writer whose artwork has been shown in such museums as the Saint Louis Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA, and most recently, Rockford Art Museum. Spector’s work makes frequent use of the book, both as subject and object, and is concerned with relationships between public history, individual memory, and perception. He has published a number of artists’ books and editions since the mid-1970s, including, most recently, Buzzwords, selected interviews with Spector and new page art, issued by Sara Ranchouse Publishing, Chicago, in 2012. Other Spector publications include White Insistence, a limited-edition collaboration with poet Michael Burkhart self-published by the artist in 2009, and Time Square, a limited edition letterpress book hand altered by the artist and published in 2007 by Pyracantha Press and ABBA at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Spector was a co-founder of WhiteWalls, a magazine of writings by artists, in Chicago in 1978, and served as the periodical’s editor until 1987. Since then he has written extensively on topics in contemporary art and culture, and has contributed reviews and essays to a number of publications, including American Craft, Artforum, Art Issues, Art on Paper, Brooklyn Rail, Hand Papermaking, and New Art Examiner. He is the author of The Book Maker’s Desire (Umbrella Editions, 1995), critical essays on topics in contemporary art and artists’ books, and numerous exhibition catalogue essays including, recently, Shona Macdonald: siding with things (Zillman Art Museum, University of Maine, 2021) and Monika Weiss: Body of Drawings (Center for Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, National Institution of Culture in Poland, 2021).

Spector received his M.F.A. from the University of Chicago in 1978, combining studies in art and philosophy, and studied design and art at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he received his B.A. in 1972. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association in 2013. Other recognition includes a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA Fellowship), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship in 1991, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Awards in 1982, 1985, and 1991. He is emeritus professor of art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005 (1984 NYC). I would like to express my sincere thanks to Buzz Spector for his thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Angela Griffy, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Jana Yan, Jialing Sun, Hazel Tao, Talia Zakalik, Jasmin Wu and Grace Kahler.

CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

Aftere Ansel Adams 2024

Altered found book with collage elements, framed

Made from a copy of Ansel Adams: The National Park Service Photographs, New Y+ork: Abbeville Press, 1995

9 x 21 inches

Aftere Ansel Adams (Detail)

Who?

2008

Altered found book with cover and slipcase

Made from a deluxe slipcase version of Dennis Adrian, et. al. Who Chicago? An Exhibition of Contemporary Imagists, Sunderland, UK: Ceolfith Gallery, Sunderland Arts Centre, 1980. Deluxe Edition published by Lawrence Aronson, with silkscreen titles by Jim Nutt 8-1/2 x 16 inches (open) 9-1/2 x 9-1/4 inches (closed)

Who? (Cover)

The Polaroid Book 2024

Altered found book

Made from a copy of Steve Crist, ed., and Babara Hitchcock, The Polaroid Book: Selections from the Polaroid Collections of Photography, Los Angeles: Taschen America, 2008

8-3/4 x 12-1/2 inches (open)

8-3/4 x 6-1/2 inches (closed)

The Polaroid Book (Inside cover)

The Polaroid Book (Cover)

Ego 2020

Altered found book

Made from a Chinese language copy of Holday, Ryan, Ego is the Enemy, Nanchang, China: Jiangxi Peope’s Publishing House, 2019

8 x 11 inches (open)

8 x 5-3/4 inches (closed)

20th Century Section 2023

Altered found book

Made from a copy of Clifford, Henry. The Louise and Walter

Arensberg Collection: 20th Century Section, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1954

10-1/2 x 15-1/4 inches (open)

10-1/2 x 7-3/4 inches (closed)

20th Century Section (Cover)

Displacement: After Lawrence Weiner 2024

Altered found book with collage elements

Made from a copy of Lawrence Weiner: Displacement (exh. cat.), New York: Dia Foundation, 1991

9 x 19 inches

17-3/16 x 27-3/16 inches (framed)

Displacement: After Lawrence Weiner (Detail)

Antonioni 2024

Altered found book with collage elements

Made from a copy of Ian Cameron and Robin Wood, Antonioni, CT: Praeger Publising, Revised Edition, 1971

6-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches

14 x 19-1/2 inches (framed)

From The Desk Of 2024

Altered found book with collage elements

Made from a copy of Hal Drucker and Sid Lerner, with photographs by Sing-Si Schwartz, From The Desk Of, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1989

10 x 20 inches

17-1/2 x 27-1/2 inches (framed)

Sails and Sailing 2024

Altered found book with collage elements

Made from a copy of Franco Giorgetti (ed.), Sails and Sailing, Mystic CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1999

12-1/2 x 19 inches

20 x 26-1/2 inches (framed)

Sails and Sailing

Spirit of Sail 2024

Altered found book with collage elements

Made from a copy of John Dyson, with photographs by Peter Christopher, Spirit of Sail, New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc, 1987, First American Edition 11-1/2 x 18 inches 20 x 26 inches (framed)

Spirit of Sail (Detail)

After Ebony G Patterson 2024

Altered found book with collage elements

Made from a copy of Ebony Patteron ... while the dew is still on the roses ..., New York: Prestel Publishing, 2019

9-1/2 x 16-1/2 inches

10 x 24-1/2 inches (framed)

After Ebony G Patterson (Detail)

Painting #1

Torn printed pages bound and framed

19-1/2 x 15-1/2 inches

21-1/2 x 17-1/2 inches (framed)

Painting #1 (Detail)

Calendrical

Encaustic on 30 open blank sketchbooks

37 x 43 inches

47 x 54 inches (framed)

Calendrical (Detail)

L’arte del vetro 2024

Altered found book

Made from a copy of Giovanni Mariacher, L’arte del vetro: Dall’antichità al Rinascimento, Milan, Iltaly: Fratelli Fabbri editori, 1966

7-1/2 x 11 inches (open)

7-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches (closed)

L’arte del vetro (Detail)

L’arte del vetro (Cover)

BUZZ SPECTOR

Lives and works in New Windsor, New York

EDUCATION

1978 University of Chicago, MFA, Committee on Art and Design

1972 Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, B.A., Art

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 “VERSO / RECTO”, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

2022

2021

“Reading Matter,” Curated by Carrie Johnson, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois

“Paper Made and Unmade”, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

2020 “Buzz Spector: Alterations”, curated by Gretchen L. Wagner and Elizabeth Wyckoff, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

2019

2016

“Language is a river,” Qian Juntao Art Research Museum, Haining, China (installation)

“Buzz Spector: works on and of paper,” Olin Library Special Collections, Washington University in St. Louis. St. Louis, MO

“Buzz Spector,” Anderson Gallery, Drake University, Des Moines, IA

Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago (with Jamie Adams)

The Ski Club, Milwaukee, WI (installation)

2015 “Buzz Spector: The Book Under (de-) Construction,” Center for Book Arts, New York

2014

Fay Jones School of Architecture, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR (installation)

“Buzz Spector: New York,“ Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

“Buzz Spector: About the Author, new collages,” Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington D.C.

“Otherwise: Mary Jo Bang and Buzz Specor,” Beverly Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2013 “Walter Gropius Master Artist Series: Buzz Spector,” Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV

2012

“Papers” (with Joan Hall,) Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO.

“Buzz Spector: Off the Shelf,” book installations, Grunwald Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (catalogue)

“Malevich: with 8 Red Rectangles,” installation, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2011 “Buzz Spector,” Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

2010 “Shelf Life: selected work,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

2009 “Buzz Spector: Cards and Letters: Postcard works 1973-2000,” Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL (catalogue)

Libreria al ferro di cavallo, Rome, Italy

2008 Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI

Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

2005 “Panorama (Forest of Signs),” one of five public art projects, Contemporary & Classic Art Fair, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL (installation)

Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

2004 Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC

2003 Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

2001 Cristinerose | Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York

“Public/Private Peace,” List Art Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA (installation with catalogue)

2000 Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC

1999 Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

1998 “Beautiful Scenes: Selections from the Cranbrook Archives by Buzz Spector,” Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (installation with catalogue)

Cristinerose | Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York (catalogue)

Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC

1997 Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

1996 Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC

1995 Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago

1994 “Unpacking my Library,” inSITE’94, San Diego State University Art Gallery, CA; traveled to Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (now Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland), Cleveland, OH (installation with catalogue)

1993 Roy Boyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

1992 fiction/nonfiction, New York

Laurence Miller Gallery, New York

“Bibliography,” Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (installation)

1991 “Cold Fashioned Room,” Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA (installation)

1990 “Buzz Spector: New California Artist XVII,” Newport Harbor Art Museum (now Orange County Museum of Art), Newport Beach, CA (installation with catalogue)

1988 “The Library of Babel,” The Art Institute of Chicago, IL (installation with catalogue)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS SINCE

2001

2025 “About the Author,” curated by Catskill Art Space, Livingston Manor, NY

2024 “OVERVIEW_2024”, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2023 “Visual Dialogue”, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2022 “Among Friends”, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2021 “Unfinished Business,” curated by Michael Darling, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

“Decoys and Depictions: Images of the Digital,” curated by Constance Vale, Des Lee Gallery, Washington University in St. Louis

“Rouge/Red,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“The Art of the Book,” Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Vallery, CA

“Bilingual: Abstract & Figurative,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

2020 “NOIRE / NOIR,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“OVERVIEW_2020,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2019 “Lines,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“OVERVIEW_2019,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2018

2017

“Picture Fiction: Kenneth Josephson and Contemporary Photography,” organized by Michael Darling, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL

“Small Worlds,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“Paper/Print: American Hand Papermaking, 1960s to Today,” curated by Susan Gosin and Mina Takahashi, International Print Center New York

“FOLD: Artists’ Accordion Books,” curated by Annemarie Sawkins, Villa Terrace, Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, WI

“OVERVIEW_2018,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989–2017,” curated by Luca Lo Pinto, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria

“WORD: text in contemporary art,” curated by Karen Conway, Jamestown Arts Center, Jamestown, RI

“Booknesses: Artists’ Books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection,” University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Kingsway Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017

“Not Even: Poets Make Collage,” curated by Anna Moschovakis, Bushel Collective, Delhi, New York

“Collage Mash Up,” curated by Brigham Dimick, Edwardsville Art Center, Edwardsville, IL

“Drawn Out/Drawn Over,” curated by Nikki Brugnoli Whipkey, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Riverdale, MD

“A Certain Slant of Light,” curated by Bill Conger and Shona Macdonald, Riverside Art Center, Riverside, IL

2016 “Invisible Cities,” Constellation Studios, Lincoln, NE

“PDF-Objects,” curated by Jason Lazarus and Sean Ward, on-line and gallery exhibit, Opened at Mana Contemporary Chicago.

“12 x 12 Invitational Collaborative Show” (with Jennifer Baker), Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation, Cleveland, OH

“Beyond the Pour II: The Creative Process,” curated by Bob Nugent, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design

“Printmaking in St. Louis Now,” curated by Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis, MO (exh. cat.)

“Reading with the Senses,” curated by Ruth R. Rogers, Roberts Gallery, Lesley University College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA (online exh. cat.)

“Binding Tales: Altered Books in Contemporary Art,” curated by Sarah Tanguy, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA (online exh. cat.)

“Open-Type,” curated by Meredith Lynn, Indiana State University Art Gallery, Terre Haute, IN (on-line exh. cat.)

“Technology and the Evolution of the Artist’s Book,” curated by Maddy Rosenberg, Phoenix Brighton Gallery, Brighton, UK

2015 “The Book Undone: Thirty Years of Granary Books,” curated by Sarah Arkebauer and Karla Nielsen, Kempner Gallery, Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library, New York

“and/or,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue)

“Occupational Therapy,” curated by Kelly Shindler, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO

“Words_Words_Words,” Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR

“Perception Isn’t Always Reality,” curated by Jarmel Reese for Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists’ Collective, Kranzberg Art Center, St. Louis, MO

2014

“Behind the Personal Library: Collectors Creating the Canon,” Organized by Alexander Campos, Center for Book Arts, New York

“OVERVIEW_2014,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“Odd Volumes: Book Art from the Allan Chasanoff Collection,” Yale University Art Gallery (catalogue)

“Rebound: turning books into art,” Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI

“SELFIE STL,” PHD Gallery, St. Louis

“Good as Gold,” curated by Stefanie Kirkland, Craft Alliance Delmar Gallery, St. Louis

“TEXTures: an exhibition of texts, textures and structure in artists’ books,” curated by Jack Ginsberg, David Paton and Rosalind

2014

2013

Cleaver, Archives and Special Collections, Library and Information Centre, University of Johannesburg, South Africa (catalogue)

“Binding Desire: unfolding artists books,” Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA (electronic catalogue)

“DEEM 20: Twenty years of the Deem Distinguished Lecture,” Paul Mesaros Gallery, Creative Arts Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

“Bound by Silence,” Center for Book Arts, New York, NY

“A Human Document: Selections from the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry,” Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL (catalogue)

“Directed: The Intersection of Book, Film and Visual Narrative,” curated by Jeff Rathermel, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN

“Permanent Markers: Aspects of the History of Printing,” Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT (catalogue)

“Brave New World: the Art of the Book in the Digital Age,” curated by Rusty Freeman, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, IL

“MCA DNA: Chicago Conceptual Abstraction, 1986-1995,” organized by Lynne Warren, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

“Drafted,” Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY

2012

“Blue—White—Red,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“Wall Text,” curated by Zachary Cahill and Monica Szewczyk for the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago

“Help/Less,” curated by Chris Habib, Printed Matter, Inc., New York

“WhiteWalls: 1978−2008,” Golden Gallery, New York

“Central Booking: in Berlin,” curated by Maddy Rosenberg, K-Salon, Berlin, Germany

“Je déballe ma bibliothèque,” Bibliothèque universitaire Droit & Sciences économiques, Limoges, France

“Beaten and Bound,” curated by Suzanne Cohan-Lange for Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN

“Bound by Silence,” curated by Heather Powell for Dowd Gallery, SUNY Cortland

2011

“Object Poems,” curated by David Abel for 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR

“Write Now: Artists and Letterforms,” Chicago Cultural Center, IL

“Pandora’s Box: Joseph Cornell Unlocks the MCA Collection,” curated by Michael Darling, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL

“Image, Text, and the Art of the Book,” Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT

“Associations,” Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI

2011 “Repertoire,” Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago

2010 “Overpaper,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis (catalogue)

“On & of Paper: Selections from the Illinois State Museum,” curated by Jennifer Jaskowiak, Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery (traveling exhibition)

“Cut Copy,” curated by Shona Macdonald for Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

“The Book: A Contemporary View,” curated by Susan Isaacs, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE (catalogue)

“Material translations: Artists’ Books from 1970 to Now,” curated by Michael Joseph, Arts Council of Princeton, Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton, NJ

“Recession Rejuvenations,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO

“A Reader’s Art,” curated by Jon Coffelt, Susan Hensel gallery, Minneapolis, MN

“Spreading the Word: a hands-on exploration of CSB/SJU book arts collections,” Gorecki Gallery, College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, MN

“Speaking Volumes,” John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI

2009 “Somewhere Far from Habit: the poet and the artist’s book,” Pierre Menard Gallery, Boston, MA. Traveled to Longwood Center for the Visual Arts, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

“Something Geographical: Vernon Fisher, Buzz Spector, Xiaoze Xie,” Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago (traveled to South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN)

“X Libris: the Re-Purposed Book,” curated by Harriet Bart, Traffic Zone Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

“Readings: Adam Bateman, Stanford Kay, and Buzz Spector,” Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY

“Text / Messages: books by artists,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

New Prints 2009/Winter, International Print Center, New York (traveling exhibition)

2008 “ARAC@AAM,” Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO

“Lineage and Legacy,” curated by Gail M. Brown, Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA

“The Illustrated Word: An Exhibit of Letterpress Broadsides,” Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene, OR

“Outrageous Pages: Ingenious Artists’ Books,” curated by Tim Sheesley, Art Gallery, SUNY Oneonta

“The Embedded Image: Current Work in Hand Papermaking,” curated by Tom Lang, Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2007 “Killer B’s,” Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago (with John Buck and Tony Berlant)

“Threads,” curated by Anne Massoni, Memphis College of Art Gallery, Memphis, TN

“Marks from the Matrix: Normal Editions Workshop Collaborative Limited Edition Prints 1976-2006,” University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL

2007

2006

“Critical Art: Faculty of the Cornell University Department of Art,” School of Art Gallery, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China. Traveled to: Academy of Art and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing

“. . . one more thing added to the world: the Borges Effect in contemporary artists’ books,” Old Capitol Museum, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

“A Poetic coup d’etat: Mallarmé’s influence on artists’ books,” Ella Strong Denison Library, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

“Art & Place 2: Material at Hand,” curated by Clayton Colvin, Space 301, Mobile, AL

“On Ice,” curated by Kathy Bruce, Williams Center Art Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, PA

“Why Lee Shot C: Buzz, She Left’im Vernon!” Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago

“Extensions: acquisitions 2004-2005,” Centre des livres d’artistes, Saint-Yrieix-la-perche, France

“Not I: A Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebration,” Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

2005

“Too Much Bliss: Twenty Years of Granary Books,” Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA

“Pulp Friction: new takes on paper,” Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT

New Prints 2005/Autumn, International Print Center New York (traveling exhibition)

“Library,” curated by Barry Rosenberg, Contemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut, Storrs

“Inclinations: an exhibition of contemporary photographic art,” curated by Jan Kather, George Waters Gallery, Elmira College, Elmira, NY

“Information in Formation,” curated by Clayton Colvin and Brett M. Levine, Visual Arts Gallery, University of Alabama at Birmingham

“The Artist Turns to the Book,” curated by Joyce Pellerano Ludmer, Getty Research Institute, Santa Monica, CA

“Looking at the World: Photography from the Permanent Collection,” Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ

“Un art de lecteurs,” curated by Yann Sérandour, Galerie Art & Essai, Université Rennes, France

2004

“Urgent,” Scott Pfaffman Gallery, New York

“Image/Word: the intersection of art and literature,” curated by Cheryl Kramer, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College

New Prints 2004/Autumn, International Print Center New York

“Artists’ Books by American Artists: a Selection,” KunstCentret Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark

“Books & Shelves,” curated by Barbara Wiesen, Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL

“Some Things Happening: Twenty-Five Years / Herron Gallery Exhibitions,” Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, IN

“That 70s Show: The Age of Pluralism in Chicago,” curated by Ruth Crnkovich for Northern Indiana Arts Association, Munster, IN

2003

“Newer Genres: Twenty Years of the Rutgers Archives for Printmaking Studios,” Rutgers University, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ

2003

“Painting by Letters,” curated by Eve Wood for Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles

“Retrospectives,” curated by Adelheid Mers for Gallery 312, Chicago

“Publishing Granary’s Books: A Conversation in the Margins,” Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego

“The Consistency of Shadows: Exhibition Catalogs as Autonomous Works of Art,” curated by AnneDorothee Böhme and Kevin Henry for Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

“Building the Book: an exhibition of artists’ books,” curated by Lynne Avadenko for Center Galleries, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

“Re/order,” curated by Nicholas N. Ruth and Karen Sardisco, Houghton House Gallery, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY

2002

2001

“Life Death Love Hate Pleasure Pain: Selections from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Collection,” Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

“AOP 2002: The 37th Art on Paper Exhibition,” Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

“Fine and Folk: the Ruth and Robert Vogele Gift,” Milwaukee Art Museum

“Visually Speaking,” curated by Nancy Greene for Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

“Artists’ Books: Highlights from the Kohler Art Library,” Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison

“Libri fotografici,” curated by Mirella Bentivoglio for La Cuba d’Oro, Associazione Culturale, Rome, Italy

“A Private Reading: The Book as Image & Object,” Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, NYC

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ARTISTS

Antonio Ainscough

Sara Ghazi Asadollahi

Barry Anderson

Laura Beard

Heather Bennett

Lisa K. Blatt

Quinn Antonio Briceno

Ben Brough

Lisa Bulawsky

Michael Byron

Bunny Burson

Judy Child

Carmon Colangelo

William Conger

Alex Couwenberg

Terry James Conrad

Jill Downen

Damon Freed

Yvette Drury Dubinsky

Douglass Freed

Adrian A. Gonzalez

William Griffin Estate

Richard Hull

Kelley Johnson

Chris Kahler

Leslie Laskey Estate

Van McElwee

Justin Henry Miller

William Morris

James Austin Murray

Danielle Muzina

Arny nadler

Yvonne Osei

Patricia Olynyk

Robert Pettus Estate

Charles P. Reay

Daniel Raedeke

Tom Reed

Carlos Salazar-Lermont

Frank Schwaiger

Char Schwall

Judith Shaw

Christina Shmigel

Thomas Sleet

Buzz Spector

Andrea Stanislav

Eric Minh Swenson

Cindy Tower

Charles Turnell

Monika Weiss

Buzz Spector: verso / recto

BUZZ SPECTOR

BUZZ SPECTOR

CONTENTS

A VERSO AND A RECTO BY BUZZ SPECTOR

AFTERWORDS

A VERSO AND A RECTO

AFTERWORDS

CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

BUZZ SPECTOR

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS SINCE

ARTISTS