The Book Undone: Thirty Years of Granary Books

The Book Undone: Thirty Years of Granary Books

The Book Undone: Thirty Years of Granary Books

In 2001, fifteen years into its operation, Granary Books published When Will the Book Be Done?, an illustrated, annotated catalog of their books. The title refers to an early joke between Steve Clay and printer/publisher Ruth Lingen, who included the question clipped from a magazine headline when delivering recently completed copies of Comeundone by Henrik Drescher to Clay. That clipping adorns the Granary offices to this day. 

This selection from our 2015 exhibition reviews that halfway point and reaches back to the press’s origins in Minnesota in the mid-1980s. It then follows Granary’s work to the present. This exhibition differs from previous exhibitions of the press’s work by including material from the press's archive held by the Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

“The Book Undone” displays the diversity of Granary’s enterprise: from artists’ books with limited editions of 40–70 copies to trade books printed by the thousands; from books whose design is determined by type to books of images made entirely by hand; from books with no words to anthologies of essays about books; from vibrant water-colored folios to smaller books in black and white; from innovations to homages.

Ranging from single-sheet works such as What the Ambulance Driver Said to the paint-laden tome Non, Granary books assume an array of formats. The resulting repertoire of approaches to the book demonstrate how attention to production and to the interplay of verbal and visual elements will keep publishing in print not only relevant but exciting in a world of screens and devices. Granary books are exquisite objects that enable us to think anew about the book: as technology, as art form, as sculpture, and as objects that enable ideas to disseminate and endure. 

Website Curator

Sarah Arkebauer, doctoral candidate, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

Exhibit Curators

Karla Nielsen, Curator of Literature, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries

Sarah Arkebauer, doctoral candidate, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

Rare Book & Manuscript Library / Butler Library, 6th Fl. East / 535 West 114th St. / New York, NY 10027 / (212) 854-5153 / rbml@libraries.cul.columia.edu