ABSTRACT
This chapter locates its discussion of hands-on pedagogy and critical bibliography in the light of the artist’s book as a genre. Arguing that artists’ books foreground an aesthetics of pace, scale, and touch, the chapter describes learning sites–such as the studio, the classroom, and the museum–where the book arts are self-consciously engaged. In theorizing the temporal dynamics, spatial environments, and handled proximity of the book, the chapter ultimately focuses on the Special Collections visit. When students journey to the rare books room, they visit a cultural heritage domain nurturing the phenomenology established so far: a place where undergraduate makers, writers, and critics train the senses to think, craft, and create. Based on practical experience and student voices, the chapter advances a new language for book arts appreciation and pedagogy.
