Artist's book
An artist's book is a book conceived and produced as an artwork, using its form, materials, sequencing, or distribution as part of its meaning.
Book design: The planning of a book's visual appearance, structure, typography, and physical format. Artist's books adapt design decisions such as page size, binding, and typography into artistic choices.
Twentysix Gasoline Stations: Ed Ruscha's 1963 book of photographs depicting gasoline stations along Route 66. Its plain sequence of photographs made an inexpensive commercial book an artwork.
Futurist book: A book shaped by Italian Futurism's experiments with typography, materials, and unconventional page design. Futurist books anticipated treating the printed page and its physical construction as artistic media.
Artists' publishing: The creation and circulation of publications by artists as part of their artistic practice. Publishing lets an artist's book reach audiences through print distribution rather than exhibition alone.
Illustrated book: A book whose text is accompanied or enhanced by images. Illustration can serve a text, whereas an artist's book treats the book as an artwork in its own right.
Bookbinding: The craft and process of assembling pages and covers into a book. Binding can shape an artist's book's form, handling, and sequence.
Every Building on the Sunset Strip: Ed Ruscha's 1966 accordion-fold book presenting photographs of both sides of Sunset Boulevard. Its foldout format turns a street-length photographic survey into a continuous page.
Dada: An avant-garde movement that used chance, absurdity, and collage to challenge established cultural values. Dada artists' experiments with collage and print helped expand the book's artistic possibilities.
Zine: A small-circulation, self-published magazine, often produced with inexpensive materials and informal methods. Zines share artist's books' accessible production, but are usually defined by independent publishing culture.
Livre d'artiste: A French tradition of fine-art books, often pairing an artist's images with literary texts. This tradition often centers on a collaboration between artist and writer, unlike the broader artist's-book category.