University of Pittsburgh Library System

What is a book without text or illustration? What does it mean if a book requires its reader to look beyond its pages to fully understand it? These are the sort of questions I aim to explore in my research of Keith Smith's Book 91 (A String Book). Book 91 is an artists’ book that features multiple strings that weave their way through varying holes on each of its bare pages. This colorless, imageless, and textless book explores the boundaries of the artists’ book as concept and form. Keith Smith gained inspiration from painters that eliminated subject matter to create non-representational paintings. Following suit, Smith worked with all the elements of bookmaking but focused on the movement, cast light and shadows, sound, sequence, and materials rather than the subject matter. For my research, I will conduct an extensive visual analysis of Book 91 by using slow-looking strategies to interpret and respond to the content of the book. My initial hope for my research is to explore how this artists’ book is observed and interacted with by its viewer. Due to the book's unique qualities, and the absence of text and imagery, the experience of this book is unlike that of a book with the traditional format. Throughout my research, I will consider the overall performance aspect that is crucial to the book-viewing experience, how the absence of words can illuminate visual opportunities, and potential ways in which librarians can document books of this nature within digital systems. Toward the end of my research, I will conduct a ‘mini exhibition’ in which I will discuss and perform the book for an audience.