Summer 2025
Thinking about digitizing archives and databases...
Lately I have been thinking a lot about digitization and archives. I recently wrote about the digitization of Carolee Schneemann’s diaries and photo albums by Stanford Library. I also finally got over to SAIC to view prominent artists’ book dealer Tony Zwicker’s papers, which include a full run of her datebooks (not processed and not digitized). Both are amazing resources, one requiring a lot of time and money to spend reading them in person, another a well-funded project to make them freely available to read at home, slowly or quickly. It has me thinking a lot about this kind of daily detritus, its value to researchers, and what I will leave behind (if anyone cares) for someone to look into. (If you read my previous newsletter, you know I will certainly leave a well organized Zotero!)
Zwicker’s datebooks are meticulous, and while I kept datebooks for years, they are one of the habits I have lost in my move to LA, finally giving in to digital calendars. For those who followed my past writing on Reginald Walker, you will be happy to find that the books do rectify some of his archival absences as he is very present in the months around the time Zwicker sold his books to the Sackners.
Another exciting digitization project I had nothing to do with is the newly updated and reissued Franklin Furnace database. I am truly ECSTATIC over this for many reasons that, if we have talked in person, you likely know. CLICK INTO IT NOW and enjoy the amazing wealth of information now available for you to use in your research and include for reasonable fees in your scholarly work.
If you’ll be in Rochester this summer, I will be there for SHARP 2025 “Communities and Values of the Book.” I will be on a panel talking about the history of Visual Studies Workshop Press and giving a talk presenting the first part of my newsletter project: “Spreading the Word: Book Art Newsletters from the 1970s-80s.” Since I curated Craft & Conceptual Art, I have become a little obsessed with newsletters from artist-run book art organizations from this time period including Center for Book Arts, Franklin Furnace, the Women’s Graphic Center at the Woman’s Building, Dieu Donne, Women’s Studio Workshop, and more! These newsletter are primary source documents of the early years and development of artists’ books as we know them today. I will introduce why these documents are important, and highlight what we can learn from them about book communities (and more!). I look forward to getting some feedback on what direction to take this project.
Recent writing includes a little piece on the 10x10 presentation of photobooks by women at the Getty for Fine Books & Collections and a review of Cynthia Hawkins’s published journal for the Brooklyn Rail.