Rare Books & Book Arts - Book Arts, Artist's Books & Press Books

Al Blaustein Collection

The Al Blaustein Collection consists of 59 works by the artist Al Blaustein (1924-2004), including 5 paintings, 48 drawings and four prints. Also included is a sketchbook of drawings, a catalog of the artist’s late works, the artist’s inventory records for many of the library’s holdings and photo images of the works in the collection.

Guide to the Al Blaustein Collection

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Still Life with Helmet and Chair, from the collection donated by Lotte Blaustein. 

Beatrice Coron Collection

Béatrice Coron is an artist and illustrator working primarily in cut silhouettes. Her artistic output includes artist’s books, wall art, illustration, and decorative design and sculpture for buildings and public spaces. She works primarily in paper and Tyvek, as well as fabric, glass, metal, stone and digital media. The collection contains examples and slides of the artist’s work, including artists’ books, commercial work, cut paper drafts and proofs, prints, articles and clippings, and exhibition catalogs. Slides comprise near half of the collection.

Guide to the Beatrice Coron Collection

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St. John the Divine/American Bestiary from the collection donated by the artist.

Suellen Glashausser Artists' Books Collection

Suellen Glashausser Artists' Books Collection is a collection of her artists’ books executed between 1980 and 2000. The items are made from a wide variety of materials from cigar labels to glassine to soda cans. Some of the works are signed; some are signed and dated. All save one are unique works. 

Suellen Glashausser Artists' Books Collection

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La Lune, from the collection.

Suellen Glashausser Papers

Suellen Glashausser worked as a book artist, sculptor and textile artist, as well as teaching at Montclair State University in New Jersey. This collection primarily consists of her administrative and professional papers, teaching materials such as syllabi and class handouts, art and craft technique instructions and examples, catalogs and promotional materials for exhibition of her works and that of other artists, as well as photographs and slides of her work and work of other artists.

Guide to the Suellen Glashausser Papers

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Image from an exhibition announcement in the collection donated by Charles Glashausser.

Frances Manola Collection

The Frances Manola Collection contains examples of the artistic and professional output, as well as the papers, of Frances Manola, an artist who worked as a calligrapher and bookbinder in New York and New Jersey from the early 1960s to 2009.

Guide to the Frances Manola Collection

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The Letter D from the collection donated by Frances Manola.

Miniature Fine Press and Artists' Books Collection

The Miniature Fine Press and Artists' Books Collection consists of more than 980 miniature books, most less than three inches in any dimension. Some are artists' books, with creative formats and design that stretch the concept of books into the realm of art objects. Others are in the tradition of fine printing or binding, but on a miniature scale, characterized by handmade paper and illustration, letterpress printing, fine binding and other examples of craftsmanship.

Guide to the Miniature Fine Press and Artists' Book Collection

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Fine Press Miniature Books from the collection.

Other Miniature Book Collections

Early Miniature Books include a London Almanack for 1785 and 1790, Lummis Birch Bark Poems printed on birch bark in 1882, a Bible chained to a wooden stand and a Qur'an worn as a locket. Children’s Miniature Books range from an 1866 elegantly-boxed set of children’s stories to the Golden Books series of the late 20th century. Commercial and Other Miniature Books range from Bible quotes to comic books.

Guide to the Early Miniature Books Collection
Guide to the Children's Miniature Book Collection
Guide to the Commercial and other Miniature Books Collection

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Early Miniature Books from the collection.

Clare Romano Collection

Clare Romano (1922-2017) was a printmaker, educator, illustrator, painter and author. In addition to a large body of printed and painted works, she also illustrated many books of poetry, philosophy and mythology. She collaborated with her husband, John Ross, in writing The Complete PrintmakerThe Complete Collagraph and a number of limited edition artists’ books. The collection represents a selection of Clare Romano’s artistic production, consisting of twenty one works, including 12 collagraph prints, 7 paintings and drawings, and 2 three-dimensional sculptures. There is also a small amount of archival material, including correspondence and sketches.

Guide to the Clare Romano Collection

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Image from the collection donated by John Ross.

John Ross Collection

John Ross (1921-2017) was a printmaker, illustrator, painter, author and a teacher of art.  As an artist, he explored subjects ranging from daily life in a city to landscapes, abstract images and fantastical cityscapes through the media of ink drawings, collagraphs, woodcuts, lithographs and etchings. This collection, consisting of 273 works, including 206 prints, 52 drawings and 15 printing plates and blocks, provides a cross section of the artist’s body of work, focusing primarily on collagraphs, woodcuts and drawings. In addition to a large body of printed and painted works, he also illustrated many books. He was married to the artist Clare Romano, with whom he collaborated in writing The Complete PrintmakerThe Complete Collagraph and a number of limited edition artists’ books.

Guide to the John Ross Collection

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 Image from the collection donated by John Ross.

Ben Shahn Estate Collection

Ben Shahn, a painter, graphic artist, photographer and educator, lived from 1898 to 1969. His work is eclectic, including painting, mosaics, printmaking and photography. While he also produced commercial work, political posters and lettering, his primary concerns were social justice, religion and philosophy. This collection of Ben Shahn's work includes drawings, lettering, posters, prints, proof sheets and other materials, as well as photographs of the artist. Notable are drawings for his work at Temple Beth Zion, sketches for his painting Liberation, a series of prints and blue line prints he made as illustration of the French Dreyfus trial, and proof sheets and drafts of his Alphabet of Creation.

Description of Ben Shahn Estate Collection

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Press Books Collection

Special Collections and University Archives Rutgers University-New Brunswick has a wide collection of English and American press books. Among these, the Stilwell Press Books Collection consists of about 500 limited edition fine and private press books comprising literature, poetry, bibliographies and works on private presses, typography and the graphic arts, most illustrated with wood engravings, lithographs or etchings. The collection includes imprints from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Hungary.

Guide to The Stilwell Press Book Collection

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Poesies Complètes D'Alfred de Vigny, 1920 edition, from the collection. 

Stone House Press Archive

The Stone House Press Archive assembles material relating to books and broadsides published by the Stone House Press, along with broadsides from other presses, correspondence and ephemera, such as advertisements, announcements and printed keepsakes. The bulk of the archive consists of broadsides, papers and other printed material from the 1980s that illustrate the operation of a small hand press business. Other prints and publications of interest to Morris Gelfand, the proprietor of the press are included.

Guide to the Stone House Press Archive

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Image from the collection donated by the Gelfand family.