The MoMA Library Council is a group of art and book enthusiasts whose contributions benefit the Museum’s Archives, Library, and Research Collections and help support a unique publishing program. Council members support the Museum’s mission to acquire, preserve, and make accessible MoMA’s research collections. Reflecting upon the Museum’s collections and its longstanding interest in artist’s publications as an expressive form, the Council publishes artist’s books which members may choose to receive during their membership year. The Council also sells a small number of examples from each edition to libraries, museums, and private collectors to support MoMA’s research collections.
Contact: May Castleberry, Editor, Contemporary Editions, MoMA
Megan Govin, Department Manager, Archives, Library, and Research Collections, MoMA
Email | Website | Phone: 212-708-9430
Artwork
The Stars
Vija Celmins (with author Elliot Weinberger), 2005
Deluxe edition of book, including three etchings, accompanied by a loose print, an etching of a reverse night-sky.
The book measures 10.5" x 7" inches; the gatefold etching measures 10.5" x 27.5"; the unbound print measures 13" x 16"
Deluxe Edition of 26
The etchings were printed by Simmelink/Sukimoto; the text was printed by letterpress by The Grenfell Press.
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The Stars
Vija Celmins (with author Elliot Weinberger), 2005
Deluxe edition of book, including three etchings, accompanied by a loose print, an etching of a reverse night-sky.
The book measures 10.5" x 7"; the gatefold etching measures 10.5" x 27.5"; the unbound print measures 13" x 16"
Deluxe Edition of 26
The etchings were printed by Simmelink/Sukimoto; the text was printed by letterpress by The Grenfell Press.
MORE INFO
INQUIRE
From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia (Front Cover)
Tomás Saraceno, 2021
Letterpress and Silkscreen print for cover of artist’s book
11.7" x 16.5"
Edition of 125 + 40 artist and collaborator copies
Cover printed by Leslie Miller at the Grenfell Press
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From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia: Venice Tree
Tomás Saraceno, 2021
Artist’s book, with five hand-cut paper pop-up scenes
Page spread: 23.4" x 16.5"
Edition of 125 + 40 artist and collaborator copies
Papercutting by Chisato Tamabayashi, London; sewing by Studio Tomás Saraceno, Berlin
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From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia: Web and Spider
Tomás Saraceno, 2021
Artist’s book, with five hand-cut paper pop-up scenes
Page spread: 23.4" x 16.5"
Edition of 125 + 40 artist and collaborator copies
Papercutting by Chisato Tamabayashi, London; sewing by Studio Tomás Saraceno, Berlin
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From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia: Underwater Spider
Tomás Saraceno, 2021
Artist’s book, with five hand-cut paper pop-up scenes
Page spread: 23.4" x 16.5"
Edition of 125 + 40 artist and collaborator copies
Papercutting by Chisato Tamabayashi, London; sewing by Studio Tomás Saraceno, Berlin
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From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia: Venice Tree
Tomás Saraceno, 2021
Artist’s book, with five hand-cut paper pop-up scenes
Deluxe Edition, page spread: 33" x 23.3/8"
Deluxe Edition: 10 or fewer copies
Papercutting by Chisato Tamabayashi, London; sewing by Studio Tomás Saraceno, Berlin
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From Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia
by Tomás Saraceno
The Argentine-born, Berlin-based artist Tomás Saraceno has designed and created a limited-edition artist’s book for the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art to be distributed in early 2022. This hand-cut, hand-bound volume is intended to draw attention to spiders, their webs, and our shared environment through the participatory form of the pop-up book. The book unfolds in five scenes to reveal a spider attached by a filament to its web; a spider and its web in a museum building, not far from a human spectator; a constellation connected to web-like threads, as cosmic arachnid architecture; an enchanted cobwebbed forest; and a layered image of diving bell spiders, beings that spend most of their lives underwater. As the planet faces the mass extinction of spiders, insects, and other invertebrates, Saraceno’s project encourages new threads of connectivity to move us from arachnophobia to arachnophilia. The project includes a main edition of 125 copies, plus artist and collaborator’s copies, as well as a deluxe edition expected to consist of fewer than 10 copies.
Photo: Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York/Los Angeles), especially Tanya Bonakdar and Sam Rauch; Andersen’s Contemporary (Copenhagen); neugerriemschneider (Berlin); Pinksummer Contemporary Art (Genoa); and Ruth Benzacar (Buenos Aires).
With thanks to Arachnophilia.net.
Copyright Studio Tomás Saraceno, 2021
