Amanda Wong (4th-year Winner)
Essay
To read is to love again: a collection of books on modern art
Before I was an art historian, I was a book collector. In my senior year of high school, I was planning an independent study on aesthetics, but the monographs I wanted to examine were unavailable at my local libraries. When I received my first monograph, Kazuo Shiraga: Between Action and the Unknown, in the mail, I admired the heavy pages and images as much as the essays on the artist. It was the first time I realized that a book could be an art object in and of itself. As someone who grew up in a house of book collectors—my parents used to sell rare chess and children’s books at Printers Row Lit Fest in the 90s—it felt right to start my own collection.
My book collection focuses on modern and contemporary art with a special emphasis on American abstract painting. I collect anything from dictionaries, instructional manuals, monographs, exhibition catalogues, art theory, collections of art criticism, and artists’ writings— anything that inform my understanding of and appreciation for art objects. Since I started acquiring books because they were unavailable to me by other means, many of the initial books I are foundational texts in the canon of art history. These books also helped fuel my growing passion for thinking about the presence of art in my life. For example, Anne Truitt’s diaries, Turn and Daytime, gave me language on the interplay between art, a creative spirit, and introspection. Since then, the focus of my book collection is more specific and discerning such that I acquire books that can further my research on conceptual photography.
My vision of the trajectory of my collection has remained close to how it originated. I prefer to acquire books that are more difficult to access such as limited or out of print editions, though I make exceptions for exhibitions I have visited and artists I love. I tried collecting entire publication series for the sake of consistency at some points, but I eventually lost interest. Rather, I am drawn to books and ephemera based on subjects, such as artists Agnes Martin, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Robert Ryman, and Anne Truitt. I am admittedly also partial towards books with nice reproductions of artworks I love and essays by my favorite art critics, in part because I like displaying my books as though they are art objects.
I have acquired my books from used bookstores, estate sales, library sales, art museums, and book fairs. As a freshman in college, I began an Excel sheet reviewing bookstores’ selections of art books. At the end of the year, I had over thirty entries. The bookstores where I have found the most success are Moe’s Books and Black Swan Books in San Francisco Bay Area, Housing Works and Strand in New York City, The Paper Hound in Vancouver, and Hennessey + Ingalls in Los Angeles. I also bought many books from the closing sale off Selected Works on Michigan Ave. Other reliable sources include university library sales, the Hyde Park Blackstone Book sale, Hyde Park estate sales, and the Chicago Art Book Fair. I am quite used to waking up early on Saturday mornings and standing with an Ikea bag in a line with professional book sellers waiting for a book sale to open.
My avid book collecting has manifested in several ways throughout my college career. My enrollment in the course “Writing About the Arts” in Spring 2017 inspired a turn away from art theory (also because I was getting a lot of it in my art history courses) and towards criticism and exhibition catalogues. My final essay for the course reflected on the way that my book collection has served as a catalyst for my growth as a scholar and art appreciator. The following
summer, I interned at the Art Institute’s Publishing department, where I copyedited wall labels and the exhibition catalogue Painting the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Masterpieces from the Weston Collection. I loved my internship because it gave me an inside look into how my favorite objects get constructed. My fellowship with the American Research Libraries Fellow for Digital and Inclusive Excellence also gave me added appreciation for the stewardship and preservation of rare books and ephemera as well as making such material accessible to all.
I anticipate that the focus of my collection will continue to change as I grow as an art historian. With the help of the Brooker Prize fund, I will turn to books that are relevant to my research interests such as conceptual photography, documentary photography, and archive theory. I also hope to expand my collection of artists’ books and ephemera. In many ways, my books have become a portal to the exhibitions I have never been to, openings into imaginary conversations with writers, and opportunities to revisit some of my favorite artworks. I look forward to expanding my relationship to art through my books in the coming years.