Book Review: Freedom of the Presses: Artists’ Books in the Twenty-First Century edited by Marshall Weber Available to Purchase

The nonprofit book arts organization Booklyn describes their 2018 book Freedom of the Presses: Artists’ Books in the Twenty-First Century as a “textbook and a toolbox.” Edited by Booklyn co-founder Marshall Weber, the collection gathers a rich variety of ­contributions—from historical and critical essays to excerpts of artists’ books—and ties them together with an emphasis on the medium’s potential to strengthen communities and promote social justice. By examining the production, reception, collection, and scholarship of artists’ books, Freedom of the Presses trades in-depth criticism of a single bookwork in favor of a holistic view of artists’ publishing. This is a welcome contribution to the discourse at a time when the term “publication” is often used as a convenient catchall for projects that aren’t quite books, without much consideration of the practice of publishing and the public it constructs.

As a collection, Freedom of the Presses differs from much of the...