I managed to get back into the city on Saturday thanks to what can only be called serendipity. I was pretty sure I was not going to make it. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit though, like the others who have posted their reactions, I came away a bit unsure of what exactly constitutes an artist's book. The books there ranged from books, to fold-outs, to paper sculptures, to things that were most definitely not books by any traditional definition of the term. There is, however, a less-used definition of the word that means "anything that serves for the recording of facts or events" which I guess applies here.
I have never been so frustrated by "do not touch" signs in my life. Some of the books I desperately wanted to open or interact with, like the shadow puppets. My favorite was "Dinner with Dewey" in the downstairs gallery which made me smile. The logic of the Dewey Decimal system as applied to things outside book cataloguing, very clever.
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There are many collections (esp. in University libraries) that do let you "touch" the works (wearing gloves), so that you can experience them a bit more as they are intended to be. There are lots of local artists who make artist's books so that you can own one yourself!
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