Public interest in art is encouraging the publishing of art books and exhibition catalogues, although many of these publications focus on the same subjects. Some 1,200 art books are published in France each year, selling on average some 6,500 copies. Two large publishers dominate French art publishing, but many others are also involved in producing quality art books including titles which help to fill the gaps left by the big general publishers. Because production costs are all but prohibitive, and because the size of the home market is limited, some of these publishers have published books with texts in more than one language, or as co-editions with publishers in other countries.

Il n’y a pas de relation directe, mais de contiguïté, entre mon travail d’artiste et celui de bibliothécaire.

En tant qu’artiste – j’ai commencé avec le film en 1976 puis la photographie en 1978 – j’ai toujours été intéressé par le livre: j’ai participé dans les années 70 à la création d’une revue d’art (Melba) et m’occupe aujourd’hui d’une petite maison d’édition consacrée au cinéma comme forme d’art (Paris vu par le cinéma d’avant-garde 1923-1983; Peter Kubelka).

I work three days a week for the North York Public Library Board: one day at the Central Library’s Literature and Fine Arts Department, and two at the York Woods Library, a regional branch with high immigrant use. As a part-time librarian and as an artist focussing on the more traditional aspects of art, drawing and painting, I usually leave library thoughts at the library door. If anything, it’s the patrons themselves who have inspired my art. However, the Fine Arts collection at the Central Library provides me with resource materials to observe and connect what artists in the past have done to what I seek to do now.

Publishing of art books in the former Federal Republic of Germany expanded after 1945, but with an ever-widening divergence between academic and popular titles. Important scholarship, even when published in the form of inexpensive but over-elaborate catalogues, is relatively inaccessible, whereas popular art books cover the same ground over and over again and leave vast areas of art untouched.

Probably only about 5% of books published in the Netherlands are art books. There is a very limited demand for art books in the Dutch language; in order to sell in greater numbers, books have to be produced in English or in several languages, and/or as co-editions, while the domestic market is flooded by foreign imports including cheap remainders. In these circumstances the publication of art books depends on grants or on the income which some publishers earn from bookselling, printing, or other activities. Nonetheless a few, small, specialist publishers are producing art books of high quality, while some general publishers also publish the occasional art book. Museum publishing activities are considerable but are largely confined to exhibition catalogues.

Since graduating from library school I have worked as a “small press” micropublisher, issuing microfilm editions of newspapers and serials relating to Canadian social and political history. My interests include art and architecture, the ethnic press (especially that of the pre-World War II period), labour history, women’s history, and the alternative press including gay and lesbian periodicals.

Like most librarians, I spend a large part of my time organizing information and helping others to find it, but as an artist, I sometimes find an image more interesting to appropriate than to classify.

The word “appropriation” as applied to art has in some ways supplanted the concept of the found object. Appropriation refers to the use of images (taken from many sources, including art history) that have been not only removed from their original context, but re-combined with other images to form a new context, a new work of art.

OR is an artist’s multiple in pamphlet form, produced with inexpensive, readily-available materials and methods in editions of around one hundred. Operating outside of commercial galleries, there was never any intention of selling current issues of OR; however, back issues are now for sale and some are very expensive. One hundred and fifty editions have been produced since 1976.

It has never particularly crossed my mind that there is any special relationship between my work as an art librarian and my work as an artist. Librarianship was more of a profession, a way of earning a living. Making art is usually more fun than watching television.

My involvement as an artist and as an art librarian allows me to see a full spectrum of art history from its inception by an artist to its assessment by an art historian. It enables me to better understand the needs of faculty and students in the field of visual arts, as well as to interface effectively with faculty and scholars in art history. My gallery membership at SOHO 20 in New York City provides me with insight into art trends in the making. It demonstrates well a woman’s place in the contemporary art world, and a role of a critic in promoting or establishing an artist. I feel that this knowledge makes me a better librarian.