Thanks everyone for the great responses. I’ve learned a lot. Several have asked, so I’m compiling the answers I got to my question:

 

I’m writing a short blurb about an artist’s book in our collection: Terrain: Plateau Native Art & Poetry by Joe Feddersen (2014). When I was doing research, I was struck by the lack of information I was finding on artist’s books by Native American/First Nations artists. Was this simply my poor researching skills or is it that there are few books in our collections?

 

To this, I receive some great suggestions of artists/books and also about the state of such works. Read on if you are interested.

 

Examples of Artist Books and Artist Book Artists

 

Leslie Marmon Silko. Sacred Water: Narratives and Pictures

Tucson, Arizona: Flood Plain Press, 1994.

23 x 16 cm.

No. 99 of the 1st edition of 750

I featured it in an exhibition I curated a few years ago: Artists Books on the Environment.

It has a pink cover of handmade paper with a collaged image of a snake extending from the front cover to the back. The sewn binding encloses her text and photographs which I think are reproduced photocopies. This is my description of it from a web catalog of the exhibition which is not yet published:

“Using vivid poetic and narrative text printed with black and white copies of her photographs, the artist reflects on her deep physical, emotional and spiritual experiences with the natural environment and wildlife in places she has inhabited from childhood and as an adult in New Mexico and Arizona.  Amidst memories of family and family traditions (her grandmother Marie Anaya belonged to the Water Clan in New Mexico), the artist focuses particularly on reverence for water and the dynamic effects of the watery element which takes many forms including petroglyphs of coiled snakes which are “signs that a natural spring or pool of rain water is nearby.” The book is dedicated to “Gus With All My Love” and “In memory of the nine Thailand Buddhists assassinated in their temple near Phoenix, Arizona on August 10, 1991.”  This was a privately published handmade book by Silko who is an artist, author, poet, and recipient of a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation (1981). “

 

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Haida), especially his graphic novel called Red.

 

Frank La Pena has published books with images of his artworks on specific subjects, although they are not per se artists books in the sense of being limited editions: https://heydaybooks.com/book/dream-songs-and-ceremony-refle/.

 

Jordan Abel’s work is interesting: http://projectspace.ca/uninhabited/.

 

Cathy Busby artist books: This is also an interesting project, but it looks like the artists’ book associated with it is not in print anymore: http://www.cathybusby.ca/wearesorry_winnipeg.php and http://www.cathybusby.ca/publications.php.

 

Leonard F. Chana (Tohono O’odham) The Sweet Smell of Home: the Life and Art of Leonard F. Chana, Tucson: U. of Arizona Press, 2009.

 

James Luna (La Jolla Band of Mission Indians) James Luna: Emendatio, Washington, D.C.: NMAI, 2005.

 

George Morrison (Ojibwe) as told to Margot Fortunato Galt.  Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998.

 

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish and Kootenai) Subversions/affirmations, Jersey City, NJ: Jersey City Museum, 1996.

 

One art exhibition book that we own has Jaune Quick-to-See Smith as the guest curator:  Our Land/Ourselves: American Indian Contemporary Artists, Albany: State University of New York, 1990.

 

Some that come to mind:

·         The lost journals of Sacajewea / by Debra Magpie Earling;

·         Incantations : song, spells and images by Mayan women;

·         Sharp rocks : for my Cheyenne and Arapaho people and all native brothers and sisters under the sky, over the earth / by Edgar Heap of Birds. 

·         Also several in the collection by Fritz Scholder, Alfred Yazzie, and Jacob Meders. 

·         Two major artist books that have not been catalogued in [Our] Library’s collection are Kay WalkingStick’s “Talking Leaves” and Dallin Maybee’s “Beniiseiht”.

 

Ideas about the state of artist's books by Native American authors/artists:

 

Contact the Crow's Shadow Institute on the Umatilla Reservation (http://www.crowsshadow.org/pages/about) since they specialize in Native American Fine Art printmaking although maybe you have already tried that.  There is a book called The Dirt is Red Here on a similar theme about California Native Art and Poetry that you can read about here: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Dirt_is_Red_Here.html?id=eQ1i2crcOboC. The Dirt Is Red Here accompanied an exhibition at the Sun House Museum in Ukiah, California that included audio recitations of the poems in the exhibition.

 

I don't know of any other sources on contemporary Native artists books, but Native American art is typically catalogued under History (E99) instead of Fine Art, if you are perusing the shelves in the LC system.

 

I'm a Tohono O'odham artist and, for the opening of my exhibit at the [info withheld], I assembled a video -- basically a brief history of western art and Native art, and how the two intertwined in the 20th century.  Of course the video involved research, and I was struck by just how little there is out there when it comes to discussing the reciprocal influences between western and Native arts.  Of course, I'm an artist, not a researcher or archivist.  Still, when it comes to Native artists writing about the arts, I just don't think there are many books out there.  Such is the dearth of information that I'm considering writing my own book based on my video presentation.  I don't suppose that helps you in the short term, but your inquiry points out a need for such books, and I hope this situation is rectified soon.

 

*There was a 1992 bibliography that was compiled on Native artist books entitled:  In search of Native American artists' books, by Tracy Dietzel.*

 

Again, thanks!
Traci

 

Traci Timmons, M.A., M.L.I.S.

Librarian, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library

Seattle Art Museum

1300 First Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101

Phone: 206-654-3220

Email: [log in to unmask]

Library website: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/programs-and-learning/libraries-and-resources

 

The Bullitt Library is open to the public: Wednesday – Friday, 10AM-4PM

 

INDIGENOUS BEAUTY / Seattle Art Museum / Feb 12 – May 17

CITY DWELLERS: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM INDIA / Seattle Art Museum / Aug 30 – Feb 16

LIVE ON: MR.’S JAPANESE NEO-POP / Asian Art Museum / Nov 22 – Apr 5

Get tickets at visitsam.org/tickets