----------------------------Original message---------------------------- As moderator of the joint ARLIS/NA-CAA session at the CAA conference in Toronto, February 1998, I invite ARLIS/NA members who are also members of CAA (College Art Association) or of the UAAC (Universities Art Association of Canada) to propose papers on the topic described below. Please contact me if you wish to discuss an idea. The history of the book and the visual arts: contributions to "The History of the Book" projects in Canada and the United States. A History of the Book project was recently launched in Canada, on the heels of similar projects which have inspired special conferences and periodical issues, and multi-volume publications in the United States and several European countries.The U.S. project entitled A History of the Book in America is based at the American Antiquarian Society, and in 1997 will issue the first of five projected volumes. It may seem that these projects are essentially concerned with literature, bibliography, and disciplines other than art, given the academic qualifications and associations of most of the editors and authors. But in fact the current projects are being presented by their organizers as interdisciplinary and integrated, a change from the past when the history of the book was largely served by narrow and mutually isolated lines of research. The book is being viewed as a vehicle of knowledge or inspiration, but also under discussion is its physical form which can exercise influence and attract aesthetic appreciation by its outward and inward appearance. Aspects of the visual arts in relation to the history of the book are being emphatically addressed in proposal statements and publication prospectuses for the U.S. project. A preliminary chapter outline lists "The Book Crafts", e.g. type design and book design, binding and papermaking; and "The Book as Artifact." Besides the book arts, there are other aspects of the history of the book which art historians and bibliographers might address: a single book or title or precious book': its significance, influence, role as a manifesto, or aesthetic qualities; all aspects of graphic design, illustration, and the use of reproductions in relation to text; art bibliography; special art publication formats such as artists' books, livres d'artiste, catalogues raisonns, exhibition catalogues and exhibition announcements, manuals, pattern books, photographic albums and portfolios. "History of the Book" projects have universally adopted a broad interpretation of the term "book" to include all printed materials such as periodicals, newspapers, broadsides and printed ephemera. For this joint session in Toronto of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and CAA, Canadian and U.S. art historians, bibliographers, visual resource curators and art librarians are invited to propose topics for papers that would feed directly or indirectly into the Canadian or U.S. "History of the book" projects. The official multivolume works currently in the planning stages are not intended by their editors to be "the last word." Rather, they hope that publication will stimulate further research into how national culture can be understood through an examination of the mediating role of print. <^><^> <+><+> <-><-> -- -- -- Mary Williamson, Fine Arts Bibliographer and Senior Librarian, York University (retired); Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Dept. of Art History. email: [log in to unmask] *** fax: (416) 484-0345