For All to View

THE ARTIST BOOK FOUNDATION CELEBRATES TEN YEARS OF PUBLISHING—AND SO MUCH MORE

By Laura Mars
Photo by Jimmy ienner, Jr.

From the pages of our Holiday 2022 Issue.

Since 2012, The Artist Book Foundation (TABF) has been documenting and celebrating artists through publications, exhibitions, and programs—all designed to give public access to the work of significant artists that otherwise might be lost.

Leslie Pell van Breen established TABF after ten years as president and publisher of fine art book publisher Hudson Hills Press, which was founded in partnership with Nelson Rockefeller to document his family’s art collection. In 2016, van Breen moved TABF from Vermont to a second-floor space at MASS MoCA in North Adams, where she has created the perfect combination of gallery and publishing house—spacious and bright for artwork and a wall of bookshelves with exquisite art books. A few desks and computers, if you even notice them, remind you that this is, indeed, a working office.

“It is great that we are in this gallery space so we can exhibit the work of the artists we publish and be in the same space as other galleries,” says van Breen. “There is an artist residency right across the hall, and they come to access information in our books.”

American painter Stephen Hannock, whose work will be published by TABF in 2024, says that publication is key to experiencing artists’ works. “So many of the exhibitions of important artists never get seen by audiences who want to see them. The Artist Book Foundation comes to the rescue and fills in that gap.”

The nonprofit TABF is focused on sharing what they publish with the public and giving back to the community. “Our position is very much about engaging and being inclusive,” says van Breen. All events are open to the public. They have donated books to every high school library in northern Berkshire and plan to do the same in south county. They work with teachers—art, history, even math—to build a curriculum using their books, which is especially important as art budgets are being cut.

For every book that is sold directly through TABF, one is donated to a local library or school. TABF also donates a percentage of every print run (typically up to 200 books) to underserved populations, including prisons and veterans’ homes nationwide, and their books are used to support art therapy.

Van Breen has been working on another project, which is to gain exclusive access to Hudson Hills Press’s backlist. (It ceased operations nearly eight years ago.) That came to fruition in 2022, and van Breen is now looking for the best way to convert the inventory. That includes artist monographs, catalogues raisonnés, collections and exhibition catalogues, surveys, and limited editions on a variety of artists—Mary Cassatt, Roy Lichtenstein, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexander Calder, and Mark Rothko, to name a handful—as well as converting TABF books to an electronic format.

TABF’s digital initiative and e-content program are part of their mission to provide access to the visual arts to the widest audience possible.

As van Breen develops a way to bring volumes of books in print to a digital format, she steadily continues to publish new books. Acclaimed artists—as well as art institutions—come to TABF to collaborate on publications about their work, seeking out van Breen’s expertise and commitment to create art books that stay true to the artist. TABF’s printers are committed to creating books that are individual works of art, specific to the artist. E-content development partners must be just as committed.

“The production process is so hard but so necessary,” says van Breen emphatically. “Without these books, and without converting these books into a format that is useful and accessible to the public, the work will just be gone. We are being careful and diligent to find the right partners to convert the content into a digital format without compromising the print work.”

In November, TABF features the work of photorealist artist Rod Penner. The first major monograph of Penner’s work is due out in January 2023, with a book signing in the spring. In the fall of 2023, look for two new titles—one that documents the work of painter and printmaker Will Barnet, and another on painter Dan Hodermarsky. Hannock, known for his atmospheric landscapes, will be featured in the spring of 2024.

A new series is also in the works. The First Artist Book (FAB) is scheduled to launch in 2023. FAB will document the life and work of one or two new and emerging artists per year.

The events that TABF hosts in conjunction with every new publication are free and open to the public, as is access to TABF’s expansive library that includes the foundation’s titles on Don Gummer, Carole Feuerman, John Van Alstine, and Wendell Castle, to name several, as well as those from Hudson Hills Press and other major art publishers.

“The same way a museum puts it on the wall, The Artist Book Foundation will publish it,” says Tom Slaughter, whose work was published by TABF in 2019. Books can be purchased on TABF’s website or in person at 1327 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams. Remember, for every book you purchase for someone you love, another will be donated to help spread holiday joy in the local community. You can support TABF with an individual donation or through annual membership.

artistbkfoundation.org