Exhibition ✨ Helga Fassonaki and Emily Shanahan at Oklahoma State University

Artifacts at the Start of a Decade

January 19 – February 19, 2021

Gardiner Gallery of Art at Oklahoma State University

108 Bartlett Center

Stillwater, OK 74078

The Gardiner Gallery of Art is pleased to present Artifacts at the Start of a Decade, a group exhibition of artists’ books with work by Julia Bradshaw, Julie Chen, Maureen Cummins, Daniel Essig, Helga Fassonaki, James Henkel, Marina Kassianidou, Karen Kunc, Ryan Pierce, Zeinab Saab, Emily Shanahan, and Bonnie Stahlecker.  

In 1979, 200 invitations were mailed to a group of artists asking if they would like to participate in a project about the previous decade. Over fifty artists accepted the offer and in 1981, two years after their initial prompt, Artifacts at the End of a Decade was produced. The work itself is an unbound book/portfolio which includes 44 works in mixed media by various artists.  

This is where Artifacts at the Start of a Decade finds its name and inspiration. This exhibition has invited artists working across the country, in various mediums, who were asked if they would like to participate in a project about artists’ books.   

Unlike an artist monograph or exhibition catalogue, an 'artist book' refers to books or publications that have been created as a fully-fledged artwork. Traditionally these books have been inexpensive, and many were meant for broad and popular dissemination. This exhibition brings together artists who use this term as a guide or loose parameter with some objects that recall conventional books while other pieces are highly sculptural, have sound elements, or use books as their inspiration for photography.