Strong, diverse criticism and scholarship are vital for the promotion of the book arts, the creation of new projects, and for making artist books accessible to a wider audience. Artist book criticism does not exist in a vacuum; it is the product of a symbiotic community of book artists, publishers, writers, collectors, enthusiasts, librarians, and scholars. This session will examine three ongoing examples of collaborative efforts aimed at satisfying the multifaceted needs of the diverse book arts community. These include focusing the Contemporary Artist Book Conference (CABC) on these topics, the launch of the Book Art Review initiative with Center for Book Arts (CBA), and the framing of a discovery project with the Bibliographical Society of America. Following short presentations on each of these three initiatives, there will be a discussion among the panelists on the objectives of these endeavors and the central role collaboration plays in achieving them.
