MATERIAL IMAGES AND MATERIAL TEXTS 1400-2000

This interdisciplinary course on book and graphic arts history, the relations of word and image, and the materiality of texts as objects is co-taught by Art and English instructors in the CCNY Library Special Collections department. It's a hands-on engagement with rare books (many illustrated), rare periodicals, artists' books and works on paper as not only text or image but specifically as object. Issues of medium, embodied viewing and materiality will be explored through close examination of works in the CCNY Rare Books and Art Collections including our medieval manuscripts, renaissance printed books, 19th and early 20th century books illustrated with prints and photographs, and more. Students will conduct research on works in the CCNY Special Collections and will make independent visits to museums and rare books libraries throughout the city. This course will be of special interest to anyone interested in books as artworks, in graphic arts, in interdisciplinarity and media studies, and in learning to handle and analyze original works.