Artist book by Yuko Wada, of Japan.
A month-long exhibition of the 10th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2025 will be held at Reed Library throughout March.
Selected books from the triennial will be featured at the exhibition, an ongoing international interdisciplinary art project that opened as the 10th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2024, when jurying and initial exhibitions began. It will be located in the library’s exhibit/OSCAR hub, adjacent to the main entrance, and is free and open to the public from Sunday, March 2, through Monday, March 31.
“It is a great honor to host the 10th International Artist Book Triennial,” said SUNY Distinguished Professor Timothy Frerichs. “The selected artist books represent some of the finest works created internationally. Artist books are interdisciplinary in nature, and so it will benefit the campus community as well as the general population to see the creative works responding to the theme of ‘To Be’.”
The theme is born out of a reflection on the current state of the world, with its conflicts between states, crises and pandemics that affect everyone personally, creating various existential questions.
An artist's book is not only a conceptual book, but also an art object with a clearly expressed idea, realized through employing various book forms and structures from the past centuries.” - Timothy Frerichs
Triennial director Kęstutis Vasiliūnas, a visiting European Union Erasmus Plus Exchange Scholar, will bring his significant expertise and knowledge as an Erasmus Plus Visiting Scholar to the campus. He will give a gallery talk on Friday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m., and will also conduct artist book workshops with Department of Visual Arts and New Media (VANM) students during the week.
VANM students participating in his artist book workshops are fortunate to have this international opportunity to learn from a distinguished professor, Mr. Frerichs noted. Vasiliūnas has led workshops at universities around the world, most recently in southern Spain.
“An artist's book is not only a conceptual book, but also an art object with a clearly expressed idea, realized through employing various book forms and structures from the past centuries,” Frerichs explained. “An artist's book combines words and images, and traditional book design principles with interdisciplinary art.”
To create a contemporary artist's book, the artist uses a variety of materials, such as paper, wood, stone, glass, metal, etc., which are more typical of other art forms, such as sculpture, said Frerichs, an organizer of the triennial at SUNY Fredonia.
The aim here is not to illustrate the text. Often, an artist's book does not feature text at all but rather it conveys an idea through the relationship between different materials. An artist's book is a unique one-off or limited-edition work, numbered and signed by the author.
For the 10th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2025, an international jury selected 77 artists’ books from 29 countries for the exhibition, out of 197 artists’ books from 41 countries.
The main prize was awarded to the artist Jeong-Eun Lee from South Korea. Honorary prizes were awarded to five artists: Barbara Beisinghoff (Germany), Carmelo Cacciato (Italy), Eeva Louhio (Finland), Ema Shin (Australia) and Yuko Wada (Japan).
Included in the exhibition, by invitation, is Frerichs’ “Ice Out Lake Chautauqua,” featuring photographs on handmade recycled fiber and milkweed paper, pigmented pulp, blowouts using Lake Chautauqua ice water and recycled rope.
SUNY Fredonia is one of only 10 locations hosting the exhibition. There are two other United State host sites: Cleveland, OH, and Evanston, IL. The remaining seven are in Europe. The exhibition began last March in Germany and will conclude in September in Spain.
The triennial exhibition is supported by a Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities grant through the Fredonia College Foundation, the Department of Visual Arts and New Media, Reed Library and Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania.
For more information, see the website.
