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National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution

Enclosures

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Artists' Books and AfricaArtists’ books may be enclosed, encased, wrapped up, or bound in engaging ways, inviting you to open them up and look inside.

Enclosures may be made of many materials from very modest cardboard to high-end leather. Metal, plastic, cloth, or other unexpected materials may also be used. Enclosures of artists’ books can be works of art themselves.

Slipcases allow a book to slip in or out of a box. They also protect the contents and may be as creatively designed as the books themselves.

For more information about enclosures, click here.

GIF 2
Mark Attwood
b. 1966, South Africa
Joachim Schönfeldt
b. 1958, South Africa
Robert Weinek
Dates unknown, South Africa
GIF 2
Johannesburg, South Africa: The Artists’ Press in collaboration with FIG Gallery, 1994
Edition 40/101
Smithsonian Libraries
The heavy bronze hooves attached to the handcrafted blonde wood slipcase make a rather dramatic enclosure for GIF 2. The original plan was to use the hooves as the spine of the book, but the structural engineering couldn’t be worked out. Michael Zeffertt fabricated the saddleback slipcase; the hooves were cast by Guy du Toit.
The book inside contains mounted prints by 17 South African artists. Kagiso P. Mautloa’s contribution is this abstract collograph. To create the printing surface, he glued papers to a support, and then printed in relief. This creates the textured surface.

For more information about GIF 2, click here.

Tunisia (detail)
Bessie Smith Moulton
Dates unknown, United States
Tunisia (detail)
Falmouth, ME: Bessie Smith Moulton, 2003
Edition 7/25
Smithsonian Libraries
Can you guess what made the crisscross pattern in these desert sands? A tire? A scorpion? A beetle? Beetle tracks inspired women weavers in Tunisia to replicate this geometric pattern in their woven textiles, as shown across the top of these pages.
This is one of the many unexpected sights of Tunisia that Bessie Smith Moulton captured for her book, which she wrapped in soft leather to keep out the sands of the desert.

For more information about Tunisia, click here.