Artist's Book

Read Karen Chernick's review in "The Brooklyn Rail" on "Francesca Woodman: The Artist's Books" published by MACK.

Collier Schorr, Justine Kurland, and Moyra Davey are in conversation with Drew Sawyer to celebrate the launch of Francesca Woodman: The Artist's Books. This event was held at Rizzoli Bookstore on June 28, 2023, with an introduction by Lissa McClure of The Woodman Foundation.

‍Please join us for a conversation on Francesca Woodman with Collier Schorr, Justine Kurland, Moyra Davey and Drew Sawyer to celebrate the launch of "Francesca Woodman: The Artist’s Books.” The panelists will discuss the influence of Woodman’s work on their respective practices, and the ways in which an examination of these predominantly unseen artist’s books can shed a new light on her remarkable work.

"Francesca Woodman: The Artist’s Books" collects for the first time every page of all eight of Francesca Woodman’s unique artist’s books in one comprehensive volume, including two newly discovered books which have never before been seen alongside better-known titles such as "Some Disordered Interior Geometries."

Francesca Woodman was a frequent visitor to the Maldoror bookshop during the year she spent studying in Rome. In the hours she spent rooting through the stacks there, she began to collect old notebooks filled with elaborate handwriting exercises and objective mathematical lessons, all in Italian.

Around 2003, George Woodman began incorporating a green wooden Pinocchio into the assemblages of toys, props and images he used to construct his photographs. Pinocchio is an iconic figure in Italian literature and culture, popularized by the classic children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” written by Florentine author Carlo Collodi in the late 19th century. Woodman was interested in Pinocchio as the protagonist in his own picture stories.

Betty Woodman’s Chinese Pleasure (2007-2008) was commissioned by the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program for the United States Embassy in Beijing. Woodman was inspired by and freely borrowed from visual influences all over the world and throughout art history, here incorporating three distinct moments in the history of Chinese art, ranging from Sichuan bronzes to popular culture into this dramatic installation.