Marcel Duchamp defined an artist’s book as a book made by an artist. He spoke French to distinguish it from conventional art books. Now, seventy volumes from the Banco Sabadell Art Collection are presented at the University of Alicante Museum, with a dedicated display named Page Break. This exhibition traces the history of artist’s books from the 1960s to today, offering a comprehensive view of how artists have used the book as a medium for idea and image in the twenty first century.
The exhibition opens this Friday at noon, curated by Rocio Santa Cruz, director of ArtLibris, the International Artist Books Fair. Visitors will encounter a diverse range of works created by a broad roster of artists. Visitors can expect a rich tapestry that includes publications featuring unique juxtapositions such as pages combined with newspapers and other found materials, creating new narratives from familiar formats. The show brings together pieces by notable names including Gordon Matta-Clark, Christina of Middel, Edward Nahl, Joan Fontcuberta, Carlos Bunga, Jannis Kounellis, and many more from the archive of the collection.
One of Ricardo Cases’ photobooks anchors the foreground of the display, while the exhibition imagens are credited to Pilar Cortes. The works echo a broader conversation across the walls of the gallery, where books sit alongside sculptures, installations, engravings, and photographs. These pieces, part of Banco Sabadell’s art holdings, expand the experience beyond the page with sixty three works by nine artists on view and off the page.
The route of the show unfolds across five sections: historical background, artist books, object books, photo books, and personal publishing. Seventy books, edited between 1963 and 2022, are arranged in shop-window style displays that illuminate the evolution of the artist book from its late nineteenth century beginnings when artists illustrated poets texts, to the second half of the twentieth century when the book began to function as a break with conventional art forms and as a vehicle for new ideas. The spirit of experimentation remains decisive; artists push the book toward a more autonomous form of art and a different way of communicating ideas.
Works by José Pedro Croft are shown in the section Salto de página, a part of the Banco Sabadell Art Collection. These pieces contribute to the overall dialogue about how bookish media can exist as objects of sculpture, as visual poetry, or as a bridge to three dimensional form.
The Page Break narrative continues with books that lengthen into objects. Some volumes belong to sculpture and the visual poetry field, appearing closer to sculptural objects. The display includes juxtaposed elements and artists who experiment with form, including references to Carlos Bunga and Octavio Paz. Other works present as photobooks that go beyond simple reproduction to stage a story that bursts from the page. Alicante based artist Christina of Middel is represented with publications that blend party aesthetics with textual play, while Kalev Erickson contributes works that hover between printed matter and sculptural presence. Desktop publishing is also showcased, with artists producing finished books in traditional formats themselves, such as Oriol, Ricardo Cases, and Julian Baron, whose works explore the last days of authority and sight through a printed page.
Hidden within the off page spaces are curiosities like the Room of Forbidden Books. A wooden box houses 193 books, inviting readers to enter and read a range of censored or banned classics. Other items include a gallery of 24 thought related collages in a book form and a project by Joseph Peter Croft that pairs with Cervantes’s Persiles and Sigismunda. A black series titled Chronicle Team presents a folder of silk screens that nod to North American film noir while weaving in postwar Spanish imagery, creating a layered, cross cultural experience.
Images from the Salto de página exhibition further illuminate how the page can act as a stage for ideas and material experimentation. The visual program invites visitors to consider the page as a site of sculpture, a theatre for text, and a portal to broader cultural dialogue.
The Banco Sabadell Art Collection has developed a remarkable national and international archive of artist books. It stands as one of the most important private collections of the genre in Spain, continuously expanding through collaboration with ArtLibris. Each year this collaboration supports a wide call for publications that are chosen by an international jury for acquisition. This ongoing partnership marks the broader commitment to expanding access to artist books and to promoting the artists who create them.
Through these acquisitions, the collection builds a living record of contemporary publishing practices. The exhibition thus not only showcases objects but also documents the evolving relationship between artists and the book as a medium for art and communication. The cataloging and curation emphasize the book as a dynamic form—one that continues to change with each new generation of makers and spectators.
In summary, Page Break at the University of Alicante Museum presents the artist book as a robust, evolving field that intersects sculpture, poetry, photography, and print culture. It foregrounds the private collection as a public resource, inviting visitors to explore how the book becomes a site of experimentation, memory, and cultural exchange. It stands as a testament to how artists across decades have reimagined the book, turning it into a powerful medium for expression and dialogue. .
To collect
The Banco Sabadell Art Collection has assembled an extraordinary array of national and international artist books. This growing private collection is among the most significant of its kind in Spain, made possible through a long standing partnership with ArtLibris. The annual ArtsLibris–Banco Sabadell Award recognizes publications selected by an international jury for acquisition, reinforcing the collection’s role as a dynamic, evolving archive of artist publishing.