Speaking Volumes is an artists’ books exhibition that took place at the A.I.R. Gallery in New York in 1980,organized by Lucy Lippard.
The exhibition presented 150 books by more than 100 artists, and is one of the first exhibitions on artists books. It is today under-documented and under-studied, in a very white, male, cis, hetero-dominated field and historiography of artists’ books.
For the past three years I—as a graphic designer and researcher of feminist publishing histories—have committed myself to uncovering more about this specific exhibition as well as the broader artists’ books history.
I named this research after the 1980 exhibition, as a tribute, and this website shows the ongoing research in progress.
Loraine Furter