Creator(s)

Curator: Lisa Conrad, Digital Scholarship Librarian

Abecedarium: "An alphabetical wordbook or wordlist, usually elementary; esp. a primer for teaching the basics of reading and spelling" (Oxford English Dictionary).

The artists books showcased here play with the concept of the abecedarium to unusual effect; they explore typography, create poems, and use abstraction to re-imagine language.

The selections from these works come from the CCA Libraries Artists' Book collection, housed in both the Meyer and Simpson Libraries. The book titles in the slideshow view link to digitized versions in VAULT, our digital archives. Discover all of the abecedariums in the collection here.