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ART 1020: Surface & Process: Books to Find or Browse

Books to browse

The following books feature a range of contemporary artists and their work.

Finding books

Browsing for books
Art books are found in the N's, beginning around shelf range 109 on the first floor of Jerome Library.

Range 111

For contemporary printmaking, browse in NE490-NE1000.

Searching for books (at BGSU)
Click on the catalog tab on the Libraries Home Page and type an artist's name or medium as a keyword search. For a more sophisticated search, use the subject search.

Subject headings are in the description of each book. Looking at them is a good way to identify words to use to find more books like the one you're looking at. Searching by subject is especially helpful in very large catalogs like OhioLINK and WorldCat.

Searching for books at OhioLINK
You should never limit your searches to just this library! As a BGSU student, you can borrow books from almost any academic library in Ohio through the OhioLINK catalog. Choose the OhioLINK Catalog link from the Catalog tab of our home page.

Types of art books

Find books by searching in the:

Look for the following types of publications: each has something unique to offer.

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Catalogue Raisonne

A catalogue raisonne is the most comprehensive kind of publication about a single artist. It tries to include and contextualize all the artist's works from the entire length of his or her career.
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Edited Volume


An edited volume is a book containing a variety of essays by different authors related to a single theme, which are gathered into the book by an editor. Often only one chapter of the book will be of interest to you, and it may focus on a very specific aspect of an artist's work.

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Exhibition Catalog: Themed Exhibit

Published in conjunction with an exhibition, exhibition catalogs often contain images of most or all of the works included, but in a themed or group show these may only be one or two works per artist. Exhibition catalogs usually include one or more introductory essays and, sometimes, extensive descriptive text about each work of art.

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Exhibition Catalog: One Artist

The most useful of these will span the artist's entire career, called a retrospective. Others may only focus on a single period or type of work. More comprehensive catalogs will include lengthy essays contextualizing the artist's work.

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Scholarly Monograph

A scholarly book about a single subject, by a single author. Often more focused on ideas than the work of a single artist.

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Museum Publication

Different from an exhibition catalog, a museum publication is focused on the collection or works within the collection of one museum, and usually includes text written by the museum's curatorial staff.

Other kinds of books: dissertations, annuals