Once you have found an artist to focus on, it is usually easy to find books on him or her by doing keyword searches. Use:
When choosing a book, think about
- Scope of the artist's career it covers
- Number and quality of images
- Amount of text. Does it have essays? How many? Who wrote them? How long are they? Does it contain interviews? A statement by the artist? No text at all?
- Usefulness to you: how much of the book is relevant to your topic?
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.
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