Looking Forward. Ivorypress at Twenty-Five

On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2021, Ivorypress is organising a multi-institutional exhibition in collaboration with museums, libraries and universities in Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, and publishing a three-volume book that chronicles the history of Ivorypress since 1996, using a variety of primary sources that range from oral histories and archival documents to pictorial records and texts.

Words, Books, and Stories consider the many facets of Ivorypress activity as a means of reflecting on the history of the artist’s book as a medium and of generating new ideas in art publishing for current and future generations of creators, historians, and students. By critically examining these materials, engaging in a series of interviews, and developing scholarship on past exhibitions, publications, and curatorial activities, these volumes seek to amplify the scholarship on the medium of the artist’s book.

These three volumes chronicle Ivorypress’s history since 1996 using a variety of primary sources and diverse perspectives that range from oral histories and archival documents to pictorial records and texts. It is a research tool for current and future generations of creators, historians and students as well as an opportunity to look back at the people, texts, images, artists’ books, and works of art that have shaped Ivorypress.

The special edition box set of Looking Forward: Ivorypress at Twenty-Five has been conceived as a pack to house the three books. It includes an open top through which the coloured edges can be seen and unfolds into a display device once opened. The books can also be acquired separately.

This publication is complemented by exhibitions that will take place in museums and libraries across Europe and the United States during 2021. Each exhibition engages with the medium of the artist’s book by placing it in dialogue with the collection of the host institution and venue, seeking to highlight the artist’s book as an artistic medium alongside other media such as drawing, painting and sculpture.

Participating institutions include the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid, the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, the British Library in London, the Centro de Iniciativas Culturales at the Universidad de Sevilla, Ivorypress Space in Madrid, Kettle’s Yard at the University of Cambridge, Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, Museo Chillida Leku in Hernani, Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Neues Museum in Berlin, Stanford University Library in California, the Warburg Institute in London, and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.