The Agency of Artists: Through and Beyond Books

In an era when books are being weaponized and libraries defunded, contemporary artists are re-imagining books as a forum for criticism, creative production, and as a means to expand notions of belonging through time and place.This panel will explore books through a variety of means and methods, whether this be through collective story-telling during the Egyptian revolution, a forest for Future Library in Norway, or community-building at a South Chicago archive. Presentations will reveal writing as a social medium, creating dialogue across a variety of global contexts. The book is being reinvented and redefined as new technologies and imaginaries shape its production, presentation, and consumption in print and online.