Book
exhibition spices up library collection
By Yoshinori Okada
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Western Books Exhibition has opened at Cal
State Long Beach’s University Library, offering
a great opportunity for students, faculty
members, staff and community members to
better appreciate the art of books.
The prestigious Rounce and Coffin Club has
selected books based on their presentations
of typography, design, materials and content
for a traveling exhibition in the Western
United States since 1938, said Irene Still
Meyer, supervisor of Special Collections
and Archives at the University Library.
“They intend to encourage and reward higher
standards of design, printing and books
produced in the western United States,”
Meyer said. “The Western Books Exhibition
represents a wide variety of topics and
interests and is a remarkable achievement
in the cultivation of a renewed appreciation
of book aesthetics.
At the end of the year, a collection of
selected books are chosen to circulate across
the Western United States in about 30 institutions
and libraries that include Sutro Library
in San Francisco, the University of Arizona,
Whittier College and several others. The
number of winning books varies from year
to year.
Every year, about this time, the collection
comes to the CSULB’s Special Collections
for the exhibition. Currently on display
are the 34 books published in 2000 that
are submitted by a variety of contributors
such as the J. Paul Getty Museum and the
Scripps College Press.
One of the showcased books is “The Letters
of Heaven,” which is a story about a bundle
of 17th century letters between two sinners-turned-saints,
Meyer said.
“A leather thong is used to hold this book
into its cover, which echoes the way a bundle
of letters is commonly held together,” Meyer
said. “It is a wonderful production full
of exquisite details.”
“Painting on Light,” on the other hand,
is a book that contains the inspiring drawings
and stained glass in the age of Durer and
Holbein, Meyer said.
In addition to these two books, the whole
collection includes extraordinary books
such as “Mending Wall,” a pop-up accordion
book to “Our Lady of the Angeles,” a miniature
book.
“I think the Western Exhibition Collection
is a great thing because we get to
see very prominent and beautiful books here
at Cal State Long Beach,” said Desiree Anaya,
a senior liberal studies student. “It brings
more culture and makes the books seem more
interesting because we get to see beautiful
paper, great type and really good quality
books picked up by professionals.”
Michelle Avalos, a senior liberal studies
major, said she was at the exhibition to
see the different unique books that cannot
be found at other places.
“They are rare and that’s very interesting,”
Avalos said.
Some of the books are not for sale while
others can be bought from around $10 to
$450.
The exhibition will be featured on the fifth
floor of the library, and is open Monday
through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until
Nov. 8.
|
