Note: This session will be offered in person only.
Note: This session takes place in the Booth Family Center for special Collections at the Georgetown University Library. Please plan to meet at the library, or join a walkover from the registration table at HFSC at 9:15 am.
Did you know that Georgetown University holds nearly 300 artists’ books in our rare books and art collection at the Library? During this session, participants will learn and explore: what are artists’ books and why artists’ books are used in teaching. The discussion will center around the question — How might artists’ books introduce touch-based inquiry and pedagogy into the classroom?
Artists’ books have a long history in higher education as these rare books, also considered art, which can present ideas in novel ways in the form of a “book.” While often in single or limited edition runs, artists’ books are special not only for their presentation but also the ideas that are explored. While often not digitized because of the tactical and interactive nature, many university libraries and special collections invest in artists’ books as teaching tools.
Through specific classroom visits and public programs, such as the Spring 2026 program “Art in your Hands: Exploring Artists’ Books in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (BFCSC) at Georgetown University Library,” BFCSC uses artists’ books in teaching to introduce students and the community to new ways of understanding an idea or topic.
During this session, participants will engage with artists’ books from BFCSC, which explore our relationship with technology, time, politics, and surveillance. In addition, participants will hear how students are employing artists’ books, in the form of zines, to expand the ways that learning can be presented beyond a presentation or paper. Finally, participants will learn to make their own one-page zines!
Graduate Student (MPP ’14, M.A. in Engaged and Public Humanities ’26), Georgetown University
Anjelika Deogirikar Grossman is a Washington, DC educator, activist artist, and researcher. A FY25 grantee of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Fellowship Program, Anjelika is an artist-in-residence at the Georgetown Lombardi Arts and Humanities Program at MedStar Georgetown... Read More →
Curator of Rare Books, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University Library, Georgetown University
As the Rare Books Curator at the Booth Family Center for Special Collection Jay engages Georgetown staff, students, faculty, and the general public with rare and unique materials ranging from the 1460s through 2026. He is responsible for collection development and can frequently be... Read More →
Alum (SFS ’22, M.A. in Learning, Design and Technology, ’26), Georgetown University
Hasini Shyamsundar is an educator and artist based in Washington, DC. She works to bring arts-based learning experiences to students and diaspora communities, facilitating workshops that use art to bridge disciplinary and generational divides. In the studio, Hasini works with watercolor... Read More →
