Poster Session: E-books in the Visual Arts

I have a soft spot for poster sessions, though this is the only one I’ve ever participated in as a presenter. Rather than actually do a poster, I created a handout on e-readers and nascent digital publishing efforts in the visual arts, and then brought in a bunch of actual e-readers for people to try out.

Description

E-books are new territory for everyone, but especially so in the visual arts. How much of a role, after all, can e-books have in a field where the particular physical and visual nature of a book is so central? While beautifully printed monographs, catalogues and artist books won’t be replaced anytime soon, areas like art history, art scholarship, criticism and document archives stand to gain tremendously from the adoption and ultimate success of e-books. In this poster session, get hands on with a number of different e-reading devices and visual arts related e-books; see what they can do, and what they can’t. Learn about current art e-book publishing from trade and university presses as well as promising new efforts from museums and independent arts publishers; and get a glimpse of the future for e-books in the visual arts.