These artists’ books reckon with the legacies of slavery in the US, including the deep entrenchment of white supremacy in the nation’s culture and institutions. Whether documenting large conceptual projects and performances or using the aesthetic possibilities of the book form, they confront the brutality of enslavement and interrogate ways in which racism persists today.
Fred Hagstrom
Passage
[Saint Paul, Minn.]: Strong Silent Type Press, 2013.
In Passage Hagstrom layers text and images important to the abolitionist movement with archival photos of formerly enslaved people. The book’s size, its affecting content, and its frenetic visual design add up to an unsettling record of slavery’s brutal history and the struggle to end its practice.
UNC Library Catalog: https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb7639813
Tom Scarpino
Political Terms: Leaving Impressions
[Palo Alto, California]: [Tom Scarpino], 2017. Manufactured: [Berkeley, California]: Kala Art Institute
“Hollywood / Jews.” “Crime / Blacks.” “Americans / White Christians.” Through the inversion of inked and blind (or uninked) printing, the artist pulls out the white supremacist double-speak behind common dog-whistle terms through simple, effective, and chilling graphic design.
UNC Library Catalog: https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb9127607