For those of you who aren’t fans of reading: Maybe books you can just stare at’ll interest you –

Book as gun. Book as coffin-shaped love poems to a vampire. Book that pops up. Book as a book of matches. Book as perfume. Book as an illustration of rare flowers.

Basically, USC has this exhibit called 100 Artists’ Books going right now, featuring books that are as much objects of art to be looked at as pieces of visual art, as they are books to be read.

Yes, you can ogle a rare 1934 edition of Max Ernst’s Une Semaine de bonte, ou les sept elements capitaux. I actually taught this book in my surrealist class this semester, though the students obviously got a later, less expensive edition –

More pics here.

100 Artists’ Books. Through may 15, 2007. Treasure Room in Doheny Memorial Library. University of Southern California. Los Angeles.

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