September 1–October 23
Ex Libris: Artist Books from the Arthur H. and Mata Jaffe Collection
Williams Center for the Arts Gallery
A selection of handmade, limited edition, and fine press books by artists who make works of art in book form. The books in the collection “have in common the unique perceptions of the artist who conceived and created the book” (Florida Atlantic University), and are idiosyncratic, cutting-edge, highly imaginative, and beautifully crafted. The Jaffes’ extensive private collection of artist books—ranging from miniature to oversize, new and antique, mass-produced and limited editions, and one-of-a-kind works—was donated to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The books in this exhibition are loaned courtesy of Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection: Books as Aesthetic Objects, Florida Atlantic University Libraries.

Meet Arthur Jaffe for an informal gallery talk, Wednesday, October 5, 7:30 p.m.
Reception: Thursday, October 6, following the Johanna Drucker lecture

Thursday, September 29, 5:00 p.m., reception follows
Dr. William Noel: "Eureka! The Archimedes Palimpsest"
Kirby Hall, room 104
A palimpsest is a parchment manuscript that has been scraped to remove an earlier text and then overwritten with a new text. Often the earlier text is not completely removed in this process and can still be read beneath the later text. Reuse of older manuscripts was common in medieval times because of the scarcity of parchment.
The Archimedes Palimpsest, now in the care of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, is a rather small and unprepossessing manuscript. Although it has been damaged by mold, fire, and abuse, it is priceless nonetheless. It contains the earliest known surviving text of Archimedes of Syracuse, the greatest mathematician and scientist of antiquity.
For centuries the Archimedes text lay hidden beneath a religious text that had been written over it. The story of this manuscript's survival for more than 1,000 years, and the discovery and recovery of the original text, is a remarkable one.
Dr. William Noel the curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters Art Museum, has assembled an international team of specialists to study the Archimedes Palimpsest.
Sponsored by Friends of Skillman Library.

Thursday, October 6, 4:00 p.m., reception follows
Festival Keynote Lecture: Johanna Drucker, "Open Ended Possibilities: The Future of the Book in the Digital Age"
Williams Center for the Arts, Room 108
Johanna Drucker has published and lectured extensively on topics related to the history of typography, artists' books, and visual art. She is currently the Robertson Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, where she is Professor in the Department of English and Director of Media Studies. Her scholarly books include Theorizing Modernism (Columbia University Press, 1994), The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art (University of Chicago Press, 1994); The Alphabetic Labyrinth (Thames and Hudson, 1995), and The Century of Artists' Books (Granary, 1995). Her most recent collection, Figuring the Word, was published in November, 1998, (Granary Books).
In addition to her scholarly work, Drucker is internationally known as a book artist and experimental, visual poet. Her work has been exhibited and collected in special collections in libraries and museums including the Getty Center for the Humanities, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Marvin and Ruth Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry, the New York Public Library, Houghton Library at Harvard University, and many others. Recent titles include Narratology (1994), Prove Before Laying (1997), The Word Made Flesh (1989; 1995) The History of the/my Wor(l)d (1990; 1994), Night Crawlers on the Web (2000), Nova Reperta.(JABbooks, 1999), Emerging Sentience (JABbooks 2001), the last two in collaboration with Brad Freeman. A Girl's Life, a collaboration with painter Susan Bee, is forthcoming from Granary Books in Spring 2002.

Thursday, October 20, 8:00 p.m.
Dr. William A. Graham: “Book, Writ, and Word: Sacred Texts and Their Uses”
Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, Room 104
In his lecture, Dr. Graham will examine the problematic nature of the category "scripture" by looking at the oral dimension of written scriptures and then reflecting more generally about scriptures' roles in religious life and some of the problems that arise when the simplicity of such categories is assumed in religious studies.
Dr. Graham is Dean of Harvard Divinity School, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, and John Lord O’Brian Professor of Divinity. His scholarly work has focused on early Islamic religious history and textual traditions and problems in the history of world religion. In October 2000 he received the quinquennial Award for Excellence in Research in Islamic History and Culture from the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), the research institute of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. He has held John Simon Guggenheim and Alexander von Humboldt research fellowships and is the author of Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (1987, 1993); Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam (1977; American Council of Learned Societies History of Religions Prize, 1978); co-author of The Heritage of World Civilizations (6th rev. ed., 2003) and Three Faiths, One God (2002); and co-editor of Islamfiche: Readings from Islamic Primary Sources (1982–87). Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies.

January 2–22
Meraviglia: Innovations in the Book Arts (Regional Artists Show)
Williams Center for the Arts Gallery
This juried exhibition will investigate the nature of the book as a format for artistic self-expression, with works that push the meaning of what is commonly understood to be a book, creating new definitions and pushing the boundaries through scale, content and complexity. Innovative books, engineering wonders, and transformational alterations will stretch the imagination of artist and viewer alike. The exhibition’s title, Meraviglia, is an Italian word meaning “wonder, astonishment,” with connotations of awe and the excitement of discovery. Curated by Liz Mitchell.
Deadline to submit entries for the juried exhibition is October 9. An online prospectus and entry form is available.

Book Arts 101 Workshop with Liz Mitchell: Monday, September 12, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Register by noon, September 12 at artgallery@lafayette.edu or (610) 330-5361