Special Collections is an exhibition, curated by John McDowall and Chris Taylor, that brings together unique and historical material, selected contemporary artists’ books and commissioned works. It examines collections of books, such as those gathered together in libraries and museums, and books that are in themselves collections. The selected works exemplify accumulations, inventories and typologies within the serial structure of the book.  

The exhibition (itself a temporary collection) proposes an instance of a relationship between artists’ books as an intentionally accessible form of visual communication with examples of some of these that now reside within public and institutional collections – works are displayed on table tops for handling or in vitrines. As well as these issues of acquisition and access, there is also reference to related aspects of production and distribution. The work on show also illustrate a continuing engagement with the book format by artists and the ways in which this mode of representation, in relation to varying contexts, creates its own set of curatorial possibilities and issues.  

As well as documenting the exhibition, the exhibition catalogue includes invited written contributions by artists, researchers, collectors and curators which express their diverse experiences of the medium and reflect on the act of collecting and the book’s position within collections. In addition to these, the curators have also commissioned three new artist’s book works informed by the theme of collections.