The Contemporary Artist's Book, its Relationship with the ISBN and the Legal Deposit

Abstract

This paper aims to show a contextual review of the contemporary artist's book, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and the Decree by which editors and producers of bibliographical and documentary materials are oblige to deliver a copy of their works to the National Library and to the Library of the Congress of the Union enacted in 1991, still in force in Mexico. The relationship between these three is established in accordance with the empirical-analytical method, since it has been noted —for more than 16 years of professional practice in art libraries— the increasing presence of artist's books in libraries not linked to art museums. This article also shows an analysis of what it means to categorize a book as an artist's book and its conceptualization, as well as the influence and incorporation of new production technologies into the creative process of artists. The recent synergy between these three matters widens a range of possibilities and advantages for the artist's book to transcend as cultural heritage, since it is part of the collections of a National Library. If so, artist's books would immediately be part of national bibliography and not only part of libraries or museum collections.