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A woman with light colored skin, wearing a black top and white pants, talks to a group of people in a gallery room. She stands in front of a large, painted portrait of a woman in a high-collared red dress.
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National Museum of Women in the Arts

Book Arts

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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In Memoriam: Mirella Bentivoglio and Elisabetta Gut
Posted: July 16, 2026
Category: Book Arts
Krystyna Wasserman, NMWA book arts curator emerita, reflects on the lives and works of two Italian artists with close ties to the museum.
A brown, tropical fruit with a large segment of skin removed to reveal small, round pages of sheet music inside instead of fruit flesh. The book rests on a square woodblock with “libra—seme” printed in the bottom-right corner.

Power in My Hand: Five Women Artists in Conversation with Emily Dickinson
Posted: October 23, 2019
Category: Book Arts
Five works in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center’s exhibition Power in My Hand: Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change testify to the enduring legacy of Emily...

Dead Feminists Live Again
Posted: December 13, 2016
Category: Book Arts
Bold Broadsides and Bitsy Books is on view in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC). From the public nature of broadsides to the intimacy of a tiny...
A bookshelf packed with colorful books about women artists.

Beyond the Fold: Colette Fu’s Pop-Ups
Posted: December 1, 2016
Category: Book Arts
The special exhibition Wanderer/Wonderer: Pop-Ups by Colette Fu, on view at NMWA through February 26, 2017, features ten pop-up books that explore Fu’s personal experiences through combined images of people,...
A woman with medium skin tone and dark hair wearing a black dress holds a large pop-up artist book, which unfolds in her hand and onto a table.

“Puzzle de Brasil”: A Topographical Tourist Map
Posted: August 18, 2016
Category: Book Arts
While the 2016 Rio Olympic Games encourage development in Brazil and bolster the country’s worldwide reputation, NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC) is showing a work that...
A brightly colored book displayed open whose pages decrease in size toward the center. To the left, a vertical rectangle on which is depicted five stylized faces with black hair, medium-dark skintone, green eyes, and no mouths. A black cat with green eyes is also among the faces.

Wordplay and Whimsy: Priya Pereira’s Book Art
Posted: July 5, 2016
Category: Book Arts
NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC) currently features an exhibition showcasing works by book Mumbai-based artist Priya Pereira. The artist explores Indian culture, history, time, and language...
A brightly colored book displayed open whose pages decrease in size toward the center. To the left, a vertical rectangle on which is depicted five stylized faces with black hair, medium-dark skintone, green eyes, and no mouths. A black cat with green eyes is also among the faces.

5 Fast Facts: Elisabetta Gut
Posted: July 8, 2015
Category: Book Arts
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Elisabetta Gut, whose work is currently on view in NMWA’s galleries.
A brown, tropical fruit with a large segment of skin removed to reveal small, round pages of sheet music inside instead of fruit flesh. The book rests on a square woodblock with “libra—seme” printed in the bottom-right corner.

The Art of Pi Day
Posted: March 14, 2013
Category: Book Arts
To celebrate Pi Day, learn more about Emily Martin's Eight Slices of Pie.
A pie tin filled with eight small folded pieces of paper that resemble identical slices of pie with a lattice top and red filling. Each slice is labeled with a title in black and opens, containing short stories written inside.

Books Without Words (in a book with words)
Posted: September 16, 2010
Category: Book Arts
The catalogue for Books Without Words: The Visual Poetry of Elisabetta Gut includes essays by exhibition curator Krystyna Wasserman and Gut's fellow Italian book artist Mirella Bentivoglio, along with beautiful...
An all-white bicycle with a flat black sphere in the place of the rear wheel. A book is perched on a long arm extending from the handlebar mount, and pages of the book rest on the handlebars and are scattered on the ground.

Books Without Words: The Visual Poetry of Elisabetta Gut
Posted: September 8, 2010
Category: Book Arts
Books Without Words: The Visual Poetry of Elisabetta Gut features twenty-two works by the artist carefully crafted from her dreams, memories, and love for music and poetry.
A brown, tropical fruit with a large segment of skin removed to reveal small, round pages of sheet music inside instead of fruit flesh. The book rests on a square woodblock with “libra—seme” printed in the bottom-right corner.