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    Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library

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    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2014. All images courtesy of Conrad Bakker, shared with permission

    Conrad Bakker Recreated All 1,100+ Books in Pioneering Land Artist Robert Smithson’s Personal Library

    October 16, 2025

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    An autodidact and polymath, Robert Smithson cemented himself as one of the pre-eminent land artists in his short lifetime. Along with his fellow artist and wife Nancy Holt, Smithson pioneered a new way of working that explored connections to the landscape and place and endlessly probed the formation of knowledge.

    When he died in a plane crash in 1973 at just 35 years old, he left behind a vast personal library that represented his broad interests: there were books on crystals and rock minerals, dinosaurs and insects, myths and children’s rhymes, and classics like James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones. Holt donated the entirety of Smithson’s collection— approximately 1,120 books—to the Archives of American Art after his death, where it’s still housed today.

    ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ member Pep Fernàndez, holding his book in Barcelona, Spain

    There’s also, though, another way to peek into the narratives and materials that shaped Smithson’s thinking and practice. In 2019, Conrad Bakker completed a five-year-long project of recreating every title in that original collection on a 1:1 scale. Presented in museums and galleries from Utah to Arkansas to New York, “Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club” is both a painstaking ode to the pioneering artist and a bold consideration of how we access and consume information.

    “I can’t really remember my first encounter with Robert Smithson, but I’ve always been a fan of his artwork and, in particular, the way he oriented his sculptures to coexist inside the physical space of a gallery and outside in the landscape,” Bakker says. He first encountered the artist’s library through Ann Reynolds’ Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere, which provided a comprehensive catalog of each title and edition in the collection.

    “I was captivated by this wonderful list of books and curious about the diversity of his research subjects, the intensity of his self-education through books,” Bakker says, adding that the library also serves as a “time capsule of artistic research of the 1960s. I imagined this collection of books as an extension of Robert Smithson’s mind, his curiosity, and thinking.”

    This prompted one component of Bakker’s ongoing Untitled Projects, a practice of recreating everyday objects like chocolate bars or VHS tapes to explore facets of economic systems, production, and consumption. Using images from online booksellers, he carved and painted wooden replicas of each edition.

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Displayed in cardboard-like boxes and stacked on the floor, Bakker’s collection has taken many forms, from room-sized installations to a full-scale bookstore in the storefront of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale, Arkansas. While the library remains intact in his studio, the “Book Club” also allowed collectors to purchase a second sculpture for a time. He created about 350 additional works for this element of the project.

    The library is just one part of Bakker’s interest in books as objects, which includes a used paperback sale and an archive of self-help titles from the 1970s. For the artist, these objects offer numerous lines of inquiry from “books as historical records of culture and personal memories, books ascommodities, bookstores as public spaces, books as (outdated) technology, and books as portable containers of information, instructions, and ideas,” he writes.

    Bakker is currently working on several projects, including a full-scale copy shop (think 1980s-era Kinko’s) for The Weather Station in Lafayette, Indiana. In early 2026, he’ll also show a piece connecting capitalism and climate change at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. The library is likely headed to Stockholm in the coming months, but keep an eye on the project’s Instagram for more.

    You might also enjoy Bernie Kaminski’s papier-mâché objects and Matt Stevens’ Good Movies as Old Books.

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Installation view of ‘Untitled Project: Smithson’s Books’ installed in the storefront windows of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale, Arkansas, 2021

    ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ member Ruth Lopez holding her book

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2014

    Detail of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Installation view of ‘Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club’ installed in the exhibition ‘Extra Taste at International Objects,’ NYC, 2024

    Conrad Bakker inside ‘R. Smithson Books.’ Photo by Meredith Mashburn Photography

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      in Art

      In ‘The Junior Classic,’ Michael Ezzell Builds an Uncanny World from Vintage Books

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      “Decoy Boy.” All images © Michael Ezzell, shared with permission

      In ‘The Junior Classic,’ Michael Ezzell Builds an Uncanny World from Vintage Books

      May 27, 2025

      ArtIllustration

      Kate Mothes

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      It’s not too often that a high school art project morphs into a through-line in an artist’s professional practice, but for illustrator and printmaker Michael Ezzell, that’s exactly how his ongoing series The Junior Classic was born. Tearing pages from vintage books, he experiments with a range of media, compositional elements, and narratives that then inspire further paintings and prints.

      “When I was starting out, I would just paint over the text of the page and create something brand new from some mundane book I had,” Ezzell tells Colossal. “Eventually, it evolved into using the page’s illustration or ornate chapter headings as a jumping-off point for what I would create on the page.”

      “Cloudmaker”

      Among many others, Ezzell especially graviates toward illustrations in the Alice in Wonderland series, originally drawn by Sir John Tenniel and reimagined during subsequent decades by more than half a dozen other artists like Mabel Lucie Attwell, Gwynedd M. Hudson, Maria L. Kirk, and even Salvador Dalí.

      “I’ve gotten my book-hunting more down to a science now,” the artist says. “I look for weird and obscure manuals or children’s books with lots of pictures or funky text formatting. Anything that could have strange connotations when taken out of context is what I’m drawn to.” He approaches each page’s inherent qualities—a printed phrase or a small drawing—like a prompt or a call-and-response, which taps into a refreshingly different kind of problem-solving than working on a large, blank canvas.

      Ezzell is particularly interested in world-building and immersive stories, and his motifs and characters take cues from tarot, Surrealism, playing cards, and early-20th-century fashion. The title of the series nods to a set of 10 books titled The Junior Classics, first published in 1912, which were intended for young readers as a counterpart to the Harvard Classics series.

      The Junior Classic consists of more than 400 pieces (and growing), and Ezzell is currently working on his own tarot deck, which in turn is inspiring more narrative possibilities. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “Two Rivers”

      “Now Here”

      “Three Phases of Mitsy Diller”

      “Mind Over Matter”

      “Love Makes the World Go Down”

      “The Escapist”

      “The Great Cassino”

      “The Duchess”

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    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Art

      Paola Grizi Adds New Meaning to ‘Literary Figures’ in Emotive Bronze Sculptures

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      “Another Place,” Casart Edition, bronze, 32 x 30 x 35 centimeters

      Paola Grizi Adds New Meaning to ‘Literary Figures’ in Emotive Bronze Sculptures

      May 14, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      In the emotional bronze and terracotta sculptures of Paola Grizi (previously), faces and hands merge with pages of books and manuscripts. Handwriting slides off the leaves onto skin and reliefs of eyes, noses, and mouths peer outward like knowledge and stories personified. Many of her works are scaled to sit on interior surfaces, while others, like “Inner Motion” or “Looking Ahead” take on monumental proportions.

      Grizi currently has work permanently on view at Marciano Contemporary in Paris, Bel Air Fine Art in Luxembourg, and Gallery Van Dun in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands. This summer, pieces will also be included in a presentation at Gallery Maner in Port-Aven, France. See more on the artist’s website.

      “Looking Ahead,” Casart Edition, bronze, 120 x 110 x 20 centimeters

      “Background,” Casart Edition, bronze, 32 x 12 x 15 centimeters

      “Inner Motion,” Casart Edition, bronze

      “Kiss,” Casart Edition, bronze, 35 x 37 x 20 centimeters

      “Boundless,” terracotta

      “Composition,” Casart Edition, bronze, 30 x 35 x 25 centimeters

      “Multiple Lectures,” Casart Edition, bronze, 35 x 30 x 20 centimeters

      Work in progress in the artist’s outdoor studio

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    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Art

      Blasting Books with High-Pressure Water, Guy Laramée Scales Mountains of Knowledge

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      “Livros 2” (2025), water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 12.99 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches. Photos by by Ivan Macedo Dias. All images © Guy Laramée, courtesy of JHB Gallery, New York, shared with permission

      Blasting Books with High-Pressure Water, Guy Laramée Scales Mountains of Knowledge

      March 31, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      From his mountainside studio in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Guy Laramée (previously) creates otherworldly sculptures that mirror nearby peaks like Pico da Caledônia. Using a unique method of blasting antique books with high-pressure water and stripping them of their covers, he manipulates the bound text blocks into craggy cliff faces and rocky promontories.

      When viewed from certain angles, each sculpture’s identity as volumes of text nearly vanishes as we perceive mountains in miniature. As one moves around the pieces, the rigid form of stitched binding appears or printed pages ruffle and hint and the contents.

      Detail of “Livros 3”

      Laramée’s sculptures tread the line between object and landscape, juxtaposing themes of knowledge, history, and archives with geology, time, and the environment. The artist often employs dictionaries and encyclopedias, which constantly evolve and require updates, exploring the tension between physical representations of information and learning and our relationship with the natural world.

      The works shown here are part of Laramée’s online exhibition presented by JHB Gallery, Livros, which continues through May 4. Find more on the artist’s website.

      “Livros 3” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 9.06 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches

      “Livros 6” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 7.87 x 14.17 x 5.91 inches

      “Livros 6”

      “Livros 2” (2025), water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 12.99 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches

      “Livros 1” (2025), water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 6.66 x 9.84 x 5.91 inches

      “Livros 5” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 11.4 x 15.75 x 9.06 inches

      Detail of “Livros 5”

      “Livros 4” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 9.84 x 15.75 x 9.06 inches

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    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Art

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

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      “An African Survey.” All images © Barbara Wildenboer, shared with permission

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

      September 4, 2024

      Art Craft

      Jackie Andres

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      While heavy, hardcover reference books often embody prestige and historical value, the comprehensive volumes also carry an air of intellectual overload. Filled from cover to cover with extensive and complex concepts, the tomes beckon the Paradox of Knowledge, which states that the more we learn, the more we realize how little we actually know.

      This vexing liminal space between the known and unknown is a driving force for Barbara Wildenboer’s work. The Cape Town-based artist (previously) sources secondhand books that span a wide range of languages, worldviews, and subjects such as philosophy, art, history, music, biology, archaeology, and more. Fascinated by linguistics and systems of writing, Wildenboer aims to decode the ways that we assign meaning to symbols.

      “A World History of Art”

      Scalpel and scissors in hand, Wildenboer transforms countless book pages into narrow, capillary-like slivers that splay outward from the spine. Through these symmetrical sculptures, the artist references other naturally mirrored forms like the brain’s left and right hemispheres linked by the corpus callosum, the wingspan of the death’s-head hawkmoth, and the Rorshach inkblot.

      Wildenboer connects these formal qualities to the process of deciphering texts. Her biography notes, “she cuts through these dense and claustrophobic discourses, rendering them mute.” Instead, she alters books to the point that they’re no longer legible, transforming the once familiar characters into new glyphs.

      See more from the artist on her website and Instagram.

      “Genesis”

      “Cogito Ergo Sum” More