[Your Name Here]: The Ex-Libris and Image Making

Bookplates, also known as ex-libris, are labels pasted inside the front covers of books to indicate ownership. The Yale Bookplate Collection—one of the largest such collections in the world—is a unique visual archive that forms a timeline of the history and the art of the ex-libris.

Despite its small format, the bookplate is an inventive art form that inspires artists, patrons, and collectors alike. This exhibition explores the ex-libris through the theme of image making and uncovers how questions of authorship arise in the collaboration between artist and patron as well as in the act of collecting itself.

This site showcases a subset of materials from an exhibition held at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, April 30-August 17, 2012.

Credits

Molly E. Dotson, curator of the Yale Bookplate Collection