Disobedient Artists' Books in the Postbook Age | April 19 - July 26, 2026

The Bay Area has long been a hub for contemporary technology, artistic experimentation, and skillful innovation. "Futurity Library: Disobedient Artists' Books in the Postbook Age" focuses on the artist book as an evolutionary object used to question and disturb existing practices of the book. By offering radical alternatives and incorporating non-traditional materials and technological advances, curator bex ya yolk brings together artists who redefine the boundaries of book structure, function, and interaction across a wide range of conceptual explorations.

The works in "Futurity Library" advance the idea of artists’ books and challenge our understanding of what a book can be - and what its future as an art form might hold. Together, they highlight the genre’s potential to transform and expand in new and unexpected directions.

The Joyful Body of the Word: Betsy Davids and the Book | September 26 - December 20, 2026

"The Joyful Body of the Word" presents the works of influential Bay Area artist Betsy Davids, spanning her career across letterpress, writing, and artists books. With a focus on rereading and reperforming Davids’ contributions to the ever-evolving art of the Book, the exhibition includes works from the 1970s to today and a series of reading performances.

Davids established letterpress education at CCA(C), and her creative pedagogies shaped the work of many artists and publishers. Her Rebis Press editions, in partnership with James Petrillo, are widely recognized as innovative in the early history of the artist book; Davids’ aspiration to make books ‘in real time’ alongside experiences they document, and her radical commitment to the everyday continues across her one-of-a-kind works. Her deep engagement with dreaming, journey, and pilgrimage – in both personal and literary senses – endures through six decades of artistic production.

A series of artist pairings highlight Davids’ influence, conversations, and collaborations from her early teaching practice to the present; these include works by Johanna Drucker, Mimi Pond, Michael Henninger, Casey Gardner, Alisa Golden, Nikki Thompson and the late artists Ed Moore and Nance O’Banion, recognizing Davids’ legacy and introducing her to a new generation of students and makers.

Images:

"Signal Crayfish" (2021), Kristoffer Ørum

"Reciprocal Score" (2015), Diagonal Press/Tauba Auerbach

"Shared Sides" (2025), Sonnenzimmer/Nick Butcher, Nadine Nakanishi

Installation view, "Futurity Library", San Francisco Center for the Book