The Book Arts Archive of The Caversham Press and Centre for Artists and Writers

Abstract

The recent exhibition ‘Masabelaneni: The Book Arts Archive of The Caversham Press and Centre for Artists and Writers' showcased sixty-seven artists' books produced between 1985 and 2017 that represent an intersection between printmaking, creative writing and bookmaking in the period immediately before, during and after the establishment of democracy in South Africa. Acquired for the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts (JGCBA) collection in 2023, these books represent only an archival sliver. The presence of the artists’ books, their narratives and the experiences of the artists and authors who made them, asks if the archive lies more in the connective tissue between these components and the dawn of a democratic South Africa. Through a critical lens provided by the writings of Ann Laura Stoler, Jacques Derrida, Mark Greene and Verne Harris, I establish the scope and limits of the Caversham Book Arts Archive (CBAA) and explore the roles and responsibilities of the researcher upon entering it.