A tip from
Eli Bishop:
Those who have an interest in illustration, printmaking, and extravagant displays of possessiveness may want to check out the exhibit "World Ex Libris: Contemporary Bookplates" which I just saw at the San Francisco Public Library. There's a related lecture on Dec. 11.
It's a huge collection of "ex libris" bookplates – i.e. the personalized things you stick in the front of your books to make your friends ashamed of stealing them. In this case though, they would make the books
much more likely to be swiped due to their amazing beauty and craft – etchings, block prints, etc. in many genres, some representational & some not, often reflecting the book collector's interests (e.g. several artists were apparently commissioned by the same guy to label his porn collection) – by 357 artists from 37 countries, mostly in Europe and Asia. Some of the illustration & design is so good it makes me sick and the small scale just somehow makes it much cooler.
This is on the lower level of the main library building (at Civic Center train station). It's running through Jan. 18. The lecture, "A Not Quite Lost Graphic Art," is in the downstairs auditorium on Thursday Dec. 11 at 6:30.
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