John David O'Brien | O'Bibliology

A Personal History of Books as Physical Objects

The exhibition, O’Bibliology - A Personal History of Books as Physical Objects, explores the collected book works, artist books and book-related objects that have been in central part of John David O’Brien’s oeuvre from the start. In part, this was determined by O’Brien’s first art (Magistero) degree at the Istituto Statale D’Arte di Urbino which went by its more commonly used name: School of the Book. All those artforms associated with bookmaking ranging from paper-making to bookbinding, to printmaking, to letterpress, were taught at Urbino. Among the first art projects ever undertaken, O’Brien worked with poets and made limited edition artist books. Subsequent to that start, he has continuously used books as raw material for three-dimensional art installations. He’s used modified reading stands and tables that are often placed on for sculptural explorations. Mapping has always been another important aspect of his practice as an artist, but this actually originally started as a practice of working with ‘archives’, and, in a more two-dimensional format.

For the Huntley Gallery exhibition, O’Brien exhibits a series of works that are books, artist books, book-related objects and collected books made by other artists that are now part of his personal collection. It is particularly fitting that such an exhibition would appear in the Cal Poly Pomona library.  As a bibliophile, John David O’Brien has exhibited extensively in libraries throughout his career, while also involved in site-specific installations, and several permanent public artworks.