Open Sesame! The Magic of Artist’s Books Revealed is a major look into the special world of Artist’s Books. It includes special installations by artists including Diane Jacobs, Daniel Smith, and Carletta Carrington Wilson. This exhibition is co-curated by BIMA’s Founder, Cynthia Sears, Amy Goldthwaite (BIMA Curatorial Associate), and Catherine Alice Michaelis (Artist).

Artist’s Books are part of many Special Collections or Rare Book Collections of university libraries, including the University of Washington. BIMA seeks to help make this unique and lesser-known art form more visible and accessible to the broader public through ongoing rotations in the Sherry Grover Gallery, plus this first-ever large-scale exhibition.

Artist’s Books combine many art forms and media, including drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, gluing and binding, sculpture, photography, textiles, creative writing, and storytelling. Cynthia Sears notes that Artist’s Books are the “Trojan Horse of the art world…you don’t know exactly what is inside until it is revealed.”