My final project explores Dr. Pressman’s concept of bookishness, and everything we have learned in class so far, by diving into how books work as extensions of identity, memory, and the body in a digital age. My overall argument is that books function not only as vessels of textual information but as material carriers of personal identity. In a way, books act like genetic code that shapes, reflects, and preserves who we are. I argue that bookishness operates through materiality rather than meaning. The physical book holds emotional and bodily significance that exists beyond its written content.

To portray this argument, I will create a sculpture bookwork project titled The Book Helix, a double-helix structure constructed from strips of book pages. Each strip will represent a specific strand of my identity, different pages of books that I have on my collection on my shelves. I will most likely photocopy and print the pages so I don’t have to mess up or repurchase the certain book. By piecing these strips together into a three-dimensional DNA form, the project visually and conceptually connects the ideas of biological identity with the physical material of the book. The helix design symbolizes how books act as genetic material in the cultural sense because they encode memory, personality, values, nostalgia, and emotion. 

The media format of sculptural bookwork not only looks like fun to make, but it is also inspired by my love for Beube’s book work. Throughout our time in Special Collections, I have been immensely intrigued by the different creative book forms that have sparked my creative inspirations for this project. This medium allows me to demonstrate how bookishness turns books into living extensions of the body and human memory reinforcing that the significance of books lie not within the text inside, but in the ways we use them to create who we are.

Annotated Bibliography

Benjamin, Walter. “Unpacking My Library.” In Illuminations, 1968.
Benjamin discusses collecting books as an autobiographical act. His ideas inform my use of books as repositories of personal memory in the DNA sculpture.

Borsuk, Amaranth. The Book. MIT Press, 2018.
Borsuk examines the book as an evolving technology. Her work helps contextualize my project within larger conversations about book form and transformation.

Drucker, Johanna. The Century of Artists’ Books. Granary Books, 1995.
Drucker’s analysis of artists’ books provides theoretical grounding for my sculptural approach and supports my use of books as visual art.

Pressman, Jessica. Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age. Columbia University Press, 2020.
Pressman argues that in the digital era, books function as aesthetic and identity-based objects. This foundational text supports my argument that books become extensions of identity and emotional memory beyond their textual meaning.

Pressman, Jessica. “Bookwork and Bookishness.” Interview with Brian Dettmer and Doug Beube, 2018.

This interview explores how book artists reshape and transform physical books into sculptural works. It supports my project by demonstrating how altering book materials can reveal identity, memory, and symbolic meaning beyond textual content.

Pressman, Jessica. “Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes: Memorial, Fetish, Bookishness.”, 2018.

Pressman analyzes Foer’s sculptural, cut-out book as a work that transforms the book form into a memorial object. This helps support my argument that physical book material can embody memory, identity, and emotional resonance beyond textual content.

Radway, Janice. “Reading Is Not Eating.” Feminist Studies, 1986.
Radway’s discussion of reading practices reinforces my argument that meaning comes from personal, embodied engagement rather than textual content alone.

Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Duke University Press, 1993.
Stewart’s discussion of souvenirs and material memory informs my idea of books-as-memory-objects.