Timeline of Book Arts History
Significant book arts related events in Houston
1971 Geoffrey Winningham publishes Friday Night in the Coliseum with Allison Press.
1978 Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH)’s exhibition American Narrative/Story Art: 1967-1977, organized by Paul Schimmel, features artist books.
1982 Museum of Printing History, founded by Raoul Beasley, Vernon P. Hearn, Don Piercy, and J. V. Burnham, opens to the public.
1984 Penny Cerling creates her accordion fold book Furio Valentino while working at the print studio Little Egypt Enterprises.
1991 CAMH launches the Bayou Book series under executive director Linda Cathcart in conjunction with Perspectives.
1993 Houston Artists Fund (HAF) is founded by Jody Blazek.
1993 Zine enthusiasts (not yet organized as “Zine Fest Houston”) have their first informal gathering at Hermann Park.*
1996 Artists Bookworks Houston (ABH) is founded by Vikki Trammell.
1998 ABH’s exhibition Book/Art/Book opens at Houston Public Library, Downtown.
2005 Houston Book Arts Guild (HBAG) is founded at The Printing Museum.
2012 Art League Houston (ALH) publishes its first artists book/catalogue in conjunction with Texas Artist of the Year. The Museum of Printing History rebrands to “The Printing Museum”.
2013 The Printing Museum hosts Zine Fest Houston.
2014 Blaffer Art Museum hosts Texas Book Machine at Texas Contemporary.
2016 The Printing Museum experiences a fire and closes to the public for 20 months due to water and smoke damage. The museum does not reopen until 2018.
2021 Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC)’s exhibition Copy Culture: Zines Made and Shared, curated by María-Elisa Heg, features the history and practice of zines in Texas and beyond.*
2023 The Printing Museum reopens in Midtown. The museum hosts the Book Arts of Houston exhibition in its temporary gallery.
*addition since catalogue’s printing in May 2023
The archive is a living thing.
This list is incomplete. If you know of significant book art related exhibitions in Houston’s history, please contact us.