Opening Reception with Fall of Freedom: Saturday, November 22, 12-4 pm with hands-on screen printing session with Erina Davidson

In collaboration with The CODEX Foundation

Iván Acebo-Choy, Islam Aly, Gale Antokal, Javier Barrera, Tony Bellaver, Anthea Black, Israel Campos, DeMerritt Pauwels Editions (Nora Pauwels & John DeMerritt), Thorsten Dennerline, Kota Ezawa, Li Jiang, Lisa Kokin, Mary V. Marsh, Nasim Moghadam, Emily Payne, Steph Rue, and Robbin Ami Silverberg

Hours: Tue-Fri, 12-5 pm, Sat 12-4 pm

Reception at Kala Gallery during CODEX: Sunday, Feb 8, 6:30 - 8:30 pm

In collaboration with The CODEX Foundation, Kala Gallery is excited to co-present Bookness, an exhibition exploring the book as a dynamic medium for artistic and cultural inquiry.

“The book has taken countless forms across the globe and throughout history—from papyrus scrolls and medieval parchment manuscripts to palm-leaf bindings, accordions, slat books, and other Asian-style stab bindings. It evolves alongside the cultures it witnesses, continuing to metamorphose as a reflection of the world around it. For centuries, artists’ books have played a critical yet often overlooked role in artistic movements, offering a space where the literary and visual arts intersect. The future of the book is now the art of the book.”

~ Inge Bruggeman, The CODEX Foundation

Bookness features works by Iván Acebo-Choy, Islam Aly, Gale Antokal, Javier Barrera, Tony Bellaver, Anthea Black, Israel Campos, DeMerritt Pauwels Editions (Nora Pauwels & John DeMerritt), Thorsten Dennerline, Kota Ezawa, Li Jiang, Lisa Kokin, Mary V. Marsh, Nasim Moghadam, Emily Payne, Steph Rue, and Robbin Ami Silverberg. These artists expand the book beyond its traditional form, transforming it into a living space for material, conceptual, and cultural exploration. Working across bookmaking, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and textiles, each artist investigates the materiality and the conceptual space of the book in their own unique way.