CAA 2027
Session Chairs: Judy Hecker, Print Center New York and Sarah Howard, University of South Florida

Printmaking is an inherently collaborative venture, bringing together artists, printmakers, and publishers. Nowhere is this nexus of relationships more apparent than in the format of the print portfolio, as demonstrated by the groundbreaking suite published by artist William Villalongo and urbanist Shraddha Ramani in 2025, which brought W. E. B. Du Bois’s data visualizations—originally exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition—into the present day. Exhibited at Print Center New York in 2025, Printing Black America: Du Bois’s Data Portraits in the 21st Century is an extensively researched portfolio also notable for its unusually collaborative structure: its thirty works were produced with the cooperation of six printer-publishers across the United States, from Brooklyn and Tampa to Minneapolis and Berkeley.

Taking this portfolio as a point of departure, this panel invites contributions that consider the print portfolio or suite, the illustrated book, and the artist’s book as significant sites for—and drivers of—experimental artistic creation and collaboration. Papers may focus on a theme, social or political critique, a group of artists, single or multiple techniques, and/or one or more printers or publishers. Proposals spanning geographies and time periods are especially encouraged.

The panel seeks to emphasize unusual and visionary artistic and organizational publishing ventures, while exploring the decisions, negotiations, and orchestrations that make them possible. Ultimately, the panel underscores how printmaking and print publishing have encouraged bold developments in art and have functioned as pervasive and essential contributors to ambitious bodies of work that reach audiences beyond traditional art channels.

Please submit abstracts at the link below.