Iowa Bibliophiles Presents

Pop Ups and Movables in Books Are Older Than You Think, a talk with Emily Martin

Movable elements can be found in books as early as the 13th Century, lift flaps and volvelles were used in religious texts to chronicle pilgrimages and calculate dates for religious holidays. Over time movables, pop-ups and movable sculptural book forms have been used for a variety of purposes from education to entertainment, scholarly texts to artists’ book.

 Emily Martin, Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of Iowa's Center for the Book, has produced over fifty artist's books, often using movable and/or sculptural paper engineering techniques. Her work is found in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Meermanno Museum, The Hague, Netherlands; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago; the Tate Britain, London; the Library of Congress, and more. So join Emily and other Bibliophiles as we dive into the world of movable books. 

This event is free and open to everyone. For the safety of our guests, this event will be on Zoom. It will also be recorded and added to Special Collections & Archives YouTube channel at a later date. There will be time after the talk for a Q&A, which will not be recorded. For questions, please contact Elizabeth Riordan at elizabeth-riordan@uiowa.edu