Smithsonian Institution Libraries, National Museum of American History, and Library of Congress Jointly Host the 2001 Lieberman Lecture

Smithsonian Institution Libraries and the American Printing History Association (APHA) announce the 2001 Lieberman Lecture, which will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 25, in the Carmichael Auditorium of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Behring Center (14th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W.) in Washington, D.C.

The event is co-sponsored by APHA, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the National Museum of American History's Graphic Arts Division and the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. It will be preceded by demonstrations of type founding and printing on the 18th- and 19th-century presses in the Hall of Printing and Graphic Arts on the museum's third floor from 2 to 4:15 p.m. The lecture and demonstrations are free and open to the public.

Guest speaker for this year's Lieberman Lecture is Johanna Drucker, Robertson Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Drucker's lecture, titled Iliazd: The Poet Publisher and the Art of the Book, will focus on the visual representations of language and the history of experimental poetry as it relates to the work of Ilia Zdanevich (1894-1975), known as Iliazd. Beginning his career as a member of the Russian Futurist movement in the late 1910s, Iliazd's mature work was completed in 1940s Paris and involved collaborations with the modernists Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. The resulting books combined modernist sensibilities with Iliazd's unique vision of the artist's book. A poet with a printer's experience, Iliazd redefined the book as a modern art form, having an aesthetic impact equal to that of painting or sculpture. Examples of Iliazd's distinctive and visually compelling works will be shown in slide form to accompany Drucker's lecture.

Johanna Drucker has both a scholarly and creative commitment to the book as an art form. She began printing her own limited editions in 1972, subsequently producing more than three dozen volumes, many of which experiment with typography and layout. Her scholarship centers on visual representations of language and the history of experimental poetry, the alphabet, and artists' books. She is the author of Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination, The Century of Artists' Books, and The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art, 1909-1923.

The Lieberman Lecture, given annually at a different host institution by a distinguished figure in the history of printing or the book arts, commemorates J. Ben Lieberman(1914-1984), founder and first President of the American Printing History Association. More information on APHA's activities is available online at www.printinghistory.org.

The Smithsonian Libraries is a 22 branch system with online exhibitions, rare books, and information services online at www.sil.si.edu. The library catalog is at www.siris.si.edu. The Libraries serves the Smithsonian and the public with information and reference support. Its collections number 1.5 million volumes including 40,000 rare books, 2,000 manuscripts, 180,000 microfilm and -fiche, and nearly 300,000 commercial trade catalogs, dating from the 1850s and representing more than 30,000 companies.

Smithsonian museums on the National Mall are open 10:00 am to 5:30 pm daily (except December 25). Admission is free.

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