The eighth International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius, a unique non-commercial cultural showcase of select artist books, will be displayed at the State University of New York at Fredonia for an entire month, beginning with an opening reception on Friday.

Fifty-three artist books from 26 countries will be featured in the exhibition in the Reed Library Garden area. It is curated by Kestutis Vasiliunus, a professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania, and Timothy Frerichs, professor of Art at Fredonia, and has been brought to Fredonia in cooperation with the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

The opening reception, highlighted by a curator talk at 6 p.m., will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and is free and open to the public. The exhibition will continue through Dec. 4.

“Memento Mori” is the theme of the Artist’s Book Triennial, which is intended to provoke artists to reflect and to encourage them to create works on the curious theme.

“I think this is a great coup for Fredonia because it’s been shown in very prestigious international locations,” explained Mr. Frerichs, who was instrumental in bringing it to the campus.

Artist books are an integral work of art, or interdisciplinary art, that joins a word and image, and are created by sculptors, graphic artists, painters, textile artists, ceramists and video masters. Since they can span more than one discipline, Frerichs said, “they can cross a lot of bridges or create a lot of bridges.”

As an education art project involving world renowned artists, the exhibition serves to familiarize art teachers, students and the general public with the interdisciplinary arts with the stunning variety of artistic disciplines in an artist’s book. It can also stimulate creativity and love for books. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to view multiple conceptual books created by individual artists at one location.

Fredonia is one of only two U.S. locations — the other is Evanston, Ill. — to host the eight exhibition in the series. It has been displayed in Germany, Italy and Lithuania.

During the last 21 years, an international jury has selected the best 911 submissions from 68 countries for display in successive exhibitions held in France, Italy, Sweden, Austria and South Korea, as well as Germany and Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Council for Culture is the main sponsor of the exhibition at Fredonia, with additional funding for the Fredonia event from the Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities of the Fredonia College Foundation, Reed Library and Department of Visual Arts and New Media.

For more information visit online: http://artistsbook.lt/blog/2016/01/23/8th-international-artists-book-triennial-vilnius-2018