Caring for Artists’ Books: Art Librarians
Mariam Adesokan (Tint)
Ruth Beale (All the Libraries in London)
Althea Greenan (Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths)
Tavian Hunter (Iniva)
Hlib Velyhorskyi (Biblioteka)
Artists and art libraries have flourished in recent decades, carving out territory both within and counter to the established literary and art worlds. Their determined ability to remain experimental and reach new audiences reflects the playfulness and radicalism of the material they contain, and is demonstrably notable in an era when libraries and free-to-access spaces are increasingly endangered. Join us for a roundtable discussion between five librarians each bringing unique methods of working with artists’ books in art libraries in London.
Founded by Mariam Adesokan towards the end of 2023, Tint is a small lending library that provides materials based on Black art. It has already built a dedicated community despite having no permanent physical location, demonstrating the power of independent initiatives in shaping cultural access and collective knowledge-building. Operating outside traditional institutional frameworks, the library prioritises accessibility and shared knowledge, creating a space where engagement with Black artistic thought is open and communal. When Tint expanded its mission beyond the shelves during a month-long pop-up in southeast London this spring, it served as a reminder that libraries are not just third spaces for us to occupy but also create opportunities for us to be moulded by knowledge-sharing. The program offered coding and bookbinding workshops, lectures, and screenings featuring cross-generational artists and thinkers such as Barby Asante, Daniel Oduntan, Darryl Daley, Nabil Al-Kinani, and Onyeka Igwe. At a time of active calls for censorship of libraries in the UK, Tint is intentionally embracing the responsibility of nurturing civic spaces.
Ruth Beale is an artist with a socially engaged art and publishing practice that seeks to trouble societal structures, reframe knowledge hierarchies and advocate for collective approaches. Ruth teaches in the Design Department at Goldsmiths and is a trustee of the Feminist Library. All the Libraries in London is a unique index of every library in the capital (795 and counting). Started in 2011 by Ruth Beale and Simon Elvins, the project aims to celebrate each library by building an archive through publishing, a website, an open-source image archive, and creative responses from designers, artists, poets, librarians and writers. The sold-out 'Index' was published in 2021 and contains simply one page per library, including those that have closed since the project began. The 'Reader', published in 2023, presents over 30 submissions from artists, designers, writers and library lovers, and a preface by Lola Olufemi.
Dr Althea Greenan is Curator of The Women’s Art Library, which began as the Women Artists Slide Library, an artists’ initiative that developed into an arts organisation publishing catalogues and books as well as a magazine from early 1983 to 2002. WAL collected slides, ephemera and other art documentation from artists and actively documented exhibitions and historical collections to offer a public space to view and experience women’s art. As part of Goldsmiths Library Special Collections and Archives, the Women’s Art Library continues to collect slides, artist statements, exhibition ephemera, catalogues and press material in addition to audio and videotapes, photographs and digital media. Thousands of artists from around the world are represented in some form in the collection.
Tavian Hunter manages and oversees the development of Stuart Hall Library, iniva’s archive and runs the Stuart Hall Library Research Network and Artist in Residency programmes. Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva) was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit organisation to address the new internationalism of the visual arts in the UK and the broad and multicultural artistic landscapes contributing to the cultural landscape. iniva emerged out of artist-led conversations with Gavin Jantjes, Sarah Wason, David A Bailey, Sonia Boyce, Rasheed Araeen and cultural theorist Stuart Hall asking the question, what could a new model for a cultural institution look like, that speaks to the diverse, hybrid and shared experience of a confluent cultural heritage. iniva is home to the unique world-renowned collection of the Stuart Hall Library which contains over 10,000 books from exhibition catalogues, theory texts, periodicals, zines, and artist monographs. The library is public-facing, on the street-level and freely accessible to all who are looking for a space to widen their knowledge and understanding of art history from a globalised perspective.
Hlib Velyhorskyi is director and founder of Biblioteka, a reference library with a variety of rare and special collections of books, zines and other printed materials within the fields of art, architecture and design. Formerly based in Peckham, Biblioteka now resides at the Architectural Association in Bloomsbury, London.
Ruth Beale (All the Libraries in London)
Althea Greenan (Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths)
Tavian Hunter (Iniva)
Hlib Velyhorskyi (Biblioteka)
Artists and art libraries have flourished in recent decades, carving out territory both within and counter to the established literary and art worlds. Their determined ability to remain experimental and reach new audiences reflects the playfulness and radicalism of the material they contain, and is demonstrably notable in an era when libraries and free-to-access spaces are increasingly endangered. Join us for a roundtable discussion between five librarians each bringing unique methods of working with artists’ books in art libraries in London.
Founded by Mariam Adesokan towards the end of 2023, Tint is a small lending library that provides materials based on Black art. It has already built a dedicated community despite having no permanent physical location, demonstrating the power of independent initiatives in shaping cultural access and collective knowledge-building. Operating outside traditional institutional frameworks, the library prioritises accessibility and shared knowledge, creating a space where engagement with Black artistic thought is open and communal. When Tint expanded its mission beyond the shelves during a month-long pop-up in southeast London this spring, it served as a reminder that libraries are not just third spaces for us to occupy but also create opportunities for us to be moulded by knowledge-sharing. The program offered coding and bookbinding workshops, lectures, and screenings featuring cross-generational artists and thinkers such as Barby Asante, Daniel Oduntan, Darryl Daley, Nabil Al-Kinani, and Onyeka Igwe. At a time of active calls for censorship of libraries in the UK, Tint is intentionally embracing the responsibility of nurturing civic spaces.
Ruth Beale is an artist with a socially engaged art and publishing practice that seeks to trouble societal structures, reframe knowledge hierarchies and advocate for collective approaches. Ruth teaches in the Design Department at Goldsmiths and is a trustee of the Feminist Library. All the Libraries in London is a unique index of every library in the capital (795 and counting). Started in 2011 by Ruth Beale and Simon Elvins, the project aims to celebrate each library by building an archive through publishing, a website, an open-source image archive, and creative responses from designers, artists, poets, librarians and writers. The sold-out 'Index' was published in 2021 and contains simply one page per library, including those that have closed since the project began. The 'Reader', published in 2023, presents over 30 submissions from artists, designers, writers and library lovers, and a preface by Lola Olufemi.
Dr Althea Greenan is Curator of The Women’s Art Library, which began as the Women Artists Slide Library, an artists’ initiative that developed into an arts organisation publishing catalogues and books as well as a magazine from early 1983 to 2002. WAL collected slides, ephemera and other art documentation from artists and actively documented exhibitions and historical collections to offer a public space to view and experience women’s art. As part of Goldsmiths Library Special Collections and Archives, the Women’s Art Library continues to collect slides, artist statements, exhibition ephemera, catalogues and press material in addition to audio and videotapes, photographs and digital media. Thousands of artists from around the world are represented in some form in the collection.
Tavian Hunter manages and oversees the development of Stuart Hall Library, iniva’s archive and runs the Stuart Hall Library Research Network and Artist in Residency programmes. Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva) was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit organisation to address the new internationalism of the visual arts in the UK and the broad and multicultural artistic landscapes contributing to the cultural landscape. iniva emerged out of artist-led conversations with Gavin Jantjes, Sarah Wason, David A Bailey, Sonia Boyce, Rasheed Araeen and cultural theorist Stuart Hall asking the question, what could a new model for a cultural institution look like, that speaks to the diverse, hybrid and shared experience of a confluent cultural heritage. iniva is home to the unique world-renowned collection of the Stuart Hall Library which contains over 10,000 books from exhibition catalogues, theory texts, periodicals, zines, and artist monographs. The library is public-facing, on the street-level and freely accessible to all who are looking for a space to widen their knowledge and understanding of art history from a globalised perspective.
Hlib Velyhorskyi is director and founder of Biblioteka, a reference library with a variety of rare and special collections of books, zines and other printed materials within the fields of art, architecture and design. Formerly based in Peckham, Biblioteka now resides at the Architectural Association in Bloomsbury, London.
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This page was last updated on 3 July 2025
