9. Art History and Its Published Objects

This session seeks to consider what is at stake in writing art histories of printed things. Increasingly, published material has become the primary focus of much scholarly endeavour, and we want to understand how – and why – art historians look at these objects. Papers are solicited that explicitly reflect on the methodological concerns and challenges of looking at – and art-historicising – published objects (according to the widest definition). How, for example, do we marry the disciplinary tenets of art history with those of fields such as periodical studies, book history, and digital humanities? What are the relationships between printed publications (which more often than not circulate as multiples) and archives, museums, and libraries as repositories of knowledge? Do published objects better lend themselves to micro- or macro-histories? Are diachronic or synchronic approaches to studying them more effective? Do such objects, long relegated to the margins of our subject, particularly lend themselves to helping produce histories of marginalised makers and readers? What might it mean to entwine attention to publishing labour into political accounts of artistic practice? Submissions that engage with feminist, queer, and postcolonial material and approaches are especially encouraged.

We welcome proposals addressing published objects from any period or place, and that in their approach foreground the consequences of making an expanded field of published objects the subject of art history.

.

Themes: Publishing, periodicals, books

Additional format comment: We imagine this following the usual format.

Lead Convenor: Samuel Bibby, Association for Art History, United Kingdom

Co-convenors: Victoria Horne, Northumbria University, United Kingdom

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and comlpete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.