By Alison Long

This project presents the history of the Center for Book Arts through an interactive data timeline that charts the institution’s evolution over fifty years. By chaining together visualizations at different levels of detail, the timeline site provides both a holistic view of CBA’s exhibition and collection item trends over time and an invitation to playful, non-linear explorations. Much like the experience of browsing at an art book fair, the interaction design encourages visitors to unfurl and uncover details about the CBA’s key historical events, collection items, and exhibitions through steps of interactions.

The data used in this project include CBA’s exhibition history and fine art collection data, and object term definitions compiled by Stephanie Naut from Opening Artist’ Books and Getty’s Art & Architecture Thesaurus, supplemented by press sources such as Art Monthly, the Umbrella, and The Brooklyn Rail.

Links: Alison’s Timeline