Print on Demand Artist Books

After last week’s blog post about my experiences making Print on Demand or POD books, I realized that we have several POD books right here in gallery inventory. That means it’s time to create a “curated collection” of these very interesting artist books.

Print on demand artist books are digitally designed and machine-bound books created by artists using online services such as Blurb.com or Lulu.com. Many book artists are experimenting with POD technology to create quick editions that can be ordered over the web in quantities as few as one copy at a time.

Here at 23 Sandy we stock a selection of POD books created by artists who usually create hand-bound artist books but are creating POD books for various artistic, conceptual or economic reasons. For example, Clifton Meador tells us he “uses print on demand service as a way of allowing time to concentrate on articulating ideas.” The time saved by skipping the hand-binding process allows artists to move on quickly to the next book. This is a nice benefit for those of us who have more ideas than time.

The books we stock here at 23 Sandy are not technically printed on demand. We ask the artists to order a few copies of their books and then send them to us for physical inventory. This may not fit the strict definition of POD books, but it allows us to distribute these books to our customers who might not normally find such unique titles online.

And, if you are an artist creating print on demand artist books I'd love to consider them for gallery inventory. Contact me here to tell me about your work.