Library Excavations #8 Therapy Art

Description
For Library Excavations #8: Therapy Art, Public Collectors explored the many books devoted to therapy and personality development in two different public library collections.

Excerpt from back cover:

"The drawings, paintings, collages and sculptures in this booklet were originally published in psychology and art therapy books, dating from the 1950s to the year 2001. I find art produced by people in therapy, or during psychological evaluations to be deeply affecting, with its vulnerability emphasized through the use of common materials.

Therapy art is a category of creative work that is not always given a space for reflection outside of a clinical or academic setting. In the books used for this publication, illustrations are often accompanied by a therapist’s diagnosis. Sometimes there is an analysis of form in relation to a subject’s treatment, personality growth, or rehabilitation after a trauma. Reproductions are usually limited to a couple examples by each maker, and authorship is concealed. The works I have included here are presented with a belief that under fair use, their meaning is transformed when shown outside of a clinical context. I hope that my respect for the people who made these works comes through in this selection.

Therapists and clinics that serve the mental health needs of people are of critical importance, but profoundly undervalued in American culture. This is certainly true in Chicago, where I live. Here, the current Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed half of all of the city’s mental health clinics to resolve a budget deficit in 2012. Currently he is demanding funds for a $95 million police academy. Everything is wrong with these priorities.

The sources for this booklet were found in the collections of the Chicago Public Library’s Harold Washington Library Center, and the Ronald Williams Library at Northeastern Illinois University. "

About the Publisher
Public Collectors was founded in 2007 by Marc Fischer, upon the concern that there are many types of cultural artifacts that public libraries, museums and other institutions and archives either do not collect or do not make freely accessible. Public Collectors asks individuals that have had the luxury to amass, organize, and inventory these materials to help reverse this lack by making their collections public.

— Marc Fischer

Author
Marc Fischer

Publisher
Public Collectors

Publication Date
2018

Binding
Softcover, staple-bound, color offset and two-color risograph

Size
5.5 x 8.5 inches
36 pages
Edition of 516

Language
English