Biography
Deirdre E. Lawrence has worked with books and archives her entire career. She was the Principal Librarian at the Brooklyn Museum from 1983 to 2017. Before Brooklyn, she was Associate Librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and previously worked at other cultural institutions. She received her M. L. S. from Pratt Institute and has studied art history on the graduate level. At the Brooklyn Museum she established the Museum Archives and implemented many projects to preserve and make accessible extensive research collections. Deirdre has overseen a major renovation project, implemented an online catalog and created several collaborative projects with other institutions including NYARC, the New York Art Resources Consortium. Deirdre has written numerous articles and lectured frequently on the research collections held in the Libraries and Archives as well as other collections held by the Brooklyn Museum. She has been a visiting professor at Pratt’s School of Information and Library Science, was a board member at the Center for Book Arts in New York and currently serves on the Walt Whitman Initiative Board and contributes to discussion groups devoted to artists’ books. Her ongoing interest in the history of photography has been enriched by attending several classes including The Photographic Book since 1843 taught by Richard Ovenden, June 2022 at the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.
Deirdre has curated several exhibitions including Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today (Center for Book Arts, 2019), Walt Whitman & the Art of the Book: Contemporary Visions (Poet’s House, 2015), and Artists Books (Brooklyn Museum, 2000). She has contributed essays to several publications including Camerado, this is no book / See the Moon? (Co-Ed, 2018), Hand, Voice & Vision: Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW, 2010), and Cultural Signposts: Art and Text Together Through the Ages (Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, 2001). A list of curatorial activities follows.
curatorial activities: exhibitions
Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today. Center for Book Arts, October 3 - December 4, 2019. Curated exhibition focused on the work of several artists inspired by Whitman’s writings. Contributed essay and collaborated with CBA staff on the production of the accompanying catalog published by the Center which received the prestigious AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers award. Led discussions with artists represented in the exhibition including: Clarissa Sligh, Susan Newmark, Anne Gilman, Sasha Chavchavadze, Marianne Dages, Daphne Fitzpatrick and Stefan Killen. More
Infinite Blue: Brooklyn Museum, 2017-2018. Collaborated with a curatorial team on an exhibition focused on the color blue drawn from the Museum’s entire collections including the Libraries and Archives. More
Points of Departure: Treasures of Japan from the Brooklyn Museum. Japan Society, March-June 2014. Co-curated section devoted to libraries and archives collections including rare books, artists’ books and archives.
Looking Back from Ground Zero: Images from the Brooklyn Museum Collection. Brooklyn Museum, August 30, 2006–January 7, 2007. Co-curated exhibition to commemorate the fifth anniversary of 9/11. The exhibition included several artists books. More
Egypt Through Other Eyes: Images from the Wilbour Library of Egyptology. Brooklyn Museum, April 2003-2006. Co-curated two-part exhibition focused on images of Egypt through rare publications. More
Open House: Working in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Museum, April 17–August 15, 2004 Co-curated exhibition that showcased several artists books made by Brooklyn based artists.
Artists Books. Brooklyn Museum, February 3, - May 2, 2000. Part of the Working in Brooklyn series, curated an exhibition focused on books made by Brooklyn based artists. Oversaw production of the accompanying exhibition catalog that received the prestigious AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers award.
Off the Shelves: Members Open Their Books. Center for Book Arts (CBA), NY, Summer 1998. Co-curated exhibition showcasing CBA members work.
A Different Reality: Symbolist Prints from the Collection. Brooklyn Museum, February, 1997. Co-curated exhibition focused on symbolist prints from the Print and Library collections.
Photography in Latin America: a Spiritual Journey. Brooklyn Museum, September 1996. Co-curated exhibition of historic and contemporary images of Latin America including books and documentary photographs and contributor to related publication.
Dressing the Part: Costume Sketches for Hollywood Films. Brooklyn Museum, March-July, 1989. Co-curated exhibition and co-authored brochure featuring an extensive collection of fashion sketches held in the Museum Library.
Select Discussions and Writings related to artists’ books and Walt Whitman:
Artists Books A Look Back at the History of Book Art Criticism: Essay published in the Book Arts Review, 2022, https://centerforbookarts.org/bar/spring-2022/artists-books
Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today - an exhibition: Essay published in the Artist’s Book Yearbook 2020/21 (Impact Press at The Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol)
Camerado, this is no book / See the Moon? Book accompanying a survey exhibition organized and curated by Jenni Crain and Nick Fusaro at Pratt Institute. Exhibition brought together artworks of participants within Pratt Institute’s art program of the past 125 plus years with essay on Whitman’s influence on the artists. Published by Co-Ed (Cooperative Editions, 2018). More
Walt Whitman: the Art of the book: Poet's House exhibition, 2015 - audio link includes interview with artists in the exhibition. More
Artists’ Books Exposed: via Exhibition and Social Media in a Museum Setting. American and German Libraries and Archives & Contemporary Artist’s Book: A Transatlantic Colloquium December 4-5, 2014 held at the German National Library, Leipzig, Germany.
Typeradio Podcast: Audio interview with Deirdre Lawrence, recorded at the Klingspor Museum – Symposium on the occasion of their 60th birthday – in Offenbach Germany, June 24, 2014. More
Artists’ Books at the Brooklyn Museum. Originally published in the Artists’ Book Yearbook 2001-2002 (Bristol: Centre for Fine Print Research, 2001) and updated 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Artists Books at the Brooklyn Museum. Seminar part of the Artists’ Book: Materials and Processes Summer Institute in Technical Art History for Doctoral Students in Art History, funded by the Mellon Foundation at the Brooklyn Museum, June 12, 2014.
Artists’ Books in the Brooklyn Museum Library Collection: Collecting From a Museum Perspective in Central Booking Magazine, February 2011
Artists Books at the Brooklyn Museum. Talk at Central Booking, DUMBO, Brooklyn, June 30, 2010.
Artists’ Books: Creative Production and Marketing edited by Sarah Bodman. Contributed essay entitled Case study II: Artists’ Books at Brooklyn Museum. (Bristol, UK: Impact Press, 2010)
Conversations with Deirdre Lawrence and Timothy Hull. Essay published in NY Arts magazine, Jan.-Feb., 2008.
Artists’ Books from the Brooklyn Perspective. October 2008, ARLIS/NY Artists Book Conference, MoMA and NYPL.
Books as an Artistic Medium. Lecture at Brooklyn College, June 2007.
Walt Whitman and the Arts in Brooklyn 1822-1892 online essay on Walt Whitman (1819-1892), one of America’s most influential poets, lived and worked in Brooklyn part of his life and had a lifelong interest in the art scene. More
Walt Whitman and the Arts in Brooklyn. Lecture at Proteus Gowanus, May 2007.
1 st Seoul International BookArts Fair Commemorative Catalogue. Essay on artists’ books contributed to the publication for the first Seoul International Book Arts Fair, 2004.
Artists Books: A Panel Discussion. College Art Association Annual Meeting, February 20, 2003. Chaired panel discussion on institutional collecting with Milan Hughston (MoMA), Robert Rainwater (NYPL), Jae Jennifer Rossman (Yale Art of the Book Program).
Other ESSAYs:
Brooklyn Museum: A Legacy of Collecting and Exhibiting Photography: The Brooklyn Museum has a long, but little known, legacy of collecting and exhibiting photographs and formed what is believed to be the first school of photography associated with a museum in the United States. Clarence H. White, founder of the Photo-Secession movement, served as a professor of photography and instructor of the newly created school. Annual exhibitions of photography were begun in 1891, and continued through to 1940, with the Museum acquiring photography as an art form as early as 1899. (New York Photo Review Online Journal)
Kodak Moments: Images from the Exposition Universelle of 1900: William Henry Goodyear, the Brooklyn Museum’s first Curator of Fine Arts, travelled to Paris to document the 1900 Exposition Universelle advertised as “Paris: Capital of the Civilized World”. The photographs, those he took and collected, informed his vision of the world which he then brought back to the Brooklyn Museum galleries. (New York Photo Review Online Journal)
Boards and Committees:
Center for Book Arts, New York. Board Member 2006-2012. Consulting Curator 2018-2019.
Grolier Club Member and Artists’ Book Interest Group 2020/2021-
New York Artists Book Fair Conference Co-Organizer and Participant. 2008-2018.
Walt Whitman Initiative Board member 2019-