Blue Bluer Books is the press name for artists’ books and other books by Josh Hockensmith.
A bookworm since I was three years old, I didn’t think twice about books as material objects until I was given a handmade Japanese journal twenty years later. Seeing the stab binding on the outside of the journal switched on the proverbial lightbulb of revelation, and I’ve been obsessed with the materiality of books ever since.
My background and training are as a writer, translator, and book repair technician, with a smattering of printmaking thrown in. My day job at the Sloane Art Library at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill gives me the opportunity to work closely with a diverse collection of contemporary artists’ books from around the world, and to stay informed about current work.
I am interested in the full spectrum of work being created in book form; in the convergence of digital technology and the physical book; and in the history of the book as the complicit vehicle for humanity’s strangest, most wonderful, most powerful creations through the ages.
Contact us for more information, custom book requests, or if you're interested in collaborating on a project.