In this Artists’ Book: Topics class, students will work with and from archives around New York City to make one of a kind or editioned artists’ books. Archives are organized collections of materials, ranging from personal letters and sketch books to records of government decision-making to collections of images, sounds, and social histories. What happens when we place ourselves in conversation with what is left behind, or gathered up from specific places and times? How can artists work with the ideas, day-to-day language, and questions of people and systems as they are recorded in an archive? We will visit four archives in New York City, collecting different kinds of materials, and built through different financial, organizational, and political means. We will look at examples of artists’ books and zines made by scholars, activists, and artists - for example, Ben Blount, Avery Gordon, Mariame Kaba, and Julia Weist - from archival materials and research. Students will learn how to navigate and research in an archive, shape a question or site of inquiry, access materials, and will pursue their own interests at each archive to make projects or project proposals for artists’ books, and will complete a final project using an archive of their own choosing. We will also learn basic bookbinding methods, image and text reproduction techniques, and discuss materials and forms that suit artists’ books made from and with archives. No previous experience in book-making or archival research is required, but students must have an interest in working with archival materials to make books, and in the work and ideas of others.