My bookwork ‘Cavafy / Cortazar’ is featured in the exhibition Bibliophagia, alongside the work of Eleanor Vonne Brown, Daniel Gustav Cramer and Haris Epanimonda, Yann Serandour and John Stezaker. The exhibition was curated by Michalis Pichler, and is running from May 31st until June 28th at Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin. The works are sitting amongst the bookshop shelves, […]

Inexistent Books wants to question the invisible in times of hypervisibility, embrace the paradox and explore the utopian potentials of the anti-medium. We have asked artists for Inexistent Books – artists’ publications that did not exist before, have been idle, deal with non-existence or refuse to exist. Invited by EDCAT, backbonebooks will be presenting ‘Variations on Lessness’.

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As part of their exhibition ‘Cuando escribo obras, mis manos piensan libros’, a retrospective of their 9 year long journey in publishing and experimentation, Naranja Publicaciones invited me to take part in a conversation about how we met and our perspectives on editorial production and dissemination of book works in Latin America. You can listen to the full conversation […]

The Books are Bridges exhibition is coming to the Goethe-Institut Beijing, having been presented in Berlin, Spoleto in Italy, and the abC Book fair in Shanghai! It will open on the 7th of May, and I’ll be giving an online talk starting at 4pm to launch the project in this new location. I’m really looking forward to the exhibition […]

The exhibition ‘Blank. Raw. Illegible… Artists‘ Books as Statements (1960–2022)’ is opening on May 14th at the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum in Düren, dedicated to the blank book as an artistic medium over the course of the last six decades. Point Break by Maxime Gambus, which I published in 2014, has been included in the exhibition and catalogue. Go and visit this […]

I’ll be giving a lecture as part of the Access Through Tools series at the London College of Communication on May 10th at 5:30pm. I’ve been invited by the Book Arts department, and my talk is entitled ‘Books are Bridges’, which explores the intersection of printed media, conceptual publications and installation, at which my practice is located. To […]

I’ll be hosting a workshop on performing the book, ‘Performar el Libro, acción en un minute, in Tenerife Espacio de las Artes on the 29th of April. Taking into account the elements of time, space and body, the participants will propose different instructions of use and activation: How can a book be performed, what are the ways to […]

ABC OFFICE is an anonymous work environment which opens to the public from the 27th-30th of April at Filet Gallery in London. Members of the Artists’ Books Cooperative present specially made artists works exploring office conventions, bureaucracy, co-working and print culture in what is sometimes referred to as the ‘aesthetics of administration’. My work will be featured as part […]

I am so excited that backbonebooks has been invited to take part in the 7th edition of the Offprint London book fair! From Friday 12th to Sunday 14th May 2023, the book fair will host independent experimental and socially engaged publishers in the fields of arts, architecture, design, humanities, and visual culture. Come and join us for three […]

The launch of the new Simón Ramirez publication, El libro que tiende a desaparecer [The book that tends to disappear], will take place at Printed Matter / St Marks in New York on March 4th from 4-6pm. Because of the book’s material, each time light touches the surface of the paper, the depiction of ocean waves that fill the […]

We’re thrilled to announce the window installation of Simón Ramirez’s new publication, El libro que tiende a desaparecer [The book that tends to disappear] which we published in 2023. The installation will be on view at the St Marks location of Printed Matter from February 17th to March 12th. If you’re in New York, go and witness the real-time […]

Have a look at the wonderful virtual table by Simón Ramirez for Printed Matter, inspired by El libro que tiende a desaparecer [The book that tends to disappear] which we published in 2023. There are many backbonebooks publications included, among those of other great publishers and dear friends. Check it out here!

The launch of our new book with Alexander Jackson Wyatt is taking place this Thursday at Bunnings Alexandria in aisles 50, 75, 81, or 68 from 6-8pm. Battalogize in Great Abandon! is an updated edition to a 1970’s home-deco renovation guide and takes the instructions and illustrations from the original publication, based on a style and sensibility of home-life […]

I have been invited to have a special presentation as part of the The 7th abC Art Book Fair Shanghai Edition. Both projects can be visited during the book fair opening hours at the  Ming Contemporary Art Museum.

09—12.01.2023  at abC in Shangai with: Aula Claudia de la Torre

Join us on Tuesday, January 31 on Zoom for a BookTalk by Claudia de la Torre. As part of Center for Book Arts ongoing BookTalk series—presentations related to the book arts curated and moderated by CBA Instructor Roni Gross. Claudia de la Torre (1986) is a Mexican, Berlin-based artist who creates artworks situated at the intersection of printed media, conceptual […]

backbonebooks will be taking part in this fair in Munich! In November, Haus der Kunst will host the third edition of Super BOOKS. Over two days, artists, designers, and alternative publishers will show their publications. Super BOOKS was organized for the first time in 2019 at Haus der Kunst as part of the exhibition «Archives in Residence: AAP […]

When is a book considered a book? When can we define it as an inhabited space? This work investigates the book’s performative quality. The spaces it creates, and the audience it gathers. The installation consists of seven volumes that display the inhabited space of the book. Seven volumes echo other books. As a space of sharing, Volume occupies Pages at ArtVerona […]

Tuning into aesthetic qualities of rhythm, iteration, and improvisation, Lesley Mok will perform a solo work in response to Claudia de la Torre: Palimpsest. The two 25-minute sets will utilize acoustic rhythms, processed sound, field recordings, and spoken word to create an iterative language that continuously unfolds over the course of one hour. Lesley Mok is a drummer, composer, and improviser […]

This is the second event in the series Reading Artists’ Books, a collaborative project by Regine Ehleiter and Tabea Nixdorff, initiated in memory of the Chicago-based librarian, curator, artist and author Doro Boehme (1957-2020). After an introduction by Regine Ehleiter, students and guests will read from a selection of books related to the topic of the class on Writing as […]

The Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest is organized within the scope of the Books Are Bridges Summit – a small-scale gathering for artist publishers with space for connection, exchange of ideas, and DIY workshops spread across locations in Rotterdam: from the gardens to the docks. Participants of the summit will reflect on collective practices and future models […]

The new format «Digital Ateliers» gives insights into the production sites and creative processes of current and past scholarship holders of the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation. The approximately 5-minute films on the Art Foundation’s YouTube channel showcase a selection of artists. This time they accompanied me in my Atelier,   showing my working methods and work steps of the […]

I’m excited to be invited as a speaker in an online panel discussion at the Contemporary Art Book Symposium at Boston University. Multiple Formats: Contemporary Art Book Symposium weaves together conversations about artist books and higher education, pedagogical practices involving artist books, artist advocacy, and artist book distribution, collection, and access. Intended to be an elastic and inclusive […]

Footnotes I have never seen is an exploration of the landscape of the footnote in the broadest sense of the word. Beginning with a group exhibition curated by Robin Waart at BELETAGE that will run from 15 January to mid-March 2022, the project culminates in a publication of the body text for the footnotes that form the works […]

At first glance, the conceptual publication «Dunkle Paarung» by Wie-yi T. Lauw is deceptive. There is an absence of images. Only through an active intervention by the reader (tearing the perforated pages open), the hidden content of the book uncovers as flowers that bloom;  only to reveal their beauty.  This act indicates the violence and striving for domination of […]

A window contains. A dust cover contains. A picture book without its content. The window as display. A play on displacement displaying the work. The book as the middle point embraced by the flaps. “The brilliant, uniquely great photos”, absent. For Stroma, Claudia de la Torre reproduced 1 to 1 the picture book “Lockende Berge” published in 1971 by Linda […]

Los libros son puentes. PrintRoom es un espacio en Rotterdam dedicado a las publicaciones de artistas. En marzo de 2022, me invitaron como artista invitada a presentar mi trabajo. PrintRoom albergará una mesa con una selección de editoriales mexicanas como una forma de conectar a México con Rotterdam.  Invito a las editoriales mexicanas a seleccionar de uno a  tres libros […]

Artists’ Library: 1989–2021 is a three-dimensional bibliography, an exhibition project of the BIBLIOGRAPHIC OFFICE section, where the audience can come across and delve into the ways of thinking, writing, collecting and creating of a series of artists: Noah Barker, Éric Baudelaire, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Claudia de la Torre, Maria Eichhorn, Simone Fattal, Aaron Flint Jamison, David Horvitz, […]

SONDERLAGE 4/5 presents a selection of works by MARTA DJOURINA, CE JIAN und CLAUDIA DE LA TORRE with a special focus on the publishing project backbonebooks initiated by Claudia de la Torre in 2011. In a series of 5 exhibitions presenting each 3 artists and one independent publisher, SONDERLAGE wishes to reply to the changing conditions for art production […]

How can we still find ways to connect with each other? Can books play a role in this connection? And from where to where can they take us? For the show in A — Z presents, I’ve come up with a strategy to bring people and ideas together. A participative, open, non-ending work that could exist in the […]

2021 marks backbonebooks 10th anniversary. Today, ten years ago I started this publishing-house. Thanks to everyone that has been part of this amazing ride! It has been 10 very intense years. I’ve met great people along the way and I hope that this is just the beginning of may more books and friends to come.

This February, Printed Matter will launch its first Virtual Art Book Fair (PMVABF), presenting more than 400 exhibitors from over 40 countries. Since 2005, Printed Matter’s Art Book Fairs have hosted international exhibitors featuring a wide variety of published works—from zines and artists’ books to rare and out of print publications, and contemporary art editions. I am really […]

A book is a book (Natalia Silberleib) has been inviting different people which are involved with books in some way to speak with her about it. This time she invited me (Claudia de la Torre)  to talk about my production as an artist and editor (backbonebooks) as well as the concept of  artist’s books, at the crossroads between […]

In a context of a global pandemic, fiebre is committed to a new platform to promote the creation, promotion and dissemination of phonebooks in inline format with free and open access from all screens from November 11 to 15. backbonebooks will take part in this event. There is a selection of wonderful photo based books by Ines Lechleitner, […]

There is a  new model for the Artists’ Books Workshop throughout November. A one-to-one workshop were we will focus two days only in your ideas and transform them into a physical dummy. Pick any tow days in a row between the 9th and the 30th of November. We will work in my studio for two days – from 10:00 am to 18:00 […]

You can now download the complete backbonebooks catalogue by clicking here ⟶ 

Artist and publisher Claudia de la Torre (backbonebooks) is guest-researcher at the Impossible Library, working with the inventory as material and tool. She applies her Color Topologies method as a site-specific mural to the Impossible Library, based on her findings. Color Topologies is an artistic method Claudia de la Torre explores in her work, color coding the corners […]

My Chilean friends of Naranja Publicaciones have invited me to be part of the first «Sesiones Naranja» in which we will talk backbonebooks  and review three works donated by Claudia de la Torre to their collection in May 2018. You can secure your place by clicking here – the session is free of charge and will be held in […]

I’m glad to share with you backbonebooks newest publication: Four Reds by Claudia de la Torre. This book takes the shape of a script. Based on Mad Men’s  chapter “The gold violin” S02E07. A fascinating fictional dialogue held in Cooper’s office. About smudgy edges and the value of art. Quoting: » So, it’s smudgy squares huh?…» – «That’s interesting» You can get your […]

Connected to the exhibition ‘Cities in Flight, or the Satellite Variations’, Claudia de la Torre will give a talk about the book on display at einBuch.haus. She will also introduce selected editions of backbonebooks to share her knowledge and experience of art book making & publishing. SIDE A has been composed from words out of ‘Cities in Flight’ a […]

I am excited to take part in Volumes 2019 – Art Publishing Days I will be presenting «Black Snow» an installation  I made back in 2011 as well as  a selection of backbonebooks titles that relate to archival strategies. This time I am invited to be part of the Symposium » Publishing and archival strategies in artistic practices». I […]

The Quest is on appropriation in writing, on sources no longer, on content through form, on poetry.Concealing, unveiling: A quest suggests change, is often allegorical, a plot device to introduce momentum into a narrative. The Quest originates from the eponymous exhibition which took place at ARCHIV in 2017. The source books from Christoph Schifferli’s collection as well as a selection of books […]

You are all welcome to my solo show at ein.Buch haus in Berlin. «Claudia de la Torre’s works often start from a book. She examines the structure and relationship between the surfaces and forms – the book covers, titles, the layout of the individual pages. By means of appropriation and dé- tournement, her work often takes the form of […]

Aeromoto is a non-for-profit library specialized in artist books, independent publishing, and contemporary culture. This upcoming Tuesday,  bakcobnebooks is invited to lead a discussion and encounter on Mexican artist’s editorial projects. Everyone is invited to discuss, reflect and share their ideas. I will be very happy to see you around. If interested write an E-mail to a@aeromot0.mx

Limited […]

As part of Friends with Books: Art Book Fair Berlin 2019. Shapes and Grids is a children’s bookmaking workshop* led by artist Claudia de La Torre. Children create a playful book inspired by the grid systems of designers Jan Tschichold and Josef Müller-Brockmann. Using colour and basic shapes, children learn to make compositions and create their own unique artist […]

Friends with Books: Art Book Fair Berlin 2019 takes place though 20–22 September 2019 at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin as Europe’s premier event for contemporary artists’ books and periodicals by artists and art publishers. On Sunday September 22 from 14:00 – 15:30 I will be giving a children’s book workshop – Shapes and Grids. See […]

Situation room, is a series of exhibitions and events that will regularly focus on local and international book publishers. The space aims to restructure ideas in an experimental spirit, showing aspects of books that can’t be seen in the publication alone. Presenting the situation of activities including concepts, processes and publications in three dimensions is to consider the […]

For the first time, backbonebooks will have a table at the A section (booth A-035) of the Tokyo Art Book Fair! – It is very exciting that after years of hard work I can finally show some books and editions. I will be launching several titles: Zitrone Wal  Seife an artist book created in close collaboration with Ines Lechleitner, […]

On Saturday 29.06 I am invited at 12:00 to speak about backbonebooks.  Practitioners, publishers, theorists, artists and enthusiasts convene to share thoughts on the artist book’s status in the digital age. Speakers will explore how to use the book as a tool for political and artistic means. Books Books (artists’) Books is a day-long symposium bringing together practitioners from the world of […]

As part of the abC art book fair 2019 Beijing, edcat.net presents for the first time an offline exhibition. 200 art books and zines from Europe will be presented to the public in a curated exhibition at Times Art Museum from June 6–9. The selection presents a snapshot of contemporary independent publishing efforts and is curated by Jan […]

backbonebooks is turning 7 years old today. I’m so glad I can tell that books are a big part of who I am. And that I’ve met amazing people because of this. Thanks to everyone who has ever helped me in any way. Carrying books, collaborating with me, exchanging ideas, cheering me up and supporting my work. I […]

On June 16th, the Academy of Arts will be swarming with poetic life. In the Studio Foyer nearly 40 publishers and magazines present their products and lists, flanked by readings in the Beech Garden and a programme for children, young people and young adults in the Grass Garden. Backbonebooks is invited this year to present a selection of […]

And here we go again! visit me and my books at MISS READ. Founded in 2009, MISS READ is Europe’s major Art Book Festival, dedicated to community-building and creating a public meeting place for discourse around artists’ books, conceptual publications and publishing as practice. MISS READ: The Berlin Art Book Fair 2018 will take place on May 3th to […]

I am happy to invite you to my next solo show where I will be showing ALPINA. An object trouvé – 32 paint card samples mounted on monochromatic backgrounds that resembleJosef Albers and his chromatic interactions, as well as hard edge painting. This poetic card collection was found in a hardware store in Berlin 2018 and will be displayed […]

I’ve been invited by David Vallance to give a one week workshop on the potential of book making with art students of the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nimes. In this workshop we will reflect together upon what does it mean to work towards creating a book as a conceptual vehicle. We will  develop a dummy that reflects […]

Reproducing, re-examining, redefining as well as questioning, changing, setting up and interpreting content are the strategies that the exhibition deals with. The show presents artists’ books that manipulate already published material and place it in a new context through a variety of interventions. The participating artists create works based on literature classics, on an atlas from the French colonial […]

Como parte de Rrréplica, me han invitado a dar una plática sobre mi trabajo como editora y artista. Rrréplica es una iniciativa independiente, sin fines de lucro. Un espacio de complicidad para la discusión y difusión de prácticas editoriales que utilizan la tecnología del duplicador electrónico, conocido como risografía. Un encuentro acerca de publicar y conformar espacio público: […]

Page Turners is devoted to the book as an art form. This exhibition gives a glimpse into the diverse practice using the book as medium – the book as an entire artistic creation, from cover to cover.…repetitive actions repeated. The space between.  To be repeatable. Controlled and recreated. Noisy like air. Evidence of activity. Building a set of […]

Under the motto «Reading Art» we are giving the prelude to Vienna’s first artist book fair in mumok. We bring the art form book to the museum for a day and make the mumok a meeting place for bibliophile art lovers. Selected representatives of the experimental and independent artist book scene from Austria and Germany present a cross-section […]

I am thrilled that backbonebooks is selected as the small press spotlight by Hauser & Wirth NYC bookshop. You can find the following titles in the bookshop: Arpologize me | Claudia de la Torre, Mode Interest Express | Alexander Jackson Wyatt, Unfortunately | Omri Livne, The Silver Metal Lover | Claudia de la Torre, The Fisher Variations | […]

I am thrilled to announce that some of backbonebooks titles and special editions are now part of four Special Collections:  Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection – School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the New York Public Library, and the Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan […]