Collection of Artists’ Books and Publications Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Between March 11 and April 18, 2026, the exhibition The other books (Els altres llibres), an exhibition dedicated to the Collection of Artist’s Books and Publications of the Universitat Politècnica de València, will be held at the Sala Coll Alas in Gandía.
The exhibition is directed and coordinated by the director of the Collection, Antonio Alcaraz, in collaboration with several curators specialized in artists’ books, graphic works, fanzines, photobooks, intervened books, assembled magazines, illustration and mobile typography: Hortensia Mínguez, Paco Collado, Pedro Vicente, Carles Méndez, David Heras and Marcela Verónica Gómez.
The exhibition proposes a journey through different ways of understanding the book beyond its conventional function, revealing its potential as an artistic object, a narrative device and a space for material and conceptual experimentation.
The Delicate section brings together historical, bibliophile and contemporary books that appeal to the sensorial dimension of reading. From references such as Marcel Duchamp’s famous boxes to recent carefully crafted editions, these works underline the importance of paper, printing or binding as active elements of meaning. The delicate does not refer here to fragility, but to an attentive experience that questions the idea of the book as a docile and merely functional object.
In contrast, Fanzines presents underground proposals linked to self-publishing and “do it yourself”. Publications associated with contexts that turn the book into a tool for urgent expression, a space for resistance and community building, on the fringes of traditional publishing circuits.
The Photobooks section articulates different views of the Valencian Community as a lived and represented territory. Through landscapes and everyday scenes, these publications reflect on identity, memory and transformation, exploring the tensions between the popular and the contemporary. The photobook appears as a narrative device that organizes image, sequence and rhythm in a slow and critical reading.
In Intervenidos, books from expurgated library collections are transformed by artists through processes of addition, subtraction or alteration. These pieces redefine the book as an open laboratory, questioning its cultural status and proposing new narratives based on materiality.
On the other hand, Ensamblados shows magazines built collectively from original contributions integrated manually. Each issue is configured as an unrepeatable object in which drawings, texts, collages or objects coexist without hierarchies, activating the edition as a collaborative practice and as a living process.
The Illustrated section focuses on the illustrated album and the dialogue between image and word, especially since the renewal that began in the second half of the 20th century. The works on display show an experimental will and an active conception of the reader.
Finally, Tipográficos brings together posters and posters made with mobile typography, located between art and communication. The letter becomes expressive matter and color becomes gesture, highlighting the validity of the printed word as a visual form capable of activating the exhibition space.
As a whole, The Other Books offers a broad and heterogeneous vision of the book as an expanded field, where tradition, experimentation and collective practice coexist. The exhibition not only shows singular editorial objects, but also invites us to rethink the book as a critical territory and a space for contemporary artistic research.
Due to its curatorial approach, the diversity of approaches and the articulation between graphic memory and current practices, the show is presented as a particularly innovative and creative proposal within the exhibition panorama dedicated to artists’ books. Los otros libros is not limited to exhibiting publications: it builds a dynamic discourse that situates publishing as a living practice, in constant transformation, and reaffirms its validity as one of the most fertile spaces for contemporary creation.
