Our story
After a career in the art world in Europe and Asia, The Artist Book Foundation’s executive director, Leslie Pell van Breen, returned to the United States to become the publisher and executive director of Hudson Hills Press. After a decade of continuing Hudson Hills’ legacy as a premier American publisher of fine-art books, she founded The Artist Book Foundation (TABF) in 2012.
At its heart, TABF is dedicated to publishing and providing access to artist-centered books of exceptional quality. Our publications, public programs, and gallery exhibitions celebrate modern and contemporary visual artists. TABF recognizes that twenty-first-century publishing has experienced significant and fundamental changes, and art books have been particularly impacted. Many renowned art-book publishers have adjusted their market focus or no longer exist, making it more challenging to document and share an artist’s life and work. Our publications fill this valuable and, unfortunately, growing gap. We provide a platform for artists whose work has appeared in notable public and private collections but is seldom published. Should there be no record of their life and artistic practice, their work runs the risk of being lost historically.
Artist monographs, catalogues raisonnés, surveys, and exhibition catalogues are the central focus of our publishing house. Featuring large and oversized publication formats that offer the greatest opportunity to extensively illustrate artwork and incorporate essays by acclaimed art historians, curators, scholars, and artists, TABF books are available worldwide in print and digital formats through traditional trade channels and new art-world opportunities. To grant the greatest possible access to arts and culture, a percentage of each first print run is donated to underserved public libraries, schools, and correctional and rehabilitation facilities across the United States. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, we can accomplish all of our work through the sale of our books and support from our members, donations from supporters of the visual arts, and government grants.
