PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, announces the opening of Volume Attempts: The Space of Books, an exhibition of and about books, organized by the graphic designer Purtill Family Business. The exhibition runs from June 7 through October 25, 2008. The opening reception is Friday, June 6, from 6 to 9 p.m.

This exhibition will survey this landscape of volumes by focusing on the relationship of books to contemporary visual arts. It proposes that the space of the book is a generous venue, both a literal space of a certain, human scale and an imaginary space that ranges widely across subjects and visual structures.

Purtill Family Business, a graphic design studio nationally known for specializing in publications for artists, galleries and museums, and for working closely with artists, has designed a series of encounters that allow a slow exploration of publications. The exhibition moves beyond the usual categories of books related to art—art books, artist’s books, or books about art—and instead provides an environment in which each exhibited book—and all the books—can be considered. In a provocative parallel to their highly collaborative practice, the exhibition presents Purtill Family Business’s own ideas alongside invited participants whose work demonstrates an inspired relationship with and to publishing. Among the components of the show are photographic projects that look at the spaces and images of books, a “diaporama” event by French artist Pierre Leguillon; a “Collective Investigation” event by Minnesota-based artist Matt Bakkom; the complete catalogue of Onestar Press (an artist book publisher); and publications selected by Bettina Funcke (curator and editor), Matthew Marks (art dealer), Christoph Keller (art publisher), and William Pym (writer). Featured will be an excerpt from “Double Spreads,” an exhibition of photographs of double-page spreads taken by graphic designers (organized by Christoph Keller and Jérome Saint-Loubert Bié). In addition to the publications on display, a bookmark and two artist’s books by Zoe Strauss and Heidi Giannotti will be published and distributed for free.