Title
Author Last Name
Author First Name
Source
Year
A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression
Risatti
Harold
University of North Carolina Press
2007
Book
Link
An art historian develops a comprehensive theory of the craft process and the studio craft disciplines.
Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand
McCullough
Malcolm
MIT Press
1996
Book
Link
Suggests that designing on the computer is an instance of hand craft, with nods to process.
Aesthetics of the Everyday
Saito
Yuriko
Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University
2023
Article
Link
An anthology on the topic of environmental aesthetics and the efforts that opened the field of aesthetics beyond the fine arts during the latter half of twentieth century.
Against Interpretation
Sontag
Susan
Against Interpretation and Other Essays : Penguin Classics
1966
Essay
PDF Download
A critical look at artistic criticism and an argument for resisting predetermined interpretations of visual works based on their content and meaning.
Akademie X: Lessons in Art + Life
Abramovic
Marina, et al.
Phaidon
2015
Book
Link
36 legendary art teachers—artists and critics themselves—on the ideal curriculum for an aspiring artist.
Art and Its Objects
Wollheim
Richard
Cambridge University Press
1980
Book
Link
Contains a classic reflection on expression, representation, style, the significance of the artist's intention.
Art as Experience
Dewey
John
G. P. Putnam
1934
Book
PDF Download
Makes a case for seeing art as an intellectual achievement of human history and living proof of our experiences.
Art as Performance
Davies
David
Blackwell
2004
Book
Link
Contains a valuable new perspective on the issue of material and medium.
Art in the Making: Artists and Their Materials from the Studio to Crowdsourcing
Adamson & Bryan-Wilson
Glenn & Julia
Thames & Hudson
2016
Book
Link
A look at individual processes of making through a collection of 9 crafts: Painting, Woodworking, Building, Performing, Tooling Up, Cashing In, Fabricating, Digitizing, and Crowdsourcing
Art School: Propositions for the 21st Century
Madoff
Steven H.
MIT Press
2009
Book
Includes discussion of “deskilling,” a persistent effort to eliminate the need forartisanal competence.
Artistry: The Work of Artists.
Howard
V. A.
Hackett
1982
Book
A study of the craft process by a philosopher who refreshingly uses singing as a case study.
As Radical, As Mother, as Salad, as Shelter: What Should Art Institutions Do Now?,
Bassa, Bass, Beard et al.
Regine, Chloë, Deana, et al.
Paper Monument
2018
Book
Link
A series of essays chronicling the change in the positioning of art institutions vis-a-vis political activism.
Batch: Craft, Design and Product
Tanner
Andrew. L
A & C Black
2010
Book
Essays on the designer-maker trend in the design profession.
Blurred Boundaries? Rethinking the Concept of Craft and its Relation to Art and Design
Shiner
Larry
Philosophy Compass
2012
Article
Argues that the boundary between art and craft conceived as a set of disciplines defined by materials and techniques has not become blurred, it has all but disappeared.
By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art.
Hung & Joseph
Shu & Magliaro, Eds.
Princeton Architectural Press
2007
Book
Features the work of thirty-two artists whose innovative and unexpected uses of handicraft techniques.
Choosing Craft: The Artist’s Viewpoint
Halper & Douglas
Vicki & Diane, Eds.
University of North Carolina Press
2009
Book
A history and practice of American craft through the words of influential artists whose lives, work, and ideas have shaped the field.
Craft
Harrod
Tanya, Ed.
The MIT Press
2018
Book
Link
A secret history of craft told through lost and overlooked texts that illuminate our understanding of current art practice.
Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design
Falino
Jeannine J., Ed
Abrams
2011
Book
On the origins of the studio craft movement and its convergence with the fine arts and design.
Crafts, Perception, and the Possibilities of the Body
Boden
Margaret A.
British Journal of Aesthetics
2000
On craft as grounded in “enactive” psychological mechanisms with functional purposes grounded in our everyday bodily habits.
Critique of the Power of Judgment
Kant
Immanuel
Cambridge University Press
2000
Book
PDF Download
On the aesthetic and teleological questions, and our formations of subjectivity.
Defending Everyday Aesthetics and the Concept of 'Pretty'
Leddy
Thomas
Contemporary Aesthetics Inc.
2012
A close analysis of the concept of pretty to suggest the ways it ignores the importance of aesthetic value in the parts of our lives not devoted to art.
Denise Gonzales Crisp: The decorational
Tremlow
Alice
Winter
2005
Article
Link
On the role of the decorative in practices of graphic design, specifically as they pertain to typography
Design and Crime, and Other Diatribes
Foster
Hal
Verso
2002
Book
On design excess in the modern spectacle that is the marketing of culture and the branding of identity.
Design as Art
Munari
Bruno
Pengun Books
2019
Book
An illustrated journey into the artistic possibilities of modern design, guided by the creative mind of the Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari.
Embodied Meanings: Critical Essays & Aesthetic Meditations
Danto
Arthur C.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
1994
Book
Features two important essays on craft in art, one a review of Martin Puryear, the other on function in fine art.
Everyday Aesthetics
Saito
Yuriko
Oxford University Press
2007
Book
On cultivating an awareness of everyday aesthetic experiences and using this to exert powerful influence on the state.
Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art
Buszek
Maria E.
Duke University Press
2011
Book
An wide-ranging introduction to the “craft culture” referenced and celebrated by artists promoting new ways of thinking about the role of craft in contemporary art.
Functional Beauty
Carlson & Parsons
Allen & Glenn
Oxford University Press
2008
Book
An in-depth philosophical study of the relationship between function and aesthetic value, breaking with the philosophical tradition of seeing the two as separate.
Functionalism Today
Adorno
Theodore W. F
Oxford University Press
2011
Essay
PDF Download
On the self-contradictions endemic to to artistic production constrained by social conditions.
Hand + Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft
Oliver
Valerie C., Ed.
Contemporary Arts Museum
2010
Book
Featuring artists working to broaden the context and function of the handmade object, blurring the distinctions between performance and sculpture.
Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design
Levine & Heimerl
Faythe & Cortney, Eds.
Princeton Architectural Press
2008
Book
Link
A close look at the contemporary craft movement’s embrace of emerging makers working in traditional and nontraditional media
Journal of Modern Craft
Adamson
Glenn, Ed.
Taylor & Francis
2023
Journal
Link
The first peer-reviewed academic journal to provide an interdisciplinary and international forum in its subject area.
Listening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists
North, North & Allison Cort
Alice, Halsey & Louise
Monacelli Press, Phaidon
2022
Book
Link
A look at the ingenuity and trailblazing that has shaped contemporary art in Japan and around the world, guided by conversation with contemporary artists ranging in age from sixty-two to ninety-two.
Loving Attention: An Outburst of Craft in Contemporary Art
Jefferies
Janis
Extra/Ordinary : Duke University Press
2011
Essay
A window into demonstrations of craft beginning to play leading roles in the significance of the handmade object within contemporary art practice.
Machine in the Studio: Constructing the Postwar American Artist
Jones
Caroline
University of Chicago Press
1996
Book
A fresh look at the art world of the 1960s.
Macrame of Resistance
Wild
Lorainne
Emigre Magazine
1998
Article
PDF Download
On the role of craft in the design and the need to move beyond its purely conceptual and technical activations.
Make a Chair from a Tree
Alexander
Jennie
Lost Art Press
1978
Book
Link
A instructional book that helped ignite a green woodworking movement in the United States and positioned wordworkers to use trees sustainably.
Makers: A History of American Studio Craft
Koplos,
Janet, and Bruce Metcalf
University of North Carolina Press
2010
Book
The first comprehensive history of studio craft in the United States.
Making and Being: Embodiment, Collaboration, and Circulation in the Visual Arts, A Workbook
Jahoda & Woolard
Susan & Caroline, Ed
Pioneer Works Press
2020
A hands-on guide containing activities, worksheets, and assignments, offering a framework for teaching art that emphasizes contemplation, collaboration, and political economy.
Making Is Connecting: The Social Meaning of Creativity: From DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0.
Gauntlett
David
Polity
2011
Book
Highlighting the ways that making things allows people to engage thoughtfully with the world around them.
Neocraft: Modernity and the Crafts
Alfoldy
Sandra, Ed.
The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
2008
Book
Challenges the marginal role that craft has played in Modernist discourse with a wide selection of scholarship on the subject.
Objects and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft
Fariello
M. Anna and Paula Owen, ed.
Scarecrow
2005
Book
Questions how various academic and cultural institutions assign meaning to artist-made objects in postmodern North America.
Philosophizing with a Hammer: Gary Knox Bennett and Contemporary Art
Danto
Arthur C.
Made in Oakland : American Craft Museum
2001
Article
A close look at Danto’s position on craft and its relation to art.
Redesigning the World: William Morris, the 1880s and the Arts and Crafts Movement
Stansky
Peter
Princeton University Press
1985
Book
On William Morris and his definitive influence on the craft revolution of the late 1800s.
String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art
Auther
Elissa
University of Minnesota Press
2010
Book
A history of the struggle for the fiber arts to gain recognition from the cultural sector as an art.
Tacit Knowledge, Rule-Following and Learning
Janik
Allan
Artificial Intelligence, Culture and Language : Springer-Verlag
1990
Article
A critique of both critics and defenders of this concept of “tacit knowledge” and its importance in new design technologies.
TEXTile Manifestoes
Liška & Mudry
Pavel & Robin R., eds
Artmap
2023
Book
Link
An interdisciplinary anthology that assembles and interweaves questions related to textile art, fashion and textuality into broader socio-politcal contexts
The Art Form That Dares Not Speak Its Name
Kino
Carol
New York Times
2005
Article
On making “craft” a dirty word and the question that bedevils practitioners and museum insiders.
The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution
Dutton
Dennis
Bloomsbury Press
2009
Book
Link
Offers early insight into both the nature of art and the workings of the human mind, through the lens of evolutionary science.
The Art of Not Making: The New Artist/Artisan Relationship
Petry
Michael
Thames & Hudson
2011
Book
Link
A review of 115 contemporary artists, and the ways they collaborate with craftspeople to realize their work.
The Art of the Maker: Skill and Its Meaning in Art, Craft and Design
Dormer
Peter
Thames & Hudson
1994
Book
On process and content as interdependent and mutually enriching facets of a communal culture of artistic discovery.
The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America
Kaplan
Wendy, Ed.
Thames & Hudson
2004
Book
The Arts and Crafts Movement in America
Obniski
Monica.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2008
Essay
Link
A bief history of the Arts and Crafts Movement in North America.
The Arts and The Defintion of the Human
Margolis
Joseph
Stanford University Press
1980
Book
Link
Suggests that our creation and perception of art will always be mitigated by our historical and cultural contexts.
The Beauty of Everyday Things
Soetsu
Yanagi
Penguin Classics
2019
Book
A hugely influential exposition of the Japanese philosopher's view of folkcrafts, setting out the hallmarks of Japanese design as we know it today.
The Black Craftsman Situation': A Critical Conversation about Race and Craft
Clark, Clark, Obler, et al.
Sonya, Wesley, Bibiana, et al.
The New Politics of the Handmade : Bloomsbury
2021
Essay
Link
A roundtable conversation with Sonya Clark, Wesley Clark, Bibiana Obler, Mary Savig, Joyce Scott, and Namita Gupta Wiggers.
The Craft Reader
Adamson
Glenn, Ed.
Berg Publishers, Bloomsbury
2008
Book
Link
A range of both classic and contemporary texts on the different traditions of craft, covering the period from the Industrial Revolution to today,
The Crafts in Britain in the 20th Century
Harrod
Tanya
Yale University Press
1999
Book
The Craftsman
Sennett
Richard
Yale University Press
2008
Book
Link
An original perspective on craftsmanship and its close connections to work and ethical values and how one might engage the multiple dimsions of skill.
The Culture of Craft: Status and Future.
Dormer
Peter, Ed.
University of Manchester Press
1997
Book
The Decriminalization of Ornament
Crisp
Denise Gonzales
Winter 2005
2005
The Fate of Craft
Shiner
Larry
Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
2007
Article
The Ideology of the Aesthetic
Eagleton
Terry
Poetics Today
1988
Book
PDF Download
The Intangibles of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art after the Readymade. L
Roberts
John
Verso Books
2007
Book
The Invention of Art: A Cultural History
Shiner
Larry
University of Chicago Press
2001
Book
The Invention of Craft
Adamson
Glenn
Bloomsbury
2013
Book
Link
A theoretical discussion of skilled work, reaching backwards in time and across numerous disciplines to suggest its relationship to invention.
The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World
Danto
Arthur C.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2000
Book
The Nature and Art of Workmanship
Pye
David
Cambridge University Press
1968
Book
An exploration of the meaning of skill and its relationship to design and manufacturing, which proposes a new theory of making based on the concepts of 'workmanship of risk' and 'workmanship of certainty.'
The Nature of Everyday Aesthetics
Leddy
Thomas
The Aesthetics of Everyday Life : Columbia University Press
2005
Article
The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art & Design
Btack & Burisch
Anthea & Nicote, Ed.
Bloomsbury
2021
Book
Link
Twenty-three voices rethinking the handmade in the contecxt of a dramatically shifting global economy inseparable from production and consumption.
The Persistence of Craft: The Applied Arts Today
Greenhalgh
Peter, Ed.
A. & C. Black
2002
Book
Link
A look at studio arts from woodworking, ceramics and glass to jewellery, metalworking and textiles, and the factors that have shaped their development.
The Practice of Everyday Life
Certeau
Michel
UC Berkeley Press
1984
Book
PDF Download
On the fundamental practices of a "fine art of dwelling," in which places are organized in a network of history and relationship.
The Tacit Dimension
Polanyi
Michael
University of Chicago Press
2009
Argues that tacit knowledge—tradition, inherited practices, implied values, and prejudgments—is a crucial part of scientific knowledge.
The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology of European & American Writings, 1750–1940.
Frank
Isabelle, Ed.
Yale University Press
2000
Book
Link
An anthology of European and American writings on
Thinking through Craft
Adamson
Glenn
Berg Publishers, Bloomsbury
2010
Book
Link
Reviews the status of "workmanship" in the contempoary arts and nakes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion.
What is Art For?
Dissanayake
Ellen
University of Washington Press
1990
Book
Link
On art-making as an innately human behavior—as intrinsic to the species as speech and toolmaking.
Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life
Attfield
Judy
Berg Publishers, Bloomsbury
2010
Book
Link
Bridging design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations.
Work Ethic
Molesworth
Helen, Ed.
Baltimore Museum of Art
2003
Book
Link
A look at the avant-garde interventions in art of 1960s linking a "dematerialization" of the object with the free play of concepts, produced in tandem with an exhibition of the same name.
Working: People Talk Abut What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
Turkel
Studs
Pantheon Books
1972
Book
Link
An investigation, through conversational dialogue, of the meaning of work for different people under different circumstances,
That Crafty Feeling
Smith
Zadie
Believer Magazine
2008
Article
Link
A lecture given to student of the Columbia University's Creative Writing Program on the subject of craft