Janelle Rebel is currently the Seymour Adelman Director of Special Collections at Bryn Mawr College. She was the curator and head of the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center at Ringling College of Art and Design from 2016 to 2023 and the co-founder/co-organizer of the art book fair Paper Jam from 2017–2021. As an artist, curator, and bibliographer, her embodied research practices include experimental bibliography, artist’s publications, theoretical writing, critical graphic design, performance, and inclusive exhibition making. She studied Visual & Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Library and Information Science at Dominican University, and Fine Arts and Graphic Design at Ball State University.

 

She is a Senior Fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. Her recently released monograph Bibliographic Performances & Surrogate Readings (The Everyday Press) is expressly dedicated to experimental subject bibliography—projects that explore artifactual, intellectual, spatial, and design possibilities.

 

Her artist’s publication projects have been collected by Art Institute of Chicago (Ryerson and Burnham Libraries), Baylor University (Libraries and Book Arts Collection), Franklin Furnace (Artists’ Books Collection at Pratt Institute), Free Library of Philadelphia (Art Department, George Mason University Libraries (Artist Book Collection), Paper Machine (Artist Book Collection), Ringling College of Art and Design (Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection), Swarthmore College (Special Collections), University of the Arts--RIP! (Greenfield Library Book Arts Collection), University of California Irvine (Special Collections and Archives), University of California Santa Barbara (Special Research Collections), University of Chicago (Library and Special Collections Research Center), University of Iowa (Special Collections), University of New Mexico (Special Collections), University of New Orleans (Earl K. Long Library), Virginia Commonwealth University (Special Collections and Archives VCU Book Art Collection), William & Mary (Special Collections Research Center), and Yale University (Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library).

 

For inquiries and acquisitions, please email: jrebel@foldtocenter.com.
Connect on IG: janellemrebel.

 

 

Photo by Vivianne Peckham.