Buzz Spector

(American, b. 1948)

My Ruscha, 2000

Sometimes called a theoretician’s artist, native Chicagoan Buzz Spector is well-known for exploring themes surrounding the idea of the book and authorship. In his series of Polaroid images of books from his personal library, Spector explores the book’s complex identity as both a physical and conceptual object. One of the best-known contemporary artists to use books as sculpture, Spector manipulates books to reveal their metaphorical significance as symbols of order and knowledge in contemporary society.

Spector has exhibited and lectured internationally at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Rocket Gallery, London; Accademia d’Ungheria, Rome; Chicago Cultural Center; San Antonio Art Institute, Texas; Center for Book Arts, New York; and Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, among many other institutions. He is a three-time recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award, and his work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, among other institutions. Born in 1948, Buzz Spector is currently professor and chair of painting at the University of Illinois at Champaign.

Lipski, Donald; Spector, Buzz. Transgressions, Donald Lipski and Buzz Spector: [exhibition, December 8, 1990-February 10, 1991]. Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1990.

Spector, Buzz. Buzz Spector. [Newport Beach, CA : Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1990.

Spector, Buzz. Details: Closed to Open: Selections from the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. [Swarthmore, Pa. : Swarthmore College Dept. of Art], 2001.

Spector, Buzz. Double Readings. [S.l.] : B. Spector, 1987.

Spector, Buzz. Public/Private Peace: Selections from the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Swarthmore, Pa.: Swarthmore College, 2002.

Spector, Buzz. Silence: A Synopsis. [United States : s.n., 1992] 1992

Spector, Buzz. Unpacking My Library: An Installation. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1995.

Spector, Buzz.; Upshaw, Reagan. Buzz Spector. New York, NY: Cristinerose Gallery, 1998.