The collection includes Norman Shapiro's portfolios, artist books, comics, correspondence and poems most of which include erotic and pornographic material. Throughout the collection are letters and artist statements from Shapiro detailing his journey of drawing in the 1960s, creating artist books, publishing and teaching geometry through art.
Shapiro's work contains explicit content that may not be appropriate for all.
Norman Shapiro was an artist and an educator. He created Euphemisms Publishing Company in Brightwaters, New York. In an artists' statement in 2002, Shapiro said he considered himself a book artist. "I use the copier, the computer, assorted software that enables me to scan and edit my drawings and writings. I combine them with 'readymade' things I find. I mostly end up making my books in multiples."
In a letter to former Boise State University professor, Tom Trusky, Shapiro stated "My art, for whatever its worth to others, is for me an extraordinary vorage of sex, art, and sensibility. My drawing and making artist books has redefined me. -Become not only a record of a hidden, secreted self, but of an androgynous persona I'd never have discovered or known otherwise".
Collection is available for research.
Donated by Norman Shapiro in 1993 through 2008.
[Item description], Norman Shapiro Artist Books, Box [number] Folder [number], Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.