The Book: 123 Definitions

123 artists, bookbinders, publishers, librarians, and scholars answer a deceptively simple question: What is a book?

In April 2018, after publishing The Book in The MIT Press’ Essential Knowledge Series, Amaranth Borsuk began to approach artists, bookbinders, publishers, librarians, and scholars to inquire about their definition of the book. This collection, originally published in 2021 with 101 definitions and now expanded to 123, documents the responses and decentres the author’s voice to draw attention to the many other formulations of what the book is and can be.

“The book is the physical limit at which we give up trying to contain a concept.”—Craig Dworkin

“The book, for a very short time, stabilizes what flows through it, with the proviso that some works do not flow, just as some bodies do not progress from one time to the next in fluid or malleable ways. In this case, the book functions differently. It becomes the ground, a nearby or volatile ground for what lies down: upon it. Throw a charnel next over the book. Set out a bowl of water for the unseen beings, the animals and birds, that gather at its boundary. Or brink.”—Bhanu Kapil

“What is a book? It stinks. B.O…O. K. Like a drunk. L’IVRE. Each one is a long island, brother. L.I. BRO. A kit full of As and Bs. KITĀB. Latin. LIBERation & Saxon BOG. The Taíno language would not have had a word for it but it had GUAROCO = to know, but also to remember (see petroglyphs). A book is a way of knowing, re-membering what is forever lost in translation.”—Urayoán Noel

“A book is the flesh between flesh, a hard text sculpture from soft text immensities, a staged performance of time, a tangible glance of minds, the desire to speak other.”—Lisa Samuels

Amaranth Borsuk is a poet, scholar, and book artist working at the intersection of print and digital media. She is the author of 7 books, both individual and collaborative. Her most recent book, W/\SH (Anhinga, 2026), is a work of speculative poetry created with poet and artist Terri Witek. Her contribution to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, The Book (2018), offers a concise introduction to the book’s changing technologies that bridges book history, artists’ books, and electronic literature to reconsider an object we think we know intimately. She has collaborated on installations, interactive artworks, and poems, and is Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell.

Featuring contributions from David Abel, Samuel Ace, Dr. Janneke Adema, Indira Allegra, Mark Amerika, Jenni B. Baker, Alisa Banks, Colleen Louise Barry, Patsy Baudoin, Erica Baum, Derek Beaulieu, Paul Benzon, Agustín Berti, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Jen Bervin, Doug Beube, Tia Blassingame, Sarah Bodman, Christian Bök, Books on Books, Serge Bouchardon, Julie Phillips Brown, Barbara Browning, Inge Bruggeman, Joel Burges, Stephen Bury, Mairéad Byrne, CAConrad, Francesca Capone, Micha Cárdenas, Amy Catanzano, John Cayley, Julie Chen, Theodoros Chiotis, David Clark, Steve Clay, Aaron Cohick, Marianne Dages, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs, Jason Dodge, Johanna Drucker, Kate Durbin, Craig Dworkin, Diego Erlan, Eyemole Arts & Technology Cooperative, Rebecca Goodale, Kate Greenstreet, Ann Hamilton, Ian Hatcher, Yoshi Hill, Zuzana Husárová, Gabriela Jauregui, Jhave, Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, Michael Joyce, Bhanu Kapil, Genevieve Kaplan, Matt Kirschenbaum, Emily Larned, Janice Lee, Warren Lehrer, Erik Loyer, Alessandro Ludovico, Jill Magi, Aurelea Mahood, Bonnie Mak, Gita Manaktala, Piotr Marecki, Steve McCaffery, Scott McCarney, Clifton Meador, Nick Montfort, Bea Nettles, Urayoán Noel, Élika Ortega, Shin Yu Pai, Allison Parrish, Pamela Paulsrud, Lisa Pearson, Marjorie Perloff, Michalis Pichler, Antonia Pinter, Deborah Poe, Roxi Power, Jessica Pressman, Leah Price, Robin Price, Ido Radon, Rita Raley, Tatiani G. Rapatzikou, Brian Reed, James Reid-Cunningham, Tim Roberts, Shirin Salehi, Lisa Samuels, Dorothy R. Santos, Alex Saum-Pascual, Miriam Schaer, Kyle Schlesinger, Laura Shackelford, Travis Shaffer, Tate Shaw, Levi Sherman, Robbin Ami Silverberg, Vivian Sming, Michael Snow, Buzz Spector, Jared Stanley, Bob Stein, Garrett Stewart, Stephanie Strickland, Miriam Suzanne, Nick Thurston, Elisabeth Tonnard, Whitney Trettien, Nico Vassilakis, Dan Visel, Danielle Vogel, Jan Voss, Andrew Norman Wilson, Ronaldo V. Wilson, Terri Witek, Steve Woodall, and Amaranth Borsuk.