The Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective was founded by Tia Blassingame in 2019 in response to observations on how the book arts field: “largely ignored or erased the involvement of non-white peoples and communities in book history, print culture, letterpress printing, papermaking, etc.”

The Collective builds “community and collaborations with BIPOC book/print practitioners and scholars.” To date, the Collective is over 40 members strong representing individuals in Egypt, the Americas, Europe, and India, and has presented, exhibited, completed residencies, taught workshops, and published worldwide. 

Collective members are “passionate about book history, print culture, and the endless potential of artists’ books as vehicles of social change and cultural conveyors that uplift our communities, and tell our stories, histories.” Not all members of the Collective are BIPOC; what unites the group is community and “our shared interest and passion in artists books as potential vehicles for social change, racial unity that sort of binds us.” The Collective is at once a professional network and an international creative knowledge base. Honoring the Collective further establishes APHA’s commitment to championing the work of twenty-first century makers and scholars in the greater printing history community.