Arthur Jaffe wants to change the way you think about books.

''If you leave here thinking the same way you did when you came in, then I flunked,'' he says.

The shelves at the Arthur & Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton are filled with books, of course, but not books that look or feel or, for that matter, even necessarily work as most of us expect they should. Known as artists' books because they were constructed by hand with the time, imagination and painstaking exactitude that characterizes all fine craftsmanship, they offer a dizzying array of subject matter and form. Though almost all were produced in editions of one, they share a common thread, Jaffe says: ''The element of surprise.''

Some of these artists' books are constructed of peacock feathers or potato sacking, mud or metal. They can stretch three feet high or -- when less than an inch square — can rest snugly in your palm. They may be blank of text or record words only the book's creator understands.

''I'm in love with all of them,'' Jaffe says.

Jaffe, 87, who lives in Delray Beach, has only one requirement for visitors to the collection: An open mind. The former U.S. Army intelligence officer from Butler, Pa., is curator and co-founder of FAU's Jaffe Collection: Books As Aesthetic Objects. Jaffe and his late wife began it in 1998 with a donation of about 2,800 books. It now encompasses 12,000.

''I never really was a collector,'' Jaffe says, echoes of his western Pennsylvania origins coloring his words. ''A collection requires a focus. I didn't have a focus. I bought books I liked. In the end we found out it was aesthetics I was interested in, but I didn't know that consciously until we decided to give the collection away. . . . Book dealers will tell you that it's an eclectic mix, and eclectic is very difficult to get rid of. But in the end, that turned out to be part of the appeal. ''

TOUCHING WORK

So did the fact that this is a hands-on collection. Jaffe might ask visitors to squirt on a bit of hand sanitizer before they stroke a silk binding or turn an especially delicate page, and the center is climate-controlled to combat mildew. But unlike most collectors, Jaffe doesn't imprison his treasures behind glass or wrap them in plastic.

''Books are meant to be handled,'' he says. ``. . . Do you remember the story of the Velveteen Rabbit? He doesn't become real until he's become worn, until he has been used and loved and stroked.''

Though they still occupy only a small niche within the art world, artists' books aren't new. The Book of Kells, an illuminated gospel created by Celtic monks around 800 A.D. and one of the Irish national treasures displayed at Trinity College in Dublin, could be considered an artists' book. The Sarajevo Haggadah, a work of 14th century Spain now housed in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is another spectacular example.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

The demand for modern artists' books is growing, says Vicky Stewart, proprietor with her husband Bill of Vamp & Tramp Booksellers in Birmingham, Ala. The Stewarts, who visited the Jaffe Center this summer, were once in the antiquarian book business but now focus exclusively on selling artists' books.

The ''confluence of art and intellect'' appeals to them, Bill Stewart says.

''I saw the book as a container for story and information, and I didn't care about the container,'' he says. ''Just give me a paperback to read. I liked hardbacks, too. I liked old leather-bound tomes, but it was still the story that was important. The first artists' book I saw was Ron King's Antony and Cleopatra on this sumptuous paper. It's illustrated by these brilliant-colored screen prints, with letterpress printing. It combines images and text, but the entire physical nature of the book becomes an expressive quality. . . . I can't tell you how smug I was about my place in the world. Too many years at school, too many graduate degrees. . . . I thought I knew the art world, but all I could think was, 'Wow, where did this come from, and why don't I know about it?'' ''

The Jaffe collection includes many books capable of provoking similar reactions, such as Brooklyn Bridge by Donald Glaister, which is made from sheets of aluminum and reflects the construction of the New York icon. When Jaffe turned the pages, he realized that the book mimicked the sound of footsteps crossing a bridge; the artist, he says, hadn't noticed.

Some of the represented artists are novices, such as Boca Raton's Jane T. Gavlick, who took up Jaffe's challenge grant and produced a book made from quilting materials that unspools from a box. Other artists are more experienced. The collection just acquired Susan Allix's 45th work, the breathtaking Colours of Persia, which features an unusual handmade box, silk binding, handmade paper and homemade ink.

Jaffe doesn't usually talk about what he pays for a book but says that Colours of Persia, which took Allix six years to produce, set the collection back $7,000 for one of 25 copies.

''It's a very unusual collection,'' says William Miller, director of FAU libraries, who names Allix as his favorite book artist. '' It expands the concept of what a book is. I think 100 years from now, the bulk of the books the library has will be electronic, but a collection like this is what differentiates one library from another. Not another library has this stuff. And it's not going to be digitized. It's the totality of the object that is important.''

The collection isn't merely an aesthetic joy; it also serves an academic purpose. John Cutrone, a book artist who coordinates programs for the center, assists researchers, leads tours and teaches courses in bookbinding, printing and other related subjects.

''I get excited by the whole process,'' says Cutrone, who has an M.F.A. from the Book Arts Program at the University of Alabama. '' I love printing. I get into such a good state when I'm doing that. Bookbinding is satisfying, too — seeing that stack of books growing on your table as you're binding them.''

Cutrone is busy with the collection's latest installation, scheduled to open Aug. 21. The moody, atmospheric Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, which runs through Nov. 25, features handmade books from a coalition of artists, poets and booksellers that formed after a car bomb killed 30 people and injured 100 on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad in March of 2007.

~ Miami Herald, August 10, 2008

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