Robbin Ami Silverberg

Robbin Ami Silverberg is a professor of Art of the Book at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the founding director of Dobbin Mill & Dobbin Books. With over 30 years of experience, she has established herself as a significant figure in the book art world, creating more than 25 collaborative artist books, 60 solo editions, 55 unique artist books, and about 20 artist book installations. Her work bridges traditional book arts with contemporary installation practices, often transforming architectural spaces into reading experiences.

Silverberg's research focuses on the materiality of paper as a conceptual element, exploring themes of interlinearity, memory, feminist perspectives, and the relationship between text and space. She received her degree in art history & sculpture from Princeton University and spent three years training in bookbinding & paper design in Vienna, Austria. Her practice uniquely integrates hand papermaking with book creation, treating paper as an activated substrate rather than a neutral medium.

The retrospective exhibition 'Read Me. Like a Book' at Pratt Institute Libraries demonstrates the breadth of her work, featuring 68 books and three installations that transform the library space itself into part of the artistic experience. Her publications are held in over 130 public collections worldwide, reflecting the significance of her contributions to the field of book arts.

Silverberg's work consistently engages with social and political themes through material interventions, including feminist critiques of domestic space, explorations of memory and memorialization, and responses to contemporary events like 9/11. Her approach treats books as three-dimensional sculptural objects that require active reader participation, often incorporating elements like translucent layers, embedded objects, and sound components.

• Professor of Art of the Book at Pratt Institute
• Founding director of Dobbin Mill (hand-papermaking studio)
• Founding director of Dobbin Books (artist book studio)
• Exhibited internationally across six continents
• Creator of the retrospective exhibition 'Read Me. Like a Book'

Her teaching and artistic practice emphasize the complete creative process, from paper creation to final binding, ensuring each element contributes to the conceptual integrity of the work. Silverberg's installations often transform architectural spaces into reading experiences, as seen in her Pratt Institute Library staircase work 'I write what I know on one side and what I don't know on the other,' where each stair riser becomes a page in a conceptual book.