Spector, Buzz

Sometimes called a theoretician's artist, native Chicagoan Buzz Spector is well-known for exploring themes surrounding the idea of the book and authorship. In his series of Polaroid images of books from his personal library, Spector explores the book's complex identity as both a physical and conceptual object. One of the best-known contemporary artists to use books as sculpture, Spector manipulates books to reveal their metaphorical significance as symbols of order and knowledge in contemporary society.

Spector has exhibited and lectured internationally at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Qian Juntao Art Research Museum, Haining, China; Accademia d'Ungheria, Rome; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, among many other institutions. He is a three-time recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award, and his work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Saint Louis Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among other institutions. Born in 1948, Buzz Spector has been visiting faculty in the PhD in Creativity at University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and is emeritus professor of art, Washington University in St. Louis.