Head of Herakles, 3rd-2nd Centuries BC Greece, Hellenistic period

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Reference Materials

Reference books give you a general overview of a person or topic. They can be a good starting point, since many of the entries are written by leading scholars in the field, and entries often include bibliographies.

• Grove Art Online:
  The best place to start; articles on thousands of artists, countries, and media. Updated more frequently than the print version.
  [Print version: The Dictionary of Art / DEN Ref N31 .D5 1996]


• Oxford Reference Books Online / Art Section:
  Online access to six of Oxford's art reference books.


• Contemporary Artists / DEN Ref N6490 .C6567 2002


• International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture / DEN Ref NA40 .I48 1993


• Encyclopedia of Photography / DEN Ref TR9 .F6 1993


• ArtSTOR:
  An online collection of over 400,000 digital images.
  

Books

Follow these steps to find books about artists:

1. Use the OhioLINK Central Catalog to do a SUBJECT search. Enter your artist's name as Lastname, Firstname. This will bring up all the books by or about your artist, divided up by the type of book (e.g., "Exhibitions," "Criticism & Interpretation")
   


2. Print out or e-mail your relevant results by following these steps:
   • Add items to your "Saved List" in one of the following ways:
     • From the BROWSE screen, click "Mark All On Page" OR, to save selected items, click "Save Marked Records."
     • From the ITEM screen, click "Save for Export."
   • To get to the Saved List, click "View Saved Records."
   • To print the list, click "Screen" under "Send List To." Make sure "Full Display" is selected under "Format of List."
   • A new printer-formatted screen should appear with all the items you saved.
     


3. Request items directly through OhioLINK--just click "Request this Item" and follow the directions.
   

Types of books that are unique to art history:

• Artist Monographs
  Books by or about artists that are published independent of any museum or gallery exhibition. Usually, monographs are in-depth writings that analyze or provide context for an artist and his/her work.
  ***To find monographs, look for words like "Criticism and Interpretation" in the subject search results.
  


• Exhibition Catalogs
  Document museum and gallery shows. Exhibition catalogs are the best source for high-quality images of an artist's work. Also, many exhibition catalogs include artist biographies, curatorial essays, artist interviews and/or writings, and career chronologies.
  ***Exhibition catalogs will appear in your subject search with the word "Exhibitions" as part of the subject heading.
  
  You can also use the Contemporary Artists Index to find exhibition catalogs. This resource allows you to find artists that may have participated in group exhibitions as well as individual shows.
  


• Catalogue Raisonne
  A complete study of an artist's entire entire body of work (at least in one medium). These usually include images of every piece of work ever created by an artist, along with each piece's provenance/history.
  ***Catalogues raisonnes will appear as a separate item in the list of subject heading terms.

Louise Bourgeois "Blind Man's Buff" 1984 / American

Other Resources

• Databases
  Provide information about magazines and journals articles. After you find relevant articles, use the CONSORT Catalog to see whether we subscribe to the journal. (If we don't, use Interlibrary Loan.)
  
  There is a list of art-relevant databases on the Art Subject Guide.
  


• Web Sites
  Unlike the databases, web sites can usually be accessed for free, and usually do not contain information about published works. Web sites can be extremely useful, especially when researching very contemporary artists who create and maintain their own web sites.