This post was written by Jon Snyder, Ph.D., Access Services Coordinator, Arts & Special Collections Research Center
Every December, familiar signs of the holidays begin to appear: strings of lights, evergreen boughs, well-worn books of carols, the smells of pine and cinnamon. Beyond these traditions, though, there is another, quieter celebration of the season found in the intimate, handmade world of the Baylor Book Arts Collection, part of the Arts & Special Collections Research Center at Baylor University.
All five artists’ books featured below are drawn from this rich teaching and research collection. Each one has been fully digitized through the Riley Digitization Center, along with more than 1600 additional artists’ books. Readers can click each title or image to explore the item online, view additional images, and learn more about its construction and context. The entire collection can be browsed through the Baylor Digital Collections site at: https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/arts-collections/book-arts-gallery.
Christmas ’76 by Brandon S. Graham
(click titles to view item in our Digital Collections)
Brandon S. Graham’s Christmas ’76 is a deceptively humble object: an eight-page book folded from a single sheet of paper. Its structure echoes the immediacy of childhood memories. In its short narrative, Graham revisits his fifth Christmas, a moment framed not by grand spectacle but by the fragile and vivid impressions that only a child can preserve.
The single-sheet format gives the book a sense of unity. Nothing is extraneous; every fold is purposeful. The hand of the artist is present in the pacing and page turns, moving the reader gently through a memory that is both deeply personal and broadly relatable. Many holiday stories trade in nostalgia, but Christmas ’76 feels less like nostalgic longing and more like a recovered artifact from the archaeology of one’s own life. It captures the emotional texture of a year, a room, a set of expectations and small wonders.
Lights Festival by Levi Sherman
If Christmas ’76 turns inward toward childhood, Levi Sherman’s Lights Festival looks outward, squarely at the glittering, commercialized theater of the contemporary holiday season. All photographs in the book were taken during the 2012 Magnificent Mile Lights Festival in Chicago, an event where retail branding collides with holiday cheer in a parade of color, sound, and corporate presence.
At first glance, Lights Festival resembles a book of Christmas carols. It presents musical scores, complete with lyrics and notation. But a closer look reveals a brilliant conceptual twist: instead of traditional carols, the lyrics contain corporate mission statements pulled from the very brands whose storefronts appear in the photos. The result is equal parts humorous, unsettling, and incisive. By pairing corporate rhetoric with the visual language of holiday music, he creates a dissonance that encourages the reader to reconsider the spectacle.
Fresh Cut Xmas: A Well-Trimmed Survey of Holiday Plants by Shawn Sheehy
Shawn Sheehy’s Fresh Cut Xmas moves readers back toward nature. This book celebrates the flora that has shaped winter holidays for centuries: holly, ivy, poinsettia, fir, and other seasonal plants whose symbolic histories stretch long before plastic garlands and LED lights. Rendered through intricate pop-up engineering, each plant rises from the page with sculptural presence. The color palette is minimal; embellishments are few. On each page, a haiku of precisely seventeen syllables provides a verbal counterpart to the paper constructions.
Sheehy’s restraint is deliberate. In contrast to the excess often associated with modern holiday celebrations, Fresh Cut Xmas offers a meditation on quiet beauty and older traditions. It reminds us that the origins of many seasonal rituals are rooted not in spectacle but in the natural world. Evergreen plants promised endurance, light, and life during the darkest days of the year. The pop-up structures also embody the magic of discovery, as plants unfold like small miracles. It is a book that rewards slowness, close looking, and appreciation of the handmade.
The First Christmas Story by Peter & Donna Thomas
Peter and Donna Thomas’ The First Christmas Story is a work of devotion in every sense: devotional in content and crafted with a devotion to traditional bookmaking. Limited to just 200 copies, the book presents Luke 2:1–19, the Nativity narrative, printed on Peter’s handmade paper using handset type. The result is both an homage to scripture and to the centuries-old traditions of fine press printing.
Donna Thomas’ linocuts and illuminations provide visual depth to the text, connecting the contemporary handmade book to medieval manuscript practices. The imagery does not distract from the biblical narrative; instead, it frames the text with reverence. Every page feels considered, intentional, and anchored in craft. This book embodies the idea that the holidays can be both spiritual and artisanal celebrations of meaning and of making.
Patrice Miller’s Little Tree brings delight through its playful design and heartfelt homage to e.e. cummings’ well-loved poem. The magic reveals itself when the covers open: a pop-up Christmas tree rises above short, wide pages bearing the text of cummings’ poem.
The pop-up structure is charming without being flashy, and the poem’s characteristic warmth and intimacy are allowed to shine. Where Sheehy’s pop-ups are botanical studies, Miller’s pop-up leans into the emotional symbolism of the Christmas tree: a small object of wonder transformed into a poetic centerpiece.
Together, these five artists’ books form a seasonal snapshot of the Baylor Book Arts Collection, demonstrating the diversity of approaches artists take in exploring memory, ritual, nature, and meaning.
In a season often filled with noise, these handmade works offer quiet spaces for contemplation and joy, inviting us to rediscover the holidays one page at a time. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Arts & Special Collections Research Center.