Some of the newest objects on display at the National Museum of American History this fall are books, though not the kind found on a library shelf. The Smithsonian has put more than 40 artists’ books on view in a new exhibition, “American Stories,” with works by famed American artists Sol LeWitt and Ed Ruscha alongside pieces by newer names.
The show, formally titled “American Stories: Artists’ Books from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives,” opened Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Smithsonian Libraries Gallery on the museum’s first floor and is scheduled to run through early 2028, Hoodline reported.
Inside the Smithsonian’s ‘American Stories’ exhibition
The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives first announced the show in its 2026 programming release, describing more than 40 artists’ books drawn from its own collection. The exhibition examines American identity and experience through pieces such as a commemoration of Hawaii’s native culture, a Louisiana community’s rituals as a hurricane approaches, and an artist’s celebration of her heritage through African and American fabrics.
The exhibition page says the show brings together works by more than 50 American artists and explores identity, community and history, mixing recent acquisitions by emerging artists with works by established figures. Visitors already planning a holiday trip to Washington can pair it with ZooLights at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and the museum is a natural stop on any tour of bucket-list American landmarks.
Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha and Adrian Piper on the shelves
Along with LeWitt and Ruscha, the Smithsonian lists Adrian Piper among the established artists in the show. Babette Katz is also featured for her 1995 work “My Flag.”
LeWitt, born in Hartford, Conn., in 1928 and died in New York City in 2007, is regarded as a founder of both conceptual art and minimalism. He produced more than 50 artist’s books over his career starting in 1966, and he co-founded Printed Matter, a nonprofit art space in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, in 1976, according to his Wikipedia biography. He is best known for creating more than 1,270 wall drawings between 1968 and his death.
Ruscha, born in Omaha, Neb., in 1937 and associated with the pop art movement, made 16 small artist’s books between 1962 and 1978, including “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” in 1963, according to his Wikipedia biography. His 1966 book “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” is a book of continuous photographs of a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of Sunset Boulevard, and the Getty Research Institute later acquired its production materials. Ruscha used the same approach for Hollywood Boulevard in 1973, and photographer Charles Johnstone later moved the gas-station idea to Cuba for “Twentysix Havana Gasoline Stations” in 2008.
What makes an artist’s book different
The exhibition page presents the artist’s book as a form for storytelling and creative expression, and the Smithsonian’s artists’ books collection spans numerous formats, styles and countries. The works are available to researchers for study and inspiration.
Five Smithsonian libraries hold artists’ books: the American Art and Portrait Gallery Library, the Cooper Hewitt Library, the Dibner Library, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library, and the Warren M. Robbins Library at the National Museum of African Art. Researchers who want to see a book outside the exhibition need to contact the individual library for an appointment. Crafters inspired by the show can try their hand at a few simple cozy crafts for winter, a fitting project for the kind of evenings described in these things families used to do on long winter nights.
Planning a visit to the National Museum of American History
The Smithsonian Libraries Gallery sits on the west side of the museum’s first floor at 12th Street and Constitution Avenue NW in Washington. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week and closes on Dec. 25.
The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives says workshops and public programs tied to the exhibition will be announced later in 2026. The same office is also behind a show across the Mall: “Imagining Bison,” on the ground floor of the National Museum of Natural History, traces depictions of bison from Indigenous drawings to conservation-era photographs. Curated by Kirk Johnson, it runs from May 21, 2026, through summer 2027 and includes a 1901 $10 “buffalo” bill and an 1888 bison portrait. The Smithsonian also received 200 boxes of Burpee seed company family business records, the basis of a 2026 talk on the company’s history. With a run that stretches into early 2028, the show leaves plenty of time for a visit, and anyone mapping out a longer cultural trip can add a few historic American theaters that still host live shows. Travelers heading in during the busy holiday season may also want to skim these common travel blunders before they go.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: DestinationFearFan – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
