Catenary Books is a portfolio of six bookplates by Kristy Caldwell, developed during her 2025 William H. Helfand Fellowship at the Grolier Club Library. The project imagines a metaphysical bookshop called Catenary Books and follows its resident cat as he wanders through the shelves after hours.
Each bookplate captures a moment from the cat’s nighttime journey through the shop’s collection. The title refers to a catenary: the natural curve formed by a line suspended between two points. Here, it describes the connective space between books, linking them into a larger imagined collection. Once you sign your name and place a bookplate into one of your own books, your personal library becomes an extension of Catenary Books. From there, the way the cat's journey is encountered depends on where the plates end up.
Printed in collaboration with Russ Spitkovsky at Guttenberg Arts and housed in a handmade enclosure. Screenprints on French Paper Natural Parchtone, 60lb. text weight paper, 2026. Edition of 60 sets. Bookplates: 3.5" x 4.5" each. Enclosure: 4" x 5" x 1/8". Bookplates individually signed and dated on the reverse. The enclosure is made from French Paper cover stock and includes a stamped front panel and a belly band with an embossed title logo.
Kristy Caldwell is a New York-based illustrator and an assistant professor of illustration at Queens College, CUNY. She develops narrative projects that engage imagination in relation to perception and experience, drawing from memory, history, and visual culture. She has illustrated more than a dozen children’s books, including Flowers for Sarajevo, a 2017 New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, and was part of the team that launched Carrier Pigeon: Illustrated Fiction and Fine Art. In 2025, she was a William H. Helfand Fellow at the Grolier Club Library. Her work has been recognized by American Illustration, 3x3, and Communication Arts. kristycaldwell.com
