Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Book Picks from CLP – South Side Artist in Residence – Ash Strazzinski

Community Contributor
Community Contributor

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) Artist in Residence (AIR) Series is for creatives to explore the rich book collections and/or archives of CLP and share their creative ingenuity and research with CLP patrons and the greater Pittsburgh community. These picks were shared by CLP – South Side’s AIR, Ash Strazzinski. Ash is “a multimedia visual artist who is deeply invested in playtime; wildly curious about bodies; mystified by femininity and masculinity; and confused about gender. I make photographs, zines, one-of-a-kind artist books, installations, and occasionally object.” 

From the inspiring poetry of Joy Harjo to the local history of each branch library, artist-in-residence will be able to dive into CLP archives and collections to further their practice, subjects of interests, and engage the community through their creativity. The selections below serve as some of the inspiration for Ash Strazzinski’s work. In addition to these titles Ash also recommends Structure of the Visual Book by Keith Smith and Jimmy Robert Vis-à-vis. 

You can sign up for a free library card here.

If you need help using our Digital Media tools to access these selections, visit our Online Resources Support page.

If you’re looking for more book suggestions, we’re happy to recommend them to you! Use this Book Recommendation form to send us some information about what you like to read and we’ll curate a list just for you.

If you have any additional questions, you can call us at 412-622-3114 or email us at info@carnegielibrary.org. You can find additional ways to contact us on the Need Help? page.

In the Catalog

Art & Fear

Art & Fear

Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

David Bayles

Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn’t get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
Autobiography of Red

Autobiography of Red

A Novel in Verse

Anne Carson

The award-winning poet reinvents a genre in a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room

The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room

Stan Berenstain

Mama and Papa are frustrated that Brother and Sister can’t seem to pick up after themselves. Will the cubs ever learn to clean up their messes?

From the Catalog
From Libby
Bluets

Bluets

Maggie Nelson

A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
The Book as Art

The Book as Art

Artists’ Books From the National Museum of Women in the Arts

Krystyna Wasserman

Culled from over 800 unique or limited-edition volumes held by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, these books explore the form as a container for ideas.

From the Catalog
The Boxcar Children

The Boxcar Children

Gertrude Chandler Warner

Four orphans take shelter in an old boxcar during a storm, and, determined to make it their own, they turn it into a safe, cozy home.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
Circles on the Water

Circles on the Water

Selected Poems of Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy

More than 150 poems from her seven books of poetry written between 1963 and 1982.

From the Catalog
Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler

In 2025 California, an eighteen-year-old African American woman, suffering from a hereditary trait that causes her to feel others’ pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla