A Conversation With Arthur Jaffe

Last week, I posted a review of “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun,” a heartfelt exhibition now showing at the Jaffe Center for the Book Arts at FAU. It celebrates the 90^th birthday and retirement of cofounder Arthur Jaffe. Here is part two of

that story, my extensive interview with Jaffe.

What led you to starting the Jaffe Center?

I’m looking back, and I’m 90 years old now, so the Jaffe Center is the last moments of my life, in a sense. So I gave this collection – what we had at the time, which was 2,800 books – to the university as a gift, not knowing I would continue to be associated with what I gave away and that it would end up with this 5,000-square-foot museum, library, bookmaking facility, and teaching here at the university and having popular and great success with it. I’m as surprised as anybody else. So I didn’t answer your question, because when you live this long and you work this long, most people I don’t think have one vocation or one thing only they do in their lives. There are different phases of one’s life, and I think that’s true of me.

Well, you must have acquired some wealth to be able to build this collection.

I would never call myself a wealthy man. Comfortable at best, and certainly not wealthy. It was a passion, and I was able, though the support from other people and friends, to build this collection.

How many years did it take you to build up that collection of 2,800 books?

You know, I don’t call it a collection. I never called it a collection, because I believe, and I think most people would agree with me, that a collection has a focus. You collect books about something, concentrated subject matter, whatever that is. If you’re somebody who’s interested in flowers, you’d collect books about flowers. If you’re an automobile fanatic, you collect books about automobiles, so those are collections. These are just books that physically — and subject matter also — but essentially aesthetically, pleased me, and that’s why I bought them.

How did discover book art?

I don’t know that I discovered it … I was always interested in reading. I inherited it from my father. My memory of me father is him reading, whether it was newspapers, magazines, books, whatever it was. He was constantly reading in his spare time. I got used to seeing that, and he was a good storyteller. There wee six of us kids, and we didn’t go to bed unless dad told us a story to go to sleep by. So storytelling and reading were just part of my upbringing. It wasn’t purposeful; it was just the way my dad was. And he encouraged us. But I just fell in love with books.

What was the first artists’ book that you acquired?

I have no idea. Because I didn’t think of it that way. I don’t know what the first book I bought that I kept and said, I’m going to build a collection around this. I know the book that got me interested in books, and that was occurred because when I was 8 or 9 years old, sometime along that age bracket, I lived in this small town, Butler, Penn., near the Iowa border between Youngstown and Pittsburgh. It had a small library, and it was a small town, so you could walk to the library. Most people walked wherever they went. One summer day in June or July, school was out, and we lived across the street from an empty field. Eventually, that field was bought by the school system and eventually they put a school there. But it was an empty field where you pitched horseshoes and played ball. So I didn’t know what to do with myself when there were no ball games and no pitching horseshoes, and I thought, well, I could go to the library and get a book. They knew me there, because I used to come to the storytelling times at the library. I told the librarian I needed a book to read, and she helped me find one. She got me a book, and I took it home, and I couldn’t put it down, because I couldn’t imagine anybody living on an island all by himself for 28 years and surviving. And that was “Robinson Crusoe.” And I never owned a “Robinson Crusoe” book until two years ago. The version she gave me was a children’s version. I didn’t realize it was over 700 pages! But that really got me going.

I’m wondering if there was ever an “a-ha” moment at any point where you realized that books could be more than receptacles for stories, that they could actually be art, and vice versa.

I don’t know that I had a decisive moment. I think it happened over long periods of time. I was interested in art, even as a child. I liked art. And I liked music, because I used to sing. I had a pretty good voice. As a child, I liked the arts.

Do you have a favorite piece in this collection?

No. I have lots of favorite pieces. That’s a hard one to answer – it’s kind of an American question. What’s the best?! What is the most popular, and the world’s filled with questions like, “What’s your favorite flower?” Well, I like a lot of flowers [laughing].

Well, I’m sorry for asking it.

That’s OK. It’s typical in the sense that it’s an American values system. So I have books that I think are more accomplished than other books.

But are there any books that hold special meaning for you? Yes, there was a book that was given by one of my daughters in memory of her mother, who cofounded this collection with me. That book I have a special affection for that book. You’ve opened another thought, which is that some books I have affection for because of who gave it to me, and why they gave it to me. It isn’t because the book is so much better than another book; it’s the associations.

How did it make you feel to receive all these tributary works for the exhibition showing here?

That was a huge surprise to me. I didn’t know the staff had done that. They had written to many of the artists we had collected over the years, asking if they would be interested in making me a book as a birthday gift. I didn’t know they had done it until they had done it, and books started coming in. Almost everyone they wrote to did. But what impressed me was the quality of what they sent. They could have been chintzy and give me something that was lesser in scope, not a major piece of work. They were all terrific works.

Do you still look for new trends and new movements in book art?

Yes. I don’t boast about myself very much, and I think it has to do with working with young people, like I do in this setting, but my mind is pretty flexible. I’m not set. As a matter of fact, as I got older, I’d say, “I’ve seen that before. Can’t you do better? Where are you young people; why aren’t you getting on the right track?” So there’s always something being invented.

You must be hard to impress these days, because you’ve seen so much.

Probably. What you try not to do – some young person brings in a book, and he’s thrilled: “Jaffe, you’ll like this.” And I try not to downplay that person. I usually try to say, “That’s a good idea. I’ve seen that before, but I think you can improve this piece.” And I find that works very well. The true artist responds to that. He doesn’t object to it. He says, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I feel valuable to that person.

I think anybody would be wise to listen to your constructive criticism.

And I feel that, and I feel that I’m beneficial to them. I’m only finding out the truth of that due to this birthday of mine. And I’m getting letters, many of them saying, “I brought a book in to you five years, and now I’m a success, and it’s due to you, because you were the first one to encourage me to continue, and you also bought a book.”

John Cutrone says you haven’t taken a day off since your “retirement.” I take it you’ll remain active with the center?

No, no no! [Laughing]. There’s two reasons. First of all, I committed myself before I retire to a couple initiative, and they’re not finished. And it’s going to take six to eight months to finish them, and I owe it to myself and to them to finish. And I may be a little afraid to do nothing [laughing]. I’ve never been unemployed. I don’t know if I can just stay home all day. I can’t play tennis anymore; that would have been something.

So you don’t know how you plan on spending your retirement? People are always an option, getting involved with a few interesting people, that you have something in common with it, and you learn something every day. It’s a little adventure in your life. That will keep me going part of the time. I used to go to the movies, but I don’t like them much anymore.

There aren’t enough options for grown-ups, right?

That’s right.

The exhibition is called “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun.” Have you had fun here?

They tell me that I am, so I guess I am! [laughing]. The staff, they said, “Arthur, this is the way we see you. You’re having fun.” I guess it’s true, but I haven’t thought of it that way. I am having fun. That’s why I never got wealthy.