Troubling: Artists’ Books that enlighten and disrupt old ways of being and seeing. BY TIA BLASSINGAME AND ELLEN SHEFFIELD. Within the deep lineage of visual art that explores challenging subject matter, the genre of artists’ books has long played an integral role in educating about and advocating for themes of socio-political and cultural justice topics. Book artists utilize the book form in these cases to trouble—or disrupt— the status quo. In some instances, the artist is also the disruptor, as in Clarissa Sligh’s It Wasn’t Little Rock. The work describes her family’s experience with racism and school integration in 1956 where she was the lead plaintiff in a school desegregation class action suit. Co-curated by Ellen Sheffield and Tia Blassingame, Troubling: Artists’ Books that enlighten and disrupt old ways of being and seeing is an exhibition of artists’ books that explore racial, environmental, and LGBTQIA+ justice themes.