Artists’ books started being produced in the GDR in 1982. Such books proved to be an alternative form of cultural exchange, which sought to avoid censorship. This collection of GDR artists’ books was first gathered by the Dresden library in 1986. This was the result of the initiative of numerous artists who sought to reach out into the public space and thus they approached the Library. For the Central Library for Arts and Music, the artistic value of these graphic arts was of interest as it already had a collection of original graphic books.