Scrapbooks: An American History

There's some scary stuff in the scrapbooking aisle—cutesy papers, flowered borders and tacky stickers galore. But designer Jessica Helfand looks beyond the contemporary readymade to discover the art form's purer roots in her upcoming book Scrapbooks: An American History. It explores why we're compelled to document our lives and peers inside decades-old scrapbooks—before all the pre-made stuff—to find out what they tell us about history. There's even a peek into a scrapbook the poet Anne Sexton created to capture memories of the year after she eloped.

by Michelle Taute