The life of a book is predestined to end badly. It will get printed, en masse, shipped to a bookstore, and bought; after which it’ll be read, passed on to a friend, and eventually dumped at Goodwill -- or, in the case of Perez Hilton’s upcoming True Bloggywood Stories: The Glamorous Life of Beating, Cheating, and Overdosing, tossed in a dumpster or used as toilet paper. The only exception seems to be handmade books like those created by ASU’s student-bookmaking group ABBA (A-Buncha-Book-Artists) because many of its works often land in private art collections or museums.

Catch ABBA’s recent handmade tomes in an exhibit that’s currently hanging at the Phoenix Airport Museum, Terminal 3. The show, curated by Gary Martelli, features artist-made books by two-dozen locals, such as Diana Calderon, Kjellgren Alkire, and Cindy Iverson.

So why make an art book when it’s easier to slap a picture on a canvas? “The book form allows us to have direct contact to artwork that most paintings, drawings, and sculptures just don't allow,” says ABBA president Jacob Meders. “There can be actual physical layers that the viewer can dive into firsthand.”