Artist Rachel Niffenegger specializes in painterly sculptures depicting decaying bodies and psychological distress: disembodied heads, violently shredded fabrics. Her husband, Jeremy Tinder, makes socially satirical comics and paintings featuring plaintive animals, psychedelic monsters, off-brand Nintendo characters and more.
The couple’s book collection reflects this: “It’s easily half graphic novels and comics,” Tinder says.
“And then we have exhibition catalogs, art theory textbooks and art books, some of which stay in our (West Town) studio,” Niffenegger adds.
The rest of the library is housed in their art-filled Edgewater apartment, on shelves clustered with Tinder’s toy collection: independent comics, such as “Spaniel Rage” by Vanessa Davis; crime fiction; vintage Time-Life books; a 1986 book called “Artistic Reflections of Women,” which Niffenegger found at Quimby’s (“It’s flowery and kind of skeezy,” Tinder says); and “Little Gorilla,” a favorite of their infant son, Gus.