Modern Artifacts features all 18 installments of the eponymous series that appeared in issues of Esopus—several of which are sold out—from 2006 to 2019. The “Modern Artifacts” series featured items reproduced in facsimile from MoMA’s extraordinary collection, curated and introduced by MoMA’s Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections Michelle Elligott. Contents range from documentation related to the planning of exhibitions that were never staged to pages from the Museum’s first guest book.

Six contemporary artists—Mary Ellen Carroll, Rhea Karam, Mary Lum, Clifford Owens, Michael Rakowitz, and Paul Ramirez Jonas—have contributed projects related to a particular aspect of the archives. These contributions—many incorporating removable inserts—appear throughout the book, which also includes an introductory essay by Elligott and a foreword by Esopus editor Tod Lippy.