Music Book is a 64-page facsimile artist’s book by Sarah Cain, comprising a series of colorful abstractions painted directly over a collection of vintage sheet music. The original book of music was found in Switzerland and Cain’s paintings within collide with and respond to the previous owner’s handwritten notes. Music Book is an extension of Cain’s works on paper that balance her installation and large-scale painting practice: these works are intimate meditations; intricate and small-scale.

Cain has been painting Music Book since 2008 and has carried it through three studios. It is this journal of time that you can open up, start, close, put away, like a diary.

Music Book is co-published by X Artists’ Books and the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum on the occasion of Cain’s exhibition, Sarah Cain–Enter the Center.