Ten Shows is a catalog for ten exhibitions curated by Barb Choit and presented at the California Institute of the Arts Slide Library in 2002. The “shows” consisted of 35 mm slides that were culled from the CalArts library collection and placed in ten separate slide sheets on the slide library’s light table. After the exhibition, the book was acquisitioned by the library and now serves as a potential checklist for anyone interested in remounting the exhibitions.

Many of the slides are unique to the CalArts collection and show the history of the institution and its place within the greater art world. Included in the book are reproduced images of slides that document early works by well-known CalArts faculty and students, such as Michael Asher’s A Room Situation (CalArts Room A-403, 1973) or Sam Durant’s Untitled Installation, Detail Chairs (N.D.); images of historic changes to the campus architecture; CalArts Library’s Intel Lab (1999); and photographs of exhibitions that took place at CalArts, such as Lucy Lippard’s 26 Conceptual Women Artists (CalArts, 1973).

Also included in the book are generic reference images for general subjects such as astronomy or aeronautics, familiar images from popular culture, and multiple copies of canonized art historical works. The catalog both subjectively categorizes and takes stock of the CalArts slide library as a teaching tool and a living document of the institution’s history.