Background
Bury, Stephen John was born on May 12, 1954 in Blackburn, England. Son of Edwin and Ethel (Gregson) Bury.
Bury, Stephen John was born on May 12, 1954 in Blackburn, England. Son of Edwin and Ethel (Gregson) Bury.
Bury received his Bachelor and Master of Arts in Modern History from the University of Oxford, where he was a Brackenbury Scholar of. He studied librarianship at University College London and Victorian Studies at Birkbeck, University of London where he wrote a Doctor of Philosophy on John Ruskin titled "John Ruskin and History" (defended 1990).
He is known for his scholarship on artists" books, although his research interests also include the literature of art, the impact of the digital on the future of humanities, and the use of the past in the project of modernism. Bury began his career in 1979 as the assistant librarian of Chelsea School of Art, London, where he also taught art history and fine art practice. He became Head of Modern English Collections at the British Library in 2000 and in 2002, a Deputy Director as Head of European and American Collections, Maps, Music and Philatelic.
He was Senior Responsible officer for the National Preservation Office from 2003 to 2009 and the United Kingdom Web Archiving Program from 2008 to 2010.
Bury also chaired the boards of Bookworks and Matt’s Gallery, London. In 2010, he assumed his present position at the Frick Art Reference Library.
Bury also served as Advisory Editor to Oxford Art Online from 2011 to 2014. Bury curated the exhibition "Breaking the Rules" at the British Library in 2007-2008.
In 2011, he curated "Aphasic Disturbance" at CHELSEAspace, London, which according to critic Pamela Kember brought together "a small but carefully selected number of artists" books, multiple editions and objects to articulate new meanings or associations.".
Currently, he is a board member of the Exhibitions Committee of the Grolier Club, New York and the Center for Book Arts in New York, and is an active member of the planning committee for the Contemporary Artists" Books Conference, which is held annually in collaboration with the New York Art Book Fair.