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Chicago Style for Artists

Elements of a Book Citation

Every citation has elements to help your reader know where and how to find the information you are referencing. If you are unable to find any element of the citation, it can be omitted.

  • Author
  • Title
  • Editor, compiler, or translator, if any.
  • Edition, if applicable.
  • Volume if applicable
  • Series title, if applicable.
  • Facts of publication: city, publisher, and date
  • Page number or numbers if applicable
  • For books consulted online, a URL (or DOI-based URL).
Citation for a book by a single author:

Bibliography: Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published.

Note: #. Author first and last name, Title of Book (Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published), page number(s).

Example:

 Toffler, Alvin. Future Shock. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.

1. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), 227.


Citation for a book with multiple authors:

Bibliography: Last name, First name of first author and First Name and Last name of other author. Title of book. Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published.

Note: #. First name and Last Name of first author, and First and last name of other author, Title of Book, (Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published), page number(s).

Example:

Bourgeois, Louise, Clare Davies, and Briony Fer. Louise Bourgeois : Paintings. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.

2. Louise Bourgeois, Clare Davies, and Briony Fer, Louise Bourgeois: Paintings, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022), 21-22 .


Citation for a book with editor(s):

Bibliography: Last name, First name of first editor and First Name and Last name of other editor, eds. Title of book. Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published.

Note: #. First name and Last Name of first editor, and First and last name of other editor, Title of Book, (Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published), page number(s).

Example:

Ramos, Afonso Dios, and Tom Snow, eds. Activism. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2023.

Since most of the edited books you will encounter have individual authors for each chapter, your footnote citation will look differently. You can see an example of what it should look like below in the section titled: Citation for a Chapter in a Book


Citation for a Translated Book:

Bibliography: Last name of author, First name of author. Title of Book. Translated by Translators First name and Last name. Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published.

Note: #. First name and Last name of author, Title of Book, trans. Translators First name and Last name (Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published), page number(s).

Example:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. In Other Words. Translated by Ann Goldstein. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.

3. Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words, trans. Ann Goldstein (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), 146.


Citation for an E-Book:

Bibliography: Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published. URL or Name of database.

Note: #. Author first and last name, Title of Book (Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published), page number(s), URL or Name of database.

Example: 

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.

4. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851), 627, http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.


Citation for a Chapter in a Book:

Bibliography: Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter in Book" in Title of Book. Edited by First and Last name of editor, page numbers. Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published.

Note: #. Author first and last name, "Title of Chapter in Book" in Title of Book, ed. First and Last name of editor (Place of publishing: Publisher, Year published), page number(s).

Example:

Farnell, David and Rute Novia. "In the Wake of the Mermaid: Our Beautiful Monsters" in Perceiving Evil, Evil, Women and the Feminine. Edited by Rute Noiva, Kristen Smith, and David Farnell, 9-19. Oxford, England: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2015.

5. David Farnell and Rute Novia, "In the Wake of the Mermaid: Our Beautiful Monsters," in Perceiving Evil, Evil, Women and the Feminine, ed. Rute Noiva, Kristen Smith, and David Farnell (Oxford, England: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2015), 11.

Willamette University

Willamette University Libraries

Mark O. Hatfield Library
900 State Street.
Salem Oregon 97301
Pacific Northwest College of Art Library
511 NW Broadway.
Portland Oregon 97209