From friend to friend, mom to daughter, and artist to artist, these sketchbooks have traveled far distances and fostered connections all over the world. In light of the current state of the United States Postal Service, we curated a collection of sketchbooks that highlight the dynamic exchange and community-building made possible through the mail system.

From Me To You by Vern & Katie is a collaboration between long-distance friends exploring measurements, connections and the passage of space and time through tactile mediums. Through processes of layering and collage the two artists created a cohesive and tactile collection of works on paper.

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My Conversation With Summer by Chris Blair brings together the work of Summer Graham (Age 9) who lives in Mexico and Chris Blair (Age 44), an artist living in San Francisco. The two sent the sketchbook back and forth with no rules and let the content of the book unfold naturally, to allow it to reflect each of their artistic expressions.

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Helen Gwinn’s interest in envelopes and Mail Art began when the artist’s daughter left for college in 1986 and the two began a “‘snail mail’ correspondence.” Gwinn’s sketchbook It Must Be Envelopes explores the artist’s communication with her daughter and love for mail art in her artistic practice.

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Traveling “from city to desert to town to mountains, along highways and airways and back roads and roundabouts” Illumination Exchange by The Illumination Exchange is a collaborative collection of work by a group of friends with severe chronic illness. Illumination Exchange is an amazing example of the power of community and how art and the mail facilitates artistic exchange and expression.

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Illinois-based artist Janice Meister has a few books in the collection that house her collections of Postcard Art that she creates and exchanges with artists around the globe. In Working the Surface and Sending it on, you can view the work of over 50 contributors from 2015.