Category: Sewn Books

I recently read a post on the books arts listserv about an exhibition of fabric books by Louise Bourgeois. Since I didn’t know her bookwork, I poked around a bit to find out more. The spread to the left is from Ode à l’Oubli — what I especially like is that the sewing from the previous page shows through the back of the fabric sheet. Follow this link to see all the spreads. And this article from the NY Times talks about Ode à l’Oubli (“Ode to Forgetfulness”), “her 36-page fabric-on-fabric book, (with) an extraordinary and poignant object: a tactile diary of the long, trans-Atlantic, unusually examined life of the artist.” There’s also a book of her fabric-based work.

The theme of the last book I received in the journal project I’m participating in as part of the Santa Fe Book Arts Group was sewing and stitches. We are encouraged to sew directly on the pages. This particular journal is spiral bound, and contributors don’t have to worry about whether the book would close after adding in their thick sewn pieces.
I’ve been slowly recovering my dining room chairs, with my newly reconditioned sewing machine, and thought at first I would try to incorporate that project into my journal page contribution. But then I remembered the Guild of Book Workers downloadable pamphlet diagramming 60 book sewing structures and created by Betsy Palmer Eldridge for the Standards of Excellence conference in Toronto in 2008. I’ve been meaning to try some of the patterns and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
I wanted people to see both the front and back of the stitching, so I glued a piece of tyvek to the back of the sheet I was going to sew, then punched my patterns through the two layers. This precaution was to strengthen the paper, making it more like a spine piece thickness and weight. I only had room for 4 sewing structures, and it was hard to select which ones I wanted to try. So I practiced about a dozen before settling on my final choices. I neglected to take a picture of the finished page before sending the journal on to the next person — but I found this post about embroidering on bread, which is much more festive then my own spine sewings!

The upcoming issue of Ampersand includes Debbie Kogan’s profile of book artist Tamar Stone. She makes one-of-a-kind books using antique corsets, linens and beds as substrates, then embroiders them with original texts from women’s stories and writings (many from the 1800s). She says

Inspired by my own experiences [with wearing a brace to correct scoliosis as a teen-ager], my books capture moments in women’s lives when issues of appearance, self esteem and assimilation become paramount due to physical restrictions placed on the body, either by fashion or by medical necessity.

Her website is a treasure trove of photos of her work, and you can also read the texts she uses. Be sure to check it out. Below is a detail of one of her works, …to make her look her best (the White Corset Book) from 2002.

Detail of …to make her look her best (the White Corset Book) c. 2002
Antique Quilted Vest Corset, with bone buttons
Height: 10 1/2” (16” with shoulder straps)
Width closed: 11”
Width opened: 18 3/4”