Bookmaking – Page 67 – Green Chair Press Blog

Marking Time

“Marking Time” is the theme of the current triennial Guild of Book Workers members’ exhibition. The PCBA had a member exhibition with the same title in 2005 — our theme was a bit more restrictive with the exhibition exploring “how book artists have used the calendar structure to think about the cycles of the year…” We also published an Ampersand at the same time with a more expanded focus, including articles about book artists who used dreams and time in their bookworks.
I’ve been thinking this week about my design for a 2010 calendar (and how much should it be like a conventional month-by-month affair) and “marking time” has been on my mind. So it was with special interest that I looked at the online version of the GBW show. All are beautifully photographed and there is a short artist’s statement accompanying the photos. One that made me smile is Todd Pattison’s Little Library. How does it relate to the theme you might ask? Pattison says, “working on this piece allowed me to bind the same number of books in one night that would otherwise take a year or more.”

A Little Nudge

I’ve been too busy with other stuff recently to think much about my own bookmaking projects. Last month my computer died unexpectedly (isn’t that always the way it works?) and I had to get a new one with an updated operating system. For a while it looked like I wasn’t going to convince my very old but much loved inkjet printer to work with my new setup and as I looked at large format inkjet printers as replacements, I began dreaming up new projects to try. But after more cajoling, my faithful printer is working again, so why spend the money and (much worse) considerable learning time on a new one?
But there must be something in the air, because small nudges to work on something new seem to happen every day. Yesterday my friend Kate sent a link to a contest at Lulu: Create a Mini Photography Book. Win $500. Even if I don’t enter the contest, their new mini books have interesting possibilities. They have 2 sizes, 3.75×2.5 and 5.25×3.5. The smaller one is $3.99 each for a 20 page book, and I probably couldn’t make a small edition for that price (see all the details here).
And then came a call for entries for Broadsided! The Intersection of Art and Literature, an exhibition of letterpress printed broadsides in October in Portland…. guess I better get busy!

Sewings

The Guild of Book Workers recently posted a downloadable pamphlet diagramming 60 book sewing structures. The pamphlet was created by Betsy Palmer Eldridge for the Standards of Excellence conference in Toronto in 2008. It’s got great diagrams, like the one to the left. You can download it as a PDF or a pamphlet layout that you can print and sew.

MCBA Prize

The Minnesota Center of Book Arts inaugurated a book arts prize this year, with an award of $2000 to the winner and $500 to five finalists. Those finalists were announced recently and you can see them here along with the books from all the people who entered.

I wasn’t familiar with some of the entrants, including Simon Redington, who’s one of the five finalist. His book Bomb (to the right) is made from “Letterpress type, woodblocks & circular saw blades”. There’s some information about him here and a gallery of his prints here.

French Fold

My blog posts often serve as reminders of things I want to return to, and this is one of those… I’ve made lots of single sheet books, and even sell a kit of various designs that fit on 8-1/2×11 paper. But I was reminded the other day of the simplest single sheet book — the french fold. According to the description for a class given by Robert Walp later this month at Great River Arts Insitute in Vermont,

A French fold is a book printed on one side of a single sheet of paper. The printer must determine the proper orientation, or imposition, of each page so that when folded twice the sheet becomes a four page book with a cover, two inside pages, and a back.

Victoria May

Victoria May is a local artist who mostly does fiber art. Occasionally she makes bookworks too — she belongs to the PCBA and always has interesting things in our member shows (and I’m a push-over for any book with sewing in it). The last time we did a year-end exhibition of calendars, she made the one to the left (called Pocket Calendar, it’s made of Library book pockets, book pages, mull, thread, rust and dirt, and is very large). I also distinctly remember her Ocean Book — while it has no text, the colors and delicacy of it made me think immediately of lapping water.
Recently Victoria was the subject of a short documentary shown on Spark, a weekly television show about Bay Area artists and arts organizations produced by our local public television station, KQED. While it’s about her sewn artwork, it’s an interesting look into how she designs and constructs her work.