Book Arts

Spread out over four intensive weekends, Book Arts is a program for aspiring artists, writers, and craftspersons—and anyone who loves books. This introduction to books arts emphasizes hand-bookbinding and experimental artist's books, with the option to experiment with letterpress printing. Weekend intensives will guide you through focused projects and skills and leave you with assignments and extensions of your practice to continue at home. While the studio offers specialized equipment, much of bookbinding practice can be done at home and with improvised materials and equipment.

Your formal binding work will include ancient and modern structures, several stitching methods, and box-making; in addition, we'll explore experimental artists' books—a practice of engaging with books as an expressive form latent with cultural values and formal experimentation. Assignments will inspire you to play with form and idea and to develop creative pieces that stretch your imagination beyond the boundaries of what we consider "books". A modest individual project will allow you to develop project planning skills, articulate conceptual foundations for creative work, and focus on a chosen area of practice. Brief readings and presentations will provide historical and critical context for the arts and crafts associated with the book.

This program will meet in person for four weekends. Online readings, consultations, and resources will support your work between studio times.