BOOKWORKS NEWSLETTER - July 2006
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| Welcome to the July 2006 edition of the BookWorks Newsletter, our monthly publication that features classes and events taking place at Asheville BookWorks. In addition to our newsletter, we hope you'll take a look at our MAY-SEPTEMBER 2006 CLASS CATALOG, featuring workshops taught by Daniel Essig, Sandy Webster, Shannon Brock, Annie Fain Liden and many more. We invite you to stop by our studio at 428 1/2 Haywood Road and grab your own letterpress printed copy of the catalog. You can also browse the May-September Class Catalog on-line by clicking on the Workshops link above. If you'd like to receive the catalog via mail, feel free to give us a call at (828) 255-8444, or send us your information via e-mail to info@ashevillebookworks.com. We're also happy to provide bundles of catalogs for you to distribute to anyone who might be interested in taking a class. Just let us know. We hope to see you this month at BookWorks! |
THE ART OF THE BOOK
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In this new section of the BookWorks Newsletter, we focus one-by-one on the variety of techniques and concepts engaged in the creation of artist books. From bookbinding to printmaking to typesetting to papermaking to letterpress printing to book planning, we will take an in-depth look at these processes, with an aim toward sharing their uses and versatility as methods for making rich, innovative book works.
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Defining the Artist Book:
The Integration of Content and Form
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There is a constant, lively debate in the field of book arts regarding the definition of the artist (or artist's) book (vs. the handmade book vs. the livre de artiste vs. the fine press book vs. simply a book by a visual artist... the list goes on). The discussion of definition inevitably leads to a revelation regarding the impossibility of such a task. Though some tire of this back and forth, we at BookWorks find it to be intriguing and inherently worthwhile, as it brings into play questions of content and form, art and craft, conceptualization and actualization, etc. This is the milieu, it seems to us, in which some of the best ideas are born.
For a thorough introduction to this debate, one of the best resources is an now infamous 1998 listserv discussion from the Book Arts Web, which can be found at www.philobiblon.com/whatisabook.htm. For additional background, read the first chapter from Joanna Drucker's Century of Artists' Books, a classic text by one of the fields leading academic sources which can be found at www.granarybooks.com/books/drucker2/drucker2.html. An entirely contemporary take on the matter can be found in the January/February 2006 Vol. 10 No. 3 issue of Art On Paper, in which Deborah Ripley takes on the issue for those just discovering the book as an art form and medium unto itself (this back issue can be purchased at www.artonpaper.com/bi/).
In the context of this debate, one idea emerges that we feel is essential to the art of the book: the integration of content and form. It is this integration that comes the closest to our understanding of the quintessential artist book. A successful artist book is one that takes all aspects of a book (binding, typography, media used for visual imagery, techniques used for presentation of text, paper choice, sequence, the tactile experience of handling the book, structural integrity, etc.) into account when conceptualizing and actualizing the work. It is this commitment to the integration of content and form that has led us to expand our class selection this summer to include several new workshops, exploring not only technique and craftsmanship, but also questions of content, sequence, structure and more. Content Into Form, Form Into Edition, and Book Planning are all workshops that will explicitly address the relationship between content and form at it's place in understanding the art of the book. We invite you to join us for one of these classes, explore your understanding of the book as an art form and dive into the debate of definition!
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CLASSES
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EVENTS
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Featured Instructors:
NEW to BookWorks
Annie Fain Liden
Reared three miles from the front doorstep of the John C. Campbell Folkschool, Annie Fain Liden has always been surrounded by an arts and crafts community. She came upon the book and paper arts at Penland School of Crafts and is now sole-proprietor of A. Fain Books, a small, downtown book arts business. Her mission is to use books as tools to encourage and support creativity in young and old. See www.afainbooks.com for more information about Annie's studio and work. Classes taught by Annie at BookWorks this month include:
Creating a Daily Creative Companion
July 12, 19 & 26
Wednesday evening
6:30 - 8:30 pm
This class will focus on the wonderful creativity involved in custom designing your ideal sketch book or journal. You will learn multi-needle coptic binding and experiment with simple closures to develop a strong book that lies flat when open and can withstand daily creative use. We will explore how sketching and journaling can channel and support your own creative process. Please bring anything from your personal collection that inspires the design of a book intended to reflect your personal aesthetics and artistic needs.
$65 + materials fee
Jennifer Brook
Jennifer Brook is an Asheville-based artist and bookmaker who recently completed a limited edition letterpress artist’s book, entitled Transplant, during a three-month residency at BookWorks. See www.jennybrook.com to see and read Transplant and to learn more about Jennifer's work. Her passion for making books has brought her to interesting places all over the world, including Italy, where she worked with weavers and bookbinders. In addition to producing her own work, Jennifer works with teenagers in foster care to create “teen ‘zines,” leads writing and bookmaking workshops with people of all ages, and facilitates one-on-one and large group brainstorming sessions for individuals and organizations. Classes taught by Jennifer at BookWorks this month include:
Content Into Form
July 20 & 27, August 3, 10 & 17
Thursday evening
6:00 - 9:00 pm
Utilizing the creative process, we will move from murky book concepts into fully developed book works as content marries form. We will begin by brainstorming to gather our ideas, then move deeper into the idea that is “kicking hardest to come out.” We will explore a smorgasbord of book forms and investigate how the materials we choose can work to support our concepts. Upon completion of this course, you may be interested in editioning your book work. Our September class, Form Into Edition, provides a forum to do just that!
$160 + materials fee
Christopher Barnes
Christopher Barnes is a student at Warren Wilson College, where he will soon complete a degree in Traditional Bookmaking & Fiction Writing. Having always been attracted to the idea of involvement in each step of a process, Christopher found book arts to be the ideal form for the marriage of his writing and art. He will be publishing a small edition of short stories in the fall. He is actively involved in the production of Em Literary, a handbound literary magazine published by Bookworks’ neighbor, Blue Barnhouse. Classes taught by Christopher at BookWorks this month include:
Democratic Multiples
July 31, August 1 & 2
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday evenings
6:00 - 9:00 pm
With democratic multiples, the key term is accessibility, regarding both content and cost. This class will consider both issues in its quest to find options for editioning one’s work economically yet attractively. Participants will examine how to actively move the reader through the text. We will explore miniatures, Citra-strip carbon transfer, relief printing, typewriting, found object utilization, pamphlet stitch, japanese stab binding, and more. All levels welcome. Please bring a short selection of text (poem, short story) to the first class.
$15 + materials fee |
Stealing Experience: A Collaboration in Friendship
Collage Art by Charles Farrell & Sebastian Matthews
Exhibition Opening with Live Music & Spoken Word
July 13
Thursday evening
7:00 - 9:00 pm
At core of this unique show are 11 pairs of postcard collages exchanged by two artists over a year and a half period. The 22 pieces have been selected from over 80 original collages that, in total, literally embody a stage in a friendship. As a body of work, they display collaboration and creative play in all its awkward grace, demonstrating a gradual deepening of craft and sharpening of skill. By the end of the collaboration, both artists were using 100% of both sides of the card. As one of the collaborators exclaimed, “It’s amazing that the post office even got them to our boxes!
In addition to this collaboration project, BookWorks will display in its gallery old and new collage work by the two artists, as well as their new postcard collaborations. Visitors will be free to try their hand at the open collage table, which will come equipped with collage material, scissors and glue, and an old typewriter open for any and all spontaneous poetics.
Sebastian Matthews says this on the genesis of his collaboration with Charles Farrell: “Back in the late 80s, when we first met in Portsmouth, New Hampshire—a small, coastal, artsy tourist town—a group of us took up all manner of creative play. We met at cafes, put on loft parties, took road trips, explored the streets of the town. And it wasn’t long before we were ‘stealing experience,’ a term Charles and I made up to describe this trespassing play. Our goal was to wake each other up, make art, and laugh a lot in the process. We were also interested in inhabiting private realms in public places and finding ways to cross boundaries normally restricted in everyday life. So I guess these collages became another way for us to engage in subversive play.”
Charles Farrell writes of his creative process: "Our daily world is often a moving collage of people, images, and events. The fragments of the day and the remnants of my night time dreams inspire my creative vision. In the collage work I have found a true medium to express my greater perception of the world I view. One of the aspects I have enjoyed in my collaboration with Sebastian appears in the aftermath of the creative process. A completed postcard is promptly mailed and forgotten. The US postal service then becomes an unwitting collaborator in the process, as the work moves through the chaos of various sorting machines to be scanned, cancelled and, hopefully, delivered intact."
Stealing Experience will run at the BookWorks Gallery through Mid-August.
Open Studio Hours
Monday evenings (except the first Monday of each month)
6:00 - 9:00 pm
BookWorks is now offering a regular schedule of Open Studio Hours for any student who attends a BookWorks class. Open Studio takes place every Monday evening, except the first Monday of each month, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. BookWorks Director Laurie Corral is on-hand during Open Studio to discuss projects and assist with equipment. Equipment available to students during Open Studio includes:
Jacques Board Shear
Guillotine Cutter
Standing Press
Backing Presses
Book Presses
Gold Stamping Tools
Foil Stamper
Drill Press
Corner Rounder
The fee for Open Studio is $18 per three-hour session.
Join the BookWorks mailing list and be kept up-to-date on all the events at BookWorks throughout the year.
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