Saturday, December 1, 2012

Sarah Bryant Lecture at Hobart and William Smith College

Sarah Bryant of Big Jump Press published an article on the making of Biography entitled "Evolution of an Artist’s Book" in the last issue of The Bonefolder, Vol 8. She recently spoke about Biography and her latest work Fond at Hobart and William Smith College in scenic Geneva, NY. These works explore what "we" are made of and defines us, as well as the extent to which small, personal items encapsulate the bigger picture. Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies Kirin Makker introduces the lecture and curated the accompanying process oriented exhibit in Houghton House.

Those that could not make it can view the lecture below


... or directly on YouTube at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsPJLyhMZIg>

See http://bigjumppress.wordpress.com/category/new-book/ for the story of Fond, and http://bigjumppress.com/ for more information.

An illustrated lecture about her work Biography is online at http://video.syr.edu/Video.aspx?vid=TlzP3UMBD0O45MptqQ5DuA.

NEW on 12/12 an interview with Susan Mills on the Bookbinding Now podcast series.
Designer, printer and binder Sarah Bryant is the proprietor of Big Jump Press. She was the 2008-2011 Victor Hammer Fellow in the Book Arts at Wells College and the 2011 winner of the MCBA Artist's Book Prize.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Airbrushed Decorated Paper - By Amy Borezo


One of my great  pleasures in hosting the Bind-O-Ramas is to to see binders and book artists challenge themselves to try new techniques and often create something truly special. In this case the standout for me is Amy's decorated paper. Below her description of how she created it. Thank you Amy. View all entries featuring bindings of "The Bone Folder" in the 2012 Bind-O-Rama here.

Our guest blogger today is Amy Borezo, book artist and edition binder.

For the Bind-o-rama exhibit featuring the set book The Bone Folder by Ernst Collin (translated by Peter D. Verheyen), I was inspired to create a version of the German Stiffened Paper Binding. The portion of the text itself which most interested me was the section on decorative papers. While the binding style is modest, I wanted the decorative paper used for the covering material to be inventive — having both a modern feel to echo the graphics of the time period in which the book was written, and a contemporary, process-oriented sensibility. To accomplish this, I used a bone folder (in keeping with the title of the book) to score a pattern on paper, which I then folded and airbrushed to create a unique geometric design. To begin, I first scored a hexagonal grid onto a piece of Cave paper using a metal bonefolder. Next, I folded the paper into a concertina in one direction (horizontal) along the scored lines. Leaving the mountain and valley folds intact, I aimed the airbrush so that the paint would only hit one side of the mountain fold with red paint.

Click to enlarge.


I then turned the paper around 180 degrees and painted the other side of the mountain folds with the airbrush in yellow. The color dries fairly quickly and I was able to now flatten the paper and begin folding along the diagonal scored lines. I changed to white paint and repeated the process of aiming the airbrush to only hit one side of the mountain fold with the white paint. I decided I liked the variation of having heavier coverage of white near one corner with a gradual fade to the other corner. This effect was easy enough to produce by angling the airbrush slightly.

Click to enlarge.


I flattened the paper again and folded along the opposing diagonal for the final application of white paint. I debated whether to continue along more folds, but felt like the resulting pattern was visually strong. I particularly like that the final design has a strong Art Deco look and that the paint was used to capture the physical process of the pattern being made through folding. I finished the binding by adding a subtle color fade to the book cloth on the spine with the airbrush in red.

Click to enlarge.


Go to Amy's blog for detailed views of this fantastic binding.



Amy Borezo received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from RISD in 2000. After graduating, she worked both as a bookbinder in a production bindery and as a book mechanic at Daniel Kelm's Wide Awake Garage where she learned that you can reinvent the book each time you make it. Amy is now a contemporary book artist and the proprietor of Shelter Bookworks, an edition binding studio in Western Massachusetts.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Bind-O-Rama 2012 Now Online


Though often cursed as constraining choice, set book exhibits can also be fun as exemplified by the entries that largely stayed true to the Germanic nature of the text. High-points for me were the decorated papers and the adoption of more basic structures, including the stiffened paper binding. Sometimes less is more. We hope you will enjoy this exhibition featuring the work of established and  nascent binders.

Now Online – Click Here to View


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Dead Technology and Public Outreach in Library Preservation

Two unrelated events, Beth Doyle's Quick Pic: Before There Was Power Point post on Duke University Libraries' excellent Preservation Underground blog that reintroduced us to slide/tape shows. At about the same time there was also discussion of this technology on the the ARSC listserv (starting with http://listserv.loc.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1208&L=arsclist&T=0&P=3491 , then scroll through the thread clicking the forth button from left at the top…), and cleaning up parts of our departmental reference collection here at Syracuse lead to the rediscovery of The Care and Handling of Books produced by Yale University Library with support from NEH in 1980.  I had the pleasure of helping mail out numerous copies of these while working at Yale ('91-'92) and remembered it well.



Long story short, the opportunity was too good to pass up. With the permission of Bobbi Pilette, Director of Preservation at Yale I had our audio engineer digitize the audio cassette (still in very good condition after all these years) including the pulses to advance the projector and had the slides digitized as well. The result is now available on YouTube in all its glory. Processing of images was minimal so the full retro effect is there. View direct at YouTube here.


The script is linked to in PDF form under "bullet 3" when one clicks on show more below the video at YouTube or direct here.

The presentation was prepared at the Yale University Library under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities by Anne Dutlinger, Peggy Madison, Jan Merrill-Oldham, Pamela Spitzmueller. Jane Greenfield and Gay Walker were project directors, .

While the fashions and hair are (still) vintage, the information is as relevant as ever and worth sharing more widely.

Enjoy,

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Don't mess with your bookie!

Carrying on the theme started by Audra of The Vespiary with Chris Ware's Great Book Trimming Machine...

From Le Petit Parisien June 19, 1910... The story reports that the bookbinder got behind on his payments to his bookie (note fingers already cut off) and did himself in. Whether he did it himself is debatable as the screw for the press bar in the guillotine seems higher up than he could reach, never mind operating the lever/wheel on what seems to be a manual device. Regardless, it is a cautionary tale that one should not betray a bookie.

Addendum: And thanks to David Amstell, here the text translated by Google from the French... A simple malfunction it seems, not a murder/suicide... I think I like Charlene's version better. Besides, what was his head doing clear through on the other side and where is the stuff he thought he was cutting??? The reader's comments ask these questions too...



The image is from the collection of Charlene Matthews of Bindery in Hollywood, California.

Below the original description of the scene of the crime.Click link in caption to get to full sized image.

Le Petit Parisien. Supplément littéraire illustré (Paris)
Source: gallica.bnf.fr