INTRODUCTION

For over four decades, The Center for Book Arts has facilitated opportunities and dialogues between the book arts community and the larger spheres of contemporary visual and literary arts. The Center has put on exhibitions and public programming, supported residencies and opportunities for artists and writers, and offered classes from simple book structures to ornate historical designs, and from paper treatments to letterpress printing. We continue to challenge preconceived notions of what a book can be physically, embracing new trends and technologies as the continuum for the material existence of the concept of the book.

In Bookforms you will learn from some of the Center’s new generation of bookmakers, some of the youngest voices in the field, who all studied and learned from great masters. Ana Paula Cordeiro learned from a talented group of the Center’s core instructors, such as artists Barbara Mauriello, Susan Mills, Carolyn Chadwick, Barbara Henry, Karen Gorst, and guest instructors Laurel Parker and Paul Moxon. In turn, Celine Lombardi studied with Ana Paula Cordeiro. She also learned from the Center’s core instructors Gavin Dovey, Roni Gross, and Béatrice Coron and guest instructors Lynne Avadenka, Gaylord Schanilec, and Tatiana Ginsberg. Elizabeth Sheehan studied under Celine Lombardi as well as with master binders Barbara Mauriello and Susan Mills, and the Center’s core instructors Maria Pisano, Biruta Auna, Karen Gorst, Béatrice Coron, and Shanna Yarbrough. Elizabeth took several specialized courses with Macy Chadwick, Buzz Spector, Jim Croft, and Shawn Sheehy, all informing her artistic practice. Sarah Smith studied with Ana Paula Cordeiro and Celine Lombardi, as well as Yukari Hayashida.

These newer voices of the binding community, Ana, Elizabeth, Celine, and Sarah, articulate innovative approaches and shed light on how to convert challenges into opportunities. Their binding approaches lend themselves to a foundation from which to create books that will capture your big ideas.

In the chapters that follow, you will learn about the fundamental aspects of bookmaking, from how to handle a tool like a professional binder to why specific materials are used to connect your ideas to the perfect structure. Each chapter will build upon the previous chapters’ skill sets and offer unique insights into making a specific structure, where it historically comes from, and how to expand it into more complicated books. Each technique is accompanied by step-by-step instructions and images. By the end of the book, you will know your tools and be able to problem solve your way through making an array of versatile book structures.

We want you to understand books as creatively as possible. Bookforms will become an invaluable resource to you as you grow familiar with the different tools, materials, and structures and learn to master the tools and materials you need to bring your brilliant ideas to life. Bookforms is a window into fine craft. It will give you an insight to the world of bookbinding and to the binder’s line of thought, helping you to think as a bookbinder. Emphasis was put on the intersections between the craft of bookbinding and the work of the book artist. There is no substitute for firsthand learning, but hopefully this book can inspire you and put you on track for a future in bookbinding and book arts.

The objective of Bookforms is not only to provide you with a solid foundation that can be built upon, but more importantly to demonstrate the inherent artistic qualities of bookmaking as a multidisciplinary art-making form. The structures presented in Bookforms are all based on traditional techniques and enhanced by these young binders, demonstrating the artists’ growth in the field while meeting the needs of our ever-changing, fast-paced world.

— Alexander Campos, Director

First Words, rebinding of a children’s introduction to modern art. Paper cased binding with leather onlays in an inlaid leather slipcase, 2013.

Lost & Found, design binding of a Whittington Press fine press book for the Designer Bookbinder’s traveling exhibition Inside/Out. Paper, leather, gold, 2014.

Pictorial Webster’s, design binding of Chronicle Books’s trade publication for an exhibit in Boston, Massachusetts. Leather onlays on leather binding, 2011.

Murmurations, editioned artist book made during residency at Center for Book Arts. Printed from polymer plates and torn newsprint, butterfly binding, 2012.