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PAMPHLETS AND ACCORDION BOOKS

Celine Lombardi

A BIT OF PAMPHLET HISTORY

Pamphlets are a very specific form that I’ve been thinking a lot about for the past eight years. They emerged in the sixteenth century, relatively early on in the history of the printing press; they mark the beginning of the popular press in the West. Pamphlets spread propaganda, theory, and cultural criticism, as well as gossip, folk literature, and conspiracy theories. They flourished throughout the seventeenth century as readers enjoyed learning how to identify a witch, followed the ins and outs of local true crime scandals, and weighed the pros and cons of various political movements. Martin Luther was a pamphleteer. Thomas Paine was a pamphleteer. Voltaire was a pamphleteer. If you wanted to read political satire or argue about religion, enjoyed a juicy scandal, liked to be up to speed on all the local gossip, or were worried about the apocalypse, you would read the popular pamphlets and then visit the local coffeehouse to discuss.

Coming from the Latin word panfletus, “pamphlet” literally means “small, unbound treatise.” In the early days of printing, the name for the format of a book depended on the size of the paper used and the number of times it was folded. If a page was only folded once, it was called a folio. If it was folded twice, it was known as a quarto. An octavo was a sheet folded three times. A pamphlet was usually one to twelve sheets of paper folded in quarto, or eight to ninety-six pages, and sewn together in one to three sections to a simple paper cover. They were sold for pennies apiece. Pamphlets were intended to be ephemeral, and their physical construction is a great example of simple, vernacular design intended for a wide audience. They were generally described as unbound, which meant that they lacked hard covers, though wealthier readers sometimes took their pamphlets to their local bookbinder to add a personalized hard cover to protect their pamphlets.

Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, new edition by Thomas Paine (1737–1809) printed in Philadelphia, 1776 (print), American School (18th century) / Private Collection / Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images

Pamphlets began as a way of publicly debating religious issues, and therefore played an important role in the European religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As a widely available form of media, pamphlets helped drive the rapid spread of knowledge that followed the invention of the printing press, and in the process created what we call the reading public. For the first time, people could learn about important current events happening far away from them. Public debates happened within the pages of pamphlets, and pamphlet wars broke out periodically, as a means of forming or swaying public opinion on important social and religious topics.

Sometimes also called chapbooks, pamphlets were sold by chapmen, itinerant peddlers who traveled from town to town selling these and broadside ballads. Chapbook is a term that today has been adapted by the poetry community for small books of poetry, which are often self-published, and sold or traded at readings. The contemporary poetry world is full of micro presses, run by one or two people, that produce editions of poetry chapbooks; examples include Ugly Duckling Presse and DoubleCross Press.

The pamphlet press eventually morphed into newspapers, and the pamphlet itself continued to exist as a specialized tool for marketers, revolutionaries, abolitionists, religious zealots, rabble-rousers, poets, apocalyptic cults, punk rock kids, and many others. Today, artist book fairs are full of the contemporary equivalent of the pamphlet, as are poetry festivals and political rallies. Pamphlets have influenced you if you have ever read a zine, or accepted a leaflet on public transit, or thought about joining a cult.

Sarah Nicholls, Intertidal Letterpress pamphlet, 2017

Zines, one form of the contemporary pamphlet, first emerged as a form of fandom in the 1930s, when readers began exchanging their science-fiction fan fiction in self-published magazine form. The zine world expanded throughout the twentieth century, encompassing comic book art, music, and feminist subcultures along the way.

Today, despite the advent of digital media, the zine world continues to flourish, holding fairs and events around the world and providing an analog community-building alternative. The pamphlet remains one of the most accessible ways to publish your ideas and distribute them to an audience.

—Sarah Nicholls

MAKING PAMPHLETS

A Few Things I’ve Learned, to Start

I am drawn to making books for many reasons. All bookbinders talk about the pleasure of stacks. Stacks of paper. Stacks of books. Repetition. Progress. Completion. I love taking a jumble of raw materials and transforming them into something useful and pleasing. I love that the book involves aesthetic decisions but it also must function mechanically. The problem solving and then the repetition are satisfying to different parts of my brain. No other part of my life rewards my need to fuss and make perfect the little details.

One of the things I most appreciate about books is the materials from which they are made. Paper, linen, paste, leather—all are natural materials made from plants and animals. And Nature must be respected. In order to succeed in bookbinding, you must know the materials and learn to work with their natural tendencies. You have to look, and pay attention. If you haven’t paid attention to the paper grain, for instance, when you glue it and add moisture in the process, the paper will behave as it wants to behave and you could end up with all kinds of problems. So take the time to become familiar with your materials. Test them before you commit to a big project. Be willing to make adjustments. Don’t expect all papers to behave the same way; they are made of different fibers and by a variety of processes.

And your tools—I mean, your eyes and your hands. Be patient with them. Over time they will know how to judge measurements and how to manipulate materials and those other tools, the blades and brushes. They will know how much pressure is needed or how much glue works best. There are tricks to improve your results, but time and practice are the most reliable way to succeed.

THE BASIC SEWN BOOK

The pamphlet is the most basic sewn book. Take a few sheets of paper, fold them in half, sew the crease, and voilà, you have a book. Wrap a thicker paper around the stack before you sew and the pamphlet has a cover. But the pamphlet need not stop there. There are many variations on the humble pamphlet and no reason you can’t invent some more, once you have the basics.

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Paper for pages (see Note)

Paper for cover (see Note)

Thread

Bone folder

Weights (for pressing)

Scissors

Ruler

Awl

Needle

Note: The papers for the pages and cover can be rough cut to start, a little oversized. You’ll trim them later.

1. Gather the pages into a stack. Fold the stack in half and crease with the bone folder. You have created a single signature with all the pages nested together. Figures A and B

Note: It’s important to fold the pages as a stack because, as you will notice, the innermost page ends up with a much sharper fold than the outermost page. If you fold each page individually and place them one inside the other, all those sharp folds will not nest well together. Figure C

2. Fold the cover paper around the signature. Figure D

3. Press the signature. The longer it sits under weight, the flatter it will be and the more professional the final product will look.

4. Trim the signature. (I find that my folds are rarely perfectly aligned, with the innermost page sticking out a bit along the fore edge.)

5. Determine the position of the holes, or sewing stations, for a three-hole pamphlet stitch. Cut a strip of paper to the height of your book. Fold it in half. This crease will be the center sewing station. Using a ruler, make a mark 3/8 to 1/2 inch (1 to 1.3 cm) in from the head and the tail of the strip for the other 2 sewing stations. (There is some leeway as to where these should be placed. The closer to the ends the more stable the binding will be, but for aesthetic reasons you may choose to set them further in and that works, too.) Figure E

6. Make a punching jig. Cut a fresh piece strip of paper to the height of your book. Fold it in half lengthwise. Transfer your measurements to the inside fold of this paper. Figure F

7. Nest the jig inside the signature and get ready to punch the holes through the jig and the signature at the same time. To punch the holes, place the signature on your table with the spine facing you, hanging just off the edge of the table. Figure G

8. Open the signature at the middle at a 90-degree angle and use a small weight to keep it in place. Use your awl to pierce through the crease in the signature from the inside out, at a 45-degree angle. Keep the holes fairly small. There should be 3 holes. Figure H

9. You’re ready to sew. You can start from the inside or the outside of the signature. Wherever you start is where the knot will be. If it is on the inside it is more protected. On the outside it will be more visible, and that may be an intended feature.

10. Cut a piece of thread that is 21/2 times the height of your signature. Thread the needle. Start from the inside center hole. Bring the needle to the outside and pull the thread until you have just a short tail, 1 or 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) long.

11. Bring the needle in through the hole at one end of the signature and pull the thread taut. Bring your needle out again through the hole at the opposite end of the signature and pull the thread taut.

12. Bring the needle back into the signature through the center hole. Make sure the two tails of thread are on either side of the long thread passing through the center of the signature. Pull tight and tie in a knot. Trim the threads to 1/4 inch (6 mm) or so.

This is the classic three-hole pamphlet stitch. If your book is taller you might want to try the five-hole pamphlet stitch.

TIP: When pulling your thread, always pull in the direction that you are sewing, and keep the thread close to the spine so you are pulling parallel to the spine, not away from it. Thread can be quite a strong sharp force and rip your paper if you pull against it.)

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Cover weight paper

Ruler

Bone folder

1. Start with a cover paper cut to the same height as your pamphlet (or a hair taller) and 4 times as wide.

2. Measure the thickness of your pamphlet. This will determine the spine folds for your wrapper. Take a strip of scrap paper and fold it into an L shape. Slide it under the part of the pamphlet that is thickest. (This is not right at the spine but slightly in from the spine.) Put a little pressure on the puffy part of the pamphlet and fold the strip down and crease it. Now you have a strip with 2 folds. Check the fit. If the spine measurement is too tight, the paper strip will flap up sharply. If too big, the spine will get crushed and wrinkle when you put your book under weight (which will make your book flatter and look more professional). When satisfied with the measurement, mark the folds with a pencil so it is easier to see. Figure A

3. Fold the long strip of cover paper in half. This is one of your spine folds. Transfer your marks for the spine measurement to the right of this fold, with one mark at the top and one at the bottom. Use the ruler and bone folder to score this second fold. Figure B

TIP: Place your bone folder on the pencil mark first, then move the ruler up to the bone folder. Do this again at the bottom mark, then double-check the top mark. Your bone folder has a thickness and if you put your ruler to the marks first, then score a line with your bone folder, it will be a little distance away from your marks.

TECHNIQUE: Score the line with the bone folder against the ruler, keeping the ruler in place. Then use the bone folder to lift the paper and press it against the ruler from the underside. Remove the ruler, fold the paper down completely, and use the flat of the bone folder to crisp the line. At this time you can shift the fold a little bit if you need to make adjustments.

4. Place the pamphlet in the wrapper with the folded spine up against the spine of the wrapper. Check that the spine is square to the table. Put a weight on the pamphlet. (Let the top half of the wrapper flop back out of your way.) Lay your ruler under the fore edge of the pamphlet with just a little bit peeking out, about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm). Score and fold a line parallel to the spine. Remove the pamphlet, fold down the flap, and crisp up the fold. Figure C

5. We want to repeat this fold on the opposite side. You could repeat the same steps on the opposite side, but it is more precise to measure the distance from the spine fold to the fore edge fold and transfer that measurement to the opposite side. Whenever possible, I avoid using numbers for this type of thing as it is often difficult to be accurate and mistakes can easily be made. It is more accurate to take a scrap strip of paper and mark the 2 points, then use that piece of paper to transfer those marks to the other side. I usually turn the whole piece around so I can easily score and fold the second fore edge with ease. Figure D

6. If when you fold these flaps in they cross over your spine folds, trim them to be a 1/4 inch (6 mm) or so back from the spine fold. Cut them to be equal widths. (As you recall, we folded the first fold in the center so everything is a little off to one side.) If you choose to make any decorative cuts to your wrapper, now is the time. It can be a great way to bring two colors into your cover design.

7. Place your pamphlet in the wrapper. Fold the flaps around your pamphlet’s cover. Figure E

TIP: If you place your pamphlet under weight for a day or two it will take out much of the puffiness and result in a much flatter book.

Paper Pocket Cover

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Cover weight paper

Ruler

Pencil

Bone folder

1. Start with cover paper cut to 2 times as high as your pamphlet and 5 times as wide.

2. Measure for the spine folds as in the Simple Pamphlet Wrapper. Add about 1 millimeter. (The pocket part of the cover means 4 extra layers of paper are added into the measurement. An approximation will suffice.) Make the 2 spine folds in the center of the cover. Figure A

3. Lay the pamphlet on the cover, centered vertically. Mark about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) away from the top and the bottom of the pamphlet. (This is to make the cover a little bit bigger than the pamphlet.)

4. Transfer these marks to a few points across the cover paper. Use these marks to score and fold 2 horizontal folds across the paper. Figure B

5. Measure for the fore edge folds as in the Simple Pamphlet Wrapper. Make these 2 vertical folds (parallel to the spine folds). Figure C

6. Using that same measurement minus 1/8 inch (3 mm), mark from the fore edge folds out toward the edge of the paper and make 2 more vertical folds. This makes the flap that tucks in to create the pocket.

7. Open the cover flat again and cut away the areas as marked. This would also be the time to cut any decorative designs into your cover. Figure D

8. Now the cover can be assembled. Fold down the top and bottom flaps. Fold the fore edge flaps back and tuck the small end flap in to create the pocket. (There is often some fine-tuning to be done at this time—if it doesn’t lie flat, perhaps a little more could be cut away in places or a fold readjusted slightly.) Figure E

9. To insert the pamphlet, open the pamphlet all the way until the covers are almost touching. Open the pocket cover in the same manner. Slide the pamphlet covers into the pocket cover. Close the book. Leave under weight for a day or two. Figure F

HARDCOVER PAMPHLETS

The hardcover pamphlet starts out much like the first pamphlet we made with a few modifications.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

6 sheets of paper for pages

2 sheets of paper for endsheets

Strip of book cloth for hinge

Book cloth for the cover

Thread

Glue (a mix of PVA and methylcellulose)

Binder’s board for the cover

Wax paper

Scissors

Bone folder

Awl

Needle

Ruler

Pencil

Small weights

Glue brush or small paint roller

Board shears

Nipping press (optional)

2. Fold the endsheets around the signature. Press. Figure A

3. Make a hinge by cutting a strip of book cloth just shorter than the pages and 2 inches (5 cm) wide. (This will not show, so color is not important.) Fold it in half lengthwise and wrap it around the spine side of your signature. Figures B and C

4. Use the strip to make a punching jig. (See here for details on punching jigs.)

5. Line up the punching jig inside the signature. Punch holes through the pages and endsheets and hinge them together. Figure D

6. Sew the pages and endsheets along the fold. (See The Basic Sewn Book, steps 9 to 12, shown here for details.) Figure E

7. Trim the pages if you wish. Figure F

2. Mark a line running 1/4 inch (6 mm) parallel to the spine on the front and back of the text block. Place the boards centered head and tail, with the spine side lined up with this line. (When the boards are placed in the proper position, this creates an 1/8-inch [3 mm] square around the text block.) Figure G

3. Using a scrap strip of paper, measure from the spine edge of the front board to the spine edge of the back board. Be sure to press the paper down around the board edge to get an accurate measurement. This measurement will be the space between the boards when making the cover. Figure H

4. To cut the cloth, lay the boards on the cloth with roughly the space you just measured between them, and a 1-inch (2.5 cm) border all around. (This is cut oversized to be trimmed after gluing.) Place the book cloth face down. If needed, use small weights to hold down the corners. You can eyeball where the first board should lie or mark it with a pencil. Figure I

5. Coat the board with a mix of PVA and methylcellulose. Figure J

6. Place the board on the face-down book cloth. Press firmly. (You can turn the cloth over at this point and rub down the cloth to make sure there aren’t any air bubbles. Eventually you will be able to work quickly enough to place both boards before turning it over to rub it down well.)

7. Place a ruler along the bottom edge of the board that has been glued down, extending along the cloth. Use a weight to hold it in place. (This will ensure that both boards are lined up evenly.) Use the strip of paper with the gap measurement to mark the width of the gap from the first board on the book cloth. Glue the second board and place it, using the pencil marks and the ruler as guides. Turn it over and rub well. Figure K

TIP: A bone folder can mark book cloth or paper, making it shiny. Use a Teflon folder or place a piece of paper over the cloth before rubbing it with bone.

8. Trim the turn-ins to 5/8 of an inch (1.5 cm). (The cloth border around the boards is called the turn-in.) Cut the corners of the cloth at a 45-degree angle, a board and a half thickness away from the board edge. Figure L

9. Glue the turn-ins along the head and tail first, one at a time. Glue a turn-in and then fold it over the board edge, taking care to rub it up against the board edge so it is snug and there are no air bubbles. Use your thumbnail to tuck the excess cloth down at the corners. Rub the cloth down over the gap as well. Figure M

TIP: Be careful not to use too much glue. It causes a mess if it oozes out as you rub down the turn-ins.

10. Glue the turn-ins at the fore edge and wrap them around the board, rubbing down well, taking care not to let glue ooze out at the corners. Figure N

11. Turn the cover over and rub the bone folder around the board edges, especially the corners, making sure it looks crisp and nice.

12. Fold the cover in half and crease it to give yourself a guide for placing the text block. Lay the cover open flat.

13. Glue the cloth hinge and center it on the inside of the cover. Work it down into the gap between the boards and flat onto the boards. Close the book to check if the placement is correct. If pleased, then you are ready to glue down the endsheets. Figures O and P

14. Paper expands when it is glued because of the moisture it absorbs, so first you must trim a bit from the fore edge of the outermost endsheet. The amount of stretch will depend on the paper, but generally 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) ought to do.

15. Place waste paper under the endsheet. Glue out the endsheet.

TIP: The paper will curl once you glue it because it is expanding from the moisture. Gently press down the paper in a few places with your glue brush to restrain it from curling for a moment. The paper will relax and settle down; you just have to give it a moment of rest.

Remove the waste paper. Close the book and press it firmly. Gently open enough to slide wax paper in between the cover and text block. Turn it over and do the other side. Figure Q

16. When closing the board, focus on matching the corners of the top cover with the corners of the bottom cover. Place it in a nipping press between press boards. You’ll be amazed by the power of the press! If you don’t have access to a press, then gently open the book as little as possible so you can rub down the endsheet with your bone folder. (The cover should be resting on the table, the book held open above.) If you open it too much, the paper will stretch and make creases in the joint area. Dry under weight.

ACCORDION BOOKS

The accordion is a simple bookform with many possibilities. If made with stiff paper it can be displayed standing, stretched out to reveal the whole book at one glance. It can be displayed hanging in a vertical dimension. It can have cutouts that reveal a layer beneath or pop-outs that take advantage of the many folds. And the accordion is a good way to practice precision in your folding. For this accordion book we are making two separate hard covers so the book can be displayed standing up, showing the whole accordion at once.

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Strip of cover weight or other paper

Binder’s board

Decorative paper

Glue (a mix of PVA and methylcellulose)

Waste paper

Wax paper

Bone folder

Scissors

Board shears or snap blade

Glue brush or small paint roller

Weights

Ruler

Newsprint

Prepare the Accordion-Folded Text Block

1. Fold the strip in half. Press the fold with your bone folder so you have a crisp fold. Figure A

2. Take the end of the strip that is on top and line it up neatly with the fold. Press the fold with your bone folder so it is crisp. Continue doing this with every fold.

3. Flip the whole piece over. Take the end of the top strip and bring it up to meet the fold. Now you have a strip of paper with 2 mountain folds and one valley (like a wide “W”). Reverse the valley fold so you have all mountains. Figure B

4. Fold the top panel down, so it is underneath the strip. This will set you up to have a fold at the top of your strip of paper. Figure C

5. Bring the next mountain fold up to meet the top fold. Crisp the fold with your bone folder. Bring the next mountain fold up onto the top folds. Crisp the fold. Bring the end of the strip up to the top fold. Crisp the fold. Figures D and E

6. Flip the whole piece over and bring the other end up to the top fold. Crisp the fold. All panels should be the same width now. Figure F

7. Now your strip has many mountains and valley folds. Go down the strip and reverse all the valleys to be mountains. Figure G

8. Fold the top panel down, so it is underneath the strip. Bring the next mountain fold up to meet the top fold. Crisp up the fold. Proceed down the strip, bringing each mountain fold up to line up with the top fold. Take care to line up every fold on top of the one before. It can help to use a square block as a reference point. Every time you use your bone folder to crisp up the fold, you can pre-crease the next fold against the fold beneath.

TIP: I like this technique because it always involves folding the panel in half. It is much easier to be accurate when folding something in half than it is when you start out with a small panel and try to repeat the same fold over and over without variation. If you make pencil marks every 1/2 inch (1.3 cm), say, and try to fold on that mark each time, it will be very hard to remain accurate. Your accordion may stagger or lean or wobble wider and narrower as it grows. The first few may be fine, but there is always a point when the stack beneath interferes.

Make the Covers

1. With board shears, cut 2 boards the same size as your accordion pages. The grain of the board should be parallel to the grain of your paper (hopefully parallel to the folds of the accordion). Figure H

2. Cut 2 pieces of decorative paper (or cloth) larger than your cover boards by a margin of 5/8 inch (1.5 cm) all around. (The grain of your paper should be parallel to the grain of your cover boards.) WARNING: If the grain of your paper and of your cover board are not parallel, your covers will be warped. No avoiding it. Figure I

3. Glue out one piece of paper. Place the board in the center (you can trace the proper placement on the paper before you start to glue). Fold over the top and bottom turn-ins first, tuck in the corners, and fold over the sides. Remember to rub well against the board edge so there are no air bubbles. Re-glue if necessary, but try not to use so much glue that it oozes out. Figures J, K, and L

TECHNIQUE: When gluing together two pieces of material it is preferable to put the glue on the thinner material because the thinner material (in this case the paper) will expand more than the thicker material. If you place dry paper onto a glue-covered board, the paper will still expand but it will wrinkle because it is caught up in the glue. Better to let it expand first, then put the two together.

4. Cover the second board.

5. Trim a sliver from the accordion’s first and last pages to account for the stretch.

6. Place a waste sheet under the last page and coat it with glue. Remove the waste sheet and place the cover onto the glued sheet. The cover should line up evenly with the book all around. (It may be easier to place the book onto the cover.) Press it with your hands. Figure M

7. Turn the book over so the cover is on the table, and open the book so that you can rub the pasted-down page with your bone folder. Place a piece of wax paper between the “pastedown” and the rest of the book.

8. Repeat for the other side. When placing the cover, use the other cover as a guide. It is best if they line up. Figure N

9. Dry under weight.

THE CONCERTINA

A concertina is a very narrow accordion that is used as a spine for attaching other pages. This can be useful for binding single pages, especially for an album, because the folds of the concertina create extra space so you can add photos or other materials to the pages and the book will still close evenly. It is also used for books made with thick printmaking paper when the pages need to open flat and a traditional binding would constrict them too much. In that instance, the folios would be sewn onto the mountain folds of the concertina with a pamphlet stitch. The concertina is also used for conservation bindings when the material should be protected from glue and bound in a way that can be reversed without damaging the original material. These folios could be sewn into either the mountain or the valley fold of the concertina.

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Long strip of paper

Double-sided tape

Pages cut as high as the concertina strip and as wide as you like, as many as you have mountain folds on your concertina

Long strip of cover paper just slightly taller than the concertina and 41/2 times as wide as the pages

Bone folder

Weights

Ruler

Prepare the Concertina and Pages

1. Fold the accordion as in the Accordion Book project shown here and here, but keep folding until the “pages” are about 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) wide. Figure A

2. Place strips of double-sided tape on the spine side of each sheet of paper. Figure B

3. Position the concertina with one flap on the table (the cover will be attached to this). Place your first page inside the first fold with the tape side up. Place a small weight on the page. Remove the tape, then press the next fold of the concertina down onto the page. Rub with the bone folder. Figure C

4. Place the next page on top of this fold with the tape side up. Line up this page with the one below. Place a small weight on the page. Remove the tape, then press the next fold of the concertina down onto the page. Rub with the bone folder. Figure D

5. Repeat this process for all of the pages until you have one flap left at the end for the cover. As you go, line up the pages on top of each other, but also press the concertina snugly up against the stack so the pages are snug into the folds.

Make the Cover

1. Measure the spine by folding a strip around it and creasing the folds. Figure E

2. Make the folds for the spine approximately in the center of the cover paper.

3. Place the text block inside the cover, snug against the spine. Figure F

4. Use a weight if you wish to hold this in place as you slide a ruler under the text block at the fore edge, peeking out just a bit. Ensure that the cover is just bigger than the text block.

5. Score and fold the cover back onto itself for the fore edge fold. Figure G

6. Flip the book and repeat for the other side. Figure H