The Guild of Book Worker's Newsletter sadly notes the passing of Joyce Lancaster Wilson. Mrs. Wilson died at the age of 81 at California Pacific Medical Center after complications from hip surgery. She was, with her husband Adrian, an integral part of the San Francisco fine press movement, and her link to this tradition will be missed by all who knew her.
Bay Area News
The big news in the Bay Area is the formation of The San Francisco
Center for the Book. Mary Austin and Kathleen Burch, of the
Pacific Center for the Book, are the driving force behind this
project of providing the Bay Area book arts community with a home. A
2000+ sq. ft. space has been leased South of Market which will
provide space for workshops, meetings, exhibitions, darkroom, and
whatever else is needed. Mary and Kathleen have visited the Hand
Bookbinders of California and the Friends of Calligraphy, among
others, to make a commitment of membership for the opening year or
two. Donations of equipment are being called for and it is expected
to be up and running by the end of the summer.
In April the new San Francisco Public Library opened to great fanfare. Parties seemed to go on for a week, with much notice in the newspapers and television. Special collections exhibited Bay Area Sampler: A Book Arts Celebration, works of over 50 Bay Area book artists, calligraphers, bookbinders and printers, in honor of the opening in its sixth floor atrium gallery.
PCBA's's semi-annual Auction took place on May 30. Always fun, with lots of interesting auction items (dinner for two at Chez Panisse, a week on a farm in the south of France, fine press books, rare books, etc.), plus good food and wine.
The 1996 Printers' Fair took place at Ft. Mason in April, sponsored this year by PCBA. It features displays of antique printing equipment, fine books old and new, cards, prints, marbling, bindings and boxes by Dominic Riley and John DeMerritt, and aprons for sale by the Hand Bookbinders, who will be selling same at their exhibition at Occidental College in L.A. at the time of the GBW Standards Seminar.
New Generation Book Arts Award
This fund was established by Prof. Paula Marie Gourley in 1995 to
assist students enrolled in the Alabama MFA Program in the Book Arts
to attend bookbinding conferences, workshops and study tours. Two
collaborative book projects involving faculty and students in the
program have recently been produced, with the intention that the
sales of the books directly fund the award. No trade discounts will
be granted for this fundraising effort.
Bookbinders' Lettering: A Neglected Art is the text of the keynote talk by Colin Franklin, presented at the opening of the 1995 GBW Standards Seminar, held in Tuscaloosa. Produced in a letterpress edition of 100 copies, and available in three forms (unbound sheets, bound in paper wrappers or in special bindings by Paula Marie Gourley). A collaborative effort between student September Lynne Kirk and her Saffron Press with Gourley's Pelegaya Paperworks imprint. They would like to make unbound sheets available to binders with the idea of generating an exhibition featuring bookbinders' finishing and lettering. Please inquire for prices.
Good Dog Roger, a short story by Tupelo, Mississippi
storyteller-artist Ke Francis.
Produced as an illustrated and letterpress printed livre d'artiste in
an edition of 47 copies, of which 20 are available for sale.
Utilizing pochoir, linoleum block prints and magnesium engraving
combined with letterpress printing on the Washington handpress, six
students produced the concertina-structure book under the Pelegaya
Press imprint. Presented in a printed wrapper at $50, or in a boxed
version for $85. Available from:
Paula Marie Gourley
Box 870252
Tuscaloosa AL 35487-0252
tel: 205/348-4610
fax: 205/348-3746.
AIC Call for Papers
The general session of AIC's 1997 annual meeting in San Diego in June
1997 will address the topic of 'Compensation for Loss'. This subject
addresses some of the most basic questions regarding the
understanding of an object's historic and artistic attributes and the
quality of its condition. Both unique circumstances as well as areas
of common ground in the use of materials and approaches to
compensation will be examined.
An object's appearance is often profoundly influenced by the latter phases of treatment or by the conscious decision to forego treatment altogether. Various philosophical and aesthetic approaches to compensation can be defined for many types of objects, and the range of materials employed to mitigate losses and visual alterations is enormous.
Abstracts should focus on either historical examples or modern case studies. They should emphasize how compensation decisions not only affect our perceptions and reflect our understanding of objects but also clarify our intentions in mitigating various types of damage and change.
Deadline for abstracts is October 1, 1996. Contact:
Jay Krueger, vice-president & program chair
c/o AIC Office
1717 K St., NW, Ste. 301
Washington DC 20006
tel: 202/452-9545
fax: 202/452-9328.
Book Arts on the Internet
Peter Verheyen writes:
This past year has seen an enormous growth in the presence of the
book arts on the Internet. The catalyst could be the founding in June
of 1994 of Book_Arts-L, an e-mail discussion list which has
grown to become a virtual community for bookbinders and book artists
worldwide. Members range from recognized fine binders and
conservators to students, artists, marblers, papermakers, printers,
collectors, and those just interested. Currently there are over 730
subscribers. On this listserv we exchange technical information,
discuss projects, exchange URL's where our work can be seen (all of
which are included on the
Book Arts
Web, and have had discussions about what is a book,
the future of the book arts, etc. All postings are available in the
archives, which can be viewed and searched at
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/bookarts/
This is where one will also find subscription instructions. For those without access to the World Wide Web, one needs only to send the message:
subscribe Book_Arts-L "Yourfirstname Yourlastname" to "listserv@listserv.syr.edu"
The Guild of Book Workers' presence on the net is also growing. This past year we added the complete study opportunities list, information about the chapters, publications, the Newsletter in full text, and exhibitions. The upcoming exhibition, PAPER, will appear here in its entirety. Those wanting to reserve a catalog may find pre-publication order information there.
The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild is also on the web with a handsome site, as are most of the academic (MFA) bookarts programs: Iowa, Alabama, Idaho, CBA, Penland, Women's Studio Workshop...There are large numbers of personal homepages showing a range of book works from traditional to artists' books. Numerous exhibits of historical and traditional bindings and artist's books appear on the Net. Richard Minsky has a site highlighting his work (http://www.minsky.com); a Philip Smith exhibit can be viewed via Simon Fraser University's (Vancouver, BC) website at http://www.lib.sfu.ca/proj/psmith.htm. It is definitely worth a visit; as are the Smithsonian's exhibit of Science and the Artist's Book (http://silweb.sil.si.edu/exhibits/artistsbook/title.htm, may no longer work? Jan. 99 ECA) or Aldus at Brigham Young University and Women in the Book Arts at Wellesley College (http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/wombks.htmld/index.html), which features some works by Guild members. A survey of bookarts by Minsky can be found at http://colophon.com/gallery/minsky/intro.htm. The Book Arts Web also has on exhibit works by Scott Kellar, Maria Pisano and Peter Verheyen. Letterpress printers and printmakers have their own listserv. The Book Arts Web can be found at (http://www.dreamscape.com/pdverhey/)
Museum of the Book Opens in Madrid
The National Library in Madrid opened on its premises a new museum of
the book on October 24. It will have a permanent high-tech display
intended to show the cultural treasures of the library in an
instructive, interactive way while the original items remain
inaccessible. Manuscripts, incunables, engravings, maps, etc. will be
displayed by various methods, from CD-ROM to holographic simulation,
to tell the history of communication techniques. There will also be a
section on the history of sound in communication: the voices of
poets, painters and musicians.
Address:
Museo del libro
Biblioteca nacional
Paso de Recoletos 20
E-28071 Madrid
tel: 91-580 7759
No admission charge.
( From ANL/Gazette du Livre Médiéval)
Dieu Donné Symposium on Paper and Paper Art
As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, Dieu Donné
Papermill is sponsoring the Symposium on Paper and Paper Art, an
all-day event focused exclusively on the growth of hand papermaking
and paper art, with two panel discussions: 'The Art of the Matter:
Dialogues between Master Papermakers and Artists' and 'Fine Paper:
Support or Art?'. Preeminent figures in all areas related to art made
on or with paper will be participating. The Symposium is scheduled
for Wednesday, October 23, 1996 in the Great Hall at Cooper Union in
New York City.
After the panel discussions at Cooper Union, Dieu Donné will host an Open House featuring studio demonstrations of Western and Asian papermaking and artist collaborations.
Immediately following the Symposium, October 24-27, Dieu Donné will host the three-day Annual Meeting of the Friends of Dard Hunter. In conjunction with both, Dieu Donné will distribute a Paper Treasure Hunt map indicating locations of paper-related exhibitions and events which are open to the public at New York City galleries, museums, non-profit spaces, and retail shops. Special guided tours will be available for attendees of the Symposium and the Friends of Dard Hunter.
Contact:
Nita Colgate
Dieu Donné Papermill
433 Broome St.
NY, NY 10013
tel: 212/226-0573
fax: 212/226-6088
e-mail: DDpaper@Yorick.ny.cybernex.net