The Delaware Valley Chapter's first issue of their newsletter, Pressing Matter, has appeared, edited by Greg Bear, with help from Claire Owen, and from Martha Carothers who created the chapter logo.
The Chapter held its first Fall meeting on September 10 at the reception for their members' exhibition, "Chapter 1: The First Exhibition of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers" in the Rosenwald Gallery of the Van Pelt-Deitrich Library of the University of Pennsylvania. The exhibition will be traveling to the Harvard Design School's Special Collections Library, hosted by the New England Chapter. Dates to be announced later.
The chapter has been asked by the Book Arts & Special Collections Department of the San Francisco Public Library for exhibit catalogs and print ephemera of their chapter activities to expand the San Francisco collection of exhibition catalogs.
Hedi Kyle gave a workshop on September 28 on Headbands and other fixings; Barbara Mauriello will give a workshop in Claire Owen's studio on October 26 on A Postcard Box.
The Fall Chapter meeting will be held October 26, 1996 in Northampton, Mass. The business meeting and a presentation by Bill Streeter will be held in Daniel Kelm's studio. Mr. Streeter will present his research on copy presses in the United States, beginning with James Watt's 1780 letterpress copying machine and ending with Chester Carlson's copying machine of 1938, the first Xerox machine. There will be demonstrations of some of the presses and different techniques employed. The afternoon will be spent touring many of the studios at One Cottage Street where Peter Geraty has organized an Open House. Betsey Palmer Eldridge will give a workshop at NEDCC, in Andover, Mass. on October 5 - 6 on Sewing Variations.
The Chapter is planning its exhibition of bindings of its finished "Fables", the book the Chapter has been working on this past year. They report that it has sold well.
New president Erin Loftus took over at the September Chapter meeting. Incumbents returned to office are John Bertonaschi, secretary; Manuel Rivera, treasurer; Frank Mowery, program coordinator. The Chapter's fall meetings will include, on Nov. 13 - Decorative "paper" using Tyvek, by LaVerne Magarian, and Dec. 11- Fine arts dealer Michael Robinson, former head of the Rare Book Section of Phillips Auction House in New York will speak on the value of books with regard to bookbinding. Meetings are held the second Wed. of the month at the Folger Library. Call 202/675-0332 if you are in Washington and would like to join them.
Book Arts Roundup, the newsletter of the Rocky Mt. Chapter is always crammed full of news of activities in this widely spread out area. Every region reports on numerous activities: A Letterpress Intensive at the University of Utah in June; the Utah Arts Festival, which included a special booth for book arts; reports from participants in the Mountain Plains Regional Collections Conservation Training Program at the University of Utah. Arizona State University offers coursework in Fine Printing & Bookmaking, as well as papermaking in the School of Art. In Colorado the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village offered summer classes for book artists, one taught by Hedi Kyle; the Colorado Calligraphers' Guild sponsored a workshop given by Alan Blackman; Ken Campbell gave a lecture on his artists books at the University of Colorado. The Idaho Center for the Book sponsored an exhibit in Boise in August and are publishing a literary map, Idaho By the Book, in the form of a tetratetraflexagon. In New Mexico, Martha Little taught Boxes, Inside and Out during September; The Santa Fe Book Arts Group have sponsored various activities and workshops, an upcoming one on October 26 will be a group construction of a giant glowing bookworm for the annual Santa Fe Shrine Show, then a demonstration on Nov. 6 of Embellishments, by Peggy Eigler, the owner of Guadelupe's #1 A-OK Rubber Stamps in Santa Fe, on dry & wet embossing, sealing wax, all about ink, stamping, punches, etc.; Sas Colby taught her Studio in the Sky workshop in September at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu. And the Chapter is gearing up for its first Members' Exhibition to be held in Salt Lake City next May through June.