We have found, regretfully, that we have no pictures of the last Standards Seminar in Greensboro. Flashes were going off all over the place, so we know pictures were taken. I asked at the General Meeting for photographs that anyone might have, and we did receive a couple of shots, but not ones that could be reproduced satisfactorily.
Does anyone have photos of any part of the Seminar to put in the Newsletter? The write-up was in the December issue, but pictures in later issues will still be welcome.
Do you have pictures of any area of Book Arts that would be of interest to our members? Send them along, please. Now that we know we can print pictures, we find it adds to the interest of the Newsletter for all.
Also, as long as I am soliciting items for this Newsletter, our Tips & Techniques column is always in need of new ways to do old things. It is amazing how much you can learn about what you do every day just by explaining it to someone else.
Annual Elections
The full ballot was approved, with about one-third of the members voting. The only changes in the Committee this year are the election of Anna Embree as Guild Librarian and Peter Verheyen as Public Relations Chair. Other offices and committee chairs elected this year for a two-year term are: Karen Crisalli, President; Margaret Johnson, Newsletter; Monique Lallier, Standards; and Barbara Lazarus Metz, Exhibitions.
With this year's successful Seminar over, plans are going forward for the 1999 Seminar in Chicago. Chicago Seminar organizer Bill Drendel announced at the Annual Meeting that the Seminar will be held in the Congress Hotel on Halloween weekend, October 28-30. Presenters already lined-up include: Daniel Kelm on metal hinge bindings, Maureen Duke on English-style case bindings and Scott Kellar on rounded-spine boxes. There will be a poster session or a 'show-and-tell', and a 'Foundation Class' on the Thursday preceding the actual Seminar presentations. Subjects of these sessions will be announced later, as will the fourth presentation.
Three other events will take place in Chicago at about the same time as the Guild Seminar. The annual meeting of the Friends of Dard Hunter will be held November 4 &endash; 6, the weekend following the Guild Seminar, and two exhibitions featuring paper and paper art will be open during the time of both meetings. The first annual National Juried Collegiate Handmade Paper Exhibition opens on September 17. MAGIC PAPER/MAGIC BOOKS is being organized by Columbia College Chicago Center for Book Arts and will be on view at the Chicago Public Library: Harold Washington Center from May to November.
Barbara Lazarus Metz is already thinking about the next exhibition in the year 2000. She is looking for a theme for the show and would welcome suggestions, and she would like them soon, so that binders and book artists can start working on them. She is also looking for volunteers to help with getting the exhibition going. Call her! e-mail her! (b-lazarmetz@nwu.edu) write! The addresses are in this issue.
We hope that by now they are in your hands, but you're probably wondering what the story was with the Abecedarium catalogue. Well, you've heard the saying, "if something can go wrong, it will"? Sometimes it's really true and this was one of those times - in spades! While the deadlines and the connections can start out right in line, let one person slip up, and you get the snowball effect. This, was a GIANT snowball. The first "edition" came out in a rather timely fashion, &emdash; but it was not acceptable, because the color was off.
So, we had to go back to square one. Being a rather complicated production with many vendors involved, there was unlimited room for finger pointing. Even though very reputable houses were used in the production, double-talk knows no barriers. Suffice it to say, there are a couple of new heads of grey hair out there thanks to a nightmare alphabet catalogue.........and we apologize.
Barbara Lazarus Metz and Bill Drendel
N.B. Send your orders for catalogues to Karen Crisalli (KarenC5071@aol.com), if you have not already done so, or get a copy at an exhibit site (listed in the Calendar). $20 plus $3 s&h in the US, $6 overseas.
The Annual Meeting of the Guild of Book Workers was held on Saturday, October 24, 1998 in Greensboro, North Carolina. the meeting took place at the conclusion of the 18th Standards Seminar.
Guild President Karen Crisalli called the meeting to order and acknowledged the excellent presenters, the efforts of Monique Lallier in putting the meeting together and Susan Martin in arranging and working with the vendors. She also thanked Bill Drendel for his work in organizing the auction, which brought in over $4000. Karen explained that half the auction proceeds go to sponsor up to 3 scholarships to the Seminar; the other half is being earmarked for the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the Guild in 2006. Bill, in turn, thanked the 'Vannas' and said that next year's Seminar, to be held in Chicago, will be in the Congress Hotel on Halloween weekend, the weekend before the Dard Hunter Society meeting, also in Chicago.
The Guild finances were reported to be in satisfactory shape. An abbreviated financial report was passed out. All Annual Reports have been published in the December Newsletter.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the Minutes of the 1997 Annual Meeting as published in the Newsletter in February 1998.
The results of the Annual Election were announced by the Guild Secretary. With about a third of the Guild membership voting, the ballot was approved. The officers and Committee Chairmen elected for two-year terms are:
Margaret spoke about the Newsletter and requested that anyone interested in guest editing, contact her. She thanked, in particular, Chris McAfee for putting together the Calendar; Jack Fitterer, who gets enough ads to pay up to a third the cost of the Newsletter; and Sidney Huttner, who finds and assigns the book reviewers.
Peter, the new Public Relations chair, spoke about the use of the Internet. He and Eric Alstrom have put issues of the Newsletter on the Web. It was explained that they are not, and will never be, current because for that a person should be joining the Guild! Peter said that the Guild website reaches about 10,000 people. Currently on the Web are the new exhibition catalogue, the Study Opportunities List and the Guild Library catalogue. Eric will be taking over the website and anyone who has any event or catalogue they would like posted should contact Eric or Peter (gbwweb@dartmouth.edu or gbw@dreamscape.com).
Anna Embree, the new Guild Librarian, was introduced. She said that any Guild member who would like to borrow a book can contact her either by regular mail or e-mail (address in Newsletter). The only cost to the borrower is the return postage. She explained that since the Library Catalogue is on the Web, it was decided not to send out a printed catalogue to the membership. However, anyone interested in a hard copy can obtain a photocopy by contacting her.
Barbara thanked the ABeCeDarium exhibitors and spoke about planning for the next exhibit to be held in the year 2000. She is looking for a theme and would like to have this settled by early 1999, so that people have a long enough period to work on their pieces. She received 120 intent to enter forms for the current exhibition, but only 50 submissions. Barbara is also interested in receiving suggestions for possible sites for the exhibition in 2000.
All the chapter chairs who were in attendance were introduced and Salt Lake City was announced as the site for the 2000 Seminar, with the Rocky Mountain Chapter as host.
The floor was then opened to member comments, which ranged from a suggestion that there be a cruise ship seminar to the idea of either a poster session or clinic, or a session on 'what the hell happened?', or, more exactly, on sudden problems and how to solve them. Also proposed was the idea of a session of foundation techniques for people who do not have a lot of experience. This session could be on Thursday, the day before the actual beginning of the Seminar.
Some topics for next year's meeting have already been set. They include Daniel Kelm on metal hinge bindings and Maureen Duke on English style case bindings.
The meeting concluded with the eagerly anticipated raffle generously supplied by the vendors and presenters.
Respectfully
submitted,
Louise KuXik, Secretary
The California Chapter held their monthly meeting on January 30, 1999, with a tour of the International Printing Museum at their new location in Torrance, CA, following the business meeting and elections. The slate was:
Local television channels in Jerusalem have run a five minute film of the work of Yehuda Miklaf. It is taken from an hour-long film on Israeli artists. Yehuda's e-mail address is mfritz@netvision.nel.il.
Members on Show:
Claire Owen's work was included in "The Uncanny:
Psychological Visions in Contemporary Painting" at the Philadelphia
Art Alliance in December and January. Susan Hensel's non-traditional
book, Bloodlines, is on view at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in
Minneapolis until February 20. It is a narrative printed on a very
long strip of handmade paper, wound on a weavers boat shuttle, held
aloft by a wooden hand.
Bill Drendel, the well-known auctioneer at the Standards Seminars, has a full schedule this winter teaching classes at the Columbia College Center for Book Arts and workshops in Minnesota and Michigan. He taught a series of workshops in November in Chicago in conjunction with the exhibition Artist/Author. The workshop was called "Making an Artist Book With Everything But Your Kitchen Sink".
Obituary: Catherine Stanescu
(1908 - 1998)
Catherine Stanescu led a life of extraordinary contrasts.
She was born into a wealthy Rumanian family, and enjoyed a fine
education before marrying an important government official. With
these beginnings, it was hard to imagine that anything could go
wrong, but when the Communists took over in her country, her husband,
who had been the Royal Treasurer, was lucky to escape with his life.
In fact, for two years, Catherine lived alone in Switzerland while
she waited for Ion to join her. She passed the time studying
bookbinding, never dreaming that she would become an outstanding
bookbinder in America.
I first met Catherine in 1967, soon after starting work for Alan Miller, owner of the St. Crispin Bindery. He invited the members of the Guild of Book Workers to a grand opening for the St. Crispin Studio, where I was to teach bookbinding. Although Catherine had her own studio and faithful following of devoted students, she came to see the new studio and to meet a new binder just arrived from England. I well remember my first impression of her. She had a wonderfully kind face and her genuine good wishes for my success and happiness were quickly followed by offers of help to find supplies, tools and equipment.
For the next thirty years I enjoyed her friendship and valued her expert comments on my work. She lived not far from the Morgan Library, so I would drop in for tea and a chat after work, and to get her opinion on my latest designs. She especially enjoyed seeing the finished bindings and would note every detail with delight.
Following the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, Catherine decided to return to Rumania to live with her brother and sister-in-law in Timisoara.
Catherine was a highly skilled bookbinder trained in the French style. Her elegant fine bindings were snapped up by discriminating collectors, and her restoration skills were appreciated by collectors and institutions alike. Above all, her kindness, generosity, loyalty and courage were object lessons for all of us who were fortunate enough to know her.
Deborah M. Evetts,
Pierpont Morgan Library,
November 16, 1998
Call for Ohio Entries
A database of Ohio Bookbinders is being compiled as a Web page by Kent State University - Stark Campus. This list will attempt to be as comprehensive as possible by including commercial, historic, and fine arts binders regardless of size of operation. All Ohio Guild members and non-Guild members, whether binding as a business or a hobby or sideline, will be included. Also all prospects will be individually contacted to insure accurate information. All Ohio binders are encouraged to respond and if you know of non-Guild members who may wish to be included, please contact Roger Davis at the address below.
Please send all information and inquiries to:
Roger Davis
Assistant Professor
Kent State University &endash; Stark Campus
6000 Frank Ave. NW
Canton, OH 44720
rdavis@stark.kent.edu
Octavo in the News
We mentioned, in this column of the last issue, the new corporation Octavo, which puts rare books onto CD-ROMs. Since then a long article about the company has appeared in the New York Times, (Thursday, January 7, p. D 6). In fact, articles about Octavo have appeared in just about every publication in the country that prints news of books, printing and the computer. The New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Bridwell Library of SMU and the National Academy of Sciences have all granted Octavo exclusive digital rights to their entire collections. An article on John Warnock, CEO of Adobe, and on Octavo appeared in the December issue of Biblio magazine. For more information, and to purchase Octavo's CD-ROMs, check the Websites: www.octavo.com, www.amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
Also receiving a lot of notice in the press is Andrew Hoyem and his Arion Press in San Francisco. They have appeared in a recent issue of Biblio, in a long article in the San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday, December 27,1998), and Ralph Weller, in Alcove, NY, has sent us an article from the January 1999 Episcopal Life, an indication that many other publications around the country are writing about them.
What is provoking the special interest in Arion is their production of what is probably the last folio Bible to be printed from metal type. Technology is taking over and only special editions by small fine presses continue to use the metal type. Even there, the computer is now part of the picture. Text is generated by the computer and transmitted to the casting machine to cast the type,
The Bible, which will be 18 months in production, will be ready in the year 2000. In an edition of 400, it is being printed in 16-point Romulus type on Somerset paper. The 1,232 pages are 18› x 13›. Unbound sheets in a box will cost $7,250; bound in cloth, $7,750; bound in leather, $8,500. Hand-illuminated initial letters can be had for $2,500 more.
For more information, check the Arion Press Website: www.arionpress.com.
At the American Printing History Association Annual Meeting on January 30, 1999, held in the New York Public Library, the APHA Awards for 1998 were presented. This year's Institutional Award was given to the University of Iowa Center for the Book, and the Individual Award to Sue Allen, of New Haven, Conn. (whose course at the Rare Book School was the subject of a report in the December issue of this Newsletter). The 1999 APHA Conference will be held at The Grolier Club in New York later this year.
The Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA), The Loft Literary Center and Milkweed Editions have joined together to create the Minnesota Book and Literary Arts Building, Inc. which will own and renovate the building at 1011 Washington Avenue South in Minneapolis where the three literary arts organizations will be housed. The space will eventually include other book and literary arts organizations, book clubs, community gatherings and a bookstore/cafe.
Much has been written about the restoration of the main reading room of the New York Public Library and its facilities, and much has been written about the new British Library in London, both of which seem to be operating well. Both have gotten good reviews. But the new Bibliothèque Nationale in southeastern Paris is garnering headlines like the one in the latest Abbey Newsletter: "Bibliothèque Nationale: A Building Hostile to Preservation and Access". A spectacular building with, it seems, spectacular problems: computer breakdowns, long waiting lines, long waits &emdash; sometimes days &emdash; for books, endless treks to get from one building to another (there are four 18-story towers, 800 ft. apart), all glass on the outside making it necessary to put wooden panels inside to protect the books from sunlight, flooding from the Seine, poor ventilation systems…and on…and on…. They forgot to consult the librarians, among others; not a new situation, is it?
"American Bookworks" at the Barbican Centre, London
"American Bookworks" at the Barbican Centre, London, UK, October 17 &endash; November 15, 1998 was a small exhibition of fine U.S. binders' work. Gabrielle Fox has sent this brief explanation of how it came about. Her report is followed by the review that appeared in Designer Bookbinders Newsletter, No. 105 Winter 1998.
Several members of Designer Bookbinders in the UK asked if I would, from the U.S. side, help the Barbican organize an exhibition of U.S. binders' work to tie in with the Barbican's 1998 year of "Inventing America". I was given a short list of names and asked to suggest others who did similar work. The binders invited were asked to submit slides or photos and biographical information. Several binders declined and some binders did not do the sort of work wanted for this exhibition. My own work did not fit into this category and it was only after the Barbican read the article by Priscilla Spitler [in The New Bookbinder, Vol. 16, 1996] that I was invited to exhibit my miniatures as 'a small group separately'.
We worked on organizing the exhibition from June 1997 until I carried the books over in early October 1998. The books were displayed in six glass cases which were arranged in two separate locations near one another in the ground level foyer.
There were some lapses in communication. The greatest of these was in the advertising of the exhibition. At the last moment, it was listed in both the DB and GBW Newsletters' calendar of events.
I enjoyed working on this project and wish we could arrange small exhibitions of this kind more often between different countries. There are some marvelous large international exhibitions taking place now in Europe, and small exhibitions can only complement this increased visibility of the book arts.
As a goodwill gesture towards international communication, may I define two words used in the following rewiew:
TWEE: a. affectedly dainty or quaint, from the Oxford Guide to the English Language, and
KITSCH: n. Worthless pretentiousness in (esp. dramatic) art. [G], from the Concise Oxford Dictionary.
My breakfast bagel is still caught in my throat!
Gabrielle Fox
To complement the London Artists' Book Fair, this exhibition presents work by five of America's leading bookbinders. It also forms part of the Barbican's extensive programme of events called 'Inventing America' &emdash; a year of American culture.
As background to this small but punchy exhibition is the article of the Guild of Book Workers which appeared in The New Bookbinder, Volume 16, 1996, in which it explains how the USA has no tradition of training centers for fine bookbinding as in Europe. Binders studied abroad mainly in Europe, or trained with immigrant binders. In turn they taught others their skills, a process which resulted in a melting pot of binding styles.
Pamela Spitzmueller worked at the Library of Congress for a number of years before taking up a post at Iowa, and her broad knowledge of historical bookbinding techniques stems from her training in fine book conservation. The OV White Book with its Oakdale fermented flax paper bound in wooden boards covered with alum-tawed peccary (Texas wild pig), shows off her preoccupation with exaggerated medieval binding features on a small scale. Her book sculpture Personal Devotional represents a private prayer book sewn securely in a velvet cushion bound shut with pink thread, glass bead, tassels and all! Fate Conspired to Strengthen Us is a structure in the tradition of Rauschenberg, using discarded beech wood and paper. The irregularly hewn wooden boards house the coarsely chopped rust coloured pages which have been sewn onto three wide vellum straps using various sewing patterns. Although this echoes her exploration of historic book structures it conversely gives the feeling of the book sculpture with its black type on brown paper thus making the text barely legible.
Gabrielle Fox, who originally studied at Guildford College of Technology, became a Conservator at the University of Cincinnati, and returned to England for a spell where she taught at Croydon College of Art. Her personal interest in miniatures account for this plethora of mini bindings using texts from small presses such as Rebecca, Poole and Arcadian. She has a playful, whimsical approach in her use of bright goatskins, embroidered with beads and gold or blind tooled. One exhibit entitled Flirtations uses silk and embroidered linen giving a delicate, rather precious effect. Her bindings, however, lack finesse and end up being rather twee and kitschy, although the series entitled Anthropomorphic Figures in North American Rock Art introduce more charm and seriousness for the subject in her use of dyed vellum and elk horn.
Hedi Kyle, known for her highly innovative and influential structures, exhibits three recent bindings from her Envelope Pattern Series. These are cool, restrained experimental models for a work in progress. Precise, geometric, circular patterns, reminiscent of Delft tiles or cellular structures under a microscope are printed flat or recessed in the page. Some circles are cut out as windows to view through the depth of the book.
Tim Ely's collaboration with the ethno-biologist Terence McKenna resulted in Synethesia, a binding made of paper, pigments, printing ink, stainless steel, wire, silk thread and etched copper. He uses the book form to document his personal and historical experiences, using imagery that reflects his interest in cartography, 'the book-works become personalized atlases of arcane pasts and futures'. His other exhibit, Root 7, is a collaboration with Caesar Citaro and is a book of bio-illogical revelation, an illustrated diary purportedly belonging to a blind naturalist expatriate Frenchman living a divided life between Norway and Costa Rica in the early part of the 20th century. To me, the intellectual ideas behind these two bindings were more stimulating than the visual impact of the objects themselves.
Not so William Drendel's punchy, dazzling constructions. His books function as sculpture as well as objects to be read. He, like Hedi Kyle, adapts Japanese techniques which have been used in Japan for centuries with great depth of cultural significance, but which now find themselves appropriated by American binders for visual effect but stripped of their profound original meaning. However, Drendel's allusive titles and witty visual puns belie a certain social engagement behind the exuberant decorative twists of folded papers, in particular the simple but stark DNA &emdash; a tiny book &emdash; laser-printed onto handmade paper and sewn with dental floss mounted onto a toothbrush handle lying across a pearly grey patterned box for carrying toothbrushes. The piece is concerned with the identification of air crash victims through the DNA on their toothbrushes. If Your Acts Determine the Fate of the World is an 8› high origami continuous structure of folded superhero comic books, and Turn Right at the Next Roundabout employs a deconstructive method in presenting an otherwise comprehensive idea of a travel guide but in the form of a shredded Baedeker guide fanning out of a trough shaped wooden base covered in a map of London.
This show is a small but lively introduction to the diversity of bookmaking in America today, an aperitif to one of the many events that make up this American culture bonanza.
Copyright Laws for Calligraphers & Book Artists: Part Two
Is lettering copyrightable?
This article discusses copyrighting creative work and the reasons
for registering your copyright. As discussed in Part One of this
article, copyright protection exists the moment your copyrightable
work is completed. The unsettling news for calligraphers is that
under copyright laws, "lettering" is not considered copyrightable.
This includes typographic fonts. After speaking with an information
specialist at the U.S. Copyright Office, I was not entirely sure if
the lettering style was not copyrightable or the actual physical
lettered object. I am not attempting to copyright all Uncial
alphabets, only those that I letter by hand. It would be illegal for
anyone to make an unauthorized copy of your hand lettered work which
contained your drawing and painting, as this work is considered
copyrightable. Anyone who failed to obtain permission to copy the
text in your work would be in copyright violation of the author's
work. One could also make the argument that lettering is drawing.
After consulting a copyright lawyer about this matter, I was assured
that copyright laws are open for interpretation and as long as one
can prove a "modicum of creativity", no one would have the right to
copy your lettering without permission.
Copyrighting a work
The Copyright Act passed by Congress in 1976 that became
effective on January 1, 1978 grants the creator exclusive rights to
copy, distribute, transmit, perform, and make modified versions of
the work. You do not need to register your copyright with the
Copyright Office for these rights. It is automatically secured when a
work is created. A notice should appear on your work, either the
symbol ©, or the word Copyright or Copr., the date, and your
name. If you choose to establish a public record of your copyrighted
work, you must register with the Copyright Office at the Library of
Congress. Registration is voluntary and requires a small fee per
work. You must register a copyright in order to bring a lawsuit for
copyright infringement. If a copyright infringement does occur, this
makes the burden of proof easier in a lawsuit. Also, if the work is
registered before a copyright infringement occurs, and the case is
won, the copyright owner will have a chance of being awarded
attorney's fees and damages. If registration occurs after the
infringement, the copyright owner will have to pay for attorney fees,
even if the case is a successful one. Copyright protection endures
for the life of the maker plus 50 years. Copyright ownership may be
transferred to heirs in writing.
Registering a copyright
The U.S. Copyright Office does not yet handle copyright
registrations electronically, but does so through the mail. To
register a copyright, you must send three elements: a completed
application form, a filing fee of $20, and a copy of the work to be
registered. You may write or call the Copyright Office for the
necessary forms. The forms may also be downloaded from their website.
All addresses, numbers, and websites are listed at the end of this
article. The application forms give easy line by line instructions.
For calligraphic pieces where the text is not yours, you use Form VA
(visual arts). For work that involves a combination of your own text
and visual work, you will need Form TX (literary work). You may send
in a series of individual works under one title, such as "1998
Lettered Broadsides", and a single filing fee of $20. If you are
registering one-of-a-kind pieces, you only need to send a slide or
transparency of each work.
Work for hire
Another area of copyright law which concerns calligraphers is
"work for hire". Copyright law states that although the person
creating the work is the author, when work is prepared by an employee
or specially commissioned by an employer, the employer is considered
to be the author or creator. Unless a written agreement has been made
between you and your employer, you may not copyright work "made for
hire". Many calligraphers are self-employed and do freelance design
or commissions. As an independent contractor, you have the right to
retain the copyright of your work. Providing a simple contract that
both you and your customer sign will help prevent
misunderstandings.
"Fair use" laws
"Fair use" laws allow for copying of copyrighted works without
permission. When minimal copying is done for educational and research
purposes, and it does not take away from the commercial value of the
original work, it is considered "fair use". Calligraphic teachers
often copy lettering, illustrations, or texts to distribute to
students. However, copying a major portion of a text book so that
students do not have to buy it is illegal. "Fair use" laws of
copyrighted material allow for limited copying for classwork if the
teacher decides to use a copyrighted material and it is too late to
obtain permission. There is a helpful booklet available through the
National Association of College Stores, Inc. which gives detailed
information on what can be copied legally under the "fair use" clause
of copyright law. You may obtain a copy by writing to them at the
address below. It is doubtful that a class would be prosecuted for
using a text without permission to practice lettering, or for sharing
copies of favorite poems. However, obtaining copyright permission of
texts is a serious concern for professional calligraphers who display
and sell their work to the public. It is not legal to depend on
quoted work to sell your own work.
Postscript
I hope these articles on copyright have been helpful to you.
There is a lot of information available from the Copyright Office,
textbooks and the internet. Good luck.
To order forms and circulars, call the Copyright Office Hotline at (202) 707-9100, or write to the U.S. Copyright Office, Publications Section, LM-455, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20559.
General information may be found on the Library of Congress home page at: http://lcweb.loc.gov. Circulars are available through the internet at: gopher://marvel. loc.gov:70/11/copyright/circs.
To speak with an information specialist call (202) 707-3000 or (202) 707-5959, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, EST. Recorded information is available 24 hours a day.
Write for a copy of: Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community, National Association of College Stores, 500 East Lorain Street, Oberlin, OH 44074-1298, or call: (216) 775-7777.
Bibliography
Holsinger, Ralph and Jon Paul Dilts. Media Law. 3rd ed. MacGraw-Hill, 1994, pp. 572-581.
Lance, Rose. Netlaw. Osborne MacGraw-Hill, 1995, pp. 84-97.
Smedinghoff, Thomas J., ed. Online Law. Addison-Wesley Dev. Press, 1996, pp. 137-148.
Victoroff, Gregory T., ed. The Visual Artist's Business and Legal Guide. Prentice Hall, 1994, pp. 2-19.
Ed. note: Part One of this article appeared in this Newsletter in the October 1998 #120.
For a rare treat, if you are online and interested in marbling, visit the website at: http://www.mfa.gov.tr/ GRUPD/Antika/marbling.htm. Here you will find a wealth of information on Turkish Ebru. The source is an article in Antika, the Turkish Journal of Collectible Art. The article was by Isik Yazan, 1986. This well done site has seven very clear images of Ebru, which include Talik Calligraphy, an album with calligraphy, several flower marbles, such as poppies, pansies and tulips, and what they call "oversize marbling" &emdash; which appears to be a stone type of pattern. There is also a discussion of techniques that is quite interesting.
While we're focusing on Ebru, a must-have book for any marbler or paper collector, is EBRU: The Turkish Art of Marbling by Nedim Sönmez. This is the English translation. This large format book is chock-full of color reproductions of historic Ebru, plus marbling by the author, Christopher Weimann and others. It is well written and full of history and techniques. It is available through Dawson's Book Shop in Los Angeles, CA (535 N. Larchmont Blvd., 90004; ph: 213-469-2186; fax: 469-9553).
Edition Bookbinder Needed
The Arion Press of San Francisco announces an immediate job opportunity for an experienced edition bookbinder. Arion Press publishes three or four fine press editions a year in quantities of 200 to 400 copies, as well as producing commissioned projects of various kinds, from editions to repair of individual volumes. All work is done in-house to exacting standards.
An individual applying for this position must be competent in all phases of edition book and box making and able to maintain high standards within an efficient production schedule.
Resumes should be addressed to:
Mr. Andrew Hoyem,
The Arion Press
460 Bryant Street,
San Francisco, California 94107
Tel: 415 777-9651; Fax: 415 777-2730
arionpress@aol.com
The New York Academy of Medicine offers a 2 &endash; 3 month internship at the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Laboratory, with a stipend of $4,250. The internship is open to graduates of, or students in recognized conservation programs, or people with equivalent experience and training. Candidates should send a detailed letter of interest, a resume and three professional recommendations. An interview is required, and candidates should present a portfolio of completed bindings or treatments. Deadline for application: May 1, 1999.
Elaine R. Schlefer
Gladys Brooks Book & Paper
Conservation Laboratory
The New York Academy of Medicine Library
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Tel: 212 822-7363; Fax: 212 722-7650
eschlefer@nyam.org
Equipment
For Sale: Bushnell Standing Press. 5´ tall, 20› x 29› platen; opens to 29› Excellent condition. contact: Lorene Burman, P.O. Box 22, Coopers Mills, Maine 04341; Tel: 207-549-5122; chburman@webtv.net
For Sale: Gilding Tools. Approximately 260 brass handle tools, including 3 alphabets (8, 10, & 12 pt.), one roll, 21 pairs of corners. Boxed. Excellent condition. $5,000/best reasonable offer. Call: 207 846-0426 or 707 887-1230 for more information.
J. Hewit & Sons announce that they have purchased the World rights to manufacture, market and sell Bowdens Book Headbands. They have, for many years, been distributing a range of the Bowden Book Headbands, along with the bookbinding leathers and equipment, tools, materials and sundries that they distribute.
When they were asked by June and Brian Orley, proprietors of Bowden who were planning to retire, if they would like to purchase the company, they were delighted to do so. Bowden and Son have been manufacturing fine quality book headbands since 1855.
From January 5, 1999 the production and selling operation of Bowden Book Headbands will have moved from Essex to Hewit's tannery in Edinburgh. For further information, please contact:
Tannery:
Kinaud Leather Works
Currie
Edinburgh EH14 5RS
Tel: 0131-449-2206
Fax: 0131-451-5081
Sales Offce:
Unit 28, Park Royal Metro Centre
Britannia Way
London NW10 7PR
Tel: 0181-965-5377
Fax: 0181-453-0414
sales@hewit.com
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Karli Frigge. Leather Books.
Self-published in an edition of 370 on Yearling paper, bound in
wrappers, and 45 copies on Kaschmir, bound in leather. 96 pp.
Yearling copies are $38 plus shipping (& tax in Calif.) from
Dawson's Book Shop, 535 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004;
ph: 213-469-2186.
Reviewed by Sidney F. Huttner, University of Iowa Library.
Bookbinding tradition distinguishes bound and cased work. In cased work, the block and cover are separately manufactured, then married to create a book. In bound work, block and cover are a single, integral unit. The Dutch marbler and binder, Karli Frigge has devised methods for binding books in limp and boarded leather in a style reminiscent of laced limp and stiff vellum but which is, she says, much less complicated, and much faster, than traditional leather binding. Leather Books is Frigge's report on work-in-progress with these methods.
In a review of her book in Zelf Boekbinden 2 (1998), a Dutch journal, A. Van der Knaap quotes Frigge as saying, "Today, most books bound in leather are intended to be kept in a glass showcase, like a relic of a saint. But I like to hold them in my hand, which means that the books must be strong and be bound in a type of leather that only gets better with use." It appears to be this desire which led her to experiment with non-traditional structures. Van der Knaap also quotes her claim, "Binding in accordance with my method takes less than a quarter of the time needed to make a traditional volume and these books are so much stronger."
Frigge describes and illustrates (with about 75 line-drawings) two methods, both of which rely on sewing the block on thongs (she recommends cutting these 6 mm. wide from a waste piece of the hide) which are laced into the covering material. The first style she calls "wrap-around binding", suitable for smaller books (up to six inches wide, she says), cutting leather the height but roughly three times the width of the block so that the part which becomes the rear cover can be wrapped back over the fore-edge and under the front cover (rather as the cases of Persian bindings have a fore-edge flap). The sewn block is rounded and backed with a paper hollow, the cover is glued in position, holes are then chiseled through the leather, the thongs drawn through the holes, and the cover trimmed to size. The covers can be stamped, scored, burned, or otherwise decorated.
The second method, recommended for books wider than six inches, Frigge terms "laced-in boards". These books have flexible leather spines and boards of thick, stiff material (which might include not only binder's board but colored cardboards, harness leather, plastic, metal, wood, etc.). In this style, the block can be backed with or without a paper hollow. A piece of leather is glued to the spine, holes are chiseled through the leather, and the leather thongs are laced through the leather at the joints so that they appear outside the leather, and then are laced back through the board and glued to the inside. Excess leather is trimmed and endcaps turned-in.
Frigge's text and illustrations work very well together to make the methods quite clear &emdash; words alone, as in this review, are not adequate to convey them fully. The methods are not complicated, but Frigge's claim that they are much faster than traditional bindings to construct could be verified only with the experience of constructing several of them. While neither of her styles requires leather paring, it is not obvious what other steps save time. One would also want to see how these books handle over time: are they better on the coffee table than the shelf? In her desire to achieve economically the tactile pleasure of a leather binding, Frigge also seems less concerned about the quality and durability of materials. Or perhaps that is another book.
Leather Books encourages others to join in the experimentation. Frigge persuades me it will be fun.
Books
Glenn Fukunaga has a list of Bookbinding books for sale this winter along with related and non-related items. Please call him at 512-445-4544, fax: 512-445-2927, or e-mail him at deafblind@aol.com (subject: Books for Winter).
Art et Metiers du Livre
No. 210, July-August 1998 (all issues are in French) contains an
article, "Timothy C. Ely: Materia", written by Tim Ely about his work
and the mathematical principle that drives the creation of his books.
As always, excellent color photographs. &emdash; Pages 59 &endash; 64
of the instruction manual by Jacques Michel and Godelieve Dupin
Saint-Cyr of the Atelier d'Arts Appliques du Vesinet that has been a
part of numerous issues; this one deals with leather covering
&endash; :Couvrure Peau". &endash; An article on "Bécherel en
Bretagne: Première Cité du Livre en France".
No. 211, Sept. &endash; October 1998 contains articles of interest on the art of cut paper design, a book village in France called Fontenoy-la-Joûte, Chinese calligraphy in France, painted wallpaper, the bookbinder Florent Rousseau, pages 67 &endash; 74 of the bookbinding manual (this one on leather covering - hinges, corners & headcaps), and some wonderful photographs of bookbindings in the exhibition in September at the first International Exposition of Bookbinding Art in Italy.
No. 212, November-December 1998 contains articles on cookbooks in France from the fourteenth century to today, the collection of cookbooks and wine books in the Dijon Municipal Library, an itinerary of gastronomic libraries in Europe, and photographs of bindings by Michel Richard and Alain Taral that have been shown recently in exhibitions in Paris.
Vol. XXI, No. 6, September 1998 covers Don Glaister's presentation on gold tooling of titles given at the same Seminar. This issue begins the editorship of Susan Lunas, in New Jersey, who has taken over the editing and publishing from Jim Dorsey, although Jim has written this and the following two issues.
Vol. XXI, No. 7, October 1998 contains a long and interesting letter from Mother Agnes Shaw, a former GBW member who moved from the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethelem, CT, several years ago and has been setting up a bindery in the Abbazia Benedittina di San Vicenzo al Volturno in Italy. It contains, also, a in-depth review of Modern Bookbinding by Alex J. Vaughn, a book first published in 1929. This is a review of the facsimile of the Second Edition, 1950, reprinted in 1996. This issue of BGN also contains a three-page copy of a brochure from Globe Printers Supply of Basic Crafts Co. on Repairing Hard Cover Books.
Vol. XXI, No. 8, 1998 covers Pam Spitzmueller's presentation at the Ann Arbor Seminar on Long and Link Stitch Bindings; more from Mother Agnes Shaw, and Jim Dorsey's farewell as editor.
Vol. 22, #2 has an article by Abby Smith on "Preservation in the Future Tense" , articles on digital technologies for exhibitions and funding for digital imaging projects, and an update on the Bookkeeper deacidification services.
Vol. 22, #3 contains a reprint of a paper by Eleanore Stewart, originally given to students of the Preservation and Conservation Studies Program, GSLIS, University of Texas, Austin, in April 1998, entitled "Why Library Preservation Should Plan for a Digital Future." Two articles about stacks cleaning are "Managing a Stacks Cleaning Project" by Shannon Zachary at the University of Michigan Library, and "Cleaning Stacks: An Online Discussion on PADG-L", which contains some of the longer replies to a query posted on the Preservation Administrators Discussion List in 1997 by Lorriane Olley at Indiana University.
Vol. 22, #4 discusses in "Chaos in Scholarly Publishing Makes Waves in Publishing" how trends and developments are converging to affect the way books and journals are being published, how information is supplied to libraries and classrooms, what materials libraries will acquire, and the mix of materials that will need preserving. On-demand printing, libraries going into the publishing business (CD-ROMs, websites), academics publishing on the World Wide Web are among the new trends. Also in this issue is an article, "Bibliothèque Nationale: a Building Hostile to Preservation and Access".
This list is compiled by Sid Huttner and includes catalogs received by him which include books of interest to GBW members. Catalog number, address, phone number and Internet address (when stated in the catalog) are recorded.
The Book Block 42 (91 items). Box 11090, Greenwich, CT 06831. 203-532-1980. bkblock@netaxis.com. Calligraphy and typography, numerous fine bindings and press books.
The BookPress 114 (246 items) and 115 (259 items). P.O. Box KP, Williamsburg, VA 23187. 757-229-1260. bookpress@ widowmaker.com. 114: 60 book arts items, with an enclosed "Bookbinding" list offering 93 items. 115: 78 history of printing items.
Claude Cox 129 (365 items). 3 & 5 Silent Street, Ipswich IP1 1TF, England. 011-44-01473-254776. Fine printing and book production, etc. A supplementary catalog offers the reference library of bookseller Percy H. Muir, 904 items which include some book arts.
Frances Wakeman Books 39 (408 items) & 40 (409 items). 2 Manor Way, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 2BD, UK. 011-44-01865-378316. fwbooks@globalnet.co.uk. Book arts, featuring bookbinding and marbling, illustration and fine press, papermaking, and printing.
Frits Knuf 200 (596 items). P.O.B. 780, 5340 AT Oss, The Netherlands. 011-599-0-412-626072. knuf@wxs.nl. All areas of book arts and bibliography.
Jeff Weber 61 (414 items). 1923 Foothill Drive, Glendale, CA 91201-1242. 818-848-9704 weber@primenet.com. 21 bookbinding, marbling and bookplate items; 37 fine printing and limited edition items.
Joshua Heller 20 (217 items). P.O. Box 39114, Washington, DC 20016-9114. 202-966-9411. hellerbkdc@aol.com. Artist's and press books, many illustrated b&w.
Oak Knoll Books 204 (706 items). 308 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19720. 800-996-2556. oakknoll@oakknoll.com. Books about books. Many binding, papermaking and other book arts books. Oak Knoll Press also offers its 150-page Autumn 1998 catalog of fine books about books.
Phillip J. Pirages 42 (382 items). P.O. Box 504, McMinnville, OR 97128. 503-472-0476. Many books in historic and modern bindings; illustrated books. 16 pages b&w illustrations, color wrappers.
Priscilla Juvelis List 98-3 (168 items). 1166 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. 617-497-7570. pjbooks@tiac.net.
html file compiled by Eric Alstrom on