NEW YORK Chapter activities since June 1994 included a one-day workshop on Pamphlet structures taught by Claire Van Vliet, of Janus Press; this was on September 17th at the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Laboratory of the New York Academy of Medicine. Seventeen people participated and it was a great success. We put out our first real newsletter, announcing our very busy fall-early winter season of activities. These included two Open Houses (the first in a series), one at the Conservation Department of the Frick Art Reference Library, held on October 20, the other at NYU Bobst Preservation Department, held on October 20; a lecture by Frederick Bearman, Head of Conservation at Columbia University, on November 17; a gallery tour by the artist Jonathan Hammer of an exhibition of his books at the Matthew Marks Gallery on November 22; and a one-day workshop on post-binding structure with internal hinges taught by Elaine Schlefer, Susan Martin, and Solveig Schumann of the New York Academy of Medicine on December 3. We also started our "Studio News" column, and included a form with the Newsletter to encourage members to send information to be published in the next Newsletter about projects, problems, or solutions they are working on. Margaret Johnson asked us to forward any interesting entries to be published in the national GBW Newsletter.
Our plans for the upcoming months include more studio Open Houses and a tour of the exhibition, "A Century of Artists Books" at the Museum of Modern Art. We are also in the process of organizing the winter/spring workshops, one on German paper case bindings, to be taught by Ursula Wille, and the other as yet undecided.
The DELAWARE VALLEY Chapter's meeting in October 1994 was held at the American Philosophical Society hosted by Hedi Kyle and Denise Carbone, who gave a tour of the conservation lab and a presentation on their work after the business meeting. The Chapter is making arrangements for an exchange exhibit with the New England Chapter and is making plans for a visit in May by members of the British organization, the Society of Bookbinders. The British group are planning to visit the New England, New York and Delaware Valley groups.
The Chapter's January 26th meeting is scheduled for the University of Delaware Library in Newark, Del., where they will view an exhibition of Contemporary Artist Prints in Books and tour the conservation area and the Special Collections. They are planning a workshop on Paste Paper in May given by Denise Carbone, and another on Leather onlay and inlay with Daniel Kelm in the fall. This winter they are going to try informal meetings at Borders Bookstore in Philadelphia on the first Monday of each month. If you're in town, check it out.
LONE STAR. There has been a change in the program for the Dallas LONE STAR Chapter meeting, Saturday, February 25th. Following the general meeting of the Lone Star Chapter and informal potluck dinner, there will be a slide lecture presented by special guest, FAITH SHANNON, visiting from the U.K. following a holiday with her husband to Belize in Central America. Faith will first visit Austin and talk about her bindings at a meeting of the Austin Book Workers on Thursday evening, February 23 at 7:00 p.m., at All Saints Episcopal Church.
In Dallas, on February 25th, Faith will lecture at the Dallas Craft Guild, sponsored by the Lone Star Chapter. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m., followed by a potluck dinner for LSC members. At 7:30 the lecture will begin, open to the public. Contact Priscilla Spitler for details at (512) 452-1529.
The following day, February 26th, in Dallas, there will be a reception at the Bridwell Library at SMU featuring the miniature book publications of Stanley Marcus (of Neiman Marcus). In addition, Jan Sobota is organizing a small miniature show by Texas binders.
Priscilla's Design Workshop, methods for creating contemporary designs for decorative covers or bindings, will be postponed until a later date in Dallas. The April 2nd meeting planned for Austin, with the workshop (free to LSC members) will go on as scheduled.
The NEW ENGLAND Chapter's fall meeting, November 5, was held in the Harvard Law School Library with David Ferris, Curator of Rare Books, talking on some of the more interesting and notable bindings in the collection. The committee organizing the Chapter's spring show (Jim Reid-Cunningham, Lindsey Dimeo, Rebekah Gardiner, and Dorothy Africa) are planning three venues for the show: The Hay Library in Providence, RI, The Syracuse University Library in Syracuse, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Daniel and Babette Gehnrich, Workshops chairmen, are planning a one-day workshop with binding historian Sue Allen, on publishers' cloth bindings.
Cris Takacs reports that the MIDWEST Chapter set up a GBW table at a bookfair (NOBS) in Ohio where people with books in need of repair got estimates and advice from the binder working the table--who then got the work. The Chapter's December 1994 Newsletter, Vol. 7, nos. 3-4, includes write-ups of two of the presentations at the Dallas Seminar which have been put on-line on the Internet by Peter Verheyen.