NEW YORK Chapter activities this Spring include a workshop April 28th to 29th on The Book Restructured: Innovative Hingeing by Daniel Kelm; an Open House on April 6 at TALAS; and they are working on a Lecture Series to be given at the Grolier Club, starting, perhaps in the Spring and recommencing in the Fall. On Sunday May 14 through May 16, eight members of the English Society of Binders and Restorers will visit New York City for a tour of some of the fine book collections, before going on to Philadelphia.
New York Chapter members have been busy: Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese had an installation recently at the Center for Book Arts; Howard Stein and his wife have bought a house in Brooklyn and Howard has moved his bindery, Bound for Glory, into the basement. He recommends every binder move a bindery and set up boardshears: "it is a great confidence builder", he says. Frances Manola, the Newsletter's Calligraphy reporter, is planning to restore her copy of The Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, 1849. When completed, she plans to sell it, along with a number of other books on illuminated manuscripts and calligraphy, including Astle's The Origin and Progress of Writing, 1784, and Shaw's Illuminated Ornaments of the Middle Ages, 1833. The Conservation Staff at the New York Botanical Garden Library are working on a NY State Conservation/Preservation Grant to conserve six large folio plate volumes from its collection. Judy Reed and Erin Vigneau are disbinding the volumes in-house. Conservation rebinding is being done by Nelly Balloffet, Jeri Davis, and Jenny Hille. Because the disbinding is not being carried out by the conservators doing the rebinding, Judy and Erin are making detailed survey and collation notes for the binders. This makes for an interesting, if unusual, collaboration, which probably works only if the binders involved have worked together in the past.
Judy and Erin are also working on a project to inventory, survey and rehouse their collection of botanical art and illustration with Martha Fitzpatrick, their Kress Paper Conservation intern. Erin and their former Kress Intern, Elenore Kissel, are finalizing a manuscript entitled "A Manual for the Identification of Architectural Archives Reproductions". They are seeking funds for its publication. Judy, Erin and Elenore will present a paper on the research carried out for the manual to the Book & Paper Group at the 1995 AIC Annual Meeting.
Manhattan Handbinders meet on the first Thursday of the month at the Westside Brewing Company, 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, starting at around 6pm. Everyone welcome!
The NEW ENGLAND Chapter announces CREATED SPACE, it's most recent exhibition The opening reception was co-sponsored by the Hay Library and the American Printing History Association. The featured speaker was Daniel Kelm. The show closes at the end of April. Catalogs will be available made up for $10, in sheets for $9.
A change has been made in the exhibition's traveling schedule. Cornell University has had to decline as a venue, but Peter Verheyen has worked hard to change the site to Syracuse University, where it will run from July 15th to October 15th in the University's Library Department of Special Collections.
The show moves to Philadelphia November 13 to December 12, 1995 in the library at the University of the Arts, where there is a strong Book Arts MFA program. It is the alma mater of Rebekah Lord Gardiner, the Philadelphia liaison.
On April 1, Monona Rossol, Industrial Hygienist, will speak to the Chapter on "Hazardous Materials - Health and Safety in your Studio" at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.
MIDWEST Chapter doings, reported on by Cris Clair Takacs: February 26, eight Cleveland area binders attended a gallery lecture and viewed the exhibit, "Head, Heart, & Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters", at the Akron Museum of Art. The exhibition has 200 examples of Roycroft work with about 20 fine bindings and publications. The exhibit runs through March 26.
On March 25th, there was an Open House at Holmes Book Bindery in Walnut Creek, Ohio hosted by Leroy Chrisman and his assistant Jonathan Beachy. The schedule included viewing examples of Leroy's his private collection of old German Bibles and a demonstration of the making of replacement clasps. They are joining the GBW as Midwest chapter members. On April 1 & 2 there will be a workshop by Tom Conroy at the Conservation Lab at The University of Michigan Ann Arbor. The topic is Sharpening with Japanese Waterstones. April 28 - 30: Midwest Annual Meeting in Lexington, KY in conjunction with the Spring Book Arts Weekend. Our hostess will be Gabrielle Fox. There will be a workshop with Caren Heft, Arcadian Press.
Frank Klein of NOBS (Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society) has offered to help arrange visits to various libraries to view rare book collections.
The Sobotas (Jan & Jarmila) will be visiting the area in May or June and we will be arranging workshops/lectures with them.
The POTOMAC Chapter's group design binding project, "The Fables of DaVinci", with 21 stories , each in Italian and English, is underway. The type is being made, a Cranberry Mills handmade wove paper has been chosen, and ink and size have been selected. Printing will be done by Cita Wheeler-Sullivan of Snails Pace Press. After individual bindings have been completed, the chapter plans to exhibit the entire project at as yet undetermined sites. Spring meetings include one on April 12th with Mark Pollei demonstrating claspmaking, on May 10th, an acrylic marbling workshop with Linda Hohneke, and on June 7th, Decorative Leather Techniques with Frank Mowery.
Chapter members will also host members of the British Society of Binders and Restorers during their Washington visit. Tours of local conservation labs are planned.
The winter meeting of the DELAWARE VALLEY Chapter was held January 27th at the University of Delaware Morris Library in Newark, Delaware. It began with a viewing of their exhibit "Contemporary Artists' Prints in Books." The members were informed of chapter plans for two workshops, pastepapers in the spring and leather in the fall, as well as the plan to hold informal meetings the first Wednesday of each month at Borders Bookstore in Center City, Philadelphia. The group toured the Special Collections Library with its head, Timothy Murray, who showed them examples of titles on early printing and papermaking, including Owen Jones' Grammar of Orientation and an 1860 edition elephant folo of Audobon's Birds of America. Bird & Bull and Kelmscott Press titles were shown as examples of fine press work.