RSS Feed

‘interview’ Category

  1. May // Book Artist of the Month: Susan Collard

    May 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    interlinear-susancollard

    In 2011, Susan Collard crafted Interlinear, a wooden accordion-like structure collaged with various imagery and texts. I’m particularly attracted to the inclusion of delicate embroidery threads; connecting the illustrations in a playful manner and drawing the viewer’s eye from page to page through doorways and into secret compartments. 

    interlinear2-susancollard interlinear3-susancollard interlinear4-susancollard

    During my first year at North Bennet Street School, the students were invited to aid in the set-up of the Marking Time Exhibition at Dartmouth College. It was here that I first saw and played with Susan’s work. As we gathered around her work, we dropped one of the steel balls to investigate the hidden channels and pathways between each page. 

    Read the interview after the jump. Come back each Monday during the month of May for more posts about Susan’s work, which include in progress photos for A Short Course in Recollection and more detailed images of Camera Obscura. 

    read more >

  2. April // Book Artist of the Month: Laura Davidson

    April 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    fortpointtunnelbook-lauradavidson

    Fort Point-Boston is part of an ongoing series of tunnel books from artist Laura Davidson completed in 2011. The point of view shows the harbor walk from the Gillette building to the Boston Harbor, passing by bridges and buildings along the Fort Point Channel. Each copy is numbered and signed. Laura’s tunnel books are available through her website or at the Made in Fort Point store.

    I’ve been working in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston for almost a year now and I’ve already seen changes in the landscape around me. Laura has been in Fort Point for 30 years. After realizing that we are practically neighbors, Laura so graciously invited me to visit her studio. Laura pulled piece after piece out of her display cabinet, allowing me to handle each one. We discussed details of her work from the handmade hinges to the paper mosaics to the various nibs Laura uses to create her drawings. After surveying Laura’s work one can clearly see how her environment both in and out of the studio acts as inspiration. Laura has created several works showcasing her point of view of a neighborhood to which she calls home.

    fortpointflorafauna-lauradavidsonflorafaunadetail-lauradavidson

    Fort Point Flora and Fauna is an offset printed accordion book from 2003. One side showcases full color drawings of the various animal and plant-life in the Fort Point area that Laura has observed. The reverse side is sepia toned text giving explanation to the images. I first saw this lovely little book at the FPAC Gallery and it opened my eyes to the idea of nature thriving in the urban environment of Fort Point. Now as I walk around the neighborhood I find myself being greeted by signs of life. Most recently a wild turkey, but I image that was quite unusual.

    fortpointilluminated-lauradavidsonilluminateddetail-lauradavidson

    In 2006, Laura created Fort Point Illuminated, a miniature book filled with images of her neighborhood. Each image is painted with ink and wash and illuminated with gold leaf. The covers are sterling silver with copper and brass elements and is bound with a sterling silver necklace chain. This book is in the Collection of the Boston Athenaeum.

    It was a real treat to meet Laura and get a glimpse of her studio life. An organized and inspirational workshop is conducive to creating successful pieces of art. On one side of Laura’s studio is a completely magnetized wall, where Laura displays old tintype portraits, pieces of ephemera, fragments of her current work and photographs of her family. A magnetized wall is quite appealing and something I may implement in my studio. 

    I want to thank Laura again for inviting me into her studio and sharing stories of her work and life with me.

    Read the interview after the jump and come back each Monday in the month of April for more of Laura’s work.

    read more >

  3. April // Bookbinder of the Month: Derek Hood

    April 1, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    dumasanddecoster-derekhood

    Dumas/de Coster is a beautiful collection of photographs of bookbindings from 1935-1980. It was published in a limited edition of 100 in Paris for the Librarie Auguste Blaizot in 1981. The catalogue is printed on tinted Romana paper, with 14 color and 19 black and white photographs, signed by both artists.

    Commissioned by a collector, Derek Hood bound this book as a laced-in boards binding sewn on pleister tapes. (I’m not familiar with this term, but Derek describes them as the French type that you can then fray and lace into the boards after sewing.) The individual pages were guarded before sewing. The spine was covered in three separate parts and the boards were attached using the leather over boards technique (also referred to as a Bradel binding), once completed. The top edge is hand gilt in 24kt leaf and the headbands sewn with silk thread.

    dumasdoublure-derekhood

    The endpapers are leather jointed with leather doublures, which are decorated with onlays and gold tooling in a similar manner as the cover design. The book is housed in a quarter leather chemise and a leather entry slipcase. 

    I always look forward to the moment when my inbox receives material for the next interview. As I opened the folder containing images of Derek Hood’s more recent bindings I was struck by the image of this binding. I’m greatly inspired by Derek’s work and was so pleased he agreed to be interviewed on my blog.

    The design of this binding is incredibly complex. The linear and triangular forms along with the range of colors offers intrigue and depth. Derek shares his inspiration and process behind the design.
    The design was abstracted from a pencil landscape drawing by Germaine de Coster. Initially, the whole image was traced in simplistic linear form, outlining the buildings, mountains and sunrays, so that every pencil stroke was essentially accounted for. Areas of interest were then honed and focused on until the main triangular form was realized. The finished piece has only an essence of the original drawing, but it is intended to convey the same idea of sunlight and shadow bouncing off multiple planes whilst crossing a vast landscape.

    In 2006, Derek was elected a Licentiate member of the Designer Bookbinders and assigned Paul Delrue and Lori Sauer as mentors. Derek never formally visited either of them during his licentiateship, but discussed the topics of art and books regularly on the telephone. “I like them and their work a lot. It was nice to have two strong, but totally different perspectives on life within the realms of Designer Bookbinders.” Derek now holds the position of a Fellow in the Designer Bookbinders.

    Read the interview after the jump and come back each Sunday in the month of April for more of Derek’s work.

    read more >

  4. March // Book Artist of the Month: Sarah McDermott

    March 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    problemsofscale1-sarahmcdermottIn 2011, Sarah McDermott of Kidney Press created Problems of Scale; an artist book exploring the syntax of a short prose poem by Joanna Ruocco. Sarah laid out all of the phrases and examined the relationships between each phrase and then used that as the framework for the book layout. An overarching relationship between two people is represented on the vellum overlays, which are tipped in to a modified hardcover long-stitch binding. The text was letterpress printed with metal type on a combination of Hahnemuhle Bugra, Chartham vellum and handmade abaca paper. In addition polymer plates for letterpress printing were made by hand with Rubylith cutouts and scratched negatives. The book is housed in a slipcase.

    problemsofscale4-sarahmcdermott problemsofscale2-sarahmcdermott problemsofscale3-sarahmcdermott

    On a visit to the New York Center for Book Arts, I saw Sarah’s work for the first time. I thought Problems of Scale was beautifully crafted as both an art object and a book structure. I’m really excited about this interview, her determination for making art and outlook on teaching are quite inspiring. Check back each Monday for posts featuring more artist books, as well as Sarah’s print work. 

    You received your MFA in Book Arts at the University of Alabama in 2010. Can you talk about your training in the book arts at UA and how you decided to get into book arts and printmaking?
    I’ve taken a somewhat indirect path toward this field. I have always liked making things, but I didn’t take art in middle/high school because I clashed with the art teacher’s conservative approach. In my twenties I started to get more into my own drawing practice and learned how to screenprint, inspired by the amazing art happening in Providence, RI where I was living. At the time I was working doing light construction/carpentry with two contractor friends. I then moved to Uruguay for a year and ended up hanging out at several vibrant collective printshops. I got inspired to learn printing and when I came back to the U.S. and moved to N.Y.C. I started to do work-study at the Center for Book Arts. All of the letterpress classes were full so I took bookbinding classes and really liked them, finding it kind of like carpentry but on a more appropriate scale for my body (smallish). After a year and a half I decided to go to the University of Alabama for further study. I chose Alabama because it had the strongest craft orientation of the M.F.A. programs and at the time I thought I was more interested in trade school than art school. Alabama also had the best funding; I knew I was looking at years of underpaid labor when I finished school (which has proved true) so I wanted to avoid debt if possible. At Alabama I just worked all the time, and ended up building my artistic confidence in addition to developing solid craft skills. Book arts still seemed somewhat random to me at the time, I’m not one of those people that has made zines since I was a child, but I kept being drawn to it, and more and more these days it seems like this field encompasses pretty much everything I am interested in. 

    Since graduation you have participated in residencies at the New York Center for Book Arts and at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. How have these experiences influenced your current work and shaped your involvement in book arts?
    It felt essential to me to set up a structure for myself to continue working immediately out of graduate school. I felt happy with my work in my last year at Alabama and wanted to continue the momentum. I also thought that if I didn’t reinforce the skills that I had learned that I might forget them. I was therefore lucky to get the scholarship at the Center for Book Arts, because it provided the perfect place to do that. I systematically went through and re-did several things that I had learned in grad school, in an attempt to make them more of my own, instead of having to follow instructions or handouts. I also set up projects for myself that required recombining skills, and forcing myself to think creatively instead of, again, just following directions. As I did this I could bounce ideas off the community of binders and printers at the CBA. I also took a lot of classes, which were sometimes a review, but good for learning from different people and remembering certain things. So overall it was great.

    At Pyramid, I enjoyed being able to make paper and do printmaking simultaneously, which isn’t a combination that is easy to find. I was interested in the balance that Pyramid negotiates between being a community center and being an arts residency program. I also really enjoyed the personalities and the camaraderie at Pyramid which led me toward moving to the DC area. 

    When describing your work you’ve mentioned the use of raw materials: “fiber becomes paper, receives print, becomes book.” Once a concept has hatched, what is your process in transferring that idea into the book form? Is your workspace in a shared studio?
    Well, it’s been somewhat different for every book and I feel like it’s shifting with the project I am currently working on. My general process has often tended to be: get in over my head, and then catch up and learn what I need to in order to make the project happen. While some of this impulse is natural and exciting and good, I also think it comes from the pressure of being relatively new in the field and feeling like there is so much to learn. I am getting to a place where I feel like I can work less from this position of scarcity/catch-up, and instead from a stronger, more rooted impulse, where I am more comfortable in my role as an artist and craftsperson. This is a lifetime task, probably.

    I also use collaboration as a framework for projects. I frequently work with a writer, Joanna Ruocco, and with a magazine Birkensnake (edited by the same Joanna and Brian Conn). Being accountable to other people is incredibly helpful for getting things done. 

    Generally I have used the paper-making process as kind of a conceptual warm up. After coming up with some general ideas, I continue thinking about content while I am making the materials for the book, so the two grow side by side.

    I used InDesign for Compendium of Domestic Incidents, mostly so I would learn InDesign. I became worried though by how quickly it started to feel necessary (how easily I forgot how to organize material without computers) and I started to think about how expensive InDesign was and how I couldn’t find a good freeware option, so I decided to do my next project (Problems of Scale) without the use of the computer. 

    The book project I’m working on now, I want to have a bit more of a commercial/industrial feel so I am mostly using machine-made paper and am planning on going back to the computer some, especially now that I have access via the school where I teach. 

    I have no workspace of my own at the moment. It can be difficult to share equipment and create dedicated work time amidst socializing, but it’s also inspiring to be around other people making things. I rotate between working at Pyramid Atlantic and in the Corcoran letterpress and printmaking studios.  

    studio-sarahmcdermott

    You work under the moniker Kidney Press. Is there a story behind the name?
    The Kidney Press moniker is pretty random. I have always admired the kidney, since reading about its functioning in AP Biology in high school. Since my work deals a lot with body stuff, fetishizing an organ seemed appropriate. I also liked that “kidney press” sounded kind of like a torture device, rather than some of the statelier press names I encounter. 

    You teach workshops in both the book arts and printmaking at various venues including the Corcoran College of Art and Design and the New York Center for Book Arts. What types of workshops do you teach and who are your typical students? What aspects of teaching do you enjoy the most?
    At CBA and at Pyramid Atlantic I’m teaching a class on alternative ways of making polymer plates in the coming months. I have also taught bookbinding at the CBA. At Pyramid in early summer I am teaching a class I am really excited about called The Intermediate Object combining screenprint with simple book structures. All of these workshops are for adults who run the gamut in terms of their motivation for taking the class- some are serious students of book arts who are looking to go further, some are folks who want to try something new. At the Corcoran, last semester I facilitated a large collaborative project with the second year Masters’ students in the Art and the Book program, which was challenging and fun. I also teach youth workshops via Pyramid Atlantic which engages different skills. I haven’t really specialized, which means I teach many different things and sometimes my brain feels like it is going to explode with all the prep work I have to do. But I also like it, because I like variety and I get to learn new things and push myself that way. At the moment I need to figure out how to make more time for my own work (which seems like a common teaching artist conundrum), but in general I love teaching- it keeps me ethically engaged and makes my own work better. 

    sarahmcdermott

  5. March // Bookbinder of the Month: Lori Sauer

    March 1, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    garden1-lorisauer

    The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng was bound for the Man Booker Prize in 2012 by Lori Sauer. This copy was published by Mrymidon Books Ltd. and is a story about a Malaysian woman who reflects on her apprenticeship with a Japanese gardener during her younger years. This takes place during The Malaysian Emergency, a time of civil war after WWII. Political and personal struggles dominate a narrative that is set against the backdrop of the creation of a garden in the highlands of Malaysia.

    I asked Lori to provide a description of the binding, along with her concept for the design.
    The binding is covered in reverse vellum dyed with acrylic ink and embossed with blind lines. The structure is a simplified binding that is made in 3 pieces. It has under lays of paste paper on the fore-edges and Japanese paper doublures and flyleaves.

    I used many shades of green on the binding, for obvious reasons. The design happened as I worked while I kept in mind the idea of ‘borrowed scenery’ an axiom of Japanese garden design.

    garden2-lorisauer

    Lori works both independently as a bookbinder and as an instructor, teaching her innovative structures to students with a wide range of artistic backgrounds. Check out the interview after the jump to find out how Lori got into bookbinding and come back every Sunday this month for more work by Lori.

    For a number of years you worked in publishing before studying bookbinding at The City Lit in London. Can you talk about your path into bookbinding and the training you received through The City Lit.
    I was working in London at The Poetry Society when I decided I needed a change in direction – back to doing something creative with my hands. I had always drawn and painted and ‘made’ things. A writer friend made a casual remark about having some things bound by the local bookbinder and the idea was planted in my head to find out more about this subject. My job was just 4 days a week so on my free day I enrolled for an adult ed. class at the City Lit. By the second class I was hooked and in time added evening classes and a second day at the then London College of Printing.

    My tutors were Sally Lou Smith and David Sellars, who was himself taught by Lou. I couldn’t have wished for better teachers and the exacting standards they required. I attended for three or four years before feeling I was ready to set up on my own. I continued to receive tuition in specialised workshops and by pestering established binders with many questions.

    In retrospect I can see that the things I had done since I was a small child all pointed to the place I’m in now. Apart from constantly making marks on paper, I loved to build things, from a split-level house for my trolls (with all the furniture) to forts in the woods. I studied architecture for a short time in university before switching disciplines to painting and photography. Binding books has turned out to be a perfect medium where I can combine my love of literature, visual interests and building 3D objects. I used to feel I lacked focus and couldn’t settle on what I wanted to do. Now I understand I was doing related and intertwined activities all along.

    I’ve noticed that you frequently use vellum as the covering material for your bindings. What are your reasons for favoring this material and can you talk about the struggles or favorable techniques you’ve encountered from working with what can sometimes be a tricky material.
    Leather is wonderful to work with and I enjoyed using it on my earlier bindings. Gradually it lost its appeal as a material to cover the entire book, it didn’t posses the surface I wanted. I don’t remember exactly when or how I decided to start using vellum but I quickly became very fond of it. The skins’ markings are all different and I find myself endlessly drawn to their variations. I now often begin with a white skin and colour it to suit. I enjoy experimenting with dyes and get some surprising and interesting results.

    I have never found it difficult to work with and I put this down to the vellum itself. My supplier is based in The Netherlands and his vellum is lovely, not too much pull and he has a big stock to choose from. By using different structures or covering the boards off the book I can avoid the large joint needed for a full vellum binding (I don’t like the way it looks).

    I have used reversed vellum on my last few pieces, which gives the benefit of the slightly fuzzy underside, making the book very tactile. Along with the superior strength of vellum, as opposed to leather, it has a historic record of lasting for centuries and maintaining its beautiful characteristics.

    Your minimal designs yield a sense of thoughtfulness to the text and materials. In addition to your individualistic design is your unique binding style. I’m particularly attracted to the rigid, shaped spine of Kyffin: A Celebration and The Life and Chapters of Sundry Goodly Sayings and the Techniques of Brother Giles, Companion of Saint Francis. Is this a structure you developed? What are the features of its construction that you find appealing?
    Both of these bindings use a structure I developed and although each is done with slight variations they are similar. It’s a modification of the sewn board binding that originates with Gary Frost; it also has parallels to the construction of some medieval books that use a sewn-on vellum flange to sandwich the boards.  I like it because it opens flat, something I strive for in all my work, and has good board movement. The shaped wooden spine came about because I wanted to make the flat back of this structure more sophisticated in appearance. I had to figure out a way to attach it securely while not letting it impede the opening. These particular bindings have small holes drilled in the wood and threads from the sewn text pass through the holes to secure everything together.

    You’ve founded BINDING re:DEFINED, an organization offering specialized workshops taught by professional bookbinders including yourself, Benjamin Elbel and Emily Martin. As an instructor myself, I can understand the passion for teaching such a significant trade. What led you teach bookbinding? Could you describe your typical student and what aspects of teaching you enjoy most?
    I fell into teaching by accident. A local college asked me to take over from a retiring tutor and it built up from there. What I have discovered after a very nervous beginning is that I enjoy it. As my own work has developed I have become more committed to passing on my interest in structures and to illustrate how they are a viable alternative to the norm.

    About half of my teaching is repair and restoration (I run a weekend class for this during the academic year) and the other half is focused on new work. Whatever path a student chooses to follow in binding I am adamant that they all have a solid grounding in how a book is put together. If they don’t understand their tools or materials then the finished product will be a disaster.

    Many people have come from other disciplines: calligraphy, textile art, photography and architecture. It’s lovely to see them get the bug for binding and add it to their other skills. Opening someone’s eyes to the possibilities in making books is very gratifying. I am on a gentle campaign to inform students that modern texts are unsuitable for Victorian pastiche and that we owe it to the craft to move it into the future.

    And to top it all, teaching is one of the best ways to learn. The information and ideas that I have received from students is invaluable and inspiring. I’d be worse off for not running classes.

    In addition to teaching, you also work as a self-employed bookbinder. Can you describe your workspace and the type of work you specialize in.
    I have a separate studio in my house with big picture windows that overlook very beautiful English countryside. The first thing anyone says when they visit is ‘what an amazing view’. My room is stuffed full of materials and equipment and my working space grows smaller every year. While working I listen to BBC radio 4, a wonderful non-music station that I learn something from every day.

    I have discovered that running the workshops for BINDING re:Defined takes an enormous amount of time in admin, maintaining the website, etc. It’s a new venture that’s only been going for 2 years and one I am convinced has a place in the binding canon. As it grows and evolves my hope is that it will become an important resource for the study of structures.

    Bench time is spent on a steady trickle of repair work, commissions for various projects and making bindings for exhibitions. I have a project list for sculptural pieces that I fit in between the other things.

    studio-lorisauer

    My dog, Sev, is with me always and has a dedicated chair in my studio where he snoozes most of the day. He comes to all workshops and has made many friends. Binding is a very solitary occupation and I couldn’t do what I do without his company. Our daily walks together are a great time for me to clear my head and solve design problems. I’d recommend it.

    sev-lorisauer

  6. February // Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    waves_diannafrid

    The Waves is an artist book by Dianna Frid created in 2011, taking inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s experimental novel of the same name, which Woolf said she wrote “to a rhythm, not a plot”. Exploring this same idea, Frid focused on the structure of the book form itself. Using canvas and cloth for the pages, the word ‘wave’ is embroidered once, then twice, slowly building up to six repetitions per page before retreating out of sight. In addition to the repetitious text is a build-up of material which include various fabrics, paper, acrylic paint and cellophane.

    thewaves_diannafrid2

    Frid was born in Mexico City before immigrating to Vancouver as a teenager. She currently lives and works in Chicago as both an artist and Assistant Professor at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Come back every Monday this month for more posts on Frid’s work.

    You began making artist’s books in 1993 while living in Vancouver, Canada under the pseudonym The Artery Archives. Did you have prior training or knowledge of bookbinding? What structures/form did your first bindings take? 
    In 1993 I returned to Vancouver after living in Oaxaca, Mexico for about six months. I had finished my undergraduate studies in anthropology and sculpture, which I undertook in part at Hampshire College (in Amherst, Massachusetts) and then at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Spending time in Oaxaca fortified my interest in pre-Columbian and early post-conquest codices that were made in that region and throughout Central Mexico. These codices are rich pictographic narratives that often depict the trajectory of a journey. As someone who had migrated from Mexico to Canada in her teens, I identified with the theme of movement and traversal and this is how I began to make some works.

    malinchedreams_diannafrid1

    malinchedreams_diannafrid

    excerpts from ‘La Malinche Sueña que Hernán Realmente la Quizo (Malinche Dreams that Hernán Really Loved Her)’, based on a collaboration with Sergio Santamaría. 1995. edition of 4. Digital typeset with silver negative prints.

    When I returned to Vancouver I took a course in desktop publishing, a new thing at the time. It was a very basic and completely instrumental course that was entirely divorced from any kind of theoretical or historical connection to graphic design, but it became the beginning of my attempt at making books, and has turned into an ongoing area of research and interest

    When I came back from Oaxaca to Vancouver, I had hundreds of negatives of images that I had taken while I lived there. My parents had a darkroom in their home, and after much editing, a few of the photographs became the content of my first books. Some of the books were based on interviews I conducted with a woman who made corn tortillas for a living. In retrospect I see it as a very elementary “ethnography of process” (I had studied anthropology in college after all). Another early book consisted of photographs based on images taken during a performance and ephemeral installation piece that a group of friends and I created. These books were made in editions of four and some of them are now housed in special collections libraries.

    albumofaninterview_diannafrid

    unbound excerpts from ‘Album of an Interview’. 1995. edition of 3. digital typeset and silver negative prints.

    With one exception, I have not made multiple editions since—my books have been one-of-a-kind artifacts. In terms of what held the pages together, my bindings were (and still are) rudimentary. I know that the binding styles that I use have names, but frankly I do not know what to call them. Perhaps I can learn from you! This is a peculiar if not ironic fact given that in my work I have often researched nomenclature systems. But to answer your question about binding, which I know is a topic dear to you, my approach to binding has been urgent and intuitive. Nobody taught me how to do it.

    In an interview with Violet Shuraka of Cheap and Plastique, you spoke of the structure of the book as ‘a site where movement yields to movement from one pair of pages to another’ similar to navigating oneself through the structure of a building. Can you elaborate on how your concepts are best expressed through the book form and not another avenue of art in which you work? 
    Holding a book in one’s hands can be a profoundly intimate experience. It is a tactile, interactive object. This fact applies to all kinds of books –not only artist’s books—and it can be a problem when artists’ or rare books are exhibited in vitrines, protected from touch or activation.

    My long-standing production of one-of-a-kind handmade objects represents an engagement with lineages of craft in a domain that has, for the last several centuries, increasingly been mechanized: first as print and most recently as digital dissemination. Like my manual transformations of other mechanically reproduced representations (charts, graphs, blueprints), my artist’s books draw sensuous attention to the potentials of a form – the book – that, in its predominant mass-produced version, has come to seem little more than a neutral, even disposable medium for conveying information in linear sequence. By calling attention to the embodied physicality of the book, I push against this neutralization.

    In terms of content, my artist’s books pull together concerns with translation. My books address the translation between language and its material embodiment as text and image, as well as the translation between sensation and objects—even in the absence of language. Like the rest of my work, my books, in a less format-specific sense, are explorations on how art contributes to our described experiences of time, sequence, light, space, mortality…

    I was first introduced to your work as a student in the book arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; a few of your pieces are housed in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. At the time I was drawn to your work due their uncommon tactile characteristics and the pleasure I would find in handling them. Historically, we view a book as having either paper or vellum pages with text applied by hand or printed. Your book structures employ the use of cloth and thread, along with other materials. Have you always worked with these materials to create book forms? How do these elements project your themes and concepts as oppose to those more traditional to the book form?
    As I mentioned earlier, the first books were photographic editions in which an ephemeral event, a conversation, or a sculpture was documented and encapsulated sequentially. Over time, I started to use components traditionally used for the binding of pages, namely thread and needle, as the tools for marking and configuring content. This became an opportunity to think critically about craftsmanship and to expand on delineations of drawing and mark-making within contemporary art, beyond book works.

    I can speak about specific examples of books in which the work needs to be sewn because it delineates very clearly the content of the books and the relationship between “front-and-back” that sewing produces on two sides of the same piece of fabric. This is evident right away in “The Plot of the Story” and in “Leak;” and I revisit the concept of back-and-front in “Reversal.” These books explore the potential that a book holds for reversing time, reading backwards, reading something more than once, making text or icons defamiliarized or weird by means of repetition. Through this process I have come to understand in a fully embodied way that language is a material itself composed of smaller units. I had always understood this factually, yet the making of artist’s books generates an embodied understanding: the tactile staging of this fact.

    leak19_diannafrid

    excerpt from ‘Leak’. 1999. unique book.

    Book Arts continually challenges the definition of a book by reformatting the structure, using unconventional materials and omitting the text.  Your books very much rely on imagery to advance the viewer. In the same interview with Shuraka, you so beautifully describe this as ‘rhythm without plot’ as initially explored by Virginia Woolf in her novel The Waves. Can you talk about how you formulate a fluid composition that will guide the reader from page to page?
    My first books were perhaps more guided by a narrative sequence. An example would be “Just Wait and See,” which you have seen at the Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection in Chicago. My works emerge from a dedicated studio process that also includes sculpture, drawing, collage, and installation. Over the years these pieces have become less representational, more formal, and in commensurate ways also thematically more open-ended. This includes the artist’s books, but to different degrees. The way a book unfolds in time is related to the concept of montage in film. I do not make moving-image work, but the books, as sequential vessels of time, require the production of a flow. This may happen immediately or it may take a lot of planning. I first plan out the books with tiny sketches and the rest follows.

    The example of the Virginia Woolf reference is important because once I came cross it I could not shake it off. It stood for what I look for in the books. I had read somewhere that “The Waves” was Woolf’s favorite among her own works, but she also understood it was more difficult for a wide audience to embrace because in it she had been “looking for rhythm, not plot.” This stroke me as inherently poetic and important— as a gesture that encapsulates the significance of PROCESS and RHYTHM that I engage in the studio performance of making art.

    You’ve been working with the book as an art form for over 15 years, how do you see your work evolving within this medium?
    Lately, I have been thinking about making limitless editions on CreateSpace, Amazon’s self-publishing site. This would be an experimental start for what I want to see becoming more accessible copies of artist’s books that I have made in the past. Because the medium is so different, I am excited to change the aspect of the books in ways it might require. As you know, my one-of-a-kind books circulate in very different modes from the way multiple editions are able to reach an audience, and I am curious to make an artist’s book that has a life that exceeds the singular copy.

    I will still continue to make the one-of-a-kind books because I have constant ideas for these. However, it is not unusual for me to need months or even years to actually figure out how to execute a specific idea in book form. This was the case with “Reversal,” for example, a book that I wanted to make five years prior to figuring out how… Some book ideas fail or never materialize. For example, I wanted to make a book that dealt with Odysseus surviving the Sirens, but instead the book idea resulted in a sculpture that is now called “I Alone Was to Hear Their Voices…” It’s a long story, but the fact is that the initial idea resolved itself into the form it needed to become, which was not a book. As you can see, in my work there is a back-and-forth between non-book objects and book objects. They inform and enhance each other.

    ialone_diannafrid

    ‘I alone was to hear their voices/Their ravishing voices out across the air”. 2011.

  7. February // Bookbinder of the Month: Hannah Brown

    February 1, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    shakespeare_hannahbrown1

    This gorgeous fine binding was bound by Hannah Brown for the 2012 Designer Bookbinders International Competition. The theme of the competition was Shakespeare. Bound in full purple goatskin is a 1906 edition of Flowers from Shakespeare’s Garden: A Posy From the Plays with illustration from Walter Crane. The book contains quotes from various Shakespearean plays, each one containing the name of a flower. Walter Crane beautifully illustrates figures dressed in garments inspired by the flowers mentioned. Each flower in the book appears somewhere on the cover, doublure and endpaper design.

    The leather is embroidered over various colored leather onlays using a variety of silk and metallic threads. There are nine gold plated brass pieces attached to the boards. Using handmade finishing tools, Hannah further embellishes the cover with carbon and gold.

    shakespeare_hannahbrown5

    The endpapers and doublure design was done using soft-plate off-set printing and embellished with additional embroidery and tooling. 

    shakespeare_hannahbrown2shakespeare_hannahbrown3The binding is housed in a tulipwood box, mitered and held together with bog oak keys. A floral line drawing was etched into the lid of the box with a computer-controlled router. Pads are placed inside the box for added protection, the bottom pad was embroidered with a single flower.

    Hannah specializes in fine binding and custom commissioned pieces, working with a variety of materials and found objects; inspired by her habit of collecting. Check out the interview below to find out how Hannah got into bookbinding and come back every Sunday this month for more fine bindings.

    You graduated from Brighton University in 2004 with a BA (Hons) in Three Dimensional Craft. Can you explain your studies, what type of medium(s) did you work in and what materials were you using?
    My degree was nicknamed ‘WMCP’, standing for wood, metal, ceramics and plastics. It was a three-year degree, in the first year we rotated through the four materials learning basic making skills including wood-turning, silver soldering, mould-making and casting in resin. In our second year we had to specialise in two materials so I chose metal and ceramics and went on to make jewellery for my third year degree show.

    When were you first introduced into bookbinding and what was your attraction to it? Can you also talk about your first instructors and the training you had?
    At the Brighton University Grand Parade site, there were many different art-related degree courses running including Graphic Design, Illustration, Sculpture and Fashion. There was a permanent bookbinding studio that students could use as part of their studies if they were doing the Graphics and Illustration courses, however I was not permitted to as my degree course fell under a different department.

    I remember a fellow student on my course showing me some bindings she had made whilst doing bookbinding evening classes in her final study year. I was very impressed by the books she had made and decided to sign up for an evening class myself once I had graduated. At the time I was lucky enough to be working in Brighton for two different jewellers, improving on the metal working skills I learnt whilst doing my degree.

    I signed up to a beginner’s class and my first tutor was Peter Jones (a current Fellow and past President of Designer Bookbinders). We began by making a simple single-section book and then a few weeks later progressed on to making a multi-section, case-binding. I was hooked from pretty much class one, delighting in the fact that I had made my own little notebook!

    Due to my fascination with collecting, which developed during my degree course, I took it further and starting stitching found objects to my book covers. I moved from Brighton a few months after I graduated but was fortunate to carry on going to bookbinding evening classes at The Institute in North London, an adult education college. My tutor there was Chris Damp, a trained book conservator, and this is where I first began to learn how to work with leather.

    You were elected as a Licentiate member of the Designer Bookbinders in 2009. Congratulations! You’ve been assigned two mentors, can you talk about this experience and what opportunities have arose from this honor?
    I applied to be a Licentiate member of Designer Bookbinders after winning the Mansfield Medal in the 2008 Annual Competition for my binding of Daphne Du Maurier’s, ‘Don’t Look Now and Other Stories’. I was thrilled and it was suggested by other bookbinders that I apply.

    I was assigned both Peter Jones, my first bookbinding tutor from Brighton, and Jenni Grey (also from Brighton) as my mentors. They were chosen specifically for me as it was felt their work had specific relevance to mine. I use a lot of embroidery and sewn detail in my work, as does Jenni, and I am also trying to develop ways to use other materials (such as wood, metal and acrylic) into my bindings, which Peter does a lot of.

    The fact that both my mentors live in Brighton is fantastic as I love going down to see them, and reminiscing about by university days. In the four years that they have been my mentors I have been to see them about three times. Each time I have tried to take along work in progress as the most useful feedback I can get is during the making progress, when it is easiest to see how the book is functioning beneath the leather cover. I am able to ask other Fellows for advice too, which is an invaluable tool.

    One of the main opportunities that have arisen since being elected as a Licentiate, has been the chance to regularly exhibit my work alongside the other Fellows and Licentiates. I am also surrounded by a fantastic group of people with which to exchange advice and knowledge. DB has also recently put on a series of master-classes for Licentiates, which are invaluable for improving core skills.

    In a few years you’ll be eligible for election to Fellowship member, are you working towards this distinction?
    I work as a Museum Technician at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London four days a week and do as much bookbinding as I can around this. It is often hard as I only get small blocks of time to work on my fine bindings and commission work, however each binding I do I learn from and progress, therefore in this way I feel I am naturally working towards this distinction. I am approaching my fifth year as a Licentiate and am starting to think more seriously about applying for Fellowship, however I do not want to rush this decision as I have up to seven years in which to apply.

    The advice I get from my mentors and other fellow binders is invaluable and I still feel I have a lot to improve upon. I am confident in my design work but wish to progress further with my forwarding before applying for Fellowship, and I am not sure how long this may take.

    You currently work in your home studio in North London. Do you enjoy working in your home?
    As mentioned previously, I work a four-day week at the V&A Museum, therefore my binding work is done around this. I have often thought about looking into renting a studio space elsewhere, however at the moment it does not make sense financially. I do really enjoy working from home but I have to be quite strict with my time so as not to get distracted by household tasks!

    studio_hannahbrown

    At present my fiancé George and I are in the process of setting up a proper home bindery for myself in our spare room in North West London. In the meantime I currently work between the other rooms in the house and am in the process of expanding my range of bookbinding equipment and other machinery. I am always amazed what it is possible to produce with limited space and equipment, and if I were bookbinding permanently I would definitely chose to rent a studio space to house everything in.

    What is your most loved tool(s)? Do you make any of your tools?
    In 2007 I did my first gold tooling class with Tracey Rowledge at Cit Lit College in London. I loved the course and was thrilled to learn that it was easy, and a lot cheaper, to make my own hand tools. I bought some lengths of brass and some wooden dowel and set about filing the brass into shape. These hand-made tools are the favourite tools I own as they were so simple to make yet are so versatile.

    The first book I made with tooling on it was, ‘The Somme: An Eyewitness History’. I made a series of small tools for the design on the cover, and have since used these six tools over and over again in later bindings. I also have a series of hand tools shaped as birds, made for my binding of, ‘Don’t Look Now and Other Stories’, which I still use very regularly. I have also taught on how to make hand tools and am pleased to pass on my knowledge.

    On your about page you mention your passion for collecting. Can you talk more about your process of collecting? Do you find inspiration in the artifacts you collect or does your inspiration come from other artists and bookbinders?
    I am not a methodical collector, I hold on to items that interest me whether it be because of the colour, texture, personal significance or none of the above. I have a treasure trove of objects that I cannot bring myself to throw away and I like the idea of giving these objects new lives by adding them to my bindings. I do not do this very often in my fine binding work, but more regularly in my sketchbook and small commission work. It has however directly led to my interest in incorporating alternative skills into my fine binding work including metalwork, textiles, printmaking and woodwork.

    At university I did my dissertation on the field of collecting, looking specifically at why people amass objects and what their collections consist of. It is particularly significant to me that I am now involved in a field where my work is being added to bookbinding collections, each of my clients having their own interests and reasons for acquiring their bindings.

    As a committee member of the Society of Bookbinders, what is your role in the organization?
    I am a committee member of the London and South region of the Society of Bookbinders. I attend committee meetings to discuss matters arising in our region, plus we put on a programme of workshops and talks throughout the year.

    I am also the co-organiser of the SoB International Bookbinding Competition, with my friend Arthur Green. We have been running this competition for three years and are enjoying the challenge. It is held every two years and runs in conjunction with the Society’s biennial conference. Like the conference it has grown over the years and now attracts around one hundred entries from countries all over the world.

    There are five categories in which binders can enter books which are; Fine Binding, Case Binding, The Complete Book, Restoration and Historic Binding. There are a variety of prizes on offer and the winners are announced at the Society’s conference. These winning books then form a touring show that goes to three different venues around the UK. 

    hannahbrown

Newer Entries
  • My name is Erin Fletcher, owner and bookbinder of Herringbone Bindery in Boston. Flash of the Hand is a space where I share my process and inspirations.
    The StudioNewsletterInstagramEmail me
  • Archives