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Posts Tagged ‘book arts’

  1. August // Book Artist of the Month: Jody Alexander

    August 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Sedimentals is an altered book project that Jody Alexander completed between 2011 and 2012. This collection of art objects include found furniture stuffed with layers of discarded books and fabric. These layers appear like a cross section of sediment revealing treasures between the layers. 

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    While reading the interview, you will begin to understand the depth of Jody’s commitment to her materials and characters. This exclusive connection is the cause for such a well-rounded body of work. Her dedication to teaching is just as exceptional, offering her skills to several venues both online and in person. Read the interview after the jump and come back each Monday during the month of August for more posts on Jody Alexander.

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  2. Book Artist of the Month: Ellen Knudson

    July 29, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Subject/Verb/Object grew from frustration and anger towards art criticism and other academic writings, which largely incorporates language to control its audience and exclude outsiders. In 2012, Ellen Knudson of Crooked Letter Press created this word game, with no beginning, no end and no way to win. The turning, fitting and order of words can cause clarification or confusion. Using simplistic language forces the reader to attempt a visual organization of the things we cannot put in order: our desires. 

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    The volvelle is made of three layers bound with a metal brad and measures at 12″ in diameter. The book was letterpress printed in an edition of 85 on a Vandercook Universal I from a combination of handset metal type and photopolymer plates. Murillo paper was used to created the volvelle, interior sleeve and belly band which is held together with a set of metal grommets; the exterior sleeve is covered in Iris coffee bookcloth. 

    This artist book can be purchased from 23 Sandy Gallery. 

  3. Book Artist of the Month: Ellen Knudson

    July 22, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    In 2009, Ellen Knudson revisited her work How to Become One of the Original Wild Girls, a book that was designed and printed in 1997 in the new piece Wild Girl Redux: An Operator’s Manual.

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    How to Become One of the Original Wild Girls

    The original work includes a playful list of imaginary “rules” that “should” be followed to achieve a Wild Girl status. The rules are light in nature, but the deep-rooted sexist issues are easily recognizable. 

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    How to Become One of the Original Wild Girls – page detail

    In Wild Girls Redux, Ellen reexamines these issues, combining motorcycle road and driving rules as text (adapted from the Missouri Department of Revenue Motorcycle Operator Manual) along with images of pin-up girls and industrial schematic illustrations. All parts of the book were letterpress printed on Indian Sunn Hemp Contemporary with photo-polymer plates. Bound as an accordion portfolio cover with two single signature pamphlets sewn in. In addition to the printed pages are pieces of ephemera, which include pink heart paper doilies, white doily placemats, and green office ledger papers. The cover is flocked paper in maroon. Each books comes with a set of stickers, which are kept inside a yellow office mailing envelope decorated with a wrap-around belly band. The intent of the Operator’s Manual is tongue-in-cheek and provides the ordinary, mechanical, and absurd rules of how to operate women.

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    Created in an edition of 100, each signed by the artist. Wild Girls Redux: An Operator’s Manual was the winner of the 2009 Florida Artist’s Book Prize for The Bienes Museum of the Modern Book and The Florida Center for the Book.

  4. Book Artist of the Month: Ellen Knudson

    July 15, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Photo by Jerry Mathiason

    Over the course of graduate school, Ellen Knudson, would travel the road between Starkville, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Self-Dual (How to Walk a 30,000 Mile Tightrope) is a collection of visual and textual vignettes in reflection of those trips; little pieces of the scenery and her thoughts during those drives. 

    The paper used in the book is 100% cotton rag, handmade from Ellen’s family’s clothing. The six large illustrations are linoleum reduction prints, the other illustrations are line art drawings printed from photopolymer plates. The type is handset in multiple sizes of Lutetia metal type, cast by Harold Berliner. The book is bound as a built-in groove case in the dos-a-dos style binding with two illustrated fold-outs. This book was bound in an edition of 50. 

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    Photo by Jerry Mathiason

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    Photo by Jerry Mathiason

    The deluxe edition is a handmade portfolio that houses the six large linoleum prints. This edition was produced in a quantity of 15. Self-Dual was made during 2005-06.

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    Photo by Jerry Mathiason

  5. Book Artist of the Month: Ellen Knudson

    July 8, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    In 2004, Ellen Knudson printed and bound How to Love Someone Forever in an edition of 50 books and 50 broadsides. This collection of poems are written by Kevin Knudson (Ellen’s husband) and herself for one another and for their son. As Ellen explains it: We are always working on how to love each other, Kevin, Gus, and I, so this is a hint of the grand gooey mess that is us.

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    Illustrations throughout the book are done by Ellen to represent weeds as a reflection of the tangle of relationships, lovely and difficult as they are. The illustrations are line drawings and letterpress printed from photopolymer plates. The book is about the every day of relationships and finding beauty in them when they can be taken for granted and so easily go unnoticed, much like weeds.

    The poems were handset and printed in Gould Old Style 394 and Caslon metal type. Pages were letterpress printed on dampened Hahnemuhle Bugra paper in mint and marble gray. The book is double-pamphlet sewn and bound as a built-in groove case binding. The paste paper covers are handmade on mint Bugra. All printing was done by Ellen at her studio, Crooked Letter Press, in Starkville, Mississippi on the (as Ellen puts it) badass Vandercook Universal 1 proofing press. 

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    The poem Valentine Sestina written by Kevin is printed on the only fold-out found in the book and  is also available as a separate broadside. The poem is a sestina, which is a 39-line poem consisting of six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three lined stanza.

  6. July // Book Artist of the Month: Ellen Knudson

    July 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    americanbreedingstandards-ellenknudson

    American Breeding Standards is the most recent work from Crooked Letter Press run by book artist and graphic designer Ellen Knudson and was produced in an edition of 60 in 2012-2013 in Gainesville, Florida. This artist book explores the systemized rules about what comprises a good or bad horse, a good or bad woman — and the steps one might take to achieve the breed standard.

    American Breeding Standards was designed and letterpress printed on Zerkall Book paper. The illustrations and text are printed from photo-polymer plates and handset metal types. Some text excerpted from American Horses and Horse Breeding (John Dimon, 1895) and Canine Breeding Standards of the German Shepherd (American Kennel Club, 2012), while the rest of the text and illustration are by Ellen.

    The binding structure is an exposed spine sewn on Cave Paper tapes and attached to paste paper covered boards. The cover of the book has a hinged pop-up that folds out. There are also 3 additional foldout pages throughout the book.

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    While setting up the Marking Time exhibition for the Guild of Book Workers at Dartmouth College, I came across Ellen’s piece Self-Dual (How to Walk a 30,000 Mile Tightrope). By the way, I’ll be featuring this book in a post later this month. The prints featured in this artist book are beautifully illustrated and printed in rich and muted earth tones. The book was favorably executed as the dos-a-dos style binding. 

    I’m excited to present this interview with Ellen and to post a portion of her work throughout the month of July. Ellen has such a versatile design sense, offering a range of artist books so throughly executed. Read the interview after the jump and come back each Monday in the month of July for more posts on Ellen Knudson.

    read more >

  7. Book Artist of the Month: Susan Collard

    May 27, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    In 2010, Susan Collard created 3×3 a series of board books made from birch aircraft plywood, maple and walnut bound with Tyvek. Each page spread represents a single number ranging from one to nine. For Susan, numbers have definitive personalities that sprout from their mathematical associations. As Susan developed each numerical character sketch she began with a few poetic words (on the verso) before morphing into a collaged “portrait” (on the recto). 

    3×3 was featured in Quantified Aesthetics, an exhibit held at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in 2010.

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  8. Book Artist of the Month: Susan Collard

    May 20, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    In 2010, Susan Collard created her smallest book to date with a wide range of materials including birch aircraft plywood, basswood, slate, various metals, mirrors, linen thread and a shell. Small Museum of Nature and Industry is a bit fatter than a perfect cube with dimensions of 2″ x 2″ x 2½”. This tiny structure opens up to a series of compartments to reveal a set of building blocks and concealed brass rods, as well as wooden and aluminum pieces. The unraveling architecture and hidden components of this book are quite surprising.

    Once the materials and title were determined, Susan set out to create a book with the open-ended complexity of a miniature museum. This artist book received a Juror’s Award during the Pop-Up Now! exhibit at the 23 Sandy Gallery. 

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  9. Book Artist of the Month: Laura Davidson

    April 22, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Not only does Laura Davidson find inspiration in her travels and her neighborhood, but also in the tools scattered throughout her studio. Every Nib is catalog of nibs and pens used in Laura’s work; housed in a clamshell box that opens to reveal a book and seven handmade pen nibs sculpted from painted paper. Every Nib was created in an edition of 18, signed and numbered, in 2012.

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    The book is bound as an accordion, delicately held together with wire and linen. Five pages of the book are block printed with unique images of five different pen nibs with descriptions written in ink. At the bottom of each page is a hand drawn pen in silverpoint. The sixth page includes an artist’s statement from Laura written in a Sheaffer’s fountain pen. A portrait of the 1940s pen is drawn in silverpoint. In the small compartment, each nib replica appears fragile, but are quite sturdy and highly detailed. Laura showed me some of the real nibs, tucked away neatly in little tins or the original Italian packaging. 

    The grey clamshell box was crafted by Marie Oedel. The box includes labels and tray linings hand drawn with pen and ink wash. The box and all its contents are protected inside a fold-over portfolio with an original linocut of a pen nib on the spine. 

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  10. Book Artist of the Month: Laura Davidson

    April 15, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Guidebook – Museum Nazionale Romano was completed by Laura Davidson in 2011 after an inspirational visit to the museum in Rome. The four wooden pages of this accordion book are connected with handmade brass hinges. The painting on the cover and exterior sides of the book are based on a frescoed room housed in the museum. A transparent vellum holder on the front cover displays a two-sided replica of the museum ticket, which was drawn using ink and wash.

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    The interior pages of the book are paper mosaics based upon pieces in the museum’s collection. These paper mosaics are found throughout Laura’s work and are quite beautiful (even more so in person). Each mosaic is created by adding tiny pieces of paper to a line drawing. Each piece is then painted individually by hand. Laura works with a wide color palette as she paints her mosaics, slightly altering the pigment from piece to piece. Some images are also embellished with 22 c. gold leaf.

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    After visits to the museum in Siena Pinacoteca, Laura becomes inspired to create another guidebook.

    In Laura’s words:
    These books are about specific places that have inspired me – the Siena Pinacoteca is a place I have a very emotional attachment to. There is one floor there that I know the works so well, I can find sketches from many different visits. I can see color influences in my work from there and the deep desire to use gold leaf. 

    Guidebook – Siena Pinacoteca was also made in 2011 as a four page accordion book bound using handmade brass hinges. I had the opportunity to handle this book during my visit to Laura’s studio. The movement of the pages were very fluid, which allowed me to navigate easily through the book as both an accordion and codex. The paintings on the exterior side of the wooden pages are based on two works by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. This guidebook also includes a transparent vellum holder set in between two carved columns. The holder displays a two-sided museum ticket, which Laura recreated using ink and wash. I love this detail, the hand-drawn tickets act as souvenirs and create a connection between the artist and the viewer. 

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    The interior pages are ink and wash drawings depicting details of paintings within the museum’s collection. The images are embellished with 22 c. gold leaf.

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  • 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.
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