Guild of Book Workers

100th Anniversary Exhibition

Guild of Book Workers

Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary Exhibition

The Guild of Book Workers is a non-proďŹ t organization with membership open to all who are interested in the advancement and greater appreciation of the book arts.

Copyright Š 2006 by the Guild of Book Workers, Inc. 521 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10175 All rights reserved.

Photography by David Broda of the Syracuse University` Photo and Imaging Center. Catalog design by Julie Leonard and Sara T. Sauers. Typeset in Scala and Scala Sans, designed by Martin Majoor. Printed at Tru-Art Color Graphics, Iowa City. Smyth-sewn binding by Pease Bindery in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Guild of Book Workers logo was designed by Anita Walker, member from New York City, who drew inspiration from the Guild’s original logo with the outline of a book. The design features an open book welcoming all aspects of the book arts as the organization expanded to adopt not just binders, but calligraphers, printers, marblers and the nascent artist’s book movement. The logo was chosen through a contest held in 1959 that was conducted by Paul Banks, then Publicity Chair. Even though a $25 award was offered, only five entries were received. In 2004–2005 Eric Alstrom, Publicity Chair, coordinated a competition to create a new logo for the Guild’s next century. This time twenty-two designs were received. Interestingly enough, Anita Walker’s design prevailed.

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Introduction

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his exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Guild of Book Workers and closes the most active quarter century in the history of the Guild. National traveling exhibitions became a regular occurrence every two to three years. In many respects 1981’s seventy-fifth anniversary provided a benchmark for the Guild by highlighting the work of its early members and the state of the craft. Subsequent exhibitions featured increasing numbers of new binders and book artists, the growth being fueled in part by the explosion of book arts centers throughout the USA, and most recently the flood of resources available online which exposed even more to the art and craft. The Guild’s Standards of Excellence annual seminar, begun in 1982, played a crucial role in elevating the awareness of the importance of fine craft and techniques in all aspects of the book arts through its demonstration by recognized “masters” in their field. Initially divided into seemingly rigid camps of traditional binders and book artists, the past twenty-five years have seen a melding

of the two sides with fine binders delving into the world of artist’s books and book artists applying traditional techniques and materials to their work, enriching the arts of the book.

Curating and jurying an exhibition of this kind is always challenging. For the retrospective, curated largely by Peter Verheyen, that meant finding representative works by a selection of the leading proponents of the craft, and providing a link to the present. We are especially proud to be able to include among the fifty-nine works two of the most significant works for the book arts, Richard Minsky’s Birds of North America and Hedi Kyle’s April Diary, both works which have had global impact on the book arts, setting the field off on a course the early members of the Guild would not have imagined. In the past the expression of craft, i.e. how well was the book bound, was seen as the primary focus of the juror’s work. Great strides have been made in craft across the board and it is no longer the domain of the traditional binders. This means that the jurors can

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shift some of their focus to also judging how a work comes across in a holistic sense—how do the various elements work together; does the design relate to the text; what is the relationship between structure and text—the end result being stronger works. The jurors for this exhibition were Karen Hanmer, Richard Minsky, and Don Rash, representing the broad spectrum of “book arts” in their own work. In the end, 120 artists submitted 171 works, and it was their unenviable task to select the sixty strongest works judging the level of craft, but also how the work came across holistically, representing all sides of the book arts. While past exhibition trends seemed to forecast a decline in the number of traditional bindings visà-vis artist’s books, this exhibition saw a very even representation, also including strong examples of calligraphy, decorated papwers, and presswork. This exhibition truly captures the essence of the book arts within the Guild and provides a benchmark for the future.

This catalog brings together both the retrospective and contemporary halves of the

Guild’s 100th anniversary exhibition. This is especially important as the two halves will only be on display together at the Grolier Club in New York City, with only the exhibition of contemporary work traveling throughout the country until the end of 2007.

Mounting an exhibition, especially of this size is a daunting task and could only be accomplished with the contributions of many others. These are: the members of the Exhibitions Committee, Karen Hanmer and Marie Oedel who provided invaluable support throughout this process; Priscilla Spitler, past Exhibitions Chair, for the excellent groundwork she did in finding venues; Betsy Palmer Eldridge, Barbara Kretzmann, and Nancy Leavitt for their strong support in curating the Retrospective; Megan Smith, Exhibitions Coordinator at the Grolier Club, for facilitating the loan of several key pieces, and Daniel and Babette Gehnrich and Pamela Spitzmueller for their help with biographic sketches; Christopher McAfee who compiled the long list of intent-toenter forms that laid the groundwork for the online entry form; Michele Rothenberger

for programming the online entry process and providing critical ongoing support; Richard Minsky and Don Rash, who along with Karen Hanmer juried the exhibition, making many difficult decisions; the Syracuse University Library’s Special Collections Research Center for providing a safe haven for the items during the exhibition preparations period and other support; Jonathan Jackson for editorial assistance; David Broda of the Syracuse University Photo and Imaging Center for photography; Julie Leonard and Sara Sauers for their work in designing the catalog; Clare Manias for the adaptation of the Guild’s 100th anniversary logo; and Donia Conn, David Stokoe and many others who contributed their ideas and time. To all of them, thank you. It wouldn’t have happened without you.

Exhibitions Chair The Guild of Book Workers

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Jurors’ Remarks

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The world has changed in amazing and unpredictable ways in the past century.

The Guild of Book Workers has also changed; and though its changes have been gradual they have been no less amazing and unpredictable. The works in this centennial exhibition bear witness to both change and tradition, and to the creative tension between the two that enlivens and elevates our contemporary book arts.

It was an honor and a pleasure to be on the jury with Karen and Richard even though the process was conducted in the appropriately twenty-first century modes of the Internet and teleconferencing.

Exhibitions Chair Peter Verheyen organized the images and placed them on a website that the jury could access, and sent a spreadsheet to help streamline the process. After the first cut was made via the spreadsheet and emails, Karen suggested the teleconference, and in the ensuing

discussion we were able to work out the final selection. Overall things went pretty smoothly. I suspect that an unexpected legacy of this exhibition will be the adaptation of this model for future juries.

Given the exhibit’s size restriction of sixty works some hard choices had to be made, and a number of good pieces were not able to be included. A second limiting factor was the intent to provide a balance between the various aspects of contemporary bookmaking. Fine bindings, artist’s books, calligraphy, fine printing, and marbling: all are represented. In the end, the strength of this show is a result of having so many fine works from which to choose. All those who submitted pieces, accepted or not, have benefited the Guild and, as Peter says in his Introduction, have provided us with a benchmark for the arts of the book in the upcoming century.

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It was poetic justice. Thirty-five years after my binding on The Birds of North America was pulled from a Guild of Book Workers exhibition at Yale and then reinstated amidst a storm of controversy, I was asked to lend it for the 100th Anniversary exhibition at the Grolier Club. Times have changed, and that book now looks conservative. When I was subsequently asked to be a juror for this exhibition, I wondered what sort of work would be submitted. Happily, there were some books with loose feathers.   Experimentation with material as metaphor has become a regular practice among Guild members, but not to the

exclusion of traditional craft work.

There are many superb examples in this exhibition of widely different approaches to the book as a work of art. It was a pleasure reviewing and discussing each one with my colleagues on the jury.   We disagreed on quite a few of the works, and accepted only those that all three of us felt should be in the exhibition. It is a very strong show, and although a few luminaries we would like to have seen included did not provide entries, the combination of artistic vision and skill that is represented accurately represents the extraordinary work that Guild members are doing.

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It is a challenge and a delight for a juror to be faced with the problem of too much great work. Charged to winnow 171 entries down to sixty, it was clear from the viewing of the first entry that some very difficult decisions would have to be made.

There just was not enough room in the show for all the good work.

Text and images from the online submission form flowed to a website, allowing for jurying online rather than the customary jury from slides. This provided the jurors opportunity to review each entry at length. I spent about twenty hours over a period of two weeks looking at the images, filling out a spreadsheet with my votes and comments, sharing this with the other jurors, and revisiting some of my decisions based on my colleagues’ votes and feedback.

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After several rounds of this, the process culminated in a two-hour conference call.

Though each juror had different backgrounds, interests and tenure in the book arts field, there was much agreement as we considered the craft, design and content of each piece.

The broad range of entries is an apt reflection of the diverse interests of Guild members: traditional bindings and historic structures, playful book forms, purely sculptural works. Bindings fashioned from leather, paper, cloth, aluminum, and PVC. Text and imagery produced by ancient and the most modern printmaking methods.

Content ranging from literature, political viewpoints, and personal histories, to the sensual experience of reading a book. In particular, I was pleased to see such a

strong showing of fine bindings, fine press and edition work.

Just as care is required in creating a piece for exhibition, there is also craft and art involved in preparing one’s entry materials. Entrants are at a disadvantage if they do not provide an image that is of the required size and resolution, isolated from the background, sharply focused and filling the frame, with the object positioned and lit to its very best advantage. This should be accompanied by an accurate, concise and compelling description of technique, materials and content.

It was a privilege to spend so much virtual time with each submission for the Guild of Book Workers 100th anniversary show. I am fortunate to be a member of this accomplished, vital community.

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President’s Remarks

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ith this very special Anniversary Exhibition, the Guild of Book Workers happily and proudly announces the arrival of its 100th anniversary as an organization devoted to promoting the book arts in America. A centennial celebration is an impressive accomplishment for a volunteer organization in the arts. To reach it, the Guild has survived a remarkable metamorphosis over the years.

The Guild was started in New York City in 1906 by an enthusiastic and dedicated group of book artisans, to “establish and maintain a feeling of kinship and mutual interest.” With an early membership of 126, they met informally for support and encouragement, sharing information and planning exhibitions.

Forty-two years later when the membership had waned to forty-eight in the wake of World War II, the Guild became affiliated with the American Institute of Graphic Arts. AIGA, a much larger organization, was able to provide the Guild with administrative support, plus a place to meet anad a small exhibition space.

After thirty years with AIGA, when the membership had revived to over 300, the Guild courageously launched out on its own again, becoming an independent

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not-for-profit organization incorporated in the State of New York in 1978. Since then it has grown to become a national organization with almost a thousand members, and with ten regional Chapters that actively promote the Guild’s aims and purposes on a local level.

Although the Guild’s major focus has been on bookbinding, it appreciates and promotes all of the related book arts as well: hand papermaking and decorating, printing, calligraphy and illumination, and the conservation, preservation, and restoration of older book materials. Initially, the emphasis was on the traditional techniques and skills associated with fine binding. Design binding remains a strong interest in the membership and excellent examples appear in this current exhibition. More recently a strong interest has developed in artist’s books. This broader interpretation and definition of the book has attracted a whole new group of devotees. It too is well represented in this exhibition. A third strong interest remains in conservation, preservation, and restoration, which has a large following of members working in that area. However, the important work of this third group does not generally lend itself to exhibitions, and is rarely seen in exhibits such as this one.

In order to incorporate the many varied interests of its membership, the Guild has remained flexible and adaptable to their needs. Who knows what the second century will bring! But the Guild owes its heartfelt thanks to all of those whose hard work and dedication have brought it through thick and thin to this momentous point in time. If they could be here now, they would be the first to congratulate it, to wish it well in the years ahead, and to join in the cheering: Long may the Guild live!

The Board of Directors welcomes you to the Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary Exhibition: a showcase of the extraordinary talents of its members, past and present. From the beginning, exhibitions have been a prime goal of the Guild.

The Board thanks Peter Verheyen, GBW Exhibitions Chair, and those who assisted him, for producing this splendid event to celebrate the Guild’s Centennial.

--Betsy BetsyPalmer PalmerEldridge Eldridge President Guild of Book Workers

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Exhibit Entries

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Susan Joy Share Headbanded Strip (2004) 9cm x 65cm x 9cm

One in a series of twenty-one headbanded strips. Materials are handmade paper, waxed linen cord, crayon, colored pencil, photo, gel medium, acrylic, gut. The strips each have a sewn headband across the length of the top edge, cut-outs, insets, and drawing.

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Chela Metzger Bird Book (2005) 15cm x 10cm x 3cm

Blank book covered in full goat parchment using a laced-case structure. The text is sewn on parchment straps laced through the cover, with a silk front-bead endband sewn on a at parchment core. The covering parchment is attached to the case using mechanical non-adhesive methods. The wings and nest are cut from goat skin parchment.

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Bonnie Thompson Norman The Windowpane Press A Primer for Democracy (2004) 8cm x 8cm x 8cm

A Primer for Democracy was created in a class just before the 2004 presidential elections. During one weekend, people who ordinarily have had no experience either with artist’s books or letterpress printing, and who bring differing perspectives, create content around a theme and structure I introduce. The main theme — VOTE — is repeated and reinforced: CALL, FAX. Essentially, this alphabet book can be constructed, reconstructed, deconstructed in countless ways. Like democracy, as a completed structure, A Primer for Democracy is a little bit wobbly and requires care in building and maintaining.

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Suzanne Moore Kukei/Hirschfield Translation The First Word, AH (2004) 40cm x 53.5cm

Monoprint collage on paper; lettering in gouache with gold leaf details and gold tooled letters. Zen Master Kukei passage about the the beginning of language.

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Antonia Nelson, Curmudgeoness Press I Wish I’d Been A Slutty Girl Among Other High School Regrets (2006) 30cm x 19cm x 2cm

Handbag shaped wrapper and book that recalls with admiration the Slutty Girls from my high school experience. Text is letterpress printed, with photo insets as imagery. Covers wrapped in “hot pink” prom dress fabric. Edition of twenty-one.

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Tennille Shuster Lyrics by Modest Mouse Crown of Thorns (2005) 30cm x 30cm x 30cm

Crown of Thorns is meant to communicate the concept of sacrifice, using an easily recognizable symbol. This book was letterpress printed in an edition of three.

The pages are overprinted off-register purposefully, to look as though the word “take” is being sacrificed — it’s taken away a little each page, until all you’re left with is one simple statement in red — take what you want from me, you deserve it all. The pages were then roughly trimmed and bound in piano hinge format, using acrylic stained dowel rods. A crown of thorns was attached with hemp cord and the structure is then displayed on an antique wig stand.

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Claire Jeanine Satin, Artworks/Artspace Pentimento: Steno Book For Joseph and Amelie Satin (Gregg “M”) (2004) 21.5cm x 14cm x 1cm

Printing on acetate, metallic overprinting, monofilament, glass beads. An homage to my parents, particulary my father, who taught stenography and stenotyping. I have excerpted and reproduced the letter section M from a Gregg dictionary published in 1963. The overlaying of the texts results in a unique and unplanned configuration, possible only by means of a chance system. This conceptual approach has its origins in my association with the artist/composer John Cage and his ideas of indeterminacy and the release of the ego in decision-making.

Each page retains its integrity while also able to be viewed simultaneously. The names of both my parents make up the cover, in English and Gregg shorthand.

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Gules is a double hinged gatefold Ethiopian binding, built from quarter sawn oak covers with crimson leather lining. It explores a topic that continues to be taboo in the jaded West, adultery. Mardy’s journalistic approach to gathering content delivers a broad range of freshly spoken perspectives on the “rightness” or “wrongness” of the act. Images of each subject, wearing the scarlet letter, have been carved into linoleum and printed on handmade flax paper, side by side with hand set letterpress text.

Mardy Sears (text from interviews) Nathaniel Hawthorne Gules (2005) 30cm x 23cm x 5cm

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Entrant Biographies

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As an artist I have been making prints, primarily block prints for the past twenty years. It is only during the past six years that I have been making books, mainly artist books incorporating prints combined with text. I am currently a graduate student at The Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago and will receive my MFA in May 2006. While at Columbia, I have been learning traditional bookbinding techniques as well as non-traditional. During the last year I have also worked as an intern with Barb Korbel at the Ryerson Library Conservation Lab, The Art Institute of Chicago. I have been repairing and rebinding damaged books, mending paperephemera and building boxes to house weak structures. I’m interested in incorporating historical binding structures into my contemporary artist books. I am inspired by the antique pieces that pass through the Ryerson Lab, and I am often driven to create work that appears to be from a particular time period, although I am not a historian. I am interested in an aged look, rather than historical accuracy.

Evanston, Illinois

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Salt Lake City, Utah I have been making artist’s books for about ďŹ ve years. I especially enjoy the diversity of art and craft that goes into them, from writing and design to printing and binding. I like the challenge of making books that are innovative, but not so much a departure from the codex that they are not easily recognizable as a book.

That they are fun is just a bonus.

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Suzanne Moore is a painter and lettering artist whose book works explore the boundaries and links between word and image. Over twenty years, her manuscript books have investigated such subjects as Sequoyah and the Cherokee syllabic writing system, the spiritual aspects of gardening, and artists’ thoughts on creative process. As part of the Walesbased team of illuminators and scribes, she is one of two Americans creating illuminations for the Saint John’s Bible.

Among the private and public collections in the USA and Europe which have acquired Suzanne’s work are the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Library of Congress, The James S. Copley Library, and the rare book collections at Harvard University, Smith College and Wellesley College.

Vashon Island, Washington

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Anchorage, Alaska

Susan Joy Share was born in Syracuse, New York, and received her BFA from the College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1977.

She worked as an artist and conservator in New York City for twenty years before moving her studio to Anchorage, Alaska in 1997. Her artwork has been collected, exhibited, and performed widely, including at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert, the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive, and the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection. Her teaching activities include workshops at the Center for Book Arts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Penland School of Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Visual Studies Workshop, Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts, and the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She has also been the recipient of grants from the Rasmuson Artist Fellowship Program, the Alaska State Council on the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, and the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation.

Claire Jeanine Satin is a book artist, sculptor and designer of public art installations with a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from Pratt Institute. Her work has been extensively exhibited in America and in Europe. She is known especially for her conceptual works inuenced by the ideas of composer/visual artist John Cage, and the conversion of ordinary industrial materials into environmental constructions and book works of layered transparent mass. A paramount element is the incorporation of word systems based on chance operations into nonsyntactic conďŹ gurations and relationships. Presently the Honorary Chair of the Broward Cultural Affairs Council, she has been a facilitator for the arts in Broward County Florida for many years. She is the recipient of many awards and grants: the Louis Comfor Tiffany Grant for Sculpture, an award nomination from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, two Florida Individual Artists Fellowships, a Karl Vogelstein Grant, a Ruth Cheven Foundation Grant, a Richard A. Florsheim Art Fund Grant, a $15,000 Florida Cultural Consortium Grant, and a Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Grant. Her works are in the current collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Getty Center, Los Angeles, California; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; the American Centers in New Dehli and Bombay, India; the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archives of Concrete and Visual Poetry; and the Library of Congress Rare Books Collection among others.

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Dania Beach, Florida

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Seattle, Washington

For Bonnie Thompson Norman books are a passion as well as a profession. She has been proprietor of The Windowpane Press, a letterpress printing and book arts studio, for over twenty years. She works full-time as a hand bookbinder in a commercial bindery. Evenings and weekends, she teaches classes in printing and bookmaking.

Her studio has many things found in a traditional print shop and bindery, such as a variety of printing presses, hundreds of cases of type, a guillotine paper cutter, a Jacques board shear and, not the least, a wonderful library. Participants learn how to set type one letter at a time and hand feed pages into a press, or they learn the craft of binding a book by hand, or creating artist’s books. These opportunities and pleasures, not diminished or replaced by the convenience and miracle of the computer age, celebrate the venerable crafts of letterpress printing and bookmaking in a manner both accessible and relevant today.

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Austin, Texas Chela Metzger was trained in hand bookbinding at the North Bennet Street School by Mark Esser. She completed an internship in rare book consevation at the Library of Congress in 1994 and worked as a project conservator at the Huntington Library for a total of ďŹ ve years. She began teaching book conservation as a Fulbright lecturer in Argentina, and since 2001 has taught book conservation at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Oakland Park, Florida

Living in South Florida, I am inspired by the tropical setting and diverse cultures that surround me. My artist’s books, whether emotional or informational, aim to express and celebrate the appreciation I feel for living in such a dynamic environment. I was formally trained as a graphic designer, but studied and practiced to obtain a solid foundation of fine art skills. Bookmaking serves as a satisfying combination of my artistic abilities, wherein I am able to draw on a variety of skills — as any given book requires. A single project may use many different techniques including screenprinting, watercolor painting, letterpress printing, weaving and computer design.

I find it liberating to flow through the process of creating a book, and consider form and content to be dependent on one another in order to construct a book as a cohesive communication tool. During my career as a designer, I have been honored with Communicator and ADDY awards, and was recently honored to be the recipient of the 2005 Florida Artist’s Book Prize for Crown of Thorns. I have exhibited artwork in the Bright Hill Press Word and Image Gallery in Treadwell, New York and the Bienes Center for the Literary Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and have commissioned work in homes throughout South Florida.