Speakers Slated for the MBS 2025 Conference

Keynote Speaker Julie Chen

Cracking the Paper Code: Uncovering the Secrets of Meggendorfer’s Movable Mechanisms

In 2024, Julie Chen received two grants from the University of Wisconsin–Madison to advance her research on the movable books of Lothar Meggendorfer. Known for his ingenious use of iron-riveted paper mechanisms, Meggendorfer created intricate, multi-movement animations activated by a single pull tab. His innovative designs brought pages to life, offering readers an engaging and interactive experience.

Chen will share insights from her year-long research project, which involved meticulously documenting original Meggendorfer books and reverse-engineering their mechanisms. She will discuss the challenges and discoveries of this process, including the creation of technical models replicating Meggendorfer’s intricate designs. Additionally, Chen will introduce her upcoming artist’s book project, inspired by this research, offering a contemporary perspective on these historical movable mechanisms.

Julie Chen is an internationally known book artist who has been publishing limited edition artists’ books under the Flying Fish Press imprint for over 30 years. Her books combine text and image with innovative book structures to create reading experiences that engage the reader in interactions that go far beyond the simple turning of a page. Her work can be found in numerous collections worldwide including the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland, NZ. In 2009 she was a featured artist in the PBS television series, Craft in America and in 2020 she was one of the featured artists in the documentary film, The Book Makers. She is a professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Website: https://flyingfishpress.com/

MBS Director Suzanne Karr Schmidt

Suzanne Karr Schmidt has been the Director of the Movable Book Society since October 2023. For her day job, she is the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She curated one of their most popular exhibitions in decades in 2023, on the topic of... pop-up books!

Bluesky: @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social Instagram and Tiktok: @ladydisdaine Facebook: Suzanne Karr Schmidt

Suzanne Karr Schmidt Director, MBS info@movablebooksociety.org

Ellen G. K. Rubin/ The Popuplady

Ellen G. K. Rubin, aka The Popuplady, has collected pop-up and movable books for about 40 years ago. She began collecting in earnest after attending Yale’s Sterling Library’s exhibition, Eccentric Books while attending the medical school’s Physician Associate program.

She now writes about movable paper, conducts pop-up workshops, and curates exhibitions including, Brooklyn Pops Up! in 2000, Ideas in Motion: The History of Pop-ups at SUNY New Paltz, 2006, and Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn in 2010 for the Smithsonian Library.

Ellen has curated two exhibits from her collection at the Grolier Club (NYC), Pop-ups from Prague: A Centennial Celebration of the Graphic Artistry of Vojtěch Kubašta, in 2014, which traveled to the National Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The second exhibit, Animated Advertising: 200 Years of Premiums, Promos, and Pop-ups, closed in 2023.Both exhibits produced full color catalogs with the Kubašta catalog winning the 2015 Leab Award for Best Exhibition Catalog. In 2004, Pitspopany Press published Ellen’s The Hanukkah Puzzle Book: A Book in Eight Parts for Eight Days of Fun!

Larry Seidman

I will be speaking with Ellen about our favorite, rare and unusual Meggendorfer books and ephemera from our collections.

MBS board member Larry Seidman is an avid collector and researcher of antique movable books, Biedermeier cards, puzzles, and optical toys, with a special interest in novel mechanisms. Professionally, he is a retired pediatrician, who values spending time with his three grandchildren. His collection of animated paper toys can be viewed at drlar7.tumblr.com

Follow him on instagram @seidmanlarry

Simon Arizpe

Amy Lopez Nayve

Amy Lopez Nayve is an artist, entrepreneur, and the first Filipino paper engineer to gain international recognition. Amy, as well, is an incoming MBS board member: our first international member! She pioneers the Philippine paper engineering industry through her studio, Pumapapel, creating unforgettable paper experiences that delight, deliver impact, and drive emotional connection. Beyond global brand collaborations, she has led workshops nationwide, introducing Filipinos to the art of paper engineering. Amy also uplifts young artists and entrepreneurs at The Fold, a growing community where collaboration, mentorship, and creative opportunities are cultivated. Her innovative approach has earned her the citation "Trailblazing Creative Disruptor" at the 2025 Benilde Alumni Technopreneur Awards. With Pumapapel, she is driven to empower Filipino creativity, lead innovation in the local industry, and foster meaningful connections.

Ellen is a charter and Board member of the Movable Book Society. She writes a quarterly column, Poppits, for its newsletter, Movable Stationery. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, CBS Sunday Morning, and Japanese TV demonstrating books from her collection. The Popuplady invites you to visit her informational website, popuplady.com

Simon Arizpe is an award winning pop-up book designer, paper engineer, and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. Simon's work has won The Meggendorfer Prize from the Movable Book Society, the Award of Excellence from the Society of Illustrators, and is a #1 Best Selling Author on Amazon. A graduate of The Pratt Institute, Simon worked for over 10 years as a senior paper engineer at several of the top pop-up book studios in the world before opening his own studio in 2014. In addition to his design work, Simon is the professor of paper engineering at The Pratt Institute and Parsons in New York City.

Emily Beck and Jenny Schmid:

Disembodied Reembodied: Reproductive Justice & Collaborating to Create Movable Prints

Disembodied Reembodied addresses medical depictions of women’s bodies in historical medical texts in the collections of the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine (WHL) at the University of Minnesota. Artist Jenny Schmid and curator Emily Beck will describe their collaboration and the creation of the printed folio and incorporation of movable elements as inspired by the WHL collection. They will also discuss the public engagement and teaching associated with the folio and future directions for collaboration between arts, science, and history. The Disembodied Reembodied folio will be on display for attendees to view and interact with.

Emily Beck is the Associate Curator of the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She did her graduate work in the history of medicine at the University of Medicine, where she focused on histories of making by examining 16th and 17th-century manuscript medical recipe books from northern and central Italy. As a curator, Emily continues to work on historical recipes in different contexts, from collaborating with a distillery to recreate plague water to researching how early modern Europeans attempted to make magical swords. Emily is also the co-PI of an oral history project called Plant/ People that documents stories of people's deep relationships with plants and land in Minnesota. You can reach out to Emily at ebeck@umn.edu

Wangensteen's instagram is @wangensteenlibrary

Jenny Schmid grew up in the Pacific Northwest and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she runs Bikini Press International and is a professor the University of Minnesota Department of Art. She first learned intaglio printmaking at age 16 through a Smithsonian workshop with the public schools and worked as an assistant in fine art lithography workshops in Seattle and San Francisco, starting at age 18. She learned traditional print processes in the Czech Republic, and in Slovakia on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Schmid has collaborated with poets, musicians, programmers, librarians and a bioethicist to realize projects that range from print folios to large scale live animation projection commissions. She received two McKnight Fellowships, the Bush Artists Grant, and two Minnesota State Arts Board grants. Her prints have been acquired by collections including The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Block Museum, The Spencer Art Museum, The Columbia University Medical Library and The Library of Congress. https://jennyschmid.com/

Ally Low

Maike Biederstädt

Maike Biederstädt is a Berlinbased paper engineer, creating pop-up books and cards that bring scenes to life through playful, narrative movements. She works on the ongoing DK Pop-up Peekaboo series and has created the books

Creatures of the Deep, Ernst Haeckel, and The Weather Pop-up Book, as well as the MoMA card Shimmering Snowflake (2016 Louie Award). Since 2015, she has taught a pop-up class at AID Berlin.

Instagram: @maike_biederstaedt https://linktr.ee/lowtekgames https://lowtek.games/ https://www.tiktok.com/@wallmasterr https://x.com/Wallmasterr https://bsky.app/profile/alastairlow.bsky. social https://www.instagram.com/wallmasterr/

Ally Low is a veteran game developer with over a decade of experience and 17+ shipped titles. He is the founder of Lowtek Games, a studio dedicated to creating dyslexia-friendly games and tools for both old and modern platforms. His work is characterized by a unique fusion of physical and digital elements, producing innovative projects ranging from NES cartridges to projection-mapped pop-up books and animated cross-stitch displays.

Previously, Ally helped manage a local makerspace, where he organized and led several community game jams. In the past he's helped run the local makerspace including running a few game jams.

Facebook: maike.biederstadt

Website: www.maikebiederstaedt.de

Charlotte Johnson

Charlotte Johnson is an emerita professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she was responsible for the library's public services, collection development and scholarly communications for 30 years.

Charlotte holds art, education and library science degrees from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Being a charter member of the International Hand Papermakers Society and the Movable Book Society, and the only librarian on the International ePub Standards Committee, she has artist’s books in museums and collections worldwide, and has completed art residencies and given presentations in many of the more than 60 countries she has visited. Charlotte will be joined on stage by Dr. Amanda Bahr-Evola, Ellen G.K. Rubin, and Thomas Bassett, CPA.

Phone: 618-656-5743

Email: Shypoke09@gmail.com

Web: https://6-charlotte-johnson.pixels.com