Monday Methods: Album Binding

A photo album stitched with album binding

Happy Monday everyone! Welcome back to another week of blogs, courtesy of the Center for Book Arts! Today we'll be talking about another kind of binding structure: album binding.

A photo album. Notice the gaps between signatures

Signatures can be bound together on tapes or cords for many different types of books, including flat-back and round-back books. But the tightness that comes with sewing tapes and kettle stitches can be a problem when making something like a photo album, where space is necessary between pages to have room for photographs. That’s where album structures come in.

The particular kind of album structure that I've learned still uses signatures, but instead of sewing them tightly together with tapes, each signature is sewn individually onto a piece of book cloth, leaving some space in between. This spacing is what gives scrapbooks their distinct incline: unlike other books I've made, the spine is made larger than the signatures that fill it. As pictures and other pieces are added to the pages, the spaces between the paper are filled. A fully filled album—if measured properly—can end up with its spine and foredge being the same width.

The incline of a bound album

To begin this type of binding, signatures are made. They are then loosely stacked on top of one another, giving the bookbinder a rough idea of how tall the spine should be. Some book artists work with completed pages—already filled with pictures—to get the spine the perfect height and width, but others gauge it based on the thickness of what will be added to the pages. Once this height is measured, a piece of book cloth slightly larger than the spine width is cut. Using a ruler, the bookbinder then makes lines for each signature, making sure to leave a small amount of space (say ¼-3/8^th of an inch) between each. Each signature is then sewn to the cloth along its respective line. Since they are not being sewn tightly together certain signatures can become thicker than others without warping the book or crushing what is placed inside!

This kind of album can also be used in books with a naturally round back, such as soft-cover leather ones. Because the spine is a natural curve and album binding each signature to move freely, the textblock will mimic the curve of the casing into which it is placed, giving a more streamlined look to the book.

-Christina Squitieri

Do you enjoy making photo albums or scrapbooks? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Friday Insights: Center Broadsides Reading Series

 Spring 2011 Broadsides Reading Series, featuring Jessica Elsaesser (pictured) and Mei Mei Berssenbrugg

Though we often focus these blog posts on the bookbinding and letterpress art done at the Center for Book Arts, the CBA has programs for the writer, as well. One of these programs is the Spring Broadsides Reading Series, where we invite poets to read their work for a night of poetry, wine, and fun. Each guest also gets a beautiful, limited-edition broadside, printed by artists at the Center for Book arts, signed by the authors. There is a $10 suggested donation ($5 CBA members) and the events are always lovely. Whether you are a practicing artist or poet, an aspiring one, or someone who likes to hear poetry read aloud, the Spring Broadsides event is a great place to relax, meet others, have a glass of wine, and enjoy a night of art!

Mei Mei Berssenbrugg reading her poetry, Spring 201

Wednesday, May 2nd, at 6:30pm will be the first in a series of three Spring 2012 Broadsides Readings. The first event will be featuring poets Elizabeth Willis and Caroline Knox and organized by James Walsh. Both writers will be presenting original poems, including one published as a letterpress-printed broadside that guests can take home with them. Willis was just named a Guggenheim Fellow for 2012, and is a recipient of a Walter N. Thayer Fellowship for the Arts (among many other honors) and she has been included in the National Poetry Series for her collection of poems, The Human Abstract. Knox is the author of seven poetry collections and her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including The Paris Review and The Best American Poetry 1988 and 1994. She has also received the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine as well as an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (among others).

Guests enjoying the post-reading chat (2011)

Each Spring, the Broadsides Readings are big hits at the Center. Different poets are brought in each time, and the range and flavor of their voices are unique and beautiful. The limited-edition broadsides, printed by the artists at the Center, combine the words of the poet with the visual design of the letterpress artist into a special memento for the night. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun, and when the poets finish reading you may even get the chance to check out our latest exhibitions (which opened last week and will be up until June 30th, 2012!), the printshop, and the binderies after-hours. Either way, the poetry is great and it's always a good time!

The Center for Book Arts has two other upcoming readings in their Spring 2012 series. The second will be Wednesday, May 30th, featuring Joseph Donahue and Michael O'Brien. The third will be on Wednesday, June 27th. Be sure to check out our upcoming events page for more details!

-Christina Squitieri


Have any stories about your favorite event at the CBA? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Thursday Terms: Aniline Dyes

Goat skin dyed with aniline dyes for book casings

Welcome to Thursday terms! Today we'll be discussing aniline dyes, a type of water (or alcohol) soluble dye that is used for coloring untreated leather. Leather can be dyed for many reasons, including to hide natural imperfections in the animal skin, but book artists tend to dye their leather for aesthetic reasons.

A selection of aniline dyes

Aniline was first used to dye fabrics in 1834, when Friedlieb Runge isolated the substance from coal tar and noticed it produced a beautiful blue color. This blue dye became the precursor to indigo, and was used to dye blue jeans. In 1856 aniline dyes began to grow more popular as new colors was discovered, such as dyeing something purple. Further exploration of aniline (and the colors it made possible in fabrics) in the 1850s and 60s helped make the synthetic dye industry grow, and many natural dyes became replaced with aniline-based ones.

Today, aniline dyes are still used to color leather—including certain pieces of leather clothing—and are important terms for book artists. Unlike pigmented leather, aniline-dyed leather is semi-transparent, allowing the natural grain, texture, and blemishes of the animal skin to show through. Aniline dyes also allow for a mixture of colors: the skin can be dyed in shades, fades, and blended mixtures of color as opposed to having the uniform and glossy look of treated leather.

Flower pressed into leather & painted with aniline

Aniline dyes come in a powdered form, as seen in the jars above. They are mixed into boiling (or very hot) water, producing a vibrant-colored liquid. While aniline dyes are fairly safe to use, one should be careful not to inhale the vapors from the mixture (or the powder itself) as some studies have shown it to be toxic. Once the dyes are mixed, the liquid is allowed to cool before it is used on leather.

One of the best aspects of aniline dyes is their versatility. Like watercolor paints, these dyes can be mixed or layered on top of each other to produce different effects. The artist can use a ball of cotton batting soaked in the dye to cover the whole piece quickly, creating different textures based on the hand motion one uses to put on the dye. Aniline dyes can also be applied with a thin brush, which is especially useful for painting in details. In fact, a leather book cover can be entirely painted with aniline dyes, producing an amazing and original piece of work! Aniline dyes can also be used in lieu of water when pressing a linoleum plate into the damp leather, giving the same impression but coloring it at the same time.

-Christina Squitieri

 Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Wednesday Exhibitions: Guerrilla Girls' "Do Women Have to Get Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?" (1989)

Billboard for the Public Art Fund, Guerrilla Girls (1989)

Our spring exhibitions opened last Wednesday, so welcome to a whole new series of Wednesday Exhibitions! One of my favorite pieces in 'Canceled': Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures, organized by Lauren van Haaften-Schick, is a piece of printed ephemera created in 1989 by the feminist organization known as the Guerrilla Girls for the Public Art Fund in 1989. Going into the prestigious Metropolitan Museum in New York City. the group took of survey of the contemporary art section and, noticing a gross gender disparity, created the poster above. Using the famous 1814 painting Grande Odalisque by French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (fitted with a gorilla head, the symbol of the group), the Guerrilla Girls created this design for a billboard. The Public Art Fund, despite having commissioned the Guerrilla Girls, rejected their proposal. When the organization decided to run the poster themselves—they rented advertising space on the side of a New York City bus — the MTA canceled their lease, claiming the image was "too suggestive" based on the fan the woman is holding (which, incidentally, is almost exactly the same as the original painting).

A reproduction for the 2005 statistics (2005)

Despite their stated reasons claims, the Guerrilla Girls believe the billboard and MTA advertisement were canceled due to their critique of a major public institution, and declared it as such. While the image was never shown in either space, it continues to be a widely used and known image for the Guerrilla Girls and their followers, and has been shown as a billboard and on buses in Shanghai, Venice, and Paris. Following up in 2005 and taking new acquisitions into consideration, the stats were worse: fewer than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art sections were women while 83% of the nudes were female. A survey in 2011 found that number change slightly: 4% of the artists were women and 76% of the nudes female, yet the exclusion of female artists is still a major concern.

What I love about this picture is not just the reasons behind why it was canceled, however, but also how it utilizes an iconic image and turns it into protest art. The image is compelling—the gorilla head alone demands your attention—and the stark yellow, black, and pink colors make the message loud and clear.  Yet at the same time, the information it gives is the most shocking piece of all: when I first saw this poster I expected it to be from the 1960s, from the era of Woodstock and bra-burning, not from only 23 years ago. The fact that the statistics continue to show such a huge gap between the female artists represented and male artists shown—and the fact the poster has been reprinted for the subsequent surveys done!—expose that this issue is still a serious problem.


Canceled will be on display until June 30th, 2012, as well our two other exhibitions: Anne Gilman's The Jolly Balance and the 2011 Workspace Artist in Residence display, featuring the work of James Case-Leal, Liz Linden, Emcee C.M. (Colin McMullan), and Heidi Neilson.

-Christina Squitieri

  Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Tuesday Typefaces: Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic is a  workhorse sans-serif typeface first designed by Morris Fuller Benton (1872–1948) in 1902, and first produced by ATF in 1903. Benton was the influential American typeface designer who headed the design department of the American Type Founders (ATF), for which he was the chief type designer. "Gothic" here is another name for sans serif, particularly in the nineteenth century. Franklin Gothic is based on earlier nineteenth century sans serif models. It was named in honor of  that prolific American printer, Benjamin Franklin.

Benton designed many variations on the face, including condensed, wide, and shaded variations. The various variations in the Franklin Gothic family were issued over a period of ten years, all of which were designed by Benton and issued by A.T.F. It was popular enough with printers that it was produced in monotype and linotype versions, and there are many digital versions of the face available to designers today.

Franklin Gothic is an extra-bold sans-serif type which can be distinguished from other sans serif typefaces by its double-story g and a. Other main distinguishing characteristics are the tail of the Q and the ear of the g.

 

The list of institutions that use Franklin Gothic  is lengthy; standouts include the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) who have this beautiful photo on their blog of their foundry type case of Franklin Gothic: 

The MoMA Department of Graphic Design's case of Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic is the primary influence for nearly all MoMA materials; it’s the basis of their logo and their proprietary official font “MoMA Gothic,” which were both created by designer Matthew Carter.Other fans of Franklin Gothic include NYU, Time Magazine, PBS's The Electric Company, Showtime and Bank of America. Franklin Gothic's highly noticeable and legible display faces for are perfect for headlines, advertising, and packaging. The next time you're riding the subway or in line at the bank or grocery store, take a look around you. Can you spot the ever-popular Franklin Gothic on the walls of your local branch, on the nearby magazine rack, in subway advertisements, or anywhere else?

Join us next week for another exciting excursion into the wild world of type design. Have any stories about your favorite (or least favorite) typeface? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Monday Methods: Linoleum Plates

A cut linoleum block, courtesy of Kathleen Fiske Art

Happy Monday, everyone! First, a huge thanks to Programs Manager Sarah Nicholls for the amazing job she did on the blogs last week. As my term at the Center for Book Arts is coming to an end on May 11th, I hope she will be able to find the time to keep this going! Those interested in doing what I do should also contact the CBA about internship and work/study positions. I would love to see these daily blogs continue—we have way too many typefaces waiting to be explored!

Today's Monday Methods will be exploring linoleum blocks, tools that can be used for both printing and bookbinding. I recently took a class on making soft-cover leather bound books with Biruta Auna a few weekends ago at the CBA, and we learned to use them to make embossments in leather, as seen in the image at right. Linoleum blocks, once carved, can be used to print images: both on paper and on the front covers of books! Linoleum is durable and can last a long time, meaning a design can be used to print multiple copies of something or to make many books.

The process of working with linoleum is straightforward, though not the simplest thing you'll do. The artist is given a block, like the one above, that is blank. After drawing out the design with a pencil or pen—being mindful that the image will be reversed (areas remaining in the block become raised when pressing into book covers, the opposite will occur when printing on paper; and in both scenarios the image itself will flip—the drawing is transferred to an uncarved piece of linoleum- you can do this using tracing paper and/or carbon paper. Once transferred, you can carve out the image using linoleum gouges specifically designed for this process- like the orange-handled tool above. Once the image is carved, you will have what is seen in the image up top: a plate filled with beautiful details just waiting to make its mark on a book or paper!

An image printed from the linoleum plate above

The block can then be printed, using ink and paper, as the artist did at left. The white areas are what has been carved away from the block, and the black areas are what is left.

When using linoleum to emboss a book cover, as seen in the second image, the opposite is true. Areas of the plate that are carved will appear raised, while those areas left untouched will appear pressed into the leather. After the image is finished, the leather is dampened with plain water or with dyes (depending on the desired effect) and the plate placed on top. The plate and the cover material then go into a nipping press. After some time (we left ours in overnight and allowed them to press until the leather was dry), the cover and plate are removed from the press. The image carved on the linoleum will then be embedded into the material, giving the unique style of the book shown above right!

Though the process of carving a linoleum block can be time-consuming (and even painful if you hold your tools wrong and cut yourself!) the result for both printers and bookbinders makes it definitely worthwhile.

-Christina Squitieri

Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Friday Insights: Scholarships for Advanced Studies in Book Arts

Last week we took a look at the Workspace Artist-in-Residence program. That program, for five artists working mainly in other mediums, is actually only one of our two artist in residence programs. The second, our Scholarship for Advanced Studies in Book Arts, brings into the studios two to three practicing book artists, recent graduates of book arts programs who are looking for support for their studio practice. The purpose of this program is to provide opportunities to emerging artists committed to developing careers in the book arts field, and to further the growth of the field. 

Our Scholars receive a stipend and materials budget, 24 hour access to the studio facilities and free classes for a year, during which they are expected to develop and execute a new body of work.  I meet with the scholars bi-monthly as a group over the course of their time here at the Center to talk about their work in progress, to give them new ideas and resources to pursue and to get feedback about their work from a group of their peers. It's definitely one of the most rewarding programs we work on here at the Center.

At the end of their year here their finished projects and editions are exhibited here at the Center, and we hold an artist talk for them to present their new work to the public. Here's photos of the installation of work by last year's scholarship recipients Katie Baldwin, Kimberly McClure, Sarah McDermott, and Benjamin Reynaert, which were in the galleries last fall:

Kimberly McClure's Somnium

Katie Baldwin

Benjamin Reynaert

Sarah McDermott

This year we're glad to have with us Natalie Stopka, Celine Lombardi, and Sara Parkel. All three are in the midst of developing exciting new work to share with you, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final result. Their projects will be on display here in the fall of 2012, so keep an eye out later in the year for that.

In the meantime, you may be thinking to yourself, how can I get in on that? The answer is simple: apply for next year's scholarship- the postmark deadline is coming up on May 1st and the call for entries is up on our website here under opportunities.

-Sarah Nicholls
Have any questions about being an artist in residence? Or any of our opportunities for artists? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Thursday Terms: Concertina

Concertina is one of those words that confused me when I began working at the Center. I thought it was a  musical instrument, and it seemed to be used a lot in place of what I thought was called an accordion. So today's Thursday term is concertina. 

Wheatstone English Concertina

Wikipedia says it's a " a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it.". It is apparently like a six-sided accordion, but the buttons are slightly different.

In bookbinding, a concertina is another name for a folded structure that resembles an accordion. Concertina and accordion are often used interchangeably to describe a book like this:

 

 

Carol Barton's Alphabetica Synthetica, accordion book with pop-ups, laser printing, 2002 

 

Brigid Elmer's Fibre Libre

Book artists often enjoy making concertina books because they can be stood up on a shelf and viewed all at once- great for display purposes in a gallery setting. While it seems like a simple structure to master, simple things can often be more complicated than you first realize. (Those of us whose first concertinas turned up a little less than square in the spine know what I'm talking about. Whoops.)

The concertina is an excellent structure to expand upon, as it combines well with pop-ups and fold-outs, and you can create a multiple-book-within-a-book-structure fairly easily by sewing a pamphlet stitch through the folds. Concertinas have expanding spines, which also allow for a variety of elements to be added to their pages - photographs, collage elements, paper samples, printed ephemera - just to name a few. In short, the concertina is a popular choice for artists working in the book format, as it offers lots of possibilities.

If we've peaked your curiosity and you're now itching to try to make a concertina yourself, there's a workshop coming up next month with the fabulous Alice Austin. Her class Panorama Concertina on May 12 still has a few slots left in it, jump on it while you can!

-Sarah Nicholls

Is there a bookmaking term that confuses you? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Wednesday Exhibitions-Opening Tonight!

Our spring exhibitions are almost complete, and the wine is chilling in the bindery. It's almost time for a reception! For those of you who haven't witnessed gallery installation here at the Center first hand, I thought we'd give you a short glimpse into what's been going on for the last week and a half.

Above is artist Anne Gilman working on the installation of her Featured Artist Project The Jolly Balance, with the help of intrepid workstudy volunteer Matt Colbourn. The exhibition consists of fourteen individual panels of waxed ledger paper,  along with individual prints, drawing, and a print portfolio. Last week she and Alexander Campos, our director, spent many hours determining the choice, spacing and order of the individual panels. Gilman will join us on May 9th to talk more in depth about her project, which took as a starting point  a series of drawings she made on a handwritten physics journal from 1918. Join us at 7pm and you can enjoy the series of works as a whole.

Here's curator Lauren Haaften-Schick, putting the finishing touches on a library case in the main gallery. Her show, 'Canceled': Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures examines cancelled or otherwise prohibited exhibitions that now exist as publications or in other formats.Her research into several different artist projects, which for different reasons didn't take place as planned, has resulted in a mix of projects and publications, all tied together by the use of printed material as a means of documenting that which didn't happen. Today in the gallery Lauren and Alex are putting the finishing touches on the installation, and adding the wall text and labels which will help visitors put the work on display into context. It's a mad rush to get everything up in time for the preview at 6pm, where Lauren will give a short tour and presentation of the show, the culmination of much writing, research and reflection on her part.

Here's 2011 Artists in Residence James Case-Leal and Heidi Neilson, negotiating with Alex during installation of their work. Last Friday we talked more about the residency program in general. Every spring we show the results of the previous year's residents work in our studio galleries; our four workspace artists spent all of 2011 taking classes, using the studios and experimenting with new techniques, materials and formats. The end results of their work are on display through the end of June. Join us tonight for the opening, and you'll be able to see some of Heidi's collaged linoleum prints commemorating historic now-defunct satellites in Earth’s orbit, and her two artist books, Tranquility Base and Atlas Dream Sequence.

James Case-Leal is working here on installing his piece The Light Day-A Generative Lexicon. This project uses random number sequences generated by Atmospheric Background Radiation, the remaining particle energy from the Big Bang. These sequences are then used to generate letter sequences, which Case-Leal presents as text, which the reader then seeks to interpret as words to be read.

We'll host talks, screenings, and events throughout the spring in conjunction with these three exhibitions, and you can find out the details on our website on the events page, here In the meantime, we hope to see you tonight at 7! 

Can't wait for our next opening? Have a favorite piece from a previous exhibition? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Tuesday Typefaces: Bodoni

Happy Tuesday! Today we take a look at Bodoni, a Modern serifed typeface. Though Bodoni no longer has the name recognition of Garamond and Helvetica, it gained immediate praise for its designer, helped to define a era and style of type design, and remains popular to this day. Its designer, Giambattista Bodoni, was a type designer, punchcutter, and printer, who took as his starting point the work of John Baskerville. Baskerville's designs, as compared to his predecessors, displayed a marked contrast between thick and thin strokes. Here's an example: 

 

Baskerville

 

 

 

Bodoni studied Baskerville's types, as well as the work of his French contemporaries, Firmin Didot and Pierre Simon Fournier, and began designing a series of faces that started with Baskerville's increased stroke contrast and a more vertical, slightly condensed, upper case, but took them to a much more extreme conclusion.His designs evolved over his long career, becoming more extreme and stylized as time went on, developing into a typeface of narrower structure with flat, unbracketed serifs, extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall geometric construction.

unbracketed serif! 

This is the Bodoni that has been has been used for a wide variety of material, ranging from 18th century Italian books to 1960s periodicals.Today they continue to be used in advertising, as well as occasionally for fine book printing. Bodoni's designs, along with those of his contemporary Didot, became known as the Modern faces.

Bodoni was a prolific type designer, completing hundreds of typefaces; the Museo Bodoniano in Parma, houses more than 25,000 of his punches! His designs have been translated into digital form by hordes of designers and type foundries, and are still appreciated for their elegant aesthetic. Bodoni was heavily utilized in the first iterations of billboard advertising and remains, along with other modern fonts, a favorite in fashion publications.

Join us next week for another exciting excursion into the wild world of type design. Have any stories about your favorite (or least favorite) typeface? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Monday Methods: Pressure Printing

Today's Monday Method is a printmaking technique, an unusually flexible one. Pressure Printing. 

Pressure Printing is an experimental letterpress technique, done on our Vandercooks here at the Center, in which a low-relief collage is made with thin objects (string, stickers, lace, thread), arranged into a composition and glued onto a sheet of paper. This sheet is paper is fed through the press underneath the sheet of paper you're printing on. In the bed of the press is a type-high block which provides an inked flat of color.

As the paper is fed through the press, it picks up varying amounts of ink from the block depending on the pressure created by the relief collage behind it-which creates an image. Make sense? 

The image that results often has a soft, fuzzy quality to it, like a rubbing, which is unique to it. It's an appealing technique to many who like it for it's improvisational, humble-means-to-an-exciting-end character, and the fact that the end result is often quite surprising.

Book artists like  Barbara Tetenbaum, Julie Chen, Macy Chadwick, Sara Langworthy, and many others have used this deceptively simple technique to create colorful imagery in their work.We occasionally give workshops on this technique,  so be sure to check out our class schedule (www.centerforbookarts.org/classes) to see if one is coming up.

-Sarah Nicholls

Have any stories about printmaking? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Friday Insights: the Artist-in-Residence Program

Tranquil Base, by 2011 Artist in Residence Heidi Neilson

In this week's Wednesday Exhibitions, we talked about the new exhibits that are currently being installed at the Center for Book Arts for next week's opening on the 18th.

One of the three exhibits is the annual Workspace Artists-in-Residents show, a display of the work completed over the last year by our four resident artists for 2011. But just what is the Artist-in-Residence program?

Relief print by 2010 Artist in Residence Jennie C. Jones

The Center for Book Arts offers an "Artist-in-Residence Workspace Grant for New York Emerging Artists" each year. Up to five New York-based emerging artists are offered space, time, and support at the Center to explore the production and exhibition of artist's books and related work in year-long residencies. This program is specifically tailored for artists who are new to making books, who work in other mediums, in order to bring new approaches into our studios. 

The program helps to promote experimentation in making book art, allowing the artists to try new techniques and push the limits of  "book art" without the burden or fear of wasting workspace hours and materials on something that may not work.Our goal is to help artists new to bookmaking techniques incorporate new knowledge into their artistic practice.

2009 Artists in Residence Gautam Kansara, Terry Boddie,
Shani Peters & James Walsh

 The award is a prestigious and generous one. Last year's award included a $750-$1,500 cash stipend (depending on funding) plus a materials budget between $500 to $1,000 (depending on funding), 24 hour access to the Center’s printing and binding facilities for a full year, and a year's worth of classes, planned in conjunction with the staff. While the Center for Book Arts' courses are reasonably priced, it can be difficult for artists and students to afford multiple classes, and the opportunity to take a year's worth of free classes is incredible.

The C.R.I.E.R.S.-A Calling to Tears by Colin McMullan

Another privilege of the Artists in Residence program is the ability to work with the experienced printers and bookbinders on staff, people who are available to advise the artists on issues of materials and techniques as they arise.

The award is an amazing opportunity for working artists, and the deadline every year is in mid-October. While our 2012 Artist-in-Residence program have already been chosen, and they are already hard at work in our studios, be sure to check back in the fall for next year's deadline!

And in the meantime, we hope you can join us next Wednesday, April 18th at 7pm for the opening reception for this year's Residents' show. Work by 2011 Residents Heidi Neilson, James Case-Leal, Liz Linden,  and Colin McMullan will be up in our studio galleries through June 30th. You can also learn more about their projects at two programs we have scheduled for the spring:
Wednesday, May 16^th-with Colin McMullan, Heidi Neilson and James Case-Leal
and Wednesday, June 20^th-with Liz Linden and Colin McMullen.
Both talks happen at 6:30pm. 

More information can be found at our opportunities page under the " Artists-in-Residence" program.

Th e Workspace Grant for New York Emerging Artists is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Additionally, the Center’s Visual Arts Programs—exhibitions, featured artists projects, and artist-in-residence workspace program—have been supported, in part, by Th e Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Dedalus Foudation, and the New York City Department of Cultural A airs.

-Christina Squitieri

 

Have any questions about being an artist in residence? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Thursday Terms: Ingres

Perhaps it's more of a paper term than a bookbinding one, but useful to know in bookmaking nonetheless. "Ingres", when it comes to paper, describes a light to medium weight paper, with a laid finish, usually available in a range of shades, that is excellent for charcoal, pastel, and ink drawings. For bookbinders, this kind of paper  is commonly used for the endpapers (or endsheets) in hand-bound books. The names Ingres is a reference to the French Neoclassical artist Dominique Ingres, one of the first to popularize the use of this kind of paper for charcoal. The laid mesh finish refers to the pattern made by the screen left on the sheet by the hand paper maker's mould -though not all papers with Ingres in their name are necessarily handmade. Machine made versions will have a similar pattern replicated on the sheet. The toothiness of the pattern on one side of the sheet holds the particles of charcoal well, making it perfect for drawing.

Here at the Center, we have several different kinds and colors of Ingres paper on hand for classes, by a variety of different western paper mills, including Hahnemühle, Canson, and Zerkall. These papers usually come in fairly small sheets, about 19" x 25" or thereabouts.  The diverse number of colors and shades are very beneficial when working on a book, as even in early projects (such as the ones done in Bookbinding 1) the binder wants his or her endsheets to match or complement whatever cover design they choose.

These sheets are a good choice for books that have complex or ornate patterns for their covers. Instead of clashing with an equally decorative cover, using a solid color can bring out details in the cover that may go unnoticed, like pairing an accessory with an outfit to bring out the color of your eyes.
If you ever take a bookbinding class at the Center for Book Arts (which I encourage you to take because they are quite fun!), you most likely will use an Ingres paper for the endsheets of your first hard-back book. While colors that match your cover can be interesting, try using ones that contrast, too: such as yellow with a purple cover or pink with green. You may come out with something very interesting and unique in the end!

-Christina Squitieri

 

Have any stories about your favorite paper? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Wednesday Exhibitions: Canceled

Poster for Canceled, opening April 18, 2012 at the CBA

We hope everyone enjoyed our last exhibition, Fine & Dirty, and our two Featured Artist Projects, Strange Birds by Ethan Shoshan and Re/Vision, by Patrician Sarrafian Ward, which closed on March 31st. While we install the work for our next exhibitions shows, opening April 18th, join us for a sneak preview of the spring exhibitions. In the main gallery: Canceled: Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures, organized by independent curator Lauren van Haaften-Schick; and two Featured Artist Projects : The Jolly Balance, by Anne Gilman; and the 2011 Artists-in-Residence exhibition, featuring last years' four CBA Artists-in-Residence: James Case-Leal, Liz Linden, Colin McMullan, and Heidi Neilson.

The Jolly Balance, detail, by Anne Gilman

Canceled is an exhibition that I am very excited for, as it will present work and exhibitions that have been previously canceled or prohibited. Looking at the publications these pieces exist in, the exhibition is going to show how publications exist as an alternative exhibition, how they highlight the politics of cancellation, how they can critique or agree with the forces that called for it to be cancelled. By dedicating an exhibition to publications, Canceled highlights the importance of the book as a way to disseminate and document information in a longer-lasting medium than the exhibition itself would have been.

The Jolly Balance is also going to be a brilliant exhibition, one that will fill the walls with Anne Gilman's  series of paper scrolls using drawing, text, and printmaking on graph paper, that connects images, textures, and colors in one giant presentation. The image on the right is just one tiny section of Gilman's work (it really is a "detail"!). One of my favorite parts of Jolly Balance is a panel section that is covered with red, that includes little panels of paper that you can flip open, so be sure to check that panel out starting April 18th!

Atlas Dream, by Heidi Neilson

The last of our three exhibits, the 2011 Artists in Residence collection, is going to be another great one. Showing off the work that our four resident artists have been working on while in residence at the Center for Book Arts (for information about the program, be sure to check out our opportunities section!). The Artist in Residence program encourages experimentation, bringing artists who work in other mediums to the Center to learn book arts techniques and work to incorporate their new knowledge into their already-established ways of working  One piece in the installation, seen above, is Heidi Neilson's Atlas Dream. Neilson's altered atlas is a hodgepodge of different maps, overlapping pieces of New York with pieces of the Caribbean Sea, blending the world into one new and exciting place.

These three exhibits are going to be just as amazing as the last ones, but in a completely different way.  I hope you enjoyed the tiny peek at what's to come, and maybe there will be more next week? You'll have to check back to find out!

 -Christina Squitieri

Can't wait for our next opening? Have a favorite piece from a previous exhibition? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Just want to say hi? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Tueday Typefaces: Helvetica

Helvetica

Anyone involved in marketing or graphic design
knows the typeface perfection that is Helvetica. This sans-serif typeface has been so extensively used, and so influential to modern typography since its 1950s creation that there is even a documentary film about it. With its distinctive square dot above the "i," Helvetica is the typeface of choice for numerous company logos in many different fields. These include 3M, American Airlines, American Apparel, Microsoft, Jeep, J.C. Penny, Verizon Wireless, and Target. If you've turned on an iPod or iPhone, you've seen at least one version of the ever-growing Helvetica font family. It is used by NASA as well as on federal income tax forms, on CNN and the American television show The Office, for the British Airports Authority and the New York City MTA.There is a Cyrillic alphabet Helvetica as well as a Greek alphabet Helvetica. In 2008, NYC's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) even had a special exhibit, titled "50 Years of Helvetica," showing the numerous uses of this iconic typeface.

But where did it come from?

American Airlines logo in the Helvetica typeface

Helvetica was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland. The foundry had set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that would be neutral, with no intrinsic meaning in its form, that had great clarity, and that could be used on a wide variety of signs and advertisements. The succeeded. In the film Helvetica, graphic designer and typographer Wim Crouwel describes the typeface as "a real step from the 19th century typeface... We were impressed by that because it was more neutral, and neutralism was a word that we loved. It should be neutral. It shouldn't have a meaning in itself. The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface."

Different Weights of Helvetica

Aside from its crisp, clear, and neutral personality, one of the main marks of Helvetica is its squareness and symmetry. Of course curves are used, but only when they need to be. Parts of letters, such as the tops of Ms, the bottoms of Us and the lowercase y, and even the tips of the lowercase a, are square. The dot above the i is not a small circle, but a square—like a pixel—and the curl of the lowercase y ends in a square edge. The tops of lowercase letters line up, and the extra curls of the g and y are short, hanging only minimally beneath the line, giving the typeface a tight, tidy look.

Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk after the foundry, the typeface went through some minor changes at the Linotype foundry before being renamed, in 1960, to "Helvetica," based on the original Latin name for the Swiss people. Since Helvetica's first appearance, not only have different weights appeared (seen right) but also ten variants, including Neue Helvetica, Helvetica Texbook, Helvetica Inserat, and Helvetica Rounded. And, as the newest variant Neue Haas Grotesk was created in 2010, it also has no signs of slowing down.

One of the many Helvetica Wallpapers

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about your favorite (or least favorite) typeface? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!

Monday Methods: Hot Stamping

Hot Stamping: Die, Gold Foil, and Finished Product

Happy Monday, everyone! First, a very special thanks to the lovely Faith Hale for covering the blogs from last week. They were fantastic and I hope everyone enjoyed the sneak-peeks into some of the wonderful art we were auctioning off for our 2012 Benefit. This week, we'll be back with the usual schedule, starting with another Monday Methods: Hot Stamping!

For me, one of the finest touches on a finished hardback book is the use of hot stamping: the imprint of a title, author, symbol, and/or image, often inlaid with a color (often gold or silver) foil. These embossments are probably most associated with the old leather-bound books your grandparents had are their bookshelves—including dictionaries and encyclopedias—but are still used in most hardback books today. Once the dust jacket comes off, many hard cover books have at the very least the title of the book stamped along its spine.

Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy (2009)

In order to hot stamp a book, a few items are required: a die (which has the text or image you will imprint, backwards and in relief) and heat and pressure. Many hot-stamped books will use a color foil, such as gold on the book above and black at right, but others are printed without the addition of foil at all, leaving the image or text subtly pressed into the book's cover or spine. Just as different color foil is chosen, the artist can also choose to use no foil at all.

Hot Stamping Dies

At the Center for Book Arts, hot stamping machines are used. These machines have a base that the book rests on (the "anvil"), slots in which to place your die (including text), and a lever to press the image into the book. When sufficiently heated, the book casing—which can be leather or cloth-covered binder's board, among others—is placed in the machine. The lever is then pulled down, pressing the image into the casing and leaving an imprint. To make the stamp a different color, a piece of thin foil is placed on top of the book before pressing down. Instead of pressing the hot die onto just the book alone, it hits the foil as well, the heat from the machine softening it and allowing the color to melt into the imprint the die makes.

The accuracy and beautiful of a hot-stamped image depends on the quality of the die, the heat of the die, the amount of pressure applied during stamping, and—to me, the most difficult part—keeping the pressure direct and straight during pressing. Wobbling a little to the left or the right can create a sloppy or blurry image that can appeared stretched or difficult to see. Indirect pressure can also have the image or text appear deeper in one area than another, leading to an inconsistent color or style.

Despite the learning curve, hot stamping is really fun and creates a beautiful touch to both hand-made and mass-produced books. The CBA occasional gives a short workshop on using the press, so be sure to check out our website (www.centerforbookarts.org/classes) to see if one is being given!

-Christina Squitieri

Have any stories about hot stamping? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!