Art Libraries Society of North America 31^st Annual Conference
Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland – March 20-26, 2003  

Workshop 3: 

Book Structures and Bookbinding Techniques  

Organizers/ Moderators:
Jae Rossman, Yale University
Laurie Whitehill Chong, Rhode Island School of Design  

Instructor:
Carol Barton, Book Artist, Curator, and Book Arts Instructor, Glen Echo, MD  

Recorder:
Laurie Whitehill Chong

Twenty art librarians and visual resources professionals attended this hands-on workshop taught by book artist Carol Barton.  Participants each constructed models of three simple bookbinding structures: a three-hole sewn pamphlet stitch binding; an accordion fold binding with non-adhesive decorated cover boards; and a maze book, folded from a single sheet of paper. 

Following the book-making portion of the workshop, Laurie presented a selection of artists’ books from the collections of the Maryland Institute College of Art Library (loaned by Margie Chenoweth), the Rhode Island School of Design Library, and samples from her own collection.  Participants were able to see completed examples of the book structures they had just learned how to make.  Many of the books showed variations on these bindings as well, and gave a good sense of the different ways that book artists have integrated elements of these structures with text and image.

Carol next showed several of her artists’ books and explained details of the research, conceptualizing, planning, and execution challenges of each book.  Among those books shown were Loom; Instructions for Assembly; Beyond the Page; Tunnel Map; and Vision Shifts.  Participants were treated to a rare viewing of her latest book, Five Luminous Towers, a book that can be read in the dark.  This latest book represents years of research and work, including a Bogliasco Fellowship for a residency in Italy.  It is a complex pop-up book depicting five famous Italian towers with accompanying verses describing each tower and its history.  With the drapes drawn and the lights out, each poem was read, and all watched in amazement as the pages and pop-up towers lit up from a bulb hidden within the binding.  With the lights back on, Carol showed the inner workings of this engineering feat.

The session ended with time for questions and discussions related to making artists’ books, teaching about them and managing/ preserving collections of them.  Jae and Laurie distributed sets of handouts; among these were a bibliography on the history of the book and bookbinding, the history and theory of artists’ books, and the techniques of book making.  Also included were handouts on paper grain, adhesives, pamphlet stitch binding variations, instructions for maze books, a list of book arts suppliers, and various book arts centers and organizations.  Participants left with new tools, new skills, and three small books to bring home.

Carol Barton’s work can be seen at http://www.popularkinetics.com