Hollander's

Artists in Residence – Summer 2010

From Monday July 12 thru Friday July 23 three local artists will be at Hollander’s School of Book & Paper Arts at work on a project that book artist Barbara Brown calls a Theater Book. A Theater Book is a book that contains expanding bellows or concertina folds which can hold a series of images. It is constructed with board and hinged book cloth, creating a much more solid structure than a more common book art structure called a tunnel book. The result is similar to a small 3-D theater. Another unique feature of a theater book is its wrap-around cover. The theater book pulls out for viewing and then can be folded back and stored in the casing.

This Artists in Residence program will feature Barbara Brown, Alvey Jones, current WSG members, and Marilyn Prucka, a former WSG member. The artists will be producing Theater Books with a water theme and their projects can be observed during the entire process. In addition, the public is invited to help build a hanging installation piece.

This event is free and open to the public daily between the hours of 12:00 and 3:00, downstairs in Hollander’s school.

July 13, 2010 at 2:54 pm Leave a comment

The American Academy of Bookbinding at Hollander’s

Since 2005, Hollander’s has been partners with the American Academy of Bookbinding (AAB), a professional bookbinding and conservation school dedicated to teaching fine binding and book restoration skills.

Last week ended three weeks of intensive sessions at Hollander’s School of Book and Paper Arts, where the students learned various book restoration and conservation methods including such “finishing” techniques as gold tooling on leather covers.

The teacher and current director of the American Academy of Bookbinding is Don Etherington, a world-renowned fine binder and book conservation specialist. Don’s career in bookbinding spans over a half century and includes collaborating on the restoration of such documents as the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence. He is also an award winning design binder and most recently his autobiography, Bookbinding & Conservation: A Sixty-Year Odyssey of Art and Craft, was published. This fascinating book chronicles Don’s formative years growing up in England and includes his contribution to the conservation effort in Florence, Italy after a great flood caused damage to thousands of books.

Before Don took over this year, the director of AAB for the past five years was his wife, Monique Lallier, who is also a world-renowned fine binder. She continues to teach for the American Academy of Bookbinding as well as independently. Together, they are two of the most recognizable and respected names in their field. Both are passionately dedicated to teaching others their combined fine bookbinding and restoration skills of over 100 years.

At one time, and not too long ago, bookbinder’s closely guarded their trade secrets. The popular feeling was that they had spent years learning how to become master bookbinders and didn’t want to allow others to gain this information too easily. In addition, some were fearful that they might be passing knowledge on to a potential competitor.

Combined with a general decline of making and repairing hand bound books, as everthing becomes digitized, there is a real danger of losing how it is done. Through teaching at the American Academy of Bookbinding, and as ambassadors in general, Don and Monique have made it their mission to preserve the traditional approach of this trade so that the next generation will have these skills.

June 13, 2010 at 12:36 pm Leave a comment

Guild of Bookworkers in Ann Arbor

The Midwest Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers is holding their annual meeting in Ann Arbor next weekend and all are invited to attend several free events including tours of the Bentley Historical Library and the Bessenberg Bindery.

These tours are open to the public and free of charge, but space is limited. Please contact Kazuko (kazuko@uky.edu or 859-523-3803) or Laura ( llarkin@illinois.edu or 217-333-7043) for reservation.

Friday, April 16, 2010
1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Tour of Bentley Historical Library Conservation Lab at the University of Michigan – home of the University of Michigan and Michigan Historical Collection.
http://bentley.umich.edu/preshome/

4:00-5:00 pm
Tour of Bessenberg Bookbindery – a hand book bindery that offers a full range of original bindings and book repair.
http://www.bessenberg.com/

5:00-7:00 pm
Tour, Letterpress a Bookmark, and Evening refreshments at Hollander’s –
unique shop specializing in decorative papers, bookbinding supplies, & workshops http://www.hollanders.com/

In addition, the Guild of Bookworkers is sponsoring a marbling workshop at the Ann Arbor Art Center, which requires pre-registration.

Saturday, April 17, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Note: This is a paid workshop.
Paper marbling lead by Steve Pittelkow at the Ann Arbor Arts Center
Please contact Laura for your questions concerning this workshop @ llarkin@illinois.edu or (217) 333-7043.

April 7, 2010 at 11:26 am Leave a comment

Beyond Words: A Celebration of Book Arts

(Click on images to enlarge.)

At the WSG Gallery on Main Street, Barbara Brown has curated another great Book Arts Exhibit featuring the works of many local book artists. Sometimes these works are referred to as Artists’ books, which are intended art pieces, often bearing little resemblence to books with which we are familiar with.

Barbara writes, ” Book art (book-inspired art) has surged in the last few years. For artists, there is excitement and magic to be found in the exploration of book structures – possibly in the traditional sense, but often in an entirely redefined form. Indeed, it is famously difficult to get book artists themselves to reach agreement as to what an artist’s book should or should not be. In this show we might be surprised at combinations of media which have been incorporated by the participating artists in creating these mysterious little worlds.

Here we will find that words and images fly in the air, poise on walls, and alight in structures – perhaps causing the viewer to question the idea of “book”. “

The exhibition is called: Beyond Words: A Celebration of Book Arts and runs from September 15 – October 25. A reception to meet the artist is on Friday, October 2, 7p.m.- 10 p.m. with a gallery book artist panel, Sunday, October 4, 2:00 p.m.

Participating artists are: Char Bacon, Ruth Bardenstein, Mona Diane Benton, Barbara Brown, Catherine Hightower, Alvey Jones, J. Wayne Jones, Julia Miller, Ben Reynaert, Sally Rose, Susan Skarsgard, Pati Scobey, Graceann Warn, Elaine Wilson and Howard White.
Visit the website: www.wsg-art.com
Visit WSG’s blog: http://wsgartgallery.blogspot.com

Regular gallery hours are: Tues.- Thurs. 12-6, Fri. and Sat. 12-10, Sun. 12-5

For more information call the WSG Gallery: 734-761-2287

September 28, 2009 at 11:45 am 1 comment