Center for Book Arts

Itajime, the technique of folding and dyeing paper resulting in stunning geometric and visual patterns, dates back to the 17th century.
https://buff.ly/3GEgKYn

Looking for a last minute gift for your sweetheart? Try enrolling in this short workshop for couples to make valentines together.

The reduction woodcut technique is an economical way to produce an edition of multi-color prints on letterpress using only one block. Register in this workshop for printers of all levels to learn this magical image making technique.
https://buff.ly/48dHYRn

Suminagashi (translation: spilled or floating ink) is a style of marbling that originated in Japan by the year 1100. Pictured: paper sample by
https://buff.ly/3RlB7OS

Register for Ellen Sheffield's workshop 'Unfolding Narratives' and learn how to generate text for your own artists' books using conceptual techniques including “text as image,” “text as narrative,” and “text as lyrical expression.”
https://buff.ly/3ta8fBl

Pictured: 'Fear of Speaking' by artist Ellen Sheffield

Similar to the low-relief collagraph technique, PRESSURE PRINTING is an alternative image-making technique that uses flexible plates on letterpress. Unlike other letterpress plates, pressure printing plates stay clean because they lay behind the press sheet!

Register for Amber Braverman's upcoming Pressure Printing workshop to learn how to use this versatile technique in your practice. https://buff.ly/46SAi5Z

Illegibility and artists' books. Shirin Salehi's new online workshop on 'The Illegible Book' explores the question of legibility in reading and how illegibility is used by artists.

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What is the role of the artist in any given work? Who has authority over that artwork? What role does an audience play for an artists' book? When is it good to break rules?

Do any of these questions interest you? Join for a new discussion seminar 'Making Meaning: Discussing Artistic Significance Through Book and Print'

: Prior to the discovery of synthetic blue and chemical dyes in the 19th century, indigo was the only viable source available for creating a lasting blue color.
Learn indigo dying for paper and fabric from at Center for Book Arts.
https://buff.ly/3GC25Nm

Contemporary Leather Binding is being offered for the first time by ! Register now before this incredible workshop fills up. Link in bio.

S*an D. Henry-Smith is an artist and writer working primarily in poetry, photography, and performance, engaging Black experimentalisms and collaborative practices.

Limited edition letterpress printed broadside by S*an D. Henry-Smith of the poem Earworm available in CBA's bookshop.
https://buff.ly/3GFxZIP

Dear CBA Friends and Family,

As a staff we have been working hard all year round to keep the studios open so artists can continue their explorations of the book as art. Will you join us in helping CBA continue this work with a donation?

Donate here!
https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E351036&id=71

Center for Book Arts has been working to uplift the book arts through education, preservation, exhibition, community building and so much more for nearly 50 years. With artists’ residencies, exceptional in-person and online workshops, and exhibitions that aim to expand our understanding of the book as art, the staff at Center for Book Arts have been doing incredible work. Today is Giving Tuesday, a day to show support for the organizations we love.

Grant a wish! Your gift makes accessible book art classes, workshops and events possible.

Please join World at Poetry at Center for Book Arts on 11/3 at 7pm, for the ninth installment of Colloquy: Translators in Conversation, on translating visual poetry, with readings and discussion from Mónica de la Torre, Michael Kasper, and Olivia Sears, and hosted and moderated by Colloquy curator C. Francis Fisher.
Colloquy is an event series presented by World Poetry in collaboration with Montez Press Radio and partnering venues which invites translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation. For registration link in start page and on our website.

Join us on 10/11 at 6.30pm for a curatorial walkthrough with curator Mela Dávila of the exhibition Off-Register: Publishing Experiments by Women Artists in Latin America, 1960-1990. The exhibition showcases more than 70 works of 37 artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and the US.
📸Phillip Meuser (Portrait of Mela Dávila)
📸Oswaldo García (exhibition images)

Center for Book Arts is partnering with Art on Paper to launch BOOKSMART, a new artists' book fair located at the front of this year's Art on Paper. We have invited eight institutions to take part in the inaugural edition, each of whom will bring a curated selection of artists' books that engage the form in a myriad of ways—ranging from highly tactile and physical objects to conceptual works.

Classroom Program: Craft & Conceptual Art: Reshaping the Legacy of Artists’ Books, with Zanna Gilbert and Megan N. Liberty 1PM PDT on August 11, 2023

On the occasion of the final venue of Craft & Conceptual Art: Reshaping the Legacy of Artists’ Books opening at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in August, exhibition curator Megan N. Liberty and Zanna Gilbert, Senior Research Specialist at Getty Research Institute, will be in conversation about the exhibition’s research process and resulting catalog. The two consider the challenges of working with archival materials, the process of sourcing and selecting historical images and texts, and how best to complement these with contemporary writing. The publication was designed specifically to be a research resource and to encourage further investigation, exhibitions, and writing into artists’ books. Gilbert and Liberty will address how this catalog can contribute to the existing canon of books on books, and how the design and layout choices take into consideration the publication’s research uses.

Gwen Smith’s “The Black Woman Project (Vol. 3)” is currently on view at Center for Book Arts as part of the group show “Visual Volumes: Contemporary Explorations in Book Arts”, featuring the works of 6 artists who were awarded CBA’s Book Artist Residency in 2021 and 2022.

Gwen Smith employs the power of memory to construct archives and discover her place within the diaspora. Her work delves into the complexities of identity and endeavors to find liberation by addressing the inherent traumas of this quest. In 2018, Smith initiated a "ritual for creativity," resulting in the creation of 100 paintings alongside introspective self-portraits symbolizing the moments she entered her studio throughout a span of 2.5 years, thus inspiring the first volume of "The Black Woman Project." Subsequently, in 2020, another set of 100 tempera portraits was produced and published in two volumes. (Vol. 3) came out in 2021 and will soon be followed by (Vol. 4).

“The Black Woman Project'' honors esteemed black women all coming from a diverse range of professions that Smith chose for their place of reverence in her heart, serving as catalysts in her journey for self exploration. “The Black Woman Project” is the deliberate fusion of Gwen Smith’s identity as a black woman with that of her subjects creates a harmonious rhythm within her artwork.

“Visual Volumes: Contemporary Explorations in Book Arts” is on view at Center for Book Arts’ central gallery until Sunday, September 9 2023.

📸 Portraits from Gwen Smith's "Black Woman Project (Vol. 3)". From left to right, pictured in the portraits, are: Sylvia Wynter, Elsa Majimbo, Assata Shakar and Toyin Ojin Odutola

Tonight .gallery join us to celebrate

On view at Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo’s exhibition is their book, “Slow looking: These views are our tools”.

“Slow looking: These views are our tools” is a two color risograph book published in 2021 by Childish Books. It was designed to explore the notion of slowness and intentionality when observing our environment. Through tools such as prompts and dicut viewfinders, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo provides us with instruments to explore, rethink and reshape how we perceive our surroundings.

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo’s exhibition “Rituals Here” has been extended to Saturday June 24.

📸 Courtesy of the artist

Issue 2 shipping this week!

We are now entering the last two weeks to view Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo's newspaper print "Rituals Here" as part of their ongoing exhibition at Center for Book Arts.

Created in 2022, the broadsheet celebrates “Rituals Here” a “project with four nodes” initiated by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. The self published black and white newspaper functions as an archive, featuring works by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Archard Aparejo, agustine zegers, Ty Little, Amarice Carreras, and Ayana Zaire Cotton. Through a body of poetry works, the print explores the themes of data weaving, storytelling, remembrance and interconnectedness.

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo’s exhibition “Rituals Here” is on view until Saturday, June 24.

Heads up that Center for Book Arts will be CLOSED Thursday, 6/8, due to the air quality. We'll be staying home and we encourage our community to stay safe and take care. We love you!

This virtual workshop with Center for Book Arts' founder Richard Minsky presents a methodology for book art self-critique, curatorial selection, and criticism based on the balance of material, image, and metaphor. Several other critical methodologies for book art are explored, including haptic, metadata, and activist.

Sign up today for this virtual workshop occurring over three weeks from May 25 to June 8.

Sign up here: https://centerforbookarts.org/classes/online/book-art-critique-workshop

Take a step back in time and learn the art of letterpress printing on the original platen type configuration! In this introductory workshop, instructor Amber Braverman will teach you the basic parts, operation, and maintenance of the press. Be prepared to roll up your sleeve and immerse yourself Thursday evenings from 6-9pm, May 18 - June 15. You don’t want to miss the chance to design and print your very own pieces on this historic piece of machinery!

and in conversation right now

Scaffolding Artist Talk Tricia Treacy will be in conversation with Jessica Brier, curator at Vassar College. This program is in conjunction with Scaffolding the exhibition by Tricia...