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On the cover: Pamela Barrios pop-up and Karen Hanmers dos--dos springbacks
Welcome:
Welcome to the Bonefolder, a new peer-reviewed open-access e-journal for bookbinding and the book arts. The Bonefolder is an outgrowth of the Book Arts Web, enabling it to reach a global audience and contribute to the body of knowledge in the book arts The namesake of the Bonefolder is the Falzbein, a bookbinding journal which existed under various other names from 1927 to 1966 in Germany, providing generations of bookbinders with an important source of learning. We also pay homage to the excellent journals published by Designer Bookbinders, the Society of Bookbinders, and the Guild of Book Workers, who with their proven history of excellence in publishing and the promotion of the book arts have set the bar high. We will take advantage of the benefits of online publishing to bring you an e-journal which will complement the offerings of other publications. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge waiting to be shared, and we would like to do our part to foster the continued development and growth of the book arts. Articles will be authored by established and emerging authorities on a variety of book arts topics. These include hand bookbinding, teaching, business practice, the history of the book, general tips & tricks, exhibitions, how-to technical articles, and reviews. The articles selected for this first issue will represent a snapshot of the range of articles we hope to present into the future. Authors are encouraged to submit articles for publication and will find the Submission Guidelines on page 31 and at <http:// www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder/submit.htm>. Individuals interested in becoming an editor/reviewer are encouraged to apply and will find more information at <http:// www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder/editors.htm>.
Bookbinding Education in North America by Jeffrey Altepeter 4 The Transcendental DRUM LEAF by Timothy Ely 10
Conservation and Tools: An Inquiry into Nature and Meaning by Jeffrey S. Peachey 19 A Traveling Punching Jig by Donia Conn Spring[binding] Hath Sprung Advertise in The Bonefolder Submission Guidelines 22 24 30 31
Editors / Reviewers:
Pamela Barrios: Conservator, Brigham Young University, Orem, UT. Donia Conn: Rare Book Conservator, Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, NY. Don Rash: Fine and edition binder, Plains, PA. Full information on the Bonefolder, subscribing, contributing articles, and advertising, can be found at: <http://www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder> To contact the editors, write to: <bonefolder@philobiblon.com>
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The Book Arts Web / Philobiblon.com 2004 The Bonefolder (online) ISSN 1555-6565
Pamela Barrios was introduced to the field of Book Arts and Conservation by Hedi Kyle at the NY Botanical Garden in 1976. She also trained with Elaine Schlefer at the NY Public Library. She held conservation positions at these institutions and at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale and the NY Academy of Medicine before accepting her current position of Conservator of Special Collections at the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Her artist books and design bindings have been exhibited internationally.
Conservation Programs
At the program for Preservation/Conservation Studies (PCS) at The University of Texas at Austin, PCS students learn the art and science of collections care and the methods of managing and promoting preservation activities in order to fulfill the fundamental goal of extending the life of materials in libraries and archives to serve the need for which they are held. (Preservation/Conservation Studies website.) Lecturer Chela Metzger points out that PCS is not specifically a bookbinding training program, but includes a three lab sequence in book conservation, with bookbinding fundamentals used as a tool of book conservation in each class. The students here would not always describe themselves as bookbinders, and they often are not they are beginning conservators with more background in bookbinding than most other conservation school graduates in the U.S. have when they graduate. The program emphasizes a more comprehensive view of the care of library materials, including classes on such topics as environmental control, preservation reformatting and conservation chemistry. Examples of the book conservation lab syllabi can be found in the appendix.
Private Lessons
Private lessons are another common approach to learning, and may be highly personalized to the needs of the student. While the possibilities for independent binders to offer apprenticeships may be economically limited, private teaching can be an additional source of income. Priscilla Spitler of Hands On Bookbinding in Smithville, TX explains that in her bindery, Due to production demands, most of the classes offered at the studio are short run series or workshops. Spitler offers classes for beginners and accommodates the needs of serious students with more advanced
University/College Programs
The following are just three examples of University/College based programs. They all share a whole book approach, and benefit from the interdisciplinary community of their settings.
Jeffrey Altepeter was born in Indiana where he grew up apprenticing in his fathers picture framing shop. This work instilled an appreciation for quality craftsmanship and presentation, and hand skills that have carried over to bookbinding. A graduate of the bookbinding program at North Bennet Street School as well as the diploma program at the American Academy of Bookbinding, Jeff also gained experience on the job while working for Harcourt Bindery and Harvard University. He now operates a private studio specializing in custom books, boxes, and other presentation materials and continues to participate in a variety of workshops. Jeff is currently president of the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers.
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Unlike in the past, I now often fully model a major work I am undertaking. For one thing, as creativity cannot be delegated, I work on my own without assistance. So often a piece will spontaneously take on a new direction. This is of value but can sometimes completely derail a book binding as it can insert too much new information. If problems show up in the process they can be resolved in a more conscientious manner if encountered in a less valued mode such as the model. Often these models are the same scale as the manuscript book. The commission was given to me by a local physician, now over 90 and in exceptionally good health. He has a head full of ideas in constant collision and has marvelous stories and the experience to back them up. It was an honor to accept this deal.
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3. Design of the folios: Working on one side means that the back of the folio is blank. It actually can be a carrier for covert information only to be seen by a conservator somewhere down the path and long after I have entered the Bardo region. Drawing and design cannot be separated out or distilled into categoric regions but rather the one is done simultaneously with the other. In the drum leaf method, the application of various liquids for sizing, coloring, and stabilizing the paper are as critical to the design as the more rigorous scratchings that go onto the final surface. With this system I can size with materials unconventional to the standard codex form gelatin and whiting, as an example, for a silverpoint drawing. Folios or single leaves can be passed through an etching press to receive a skin of ink or be easily worked using a stamping press for anodization. Flexibility is a means to liberation. Printed folios are less likely to be lost to the proofing process if only one side of the sheet is printed. There are antecedents for these ideas in fixtures like the French fold.
Amalgam
After making this first manuscript book, some properties of this formal system became immediately apparent.
By drumming I make reference to the conventional and venerable vellum book fabrication method where the skin is attached to the board along a leading edge rather than over an
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In the time since I made the first drum leaf binding there have been many refinements and incremental developments. Small things such as adhesive delivery methods and large ones such as utilizing a common repair scheme so as to fabricate folios from single leaves after imaging in a printing press which, had they been printed as folios, would have exceeded the capacity of my press. By simply dividing the paper to fit the press, then bringing two parts together in the drum leaf binding process, a whole new graphic capability is introduced: new tensions are more expressively teased into unfolding and untapped pattern formations are brought into play.
The format coordinates are eventually arrived at [See below] a root three rectangle will nicely accommodate some 5 x 5 grids and be unstable enough to allow for some spontaneous compositional flashes.
I begin the commissioned book by determining the dimensional format of the leaf. I decide on the single leaf method rather than the folio as I want a very graphic division between the cribriform grid on the recto and the wave form on the verso.
The paper choice is almost always the same for me my industry standard Arches Cover white. It is astonishingly consistent in its caliper at point-zero-one-eight (.018) inches and that thickness, being rather close in thickness to a generalized leather turn-in, makes it also a handy material for linings and filler sheets. However, as it is primarily a printmakers sheet, the sizing is a bit light for my requirements so I size the sheets
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ally. The rod placement pattern is usually a diamond with a point in the center so five are used in all. This makes for a very rigid board. [See above.] A full leather binding is usually assumed to use one piece of leather to cover the entire book. In this full leather drum leaf, the book is fully covered in leather, but it starts as three separate pieces. A strip of leather is prepared for the spine by paring it thin and laminating it with adhesives to interleaving paper. It is polished and given a mordant size for later tooling. Leather for the boards is pared and paper-mounted for stability. All leather is carefully pressed and allowed to settle. All the endpapers and formed sections are gathered and checked a final time and put between waste boards binders board rough-cut to fit. The book spine is rubbed with a folder to flatten each sections radius, creating a platform for the adhesive film. Under mild pressure the spinal column of the book is glued using PVA. When dry, the precise board thickness, now known and measurable, is transferred to lines parallel to the spinal horizon and the book is backed to about 60 degrees not a full 90 as is conventional. Usually, I would round and back, but as most of my drum leaf bindings are thin, rounding first would become a hump, so I simply back it into a curve. This gives me the look of a rounded spine with shoulders that
are in proportion to the thickness of the book. (Later, the back edge of the board where it meets the spine will also be cut to 60 degrees and beveled gently to meet the shoulder perfectly, while compensating for the covering leather.) The shoulder must not project above the board nor can the board be above the shoulder. I am after a good match. The angle of the shoulder and this board edge bevel will be an inverted equilateral triangle. After removing the waste boards, the spine is lined with a Japanese paper or a polyester web and PVA. The lining goes out onto the first and last leaves a short distance, not exceeding .25 inches. The drumming sequence is critical. Now that the spine of the book is relatively stable and glued, lined, and DRY, the spine edge of the leaves is drummed with a line of PVA applied about .25 inches wide, not extending beyond the pencil lines drawn in a previous step. The space left without PVA is where the endband thread is to go.(See illustration page 11, right.) The drum leaf book is a full-adhesive, non-sewn binding. The glued spine mimics the paperback book with all its selfannihilation tendencies and the application of adhesive to the section exteriors mimics the tipped-on endpaper also prone to tear-off and disintegration. By next drumming the foredge, the whole affair is stabilized at three points and lateral mobility is reduced to near zero, making for a very stable object
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Timothy Ely began making books as early as 1957 (he started young). An interest in art, UFO images, alchemy, science, comic books and odd religious arcana led him from painting and design into bookbinding. He holds a BFA in drawing and printmaking from Western Washington University and an MFA from the University of Washington. An NEA grant in 1981 took him to Japan and Europe for training in the traditional methods of book fabrication. He has collaborated with ethno-botanist Terence McKenna on Synesthesia, a limited edition book published in 1992 by Granary Books. In 1994, he was awarded an NEA Western States Arts Federation Grant. His first trade book, The Flight into Egypt, was published in 1995 by Chronicle Books. His one-of-a-kind books are in public and private collections worldwide. Editing and advice: Ann Marra & Randy Hankins [many thanks]. All errors otherwise not caught are mine.
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Consider the following example of a canoe paddle The handle at the end of the shaft is shaped to fit the hand through a variety of positions and also serves to twist the paddle for
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stable relationship when in use, each affects the other, when at rest, nothing changes except for any chemical or physical deterioration over time. This stasis is one of the main reasons it is difficult to derive meaning from a tool when it is at rest nothing is going on. The user acts on the tool, which in turn acts on the object, which acts on the user, and so on. The tool plays as important a role in determining the symbolic and material quality in shaping the object as the maker does. One factor that is often not noticed is the influence of the user on the tool. Consider the next example.
References
Heidegger, Martin. 1977. The Question Concerning Technology. New York: Harper and Row. Ihde, Don. 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld: from Garden to Earth
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Endnotes
1. Although many conservators, myself included, are socalled tool junkies. 2. David Pye, in his excellent book, The Nature and Art of Workmanship, feels the source of power is irrelevant. I will show later that it is an important aspect of the embodiment relationship. 3. Some may question weather a paddle is a tool, but it interacts with a user and thing (water) and causes changes in the thing. The duration of change is inconsequential. 4. I am borrowing this term from Don Idhe. 5. And ended up virtually killing myself a couple of times. 6. I would also speculate that traces of the embodiment relation remain in the object being made. Perhaps it is the general impression of something that we consider well made. 7. Medieval books and Greek cups are sometimes marked I belong to ______. 8. Especially the concept of a tool in use. 9. This distinction seems particularly prey to various trends in museological circles lately I find more tools displayed as art, rather than artifacts, although the boundary is very fluid. 10. The National Building Museum in Washington D.C. probably has the largest collection of so called tool art.
Jeffrey S. Peachey began bookbinding at The Gotham Book Mart, and entered the field of conservation in 1989. He spent six years conserving books, works of art on paper and archives at Columbia Universitys Conservation Lab. In 1996 he established a private practice conservation studio in New York City, serving institutions, private collectors and individuals. Awards include a Scholarship for the Guild of Bookworkers Standards of Excellence Conference, The Mellon Foundation and The Empire State Craft Alliance, for work on a bibliography of book structure. He is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. He has taught bookbinding workshops at Pratt Institute, The School of Visual Arts, Long Island University, Parsons, The New School and The Center for Book Arts. His Artist Books are included in the Marvin Sackner Collection of Concrete and Visual Poetry and the collection of Gerard Charrier. Grant projects have included working for the American Museum of Natural History, Union Theological Seminary, The Center for Jewish History and The New York Academy of Medicine. Since 1997 he has been inventing and producing various specialized tools for bookbinders and conservators.
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Materials needed:
Scraps of binders board and 2 strips of buckram.
Technique:
Cut three strips of binders board and two strips of buckram at least 2.5 wide and 11 long (the size can be whatever you want depending on the size of books you are intending to be working with). Cut one of the strips of binders board in half along the short axis.
Optional: cut corresponding angle out of bottom for pleasing look for the feet. Assemble and punch away to your hearts content! Replace buckram when needed.
Glue up a strip of buckram (or use doublestick tape) and adhere the two long strips of binders board leaving three board thicknesses between the boards. Adhere the second strip of buckram on the opposite side, boning down into the groove. Approximately in from either end of the joined boards, cut a slot that extends across the two boards and ends approximately from the edges. The slot should be the same size as the thickness of the boards.
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Donia Conn was introduced to bookbinding through a required art class at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. While a Ph.D. student in Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin -Madison, she started working with Jim Dast in the librarys book repair department. After taking bookbinding classes at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, she entered the Conservation Studies program at the University of Texas at Austin. Donia has interned with Tony Cains at Trinity College, Dublin, and J. Frank Mowery at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and has worked as a book and paper conservator for various institutions across the US. Currently, she is the Rare Book Conservator at Syracuse (NY) University Library and Binder-in-Residence at Wells College.
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Springtime in England, or Maps of England: Illuminated, Enhanced and Generally Made More Useful... for the Purpose of Finding Ones Way about the English Countryside... during the Most Glorious of Seasons. German-style springback with pages of Mohawk Superfine painted with acrylics and photocopied with reproduction maps of England (found online at <http://www.old-maps.co.uk>), then illuminated with Pilot metallic markers. Hahnemlle, Ingres, and Moriki endpapers. Headcaps of maroon denim around braided core. Sewn on three linen tapes. Acrylic-dyed canvas spine with Claire Maziarczyk paste paper panels and a laser-printed acrylic-dyed paper label. 16.5 x 14.5 x 4 cm. Bound 2004. Technique learned from Peter Verheyens and Donia Conns online instructions originally published in The New Bookbinder, 2003.
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English-style springback covered in green leather with pastepaper sides. 50 x 29 x 4 cm. Bound 2004. Technique learned from Richard Baker at the Guild of Book Workers Seminar on Standards of Excellence, 2003.
The English-style springback was the perfect binding for my next bookwork, which examines our valuing of little girls, both in our society overall and, more closely, within our families. Working title: Isnt She Precious. The textblock interweaves Hahnemhle Bugra with cheap, recycled ledger paper. The text will intersperse photocopied prose with letterpress-printed grocery lists of words related to the de/valuing of little girls. Imagery will combine/layer cyanotype printing with halftones. Covered in a Lycra/cotton fabric of the sort typically associated with bathing suit bottoms forever in need of tugging down, the horizontal stripe in the fabric harks back to the horizontal banding frequently used in the spring-backs original purpose as a ledger binding. Robust boards house a dandelion (yellow in the front cover; at its wish stage in back) pressed between layers of Plexi: Is she a weed, or a flower? 21.5 x 20 x 6 cm. Bound 2004.
The mechanics of this springback reflect Richard Bakers demonstration at the Guild of Book Workers Seminar on Standards of Excellence in Hand Bookbinding in Denver CO, with a few references to Vaughans 1929 classic, Modern Bookbinding. The new purpose of this springback is to pop up the pop-up. 14 x 16.5 x 4 cm. Bound 2004.
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English-style, text block documents Keith Smiths 200 Books; covered in tan goatskin with paper sides in material documenting 15 Italian pastries. 25 x 18 x 4 cm. Bound 2004. German-style springback Mini. Leather with leather and alum-tawed on-lays. 6.5 x 4.8 x 1.7 cm. Bound 2004. Technique learned from Peter Verheyen.
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English-style, text block from inexpensive Chinese ruled notebook; covered in green goatskin with printed paper sides. 17.5 x 13 x 1.5 cm. Bound 2004. Instruction from Richard Baker at the Guild of Book Workers Midwest Annual Meeting workshop in St. Louis, 2002
English-style, text block from laboratory notebook; covered in dark green goatskin with raised bands on spine and marbled paper. 24.5 x 19.5 x 2.25 cm. Bound 2004.
A Counting English-style springback, leather cover with double straight bands laced with deer vellum. 600 pages of 9 lb. Canary paper with painted edges. Inscription notes the multiplier for each of the 300 page spreads needed to equal the number of dead and wounded American soldiers and Iraqi civilians since March 2003. 7.5 x 7 x 2.5 cm. Bound 2004. Technique learned from Alex J. Vaughans Modern Bookbinding and Peter Verheyens on-line draft of The Springback in the English Tradition.
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Keeping Account of a Purple-dyed Life. German-style springback account book. Cover papers, text papers and thread hand-dyed purple. Purple bookcloth spine, corners and headbands. Designed to be a journal for a vegetarian eccentric, so no animal products were used. 18 x 14 x 3.5 cm. Bound 2004. Technique learned from Sally Rose
SpringBark, a 366-page year-round gardeners journal, incorporates natural material found in the woods around our house in the Catskills. Black cherry bark from a fallen branch covers the spine, its curve perfectly suited that of the springbacks deep rounding. The cherry bark is sewn to Davie board covered with hand-peeled, cured white birch bark, with headcaps formed of a layer of birch covering the spring itself. Because of the split-board construction, the birch covering the boards was first turned in at the spine edge so the covered boards could be sewn to the cherry, then the stiff card was inserted in the split boards and the bark turned in on the other three edges. The endsheets and flyleaves are made of white birch bark laminated first on paper covered with gold leaf, and then on the 1-ply Bristol used for the text block. SpringBark is a prototype extrapolated from the English style, as described in Peter Verheyen. I have also read as many other descriptions of the style as I can. I have no formal training, though I have learned much at the Center for Book Arts in New York City, particularly from Barbara Mauriello, Carolyn Chadwick, and Emily Martin.
German-style account binding covered in pastepaper by Donia Conn and Strathmore paper with handmade paper endsheets. 7 x 8.5 x 2.5 cm. Bound 2004. Technique learned from Peter Verheyen and Donia Conn at the Garage Annex School for Book Arts.
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References:
* Any references should be included in ( ) following the text they refer to. If links are included, include the full URL.