From ARLIS: April 6, 2015

CALIFORNIA RARE BOOK SCHOOL

Here’s What’s New for 2015
Fourteen, 1-Week Intensive Courses Offered
 Week 1, August 3-7, Courses at UCLA

• Born Digital/Digital Collections
• Forgery in Manuscript & Printed book (NEW)
• Medieval & renaissance Manuscripts
• Developing & Administering African American Resources (NEW)
• History of the Book, 200-1820

 Week 2, August 10-14, Courses at UCLA

• The Renaissance Book, 1400-1650
• History of the Book in Hispanic America, 16th-19th Centuries
• Arist’s Books: Collection, Development, and Assessment
• Library & Archives Preservation in the Digital Age
• Exhibiting Rare Books & Ephemera (NEW)

 Week 3, November 2-6, Courses at UC Berkeley or in San Francisco

• Books of the Far West with an Emphasis on California-CHS
• Descriptive Bibliography-The Book Club of California
• History, Identification, & Preservation of Photographic Materials-UC Berkeley-Bancroft Library
• History of Cartography/Maps-UC Berkeley-Bancroft Library

 Scholarships are made possible by grants and gifts from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), William Reese Company, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, & Publishing (SHARP), the So. California Chapter of the ABAA, the Zamorano Club, and the CalRBS Annual Fund.

 Scholarship application deadlines:

• June 14 (for August courses)
• September 13 (for November courses)

·     How to contact CalRBS?   See the website for more details and to find:

• Course descriptions
• Faculty bios
• Application forms for courses and scholarships
• Staff contact info

 www.calrbs.org

From the Northwest Books Arts List Serve: March 10, 2015

From Richard at ARLIS, Jan. 21st 2015:

The winter 2015 exhibitions open at the Center for Book Arts in New York City this Friday, January 23, 6:00 -8:00 pm, and there will be an Open House with demonstrations on Saturday, January 24, Noon-3:00. Information ios at the Center’s sparkling new website <http://centerforbookarts.org>

If you or your constituency are doing book art research and need to access the Center’s 40-year archive of exhibitions 1974-2014, which includes about 200 exhibitions and 3,500 artists, the existing version is temporarily being maintained at
<http://www.centerforbookarts.net/exhibits/archive>
until the data is fully populated on the new website. Please do not post links to that on web pages, as it will be obsolete in about six months. At that time The archive will be searchable at the new site, and browsed in the new site’s “Past” exhibitions. You can see info about some of the recent shows, and keep up to date with current exhibitions at

<http://centerforbookarts.org/see/>.

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From Jane Carlin, January 2, 2015

WILLIAM MORRIS BROADSIDE

LIMITED EDITION

The William Morris Society of the United States is pleased to announce a limited edition of 100 signed and numbered unique broadsides printed on the very press Morris once used!  The print was made on the Kelmscott-Goudy Press (now at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York) and each print was hand inked using Van Son rubber-base black ink and printed over the course of two days.  The broadside was printed on Zerkall paper, which was cut to retain a deckle on one edge.  Zerkall is a German paper mill which dates back to the 16^th century.   The typefaces used include Ornament, Troy, and Golden — all of which were designed by Morris.  The artist commissioned is Steven Lee-Davis, a former student of Barry Mosher and printer at the Roycroft Shop in East Aurora, New York.  The portrait is accompanied by a quotation from Morris, “I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.”

The broadsides will be sold to benefit the William Morris Society. Copies are available at a cost of $50 each plus $5 shipping. Orders should be sent with check (written out to the William Morris Society/US) to Jane Carlin, Library Director, Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner St. #1021, Tacoma, WA. 98416-1021

Learn more by visiting the website of Lee Davis and to read about the famous press used to print the broadside at the Rochester Institute of Technology website.

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From the NWBooksArt List/Serve:  August 24th, 2014

     Everyone has a story to tell. I am not speaking about a simple tale, a joke, or about something that happened yesterday on the way to the forum. I am speaking of those personal narratives which make us different from one another. We may choose to write about ourselves, a person of interest, or we choose as MalPina Chan; to create a narrative about our ancestors and their journey to America. Creating a book as a work of art using a personal narrative is not an easy task but MalPina proves it is possible. Using original documents including original certificates of residence, certificates of identity, passports, immunization certificates, visas, photographs, or something as obscure as a head tax receipt, MalPina weaves not just a story of her ancestors journey but a book as an intricate work of art. Viewing her work, we get the impression they are more than a work of art or a personal narrative.   We are looking at history.

MalPina Chan was born in California and received her BFA from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Her work is a continuing investigation of the transitory nature of the human condition, our connection to each other and to the natural world. Her portfolio includes works on paper, glass, mixed-media, and artist books. She is a graduate of the Artist Trust Edge Professional Development program and a recipient of an Artist Trust GAP (Grants for Artist Projects) in 2012.

To learn more about MalPina and her work visit her website: malpinachan.com

I think artifacts related to the book arts, fall into three categories.  (1)  Objects that don’t resemble books at all but are important, (2) Curiosities that look like books, but aren’t, and (3) Those items which aren’t necessarily art, but are books.  All are historically interesting if not intriguing.  As an avid antique hunter/gatherer, I am always scanning antique shops, estate sales, and antique shows for anything that falls into those three categories, usually without any clear idea of what I am looking for.  In other words, I will know it when I find it.  Unless of course it falls into the first category, in which case I had been looking for this particular item for some time.  It had haunted my dreams ever since I had found it unobtrusively sitting on a counter in the back of an antique shop on Antique Row in Tacoma, Washington.  Two months later, I walked out with my own 19th century cast iron book press which I subsequently found out was actually an antique copy machine which is now used by book artists worldwide as a book press.   Recycling can refer to more than just separating paper from glass.  At any rate, it now sits proudly in my studio happily pressing books as if it had its own personality, which of course, it does.

In Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy, one of Michelangelo’s friends states, “It’s the hunt that matters.”   I prefer to think it’s more enjoyable to find something when you are not searching for anything at all.  Something beckons from across the room, it’s brassy patina glinting in the dim light as it lies on a dresser almost hidden in the chaos of other items that have been placed out for an estate sale.  Holding it in my hand, I know it is meant for me; A brass paperweight in the shape of a book.  I had never known one existed, so how could I have been searching for one?

Antique Shows are different.  The hunt is on.  I enter the glass doors of the pavilion at the Puyallup fairgrounds with the knowledge, I will walk out with something.  I just don’t know what it will be.  I pass on the 19th century, sterling silver, mechanical pencil for $100.  I open countless volumes of 19th and early 20th century children’s stories, not finding anything that really catches my eye.  I have filed a few possible items to memory but have found nothing that floats my boat so to say.  Is it possible that I will find nothing at all?  Oh, the horrors!  On one of the last tables, a small book beckons.  In gilded letters, it says, New Sectional Map of Nebraska, my old stomping grounds.  Franklin B Marsh is inscribed on the inside front cover, proclaiming ownership.  The book was printed by the State Journal Company in 1885 with a small index of county populations measured by the 1885 census.  Yes, there really was a census in 1885.  The map folds out to measure approximately 23″ x 40″ and folds back up into the hardcover book measuring 6″x 4″.  My heart sinks when I see there is no price as I think of the old adage, if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.  The proprietor turns to me as I hold up my find.  Hmm….he says.  I’ll let you have it for a buck.  I pull a crumpled dollar bill out of my wallet and hand it to him.

For more information on the history of copy presses, visit the early office museum
For more information on the history of the 1885 census, visit archives.gov
As for the history or maker, of the brass paperweight, stay tuned………

Blog and photographs by Mark Hoppmann