Pressing MatterSpring, 2008 Number 2 The Publication of the Deleware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers

2008 Delaware Valley Chapter annual Meeting

In This Issue:

Delaware Valley Chapter Guild of Book Workersc/o The McLean Conservation DepartmentThe Library Company of Philadelphia1314 Locust StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19107

area happenings

Our 2008 Annual Meeting was held on March 19 from 5 to 7 p.m. Nine members attended. After some wine and cheese and an opportunity to view a small exhibit on mother-of-pearl bindings, we sat down for a short meeting. I discussed the year’s events. The most exciting news was that our membership had increased 48%! We now have 43 members, up from 29 members a year ago. The numbers seemed almost impossible and I double-checked with our Development staff here at the Library Company to see if had done the math correctly. They assured me that I had. Then, they wanted to know our secret. I also reported on two very successful workshops, one small the other larger. In April, Graham Watson taught a “Fast, Friendly, Free” half-day workshop on a structure he had perfected during his studies at UArts. In September, Julia Miller taught a two-day workshop on the Nag Hamadi codices. Both workshops were well-attended. We also had an exhibition of member’s new work. Fourteen people participated and the exhibiton was held at the Library Company. I also reported that our newsletter has been upgraded and I think it looks just great.

Alice Austin (Secretary/Treasurer) reported on finances. We have a nice cushion. We generally break even with workshops and our expenses (mostly printing and mailing the newsletter) were only a little over our income (membership dues). Workshops seem to best serve our group. Sharon Hildebrand (Newsletter Editor) asked that members submit articles, pictures and anything of interest. All ideas are welcome! Hedi Kyle (Program Coordinator) reported that she had Renate Mesmer lined up for this Spring, (which just

happened) and is considering Dominic Riley and Michael Burke for the Fall, and possibly having Julia Miller come back Spring ’09. After the meeting I did a very quick PowerPoint presentation on my experiments with making starch-filled bookcloth. The meeting ended promptly at 6:30. The meeting was short and the rest of the evening was fun. Please think about joining us next year!

789Jennifer Rosner

DVC Annual Meeting Wrap-upReport from NYC–GBW Symposium

Andrea Krupp announces publication of her bookBook Arts Conference at Yale

Terrific Tips & Tricks Workshop review

Delaware Valley Chapter of the

guilD of Book workers offiCers

Jennifer Rosner President bindery@librarycompany.orgAlice Austin Secretary / Treasurer amaustin@mac.comHedi Kyle Program Coordinator hedikyle@comcast.netSharon Hildebrand Newsletter Editor shildebrand@mac.com

Please mark your calendars! The next members and friends meeting of the Philadelphia Center for the Book will take place at:Independence Seaport Museum Wednesday, May 28th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

At 5:30pm, Matthew Herbison, Director of the J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library will show us some unusual maritime items from the collection. Following his presentation, join PCB to meet new board members, learn about the new board and committee structure and hear about upcoming events.

The Museum’s address is: Independence Seaport MuseumPenn’s Landing211 S. Columbus BlvdPhiladelphia, Pa 19106215-925-5439

Coming this Fall...Learn a Technique with

Denise Carbone

part of DVC’s series“Fast, Free, & Friendly”

At the Library Company of Philadelphia, a new exhibit opens this month to celebrate the publication of a new book on the history of 19th-century bookbinding. The exhibition is entitled “Close Up: highlights from the Catalogue of 19th-century Bookcloth Grains.”

As the staff of the McLean Conservation Department worked on the Library Company’s collection of 19th-century books, they discovered a vast array of beautiful bookcloth patterns. In all they recorded an astounding 248 different “grains”. The results of this decade-long research project have recently culminated in the publication of “Bookcloth in England and America, 1823-1850”. The book opens with a historical outline of bookcloth manufacturing and new hypotheses about its origins. The book continues with three information-packed appendices which together make up the “Catalogue of 19th-century Bookcloth Grains,” or CBG. The CBG organizes 248 grain patterns into 14 categories. Each individual grain is illustrated with a high resolution digital image printed in color and accompanied by a millimeter scale to allow for counting and comparing measurements of similar patterns.

The exhibition highlights the fascinating and often overlooked subtleties of difference among some of the more common grain patterns such as Rib grain and Wave grain. Twenty-eight books are exhibited along with extreme close-up views that reproduce the fine textured surfaces. For the first time details of the grain patterns are revealed at a glance, even the miniscule marks made by the engraver’s tool. This small exhibit, and the book that it is drawn from, provide a new perspective on these humble, “plain jane” bookcloth grains, and inspire us to look closer, observe the smallest details, and make new discoveries along the way.

987Andrea Krupp

The New York Chapter of the GBW and the Grolier Club co-sponsored a one-day symposium on February 22nd. It was on the history, technology, and conservation of nineteenth century publisher’s bindings and it coincided with the excellent exhibition The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse from the Collection of Mindell Dubansky. Every seat in the large exhibition room was filled with bookbinders, artists, conservators, collectors, curators, and historians. You can read a detailed account of each presentation in your April 2008 GBW Newsletter.

Apart from some unfortunate computer problems that delayed some of the PowerPoint presentations, the symposium was very well organized and stimulating. One thing in particular that stood out to me was that three of the bookbinders and/or designers highlighted in the talks were women. Mindy Dubansky’s exhibition and talk (and additionally her excellent catalog) on Alice C. Morse were definitive. Robert Milevski spoke about the designers who worked for the Riverside Press one of whom was a woman: Louise Averill Cole, who was also a award-winning bookbinder. Stuart Walker gave an outstanding talk on book designer Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904). He had very good images of her book covers and was able to clearly describe what made her designs so distinctive.

new york: a syMposiuM

introDuCing...BookCloth in englanD anD aMeriCa, 1823-50by Andrea Krupp

This volume offers a new edition of Andrea Krupp’s groundbreaking article, which first appeared in the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, and includes an expanded Catalogue of Bookcloth Grains, with illustrations in a larger format and, for the first time, in color.

For a full description of the book:http://www.oakknoll.com/detail.php?d_booknr=94204

Co-published by Oak Knoll Press with the Bibliographical Society of America and The British Library, 2008

Available at Oak Knoll Press: $35.00

exhiBit: Catalogue of 19th-Century BookCloth grainsHe told an interesting anecdote about The Son of the Wolf, by Jack London noting that it had been issued in two very different bindings. The first was a Whitman binding in plain un-grained gray cloth with a silver-stamped belt and buckle on the cover. It is a rather rare binding, but even rarer is the binding that replaced it some time later. It shows a man holding a gun and dog (wolf?) in silhouette and was designed by Adrian Iorio. The image of the belt was intriguing, so Mr. Walker decided to read the book to see if he could find out its meaning. In chapter 2 he read the following:

“She brought herself to her knees on the bearskin mat, her face aglow with true Eve-light, and shyly unbuckled his heavy belt. He looked down, perplexed, suspicious, his ears alert for the slightest sound without. But her next move disarmed his doubt, and he smiled with pleasure. She took from her sewing-bag a moosehide sheath, brave with bright beadwork, fantastically designed. She drew his great hunting-knife, gazed reverentially along the keen edge, half tempted to try it with her thumb, and shot it into place in its new home. Then she slipped the sheath along the belt to its customary resting place, just above the hip…Mackenzie drew her up full height and swept her red lips with his mustache – the, to her, foreign caress of the Wolf.”

Wow.

It was a very enjoyable, informative day.

789Jennifer Rosner

Photos courtesy of “Trustees of the Boston Public Library”

The free conference started in the afternoon on Thursday with a lecture by Johanna Drucker “The Poetics of Book Space.” Mostly she spoke rapidly about the physical qualities of a book. “It is a book if timing is important. The art works as you turn the page. Otherwise, you could just frame the work and put it on a wall.”

The highlight of the day was a poetry reading by C.D. Wright, a poet from Arkansas. She talked about collaborating with her friend the photographer Deborah Luster, who took portrait photos of prisoners at St. Gabriel and Angola, Louisiana. Deborah had the prisoners pose themselves and gave them each a copy of the photo. One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana is published by the University of Texas Press. Wright’s poetry was moving and combined well with the photos. A great reception followed combined with a large book show at the Bieneke Library.

Friday March 14Approaching Collaboration Panel 9-12pm

The time went quickly. Steve Clay, of Granary Books, was a wonderful panel moderator. Clay introduced collaboration by stating that a future book is like family, it needs an infusion of new genes to keep it healthy. Then three poets spoke about collaborating- Buzz Spector, Ann Lauterbach and John Yau. All three were excellent. Spector and Yau were funny and Ann fit perfectly in the middle. It seems that Spector is known for tearing pages of books and he tells good stories. He said that “collaboration can seriously stress a friendship.” He also said “Artists who write transcend poets who write about art.” He talked about the editor being the most important servant because they serve the intent of a book. Ann Lauterbach spoke about being an artist who draws. She collaborated with Ann Hamilton who is a

Metaphor taking Shape: poetry, art, and the Book

a conference at yale UniverSity March 13 and 14, 2008textile artist. She says that out of a messy generation of ideas, form emerges. She finds a conundrum in words as sound verses words as thing. About the book form she says it should be a conversion between word and image that is impossible to separate. She used children’s books as an example, saying that they are illustrated because you are learning a language.

John Yau says that making art is not a solitary act. He started with a story of Rauschenburg eraseing a gressy crayon drawing by DeKooning. Yau loves to collaborate and always says yes. His advice is to write what you are not supposed to or what you haven’t. He talked about doing one thousand drawings to get beyond what you expect. He asks himself “What makes something interesting or memorable?” His closing advice “Get out of your habits of thinking - collaborate. Let go and something new is created.”

At lunch we went to see an exhibit at the Arts of the Book Collection in Sterling Memorial Library. It was fun to see and showcased the artists listed below.

Publishers’ Roundtable 2-4pm withCarolee Campbell, Macy Chadwick, Simon Cutts, Anna Moschovakis, C. Mikal Oness, Kyle Schlesinger

A discussion of coordinating, designing, financing, publishing, making, and distributing books that bring poetry and art into conversation. Talk floundered. This was the only part of the conference without slides and perhaps the artists would have been more at ease given an opportunity to express themselves visually. Overall, the organizers did a great job and the conference and the exhibits were worth the trip.

789Alice Austin

Image Information: Cendrars, Blaise. La prose du Transsibérien et de La petite Jehanne de France. “Couleurs simultanée” by Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Paris: Éditions des Hommes Nouveaux, 1913. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

renate “MeSMerizeS” WorkShop attendeeS With tipS & trickS

If you were unable to attend Renate Mesmer’s workshop Tips & Tricks for Book & Paper Conservation on May 3rd & 4th, I am so sorry. This workshop isn’t just for the conservation set. Anyone working with paper and books would benefit from Renate’s knowledge and expertise. And besides that, it was a lot of fun!

Both days were jam-packed with information and demonstrations. Participants were asked to prepare a textblock ahead of time so we could all make our own leather baggy back.. The baggy back is a good alternative for repairing a tight back binding where the spine is missing. Favorite techniques included the description of preparing paper “dirt” for toning Japanese paper, and a demonstration of a new shocking way to face leather for lifting. I can’t tell you about it here, you’ll have to see it for yourselves! In addition to techniques, Renate introduced us to an array of must-have new materials and tools including Ramie tape, Kornica’s mini drill, Tec Wipe, and Fibrous Cellulose Powder.

Photos: Renate and Alice check our test document for humidification before the capillay washing demonstration; Renate prepares her textblock with a primary endband for the baggy back repair; Richard and Denise sew their primary endbands

Renate Mesmer is the Assistant Head of Conservation at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She has a Masters in bookbinding from the Chamber of Crafts of Palatinate in Germany. Be sure to keep your eyes open to when she will be teaching again. You won’t want to miss it!

789Sharon Hildebrand