ALICIA BAILEY
TITLE: "Physica - Reptiles"
YEAR CREATED: 2020
DIMENSIONS: 15.2H x 9.5W x 9.8D cm
MATERIALS: oak, brass, waxed linen thread, mica, paper, digital ink, oil on sized paper, snakeskin, leather, snake rib bones, glass
Reptiles was created using oak, brass, waxed linen thread, mica, paper, digital ink, oil on sized paper, snakeskin, leather, snake rib bones and glass. It is one of a series of works, each focusing on one section in Hildegard von Bingen's Physica.
This rigid page book has covers and text pages of thick oak, bound with straps across the spine. On each page is mounted an oil painting of a reptile, with text panels mounted below. Both paintings and text are overlaid with mica.
The cover has a recessed magnifying lens, behind which float rattlesnake rib bones.
Available for purchase from artist: aliciabailey@mac.com
ANITA BARROWS
TITLE: "Sequence Beginning with Tara"
YEAR CREATED: 2020
DIMENSIONS: 25.4H x 16.8W x 1.3D cm
MATERIALS: Somerset Book text. Hand-made endpapers from Laird’s archives. Covers of Japanese silk over boards. Hand-set in Dante. Four Needle binding.
Dante type from Bixler, hand-set and printed by Anita B. Drawings by AB and ML, printed from
polymer plates. Hand-colored baseballs score over pochoir. Cover drawn and lino-cut by Ciel
McKay, bottom of the 9th. Four needle binding with linen thread, with help from the bullpen. In
honor of Tara in all forms and Trystan Rooster, on first.
Available for purchase from artist: risalalaird@gmail.com
JENN BEACHLER
TITLE: "Librumidae Arbora tectum: Rare sighting of a book in the wild"
YEAR CREATED: 2023
DIMENSIONS: base 17.8 x 17.8 cm, top 2.5 x 10.2 cm, height 17.8 cm
MATERIALS: paper, gouache, ink, thread, cottonwood and pine twigs, copper wire and rivets, PVA, and hot glue
Books in the wild are neither tame nor overtly dangerous—just wild. The A. tectum is a gentle species, roaming different ecosystems within the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain regions. It is characterized by its small size, four twig-like legs, and its umbilical cord in the shape of a ladder through which it is nourished directly from all the stories the earth contains. This ladder has also saved the lives of many wanderers lost in the snow, who have climbed up into the A. tectum’s pages and found safety and sustenance there.
CHRISTI BECKMANN
TITLE: "Red Sun"
YEAR CREATED: 2023
DIMENSIONS: 12.7H x 28W x 3.2D cm
MATERIALS: secret Belgian binding, book board, handmade papers, commercial papers, thread, and paint
Red Sun is an expression of how I felt after visiting the Cameron Peak Fire burn area. The Cameron Peak Fire is the largest wildfire on record in Colorado history. The fire took place in Larimer County, Colorado very close to where I live. The fire was thought to be human caused. The destruction as a result of this fire compelled me to tell the story in artist book format. A red sun is caused by smoke in the sky from wildfire.
Available for purchase from artist: christibeckmann@yahoo.com
VICTORIA BIRTH
TITLE: "The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh"
YEAR CREATED: 2023
DIMENSIONS: 26H x 21W x 5D cm, “box” 52.1H x 38.1W x 38.1D cm
MATERIALS: Leather, Embroidery, Papier Mache Clay
Embroidered leather binding with Papier-Mache honey pot. Binding includes French Double Endbands and marbled paper paste downs
Available for purchase from artist: birthbindery@gmail.com
RICK BLACK
TITLE: "The Amichai Windows"
YEAR CREATED: 2017
DIMENSIONS: 33H x 48.3W cm
MATERIALS: Images reproduced on archival Hiromi Asa White paper, which is specially formulated for digital reproductions. Handmade abaca paper with double deckles, lace curtain and gold leaf.
A photo montage of images from a variety of archives around the world complement the Yehuda Amichai poem in Hebrew and English. The poem itself and blind embossments were letterpressed on a Vandercook Universal I. This is the opening spread of 18 poems in The Amichai Windows.
Available for purchase from artist: rick@amichaiwindows.com
ROBIN BRANDES
TITLE: "2020 Vision featuring nineteen wood engravers, one collector, and the artists who inspired them"
YEAR CREATED: 2022
DIMENSIONS: 34.5 x 26.5 x 3 cm
MATERIALS: white Katsina goat leather covering, black goat leather onlays, silk end bands, edge-to-edge doublures made with teal goat leather, black pig suede flyleaves, and black Fabriano end sheets
Fine design binding with laced-in cords inspired by the historic engraving The Waves, by Geoffrey Wales, 1969. At the time, abstract images were not common to British engravers. Most images developed took their forms from landscapes, animals or still-life. A wood engraver carves the “light" into their wood block leaving the remaining wood to be inked and printed. To pay tribute, I created this binding to appear as an oversized wood engraving. To emulate the raised surface of an engraved wood block, 125 cushioned onlays were applied.
Available for purchase from the artist: robin@robinbrandes.com
ROBIN BRANDES
TITLE: "LISTEN"
YEAR CREATED: 2022
DIMENSIONS: 17.9 x 14.7 x 1.4 cm.
MATERIALS: covered in dark blue goat leather with various color leather onlays, hand-tooled in silver foil, edge-to-edge dark blue goat leather doublures, suede fly leaves, and leather endbands
Simplified Binding. Design and content inspired by the recording of The Maids of Cadiz performed by Miles Davis and arranged by Gil Evans, Miles Ahead 1957. Original paintings and poetry by binder. Listening, with eyes closed, charcoal piece in hand, music traveled through fingertips. Under the darkness, drawing on the smooth paper, soft, hard, thick, thin, quick, slow, swirls, lines reaching to the far corners of the sheet until the end of the music. Eyes opened in silence to see the beginning of creating the book, LISTEN.
Available for purchase from the artist: robin@robinbrandes.com
CAROL BRIGHTON
TITLE: "The Electricity of Now : poems & wiggly lines"
YEAR CREATED: 2022
DIMENSIONS: 24H x 16.5W cm
MATERIALS: Artist’s handmade paper covers of Himalayan Daphne with individually poured pulp Kozo Ensos and Daphne end sheets. Johannot text paper with letterpress printed poems and artist/author’s linocut illustrations.
This 48-page hardcover book is in a German Case binding with handmade paper covers and end sheets. The illustrations are characterized by footprints walking through pages of “wiggly” lines describing land, sea and moon filled skies. “As Brighton says, ‘mapping inside and out/depth and long-distance flight/appearances of terrifying might/the seductive/and the simply ordinary.’ It is the mapping that matters, the voyage, the persistent attention to close detail and far cosmogony; the willingness to question. This book invites the reader to follow suit. Brighton’s book recalibrates our place in the universe and lets a delicate harmony be felt.” (Lisa Rappoport)
Available for purchase from artist: risalalaird@gmail.com
PETRINA BRYCE
TITLE: "Winter Wreath"
YEAR CREATED: 2021
DIMENSIONS: 21.6H x 15.2W cm
MATERIALS: goat skin leather, Japanese paper, Japanese silk thread, and handmade paper
This fine binding is made following traditional 19th century techniques, where leather is placed on the spine and corners, and where raised cords on the spine are beautifully highlighted to showcase this once commonplace structure. What is not traditional is the use of Japanese paper for the cover paper and pearlescent edge decoration, which evoke the imagery of the poetry inside. The book is called Winter Wreath and is a collection of poems written by Leslie Norris, with woodcut prints by Robert Buchert. The textblock is letterpress printed on handmade paper, all done at Tryst Press in Provo, Utah.
Available for purchase from artist: iampetrinabryce@gmail.com
STEFANIE CORNISH
TITLE: Hidden
YEAR CREATED: 2022
DIMENSIONS: 12.7H x 15.9W x 8.3D cm
MATERIALS: crepe paper, tyvek, hand panted paste paper, assorted preserved moss, acrylic paint, deer vertebrae, and plexi glass
Hidden was inspired by the many hours my family and I spent exploring the woods around our home while isolating during the pandemic. In early spring we looked for antler sheddings, but often came across the skeletal remains of predators during the winter months. The visual experience of the book emulates the feeling of looking through the grayish bark of the pinyon and juniper and finding these remains.
Available for purchase from artist: wolfmooncolorado@gmail.com
COLEEN CURRY
TITLE: Chemins de Traverse
YEAR CREATED: 2018
DIMENSIONS: 24.8H x 18.4W cm
MATERIALS: calf leather, goat leather, suede, wood, 22 carat gold wire, silk thread, palladium leaf, abaca, acrylic paint
Articulated binding in grey top pared calf leather with sanded black straight grain goat leather doublures. Cover secured with ten 22 carat gold staples on the spine. Red wood dowels as yaps, red silk end bands. All edges silver-gilt palladium leaf.
Available for purchase from artist: coleen.curry@gmail.com
COLEEN CURRY
TITLE: "Poetry at the Edge"
YEAR CREATED: 2023
DIMENSIONS: 27.3H x 14.5W x 20D cm
MATERIALS: Hand dyed calf leather, smooth goat leather, suede, silk, gold leaf.
Hand-dyed and embossed Calf leather binding with boards laced on. Edge-to-edge powder blue goat doublures. Multiple applications of dyes in blue and teal. Texture added to leather using acrylic sheet laser engraved with high resolution photograph of wasp’s nest. Layers of gold leaf applied throughout the treatment processes, sanded and burnished. On recto foredge in powder blue goat leather are raised onlays disappearing over the board edge with edges painted gold. Japanese silk embroidered end bands. Rough edge gilded in 22 carat gold leaf. Suede fly leaves.
Available for purchase from artist: coleen.curry@gmail.com
HOLLY D’OENCH
TITLE: "Secret Garden"
YEAR CREATED: 2023
MATERIALS: Goat leather, silk endbands, leather hinges, handmade door, metal attachments, watercolor illustration.
Finding a secret path leading to a garden is an enchanting experience and one I wanted to give the reader by creating a working door on the cover that reveals a path of its own. The door is surrounded by overgrown vines that are hand drawn. The endbands mimic these vines
Available for purchase from artist: blackoakbindery@gmail.com
HOLLY D’OENCH
TITLE: "Treasure Island"
YEAR CREATED: 2022
MATERIALS: Goat leather, silk endbands, leather hinges
Where would a pirate be without their treasure map? Maps are an important part to a good pirate tale and often look pretty well used. I chose to emulate that by staining the edges of the book and roughing it up with sandpaper. Endbands with a red X and waves painted on the top edge complete the look.
