Book arts exhibit!

I’ve been helping set up an exhibit that will accompany this fall’s Goudy Lecture at Scripps College, presented by the Scripps College Press. The exhibit features over 140 artist books by around 40 women letterpress printers who have been in the business for at least twenty-five years. There are also some historical books. The books are incredibly beautiful (unfortunately, you don’t get to flip through them like I did :) ); they range from “normal” book shapes and sizes to large, sculptural pop-up books. 

The lecture, which is followed by a panel discussion and the exhibit’s opening reception, is free and open to the public and takes place on Saturday September 17, starting at 1:30.

I've enjoyed learning about how to set up an exhibit. It's a lot of work, but very rewarding because you can see your progress so easily. On the first day I worked, we had to rearrange the shelving in thirteen cases in order to fit the books that Professor Maryatt (director of the Scripps Press, who is curating the show along with Judy Harvey-Sahak, the Special Collections librarian at Denison Library) chose and assigned to each case. That took all day. Then came figuring out how to display each book, which ones needed stands, which ones needed special treatment, etc. Most just stand up, so I picked a nice spread in each book and "taped" them open. That took two days. Yesterday we worked on all the labels, one for each artist, which feature a brief bio for the artist as well as some information about their books on display in the exhibit. We also put up five broadsides (posters). The show opens in a week and there is a lot left to do. I'll try to take some pictures when I go in on Tuesday.

In other news, I had four cavities filled this morning. It took two hours and my face feels ridiculous. Actually, the right side of my face is starting to feel more normal, but they had to give me extra numbing-juice in the left side, so it’s still all weird and numb up to my temple. Although painless, it was a procedure I hope never to repeat. I went eight years without going to the dentist, and now I have been once a week for the past three weeks. I am so ready for a break.