The Center for Book Arts
As I mentioned in the post that follow this, I spent Saturday at The Center for Book Arts on W. 27th in NYC. The non-profit Center is open to the public, and I totally enjoyed both my class and wondering through the exhibits and other areas. If you’re in the area, I encourage you to visit. It’s located on the 3rd floor and even though I had the address, initially walked right past the place, as there was construction scaffolding in the area which blocked any signage that I might have otherwise seen.
The above left shows an exhibit by Tomie Arai called Tales from Home; the middle area houses another exhibit called Brother Can You Spare a Stack, and on the right yet another exhibit by Candace Hicks called Fabrications.
The above three images are from Candace Hicks. You can learn more her and her exhibit here.
The above is from Tomie Arai: Tales from Home, which you can learn more about here.
All of the above are part of the Brother Can You Spare a Stack, which you can learn more about here. All of the exhibits run through March 30, 2013.
Also while wondering around, I saw some individuals typesetting. Seeing this was such a blast from my past. I studied graphic art before the Macintosh revolutionized desktop publishing, meaning I learned to pull and set type the long and arduous way. While I have no desire to do any layouts in this manner, it was very cool to see all the wooden cases, draw after draw, filled with metal type, and to look at the various presses. I found myself wondering just when I forgot what letter was where in the case, when at one time I had them memorized, and when I stopped saying typeface and started saying font. And, how strange it was to see that equipment that I remember from several decades back along with a current day Macbook Pro. It seemed surreal (yet inspirational – ideas for new artwork?).
In any event, if you have any enjoyment of book arts and in the area, do stop by and check out what they have to offer. At the very least, visit their website and blog.
February 20th, 2013 at 8:45 am
My daughter is really into book arts. She went to Germany two summers ago on a college grant to learn about bookmaking in the land of Gutenberg. She typeset her own small book in a museum in Leipzig; the German language has a different frequency of letters than English so she had to work around that. Thanks for posting this! If she hasn’t already been to this place, I’m sure she will get there.
February 20th, 2013 at 6:58 pm
Very cool, Eileen. Your daughter will love the place!