"Book Club" exhibit at Hermes Gallery

For the past few weeks, the Nova Scotia Book Arts Group has been involved in its first gallery show, as part of the Book Club exhibit at Hermes Gallery in Halifax. The show included book and text themed works by several members of the gallery and NSBAG was invited to contribute a selection of handbound books to be part of the exhibition as well. The exhibit closes on April 21 at 6pm, so there are a few days left if you want to go!

Our members contributed thirteen handbound books showcasing a wide range of binding techniques and materials, as shown below. As well, we were able to publicly exhibit the Community Art Journal that we made last year so members of the public could see the finished book.

	Deborah Maurer Leather Journal Hand-dyed and painted leather with linocut printed skull image. Bound using a crossed structure binding technique. You can find Deborah on Instagram: @debmaureroriginals.
	Larry Colwell Double Accordion Two blank accordion books bound together with a hardcover case enclosure. Full cloth covering with debossed cover design.
	Marilynn Rudi Handbound Journal Hardcover accordion structure with spine reinforcement and button closure. Full cloth covering and original marbled paper paste-downs inside.
	Heather Loney Hand-cut Treescape Original artwork and paper cutting. Hardcover binding using a case binding technique. You can see more of Heather's work on Instagram: @hkeloney.
	Odyssean Press "Untitled (melancholia)" Modified casebound album binding with letterpress poetry. These two artist books explore the wilds of the mind as if they were a stormy sea. Poetic fragments are printed on top of previous layers, obscuring or highlighting certain words to both hide from the viewer and invite closer reflection. See more on Instagram: @odysseanpress
	Ariel Bissett Handbound Journal Hardcover journal with exposed chain stitch binding. Bookcloth spine and corners with original marbled paper. You can find Ariel on Instagram: @arielbissett
	Stephanie Morley Medieval Binding Cutaway A cutaway binding demonstrates the book construction by exposing the binding process. This is an example of a Gothic binding sewn on raised cords with sewn endbands. Spalted beech boards shaped by hand, linen cords laced in & pegged. Spine partially covered in leather. Rawhide strap closure with hand-shaped brass clasp. Handmade paper, handspun linen cords & thread, made by the binder. Deerhide tanned by the binder. Stephanie is on Instagram: @morleyambiguous.
	Charles Salmon "Opening" Artist's book exploring a non-traditional organic book shape. Cover is made using papier mâché; textblock is a concertina structure supported by a knotted spine. Clasp is a gesso-painted apple stem and paper tube. Custom 5-sided box with fall-away sides and an origami base to support the book inside. The hand-lettered text is an old English blessing for an apple.
	Sally Crawford "Marking Time" A folded book made from original botanical eco-printed papers with multiple surfaces and hidden pockets to inspire additional content creation. You can find Sally on Facebook: SallyCrawford.Art.
	Emily Doucette Blank Journal Handbound journal, drawn-on boards, bound in quarter leather with raised bands and hand-tooled decorations on the spine. Sewn endbands and marbled boards. You can see more work on Emily's Instagram: @awltomorrowsbindings
	Rhonda Miller "Bookbinding Materials & Techniques 1700-1920" Handbound book, bound using a split-board library binding with sewn endbands. Quarter leather with original marbling on covers and matching fore edge marbling. You can find Rhonda on Instagram: @myhandboundbooks
	NSBAG Community Art Journal Created during Nocturne 2023. Members of the public were invited to create the pages based on the prompt, “What is your favorite thing?” You can watch our video on Youtube to see the artwork inside. The book structure is a hardcover binding with an exposed longstitch sewn on ribbon supports. Bound by Rhonda Miller.

Thank you to Frankie and Peter at Hermes Gallery for inviting us to be part of this show! This is the final week for the exhibit. The gallery is open 12pm - 6pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Workshop: Miniature Books

As part of the Book Club exhibit at Hermes Gallery in Halifax, our group held a bookbinding workshop at the gallery this past weekend. Participants each handbound their own miniature book featuring the text of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

The workshop was conducted by Rhonda Miller, who prepared this tiny textblock specifically for this session, and provided each participant with a little kit ready for the making.


Voila, a tiny edition of tiny books!

The Halifax Gazette, March 23, 1752

Today is a significant date in the history of printing in Nova Scotia and Canada! This year it's the 272nd anniversary of the first newspaper printed in Nova Scotia, which also happens to be the first newspaper printed in what would later become the country of Canada.

On March 23rd 1752, John Bushell's print shop on Grafton Street in Halifax, printed and sold copies of the Halifax Gazette, shown below. One extant copy survives at Library & Archives Canada.

Read more about it on the NS Archives webite

Down the Rabbit Hole: Pop-ups & Kirigami

By Heather Loney 

Last year I made a rather complicated tunnel book for friends, using some pop-up book techniques.

 

With the NSBAG challenge of creating cards for the May 2024 meeting, I decided to check out more pop-up card/book possibilities.  Let’s just say, ‘Pinterest and Google have too many interesting options’ from pop-up to kirigami. 

Simple shapes, cuts and folds are obviously easier; getting thin strips of paper to ‘curve outward’ was a little tricky. Google ‘Ullagami (the pop-up on the blue background sbove). There are several levels and it is an excellent practice piece.

Buildings can be fun, although convincing the paper to fold properly for roofs took some time. Several of the buildings came from a French site called Baud & Bui Origamic Architecture (http://baudandbui.free.fr/oa.html). The Empire building was the easiest. They give limited instructions so pay close attention to their pictures to judge your valley and mountain folds. The Pagoda and the Gift (blue & pink) (below) were challenging, especially since fold lines are not drawn out, and they are difficult to collapse into a card format. It is possible that my Pagoda may have been struck by an earthquake which caused a little structural damage. 😉

 

The Blue Arcs (below) looked intriguing on Pinterest --- but in spite of trying it two different ways, my results did not match their final product. These will make their way to the recycling bin.

The last one is another tricky one with curves and narrow pieces which make folding difficult, is called a ‘Carte Magique’ and can be found at: https://vivelamagie.com/. It is 3.jpg. It’s my favourite but unfortunately with so many thin strips of paper, it is also difficult to fold and collapse it into a proper card.

As the title suggests, I got lost down the ‘rabbit hole’ and have found many more challenging paper-cuts and pop-ups to play with, but missed my original goal of finding something effective and simpler to create 10 cards. These will not be part of my card package for May – but hopefully they will inspire something worthwhile!

Future Bookbinders

By Heather Loney

A year ago, a class of Grade 2s took the first steps in bookbinding. They learned to fold paper, glue paper covers on thin book board and put together an accordion book. I learned that school glue gets EVERYWHERE.

     This year, January 2024, with a class of twenty-one Grade 2/3s, we attempted accordion books again. Preparation is of key importance: 50 cover boards were cut (always a few extras for those kids who do something totally unexpected), 50 papers cut for the covers, corners trimmed and then 50 cover images drawn on the papers so kids are able to place the book board in the right spot, and 25 long strips of paper were prepared.  And then, the preparations were repeated for a smaller size of accordion book. (Book sizes were determined by a collection of off-cuts from Gaspereau Press.) Paper folding was a bit of a challenge for some; I am glad that there were extra prepared papers.

     With memories of wet glue dripping on desks, over books, and on chairs, glue sticks were used to complete the work. 22 small accordion books with cereal box covers (our prototypes) and 22 medium accordion books with proper book boards were completed!

  

 

 

     The following week, we attempted ‘sewing’ books. Again, preparations included cutting book board (thank you My Handbound Books for the off-cuts), paper for the signatures cut, pre-folded and pre- punched (can you imagine letting 7 and 8 year olds using a stiletto or an awl without individual supervision!), paper for covers cut, corners trimmed and drawn on to show the placement for gluing the book board, 50 end pages, along with 2 strips of book-cloth each for spines, and finally, 22 pre-threaded blunt-end needles, with a small lesson on how to pull the thread through the signature without having the needle come off the thread.  We were ready!

  

  

 

     Most of the class followed the directions with a 5-hole pamphlet stitch with little difficulty – a few needed one-on-one assistance (my 8 year old grand-daughter/assistant and I ran around to each group checking progress).

     We fixed the signature to the hard cover using the ‘agenda book’ method that Rhonda taught in a NS Craft class last fall: the signature is sewn with a spine-wide strip of book-cloth which is then glued to the inside of the spine book-cloth on the completed covers.  Colourful end pages were added for a finished product.

     A class of 7 and 8 year olds proudly held up their finished sewn books and then ran around showing off their work and checking out their classmate’s books.

 

Making a Pop-up Octopus

Last week, our group gathered to look at some pop-up books and we made some pop-ups too! We started by making some simple cut pop-up shapes then finished with a pop-up octopus card, in many colours!

If you would like to make a simple pop-up octopus, you can follow along right here. You will need two sheets of cardstock, scissors, and glue.

I created this 3-piece octopus image that you can download here as a PDF. This is a one-page document that you can print on standard printer paper though I recommend printing it on cardstock for added strength.

Follow these steps to make your pop-up card. You can click on the photos to make them larger if necessary.

Step 1
Download the PDF, print it, and cut out the three pieces.


Step 2
The second sheet of cardstock should be folded in half for the base. Starting with the 4-tentacled piece of the octopus, fold it in half as shown here.


Step 3
Apply some glue to the back of the 4-tentacled piece of the octopus and attach it to the base card. I pasted only the central part and left the ends of the tentacles loose, but you could glue it down entirely. Make sure the folds are aligned.


Step 4
The two other parts of the octopus need to be folded along the lines as shown in the following photograph.

Step 5
Fold as in the following photograph and cut the little corner bit off both pieces.


Step 6
On the back of these pieces, apply glue to the tabs as shown here.


Step 7
With the octopus head piece bent at an angle, as shown, attach it by sticking the tabs onto the card, overlapping the bottom half of the octopus that is already attached to the base. (The second photo here shows it from the back.) Make sure the centre folds are all aligned.


Step 8
The last piece is attached the same way, nestled in behind the head. Make sure the centre folds are all aligned.

Now when the card is closed, the octopus should fold flat, and it should pop up when the card is opened. Voila!

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Card design and tutorial by Rhonda Miller

Printed Matter Exhibit: Gallery Copy Only

Currently displayed at the Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax, is an exhibit of work by NSCAD students who have been studying the world of printed matter in all its forms. It is an amazing collection of work featuring many different book and paper forms and structures, traditional and experimental, interpreted through a connection to printed content.

Shown here (left) is a miniature handbound book by Charles Salmon featuring 13 weeks of typed class notes reproduced at 10% actual size, with final page size of just 1.25" wide and 1.75" tall.

There are 18 artists included in the exhibit with several pieces by each artist so there is a lot to see. The variety of work is indicative of a wonderfully creative and thoughtful group. The range of content in these pieces is so vast it would take weeks to absorb it.

It was thrilling to see how the artists used different structures, forms, scale, and materials to create and enhance the content of their work.

Entering the gallery, I was greeted by a video display of flickering images on one wall. There was hanging text in the corner and connected text in the windows. There was also a small table with a newspaper cone and discarded milk glasses which, I assume, made a splash at the opening reception. Another wall was hung with carved wooden panels and various printed objects.

The first to grab attention, though, was the wall covered with this colourful collection of birthday cards (right). The birthday card display was created by Annette MacLellan. Every day of the year was represented and each card had a personalized note inside. I found my birthday card, and the sentiment wished for me that my favorite thing might be on sale, how nice!

There were a number of well-executed pieces by Charles Salmon in this exhibit including the miniature book shown above. Charles' work demonstrates an impressive attention to detail and refinement including pieces that showcase his skills in bookbinding, paper folding techniques, and box making. His choice of content and materials are wonderfully complemented by the structures he uses for his artist's books.

A small sample of his work is shown here (below), including a striking folded paper structure featuring literary texts and a thoughtful deconstructed notebook with instructions for the user/reader.


There is an extensive collection of zines made by members of this group exhibit, just a few of them are shown here. Rhynn Winstead's zines, "Seven Confessions from Somebody Who was Once a Child" and "Trap Street," are particularly interesting examples that demonstrate the broad range and uses for the zine format since the the first is more personal content and the second is a newsletter-style zine intended for public distribution.

Rhynn Winstead has several other pieces in the exhibit too, including this beautiful wall-mounted fabric piece (right). Like a hanging scroll, it is illustrated with images and text and it has a flock of origami butterflies fluttering up from the floor.

There is so much to see in this exhibit and this overview only scratches the surface. There are some books made with very traditional techniques and there are also others made of cloth and bingo cards and upcycled cardboard. There are a number of pieces incorporating plastic and unusual materials like chicken wire and trousers and pillows and pencil shavings.

The following are just a few more examples of various book and paper forms that were used, ranging from traditional to unconventional.

Shown clockwise (below): hanging text by Joana Bernardini; Playing cards by Melissa Naef; Newspaper by Cameron Walker; Paper burger by Vesa Muji; Set of three booklets by Chelsea MacDonald; Flexagons by Baily Smith.

Artists included in this exhibit:

The exhibit was organized by Craig Leonard. "Gallery Copy Only" continues until closing time on Saturday, January 20th, 2024. The gallery is located at 1891 Granville Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Submitted by Rhonda Miller