Susan Mills
Field Books: birds, buoys, seeding, rain

August 10 to September 1, 2024
Hermes Gallery

Showing now at Hermes Gallery in Halifax is an exhibit featuring the work of Susan Mills. Curator Barbara Louder writes, "Artist and poet Susan Mills activates the gallery with four new works installed directly on the walls, inviting our (gentle) touch. Patterned with colours and words, the books offer a highly sensual appreciation of visual, haptic, aural and olfactory experiences. This is a sensitive and specific creative practice. Mills' papers, fibres, inks, pigments, words, memories and observations come from specific places." Susan Mills works entirely in book form and focuses on one-of-a-kind books, chapbooks, and small editions. Her work reflects the environments in which she lives and works, including both the seaside communities in Nova Scotia and the farmlands of Saskatchewan. Both are evident in this exhibit. Upon entering the gallery, one is met with the colourful notebooks that reference brightly painted fishing buoys with the opposite wall portraying her pages of marks which invoke the broad fields of the prairies. Hermes Gallery is located at 5682 North Street in Halifax and is open Fridays, Saturdays, & Sundays from 12 to 6. Susan Mills will be available at the gallery on Sundays if you would like to speak with her about her work.

Visit Susan's website www.susanmillsartistbooks.com or her Instagram account to see videos and photos of her work.

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

Sustainability Through Craft

An exhibit currently at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax (on display until November 5) contains a piece by NSBAG's own Rhonda Miller. "Sustainability Through Craft" is an exhibit by members of Craft Nova Scotia. Each participant explored the four pillars of sustainability: social, cultural, economic and environmental.

Rhonda's piece is a double-sided accordion book with hard covers titled No Wood for Trees. It was created with paper, found images and found text. While browsing a discarded and damaged book about rainforests, Rhonda was appalled to discover that rainforest trees are primarily harvested for pulp, to create paper--her artistic medium. The book's nine panels display images of the vibrant life found in the rainforest. The text, displayed at the bottom of each panel on paper cut to resemble lush grasses, details the devastation of commercial logging, damaging a resource vital to the health of the entire planet. Rhonda notes that paper does not need to be made from rainforest wood pulp, and that it's important that we all carefully select paper sources not linked to rainforest deforestation.



The Mary E. Black gallery is located on the Halifax Waterfront, beside the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.

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Submitted by Marilynn Rudi

Mind Your P's and Q's

A Dawson Print Shop & Bindery Exhibition

Mind Your P's and Q's, a Dawson Print Shop and Bindery Exhibition, was recently held (Sept. 26 - Oct. 7, 2023) at the Port Loggia and Treaty Space Gallery. These bright, open, fully accessible galleries are located on the ground floor at NSCAD's Port Campus on the Halifax waterfront.

The letter "p" and the letter "q" are often confused when setting type. This exhibition takes its name from the expression, "mind your p's and q's," which was heard in print shops for generations, including the Dawson Print Shop.

As curator/organizer Odyssean Press offers, "This exhibition is a celebration of book arts and letterpress printing at NSCAD University, as well as the contributions of the Dawson Print Shop & Bindery within NSCAD and the wider arts community in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). It includes both "traditional and experimental book arts practices" including bookbinding, artist's books, letterpress printing, and tool making.

Mind Your P's and Q's features the work of 16 artists who are connected to the Dawson Print Shop, through material, techniques or training. Exhibitors include NSCAD instructors Joe Landry and Katherine Taylor and Centre for Craft instructor Rhonda Miller. NSCAD students and Dawson Print shop alumni (and their associates) include: Morgan Cruickshank, Emily Doucette, Nat:Shaw, Julie Rosvall, Ellen Timbre & Tina Arsenault, Charles Salmon, Shadow, Deirdre Sokolowska, Sush, Em Tremblay and Robin Wolfe. As well as the work of curator/organizer, Odyssean Press.

Examples of traditional bookbinding techniques with inspiring workmanship were many and included works by Robin Wolfe, Odyssean Press, and Katherine Victoria Taylor's book which was specially created for the Dawson Print Shop anniversary. The cover printed by Katherine is composed of over a thousand pieces of decorative metal type which creates optical blending to form a single letter "D."

Joe Landry with the guestbook made by Katherine Victoria Taylor		Half leather bindings by Robin Wolfe
Handbound books by Odyssean Press

Rhonda Miller's Springback Journal was bound using a traditional English springback binding technique in half leather with blind tooling. A springback binding gets its name from a spring action that is built into the spine. When the book is opened, it "springs open" and lays flat. This tricky binding is the mark of a seasoned bookbinder.

Springback journal by Rhonda Miller		Wi'katikn Wa'qn hand-forged book knife by Shadow

Unusual bookbinding examples included a rarely seen Dos-A-Dos binding, created by Joe Landry, in which two books are bound together, sharing the same back cover, but facing in opposite directions. Despite its French name, the structure originated in England with examples dating from Elizabethan times. ...

Dos-A-Dos binding by Joe Landry ...
One book's cover was made from apple twigs which are woven together using paper-covered wire. This book was made by the artist as part of a series of artist's books featuring related materials. One visitor commented, "probably the most inventive in terms of materials." ...

Cover as Metaphor, artist's book by Charles Salmon ...
The cover of another book - Interspace by Emily Doucette, "resembles an envelope." When opened, its accordion pages cascade "into a variety of different scanned envelopes." Ribbons are used to tie this case bound accordion binding shut. ...

Interspace, artist's book by Emily Doucette ...
Popular with visitors was Odyssean Press' A Family History as seen through Tattoo Traditions. Bound within this artist's book were two miniature accordion books that spoke to the different tattoo traditions of the creator's ancestors. One book was dedicated to their mother's ancestors and the other to their father's ancestors, and both incorporated watercolour and ink drawings. ...

A Family History as seen through Tattoo Traditions, artist's book by Odyssean Press ...
Other miniature books included a book bound in a box by Morgan Cruickshank that was inspired by a larger version seen at the Dawson Print Shop, which in turn was inspired by the structure of the Kennicott Bible. A miniature accordion book with striking precision, created by Sush, was among many miniatures on display that they created at the Dawson using scraps.

Benjamin by Morgan Cruickshank

scrap yard, a collection of miniature books by Sush

While some works were protected under Lucite, the majority weren't and allowed for gentle hand-held examination by visitors. Deirdre Sokolowska's creation, William & I features a series of colour photos of the creator holding a dead bird which they found. Deirdre offers, "accompanying this visual narrative is a short story recounting a childhood misunderstanding related to Resurrection Sunday." Within Sokolowska's hardcover pamphlet, kozuke paper is used to hold each photo in place. The concept of finding a dead bird as a basis for a book is reminiscent of Margaret Wise Brown's children's book The Dead Bird. The charcoal, graphite and ink drawings in Em Tremblay's journal is "an exploration of some of the darker parts of their mental health journey." The brown kraft-like pages are bound with a traditional Japanese stab binding.

William & I by Deirdre Sokolowska Handbound journal by Em Tremblay

The skill demonstrated in Joe Landry's full leather design binding was impressive. The cover featured abstract shapes of black, white and red leather onlays and inside featured ultra smooth black leather "doublure" - "an ornamental lining on the inside of the book." This book was Joe's final project for his design class at London College of Printing. ...

Design binding with custom box by Joe Landry ...

Superb and stunning craftmanship was in evidence with Rhonda Miller's Experiment with Embroidery, which uses stitching patterns inspired by traditional blackwork embroidery, supported by more traditional chain and link stitch binding techniques. The Dawson Print Shop was formerly part of Dalhousie University where many Nova Scotians studied and practiced book arts including bookbinders Joe Landry, Rhonda Miller, Tracy Leal, Robin Muller and librarian Patricia Chalmers, to name a few. The Dawson became part of NSCAD in 2000.

Experiment with Embroidery by Rhonda Miller

The bright and airy Port Loggia gallery (which runs the length of the Port Campus) allowed for up-close examination of Julie Rosvall's works with collaborators Ellen Timbre and Tina Arsenault. This collaboration included textile relief prints, letterpress prints and bookbinding, featuring their artist's book - Contexture - knit print book collaboration. Previously shown at the Craig Gallery, Dartmouth, Julie's practice was inspired by the work of artist and printmaker Esther Goodwin. Read more about Julie's work here.

Julie Rosvall discussing Contexture

Other printed works on display included Circle Book (Embodiment of Cyclical Growth) by Odyssean Press, consisting of bookbinding, ink drawing and relief print. ...

Circle Book (Embodiment of Cyclical Growth) by Odyssean Press ...
Playful yet moving, was the grid of twelve letterpress prints by Nat:Shaw. The white, dark brown and medium brown papers were imprinted with the phrase "Not broken just spicy." Four different spices are referenced: Paprika, Cayenne, Cinnamon and Cardamom. During their artist talk, Nat:Shaw related that they are coming up to the second anniversary of a head concussion injury. Nat:Shaw offers, "The significance of the phrase ("Not broken just spicy") being a mantra of sorts for coming to peace with being neurodivergent or "Neuro-spicy." ...

Nat:Shaw discussing their work, Various Neuro-spices ...
Seeing how artists Em Tremblay, Deirdre Sokolowska, Odyssean Press and Nat:Shaw incorporate their intimate personal experiences into their practice is both powerful and inspiring.

Equally inspiring was seeing all the thoughtfully and beautifully-made books brought together for display in Mind Your P's and Q's at NSCAD's Port Loggia and Treaty Space Gallery.

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Submitted by Charles Salmon

in combination, group exhibit

All too often, mark-making conjures up images created using paint, ink, charcoal or graphite. Gaspereau Valley-based printmaker Julie Rosvall challenges our mark-making perceptions with her exhibit Contexture on display as part of the group show in combination at The Craig Gallery, tucked away on the Dartmouth waterfront at Alderney Landing.

In addition to being a seasoned printmaker, Rosvall is an accomplished textile artist. Her practice combines these two disciplines to produce subtle yet provocative work that challenge our artistic perceptions.

In collaboration with letterpress printmaker and designer Tina Arsenault of Arquoise Press, Rosvall's prints are impressions of textile relief prints. Arsenault's letterpress prints are of knitting charts and pattern text. Some impressions are of the knitting itself, and other prints are text reproductions of knitting patterns with rudimentary illustrations. Generous borders centre these open, clean and sparse images, which are printed on blotter-thick paper.

The individual prints are displayed on a Craig gallery wall and are assembled in a limited-edition book.

Visual artist and bookbinder Ellen Timbre of Mule Mother Books, has assembled Rosvall's and Arsenault's single sheet, monochromatic prints (10" x 15") in a high-end limited-edition hand bound book, entitled Contexture, whose open spine, screw-post format (11" x 15") is commercially familiar to many for its ubiquitous use in commercial photo albums and scrapbooks. This popular format allows for easy handling and closer examination of their prints.

Nested within Contexture, and protected on both sides by a blank sheet, are thin, vellum-like clear plastic sheets, which are blind-embossed with the impression – without the use of ink, paints or dye – of Rosvall's knitted work.


The effect is subtle and forces the viewer to closer examine these textured impressions, which resemble alligator skin with its tactile ridges, bumps and indentations. Even though the marks are invisible, the textures created are indelible, inviting touch and exploration, made possible for the viewer by handling a display copy of Contexture. The display copy engages the viewer physically and enables the viewer to tactically experience Rosvall's work.

During the first pandemic lock-down, film maker and artist Andrea Dorfman committed herself to documenting her experiences by producing one mini-book each week.

Dorfman combines simple, accessible images and text set in a typewriter-style font to produce bright, multi-coloured mini-books. The mini-book format, which uses no adhesives or bindings, is achieved through folding, pinching and making a simple incision on a single rectangular piece of paper.

The resulting 8-panel mini-book, (folded size: 2.5" x 4"; flat size: 8" x 10"), is small enough to easily compile weekly content, but big enough to tell a visually-impactful, text-based short story/journal entry.


The Craig Gallery wall features 40 of Dorfman's mini-books displayed open and flat. This display results in half of the books' visuals and text appearing upside down (because the sheets are flat, not folded).


Far more accessible, are the variety of mini-books Dorfman has made available, (displayed atop a plinth), for visitors to read, handle and familiarize themselves with her work. When they do, they discover entertaining, reflective and sometimes self-deprecating first-person journal entries. The entire project can be viewed on Instagram at www.instagram.com/dorfmanorama.

Also of interest to book and paper artists, is work by "Aglennco... a queer, multimedia artist who fabricates futures using printmaking, textiles and illustrations."

One of their creations is a sheet of rectangular white felt (portrait format), that they have transformed to resemble a lined sheet of note paper through careful stitching of red thread (for the vertical margins) and blue thread (for the horizontal lines). A clever, simple and impactful rendering.

Rosvall, Dorfman and Aglennco are part of 8 artists whose work appears in the exhibit in combination at The Craig Gallery. in combination is part of Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS) 2022-23 mentorship program where established artists are successfully paired with emerging artists. in combination runs until July 30th, 2023.

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Review by Charles Salmon

Pages Turning, group exhibit

Pages Turning, at NSCAD's Anna Leonowens Gallery, is a gutsy group exhibition that forces the viewer to question what our concept of a book is, and what a book is supposed to look like. Curated by graduating student Neil Kehler, a photography major with an obvious interest in the book form. This exhibition captures the zeitgeist of how new millennial art and design students conceptualize books.

These super-sized, in-your-face, works of art are 'one of a kind' editions. Unlike most "hands off" exhibitions, here viewers are encouraged "please handle the work... do so with tenderness and care."

Metal Frame as Book
Crisp, clean paper sheets are attached at each end to two vertical metal screw posts that stand about 2.5 feet tall. The square metal rod base is about a foot wide. Each sheet of paper is separated from the other by evenly-spaced hexagon metal nuts. The 36 alternating sheets cover both sides of the posts, gently overlapping and progressively covering each other, like tree branches. When lifted, each page reveals an imprinted single line of text that stands alone, yet connects to the preceding page and the page that follows. Symmetrical, graceful and precise is the overall effect of this pushing-the-boundary book.

Canvas as Book
A singular rectangular gessoed canvas sheet with frayed sides and edges hangs like a medieval banner on the gallery wall.

This quiet, simple and subtle book commands our attention by its imposing size (19.5" wide by 36" long) which is contrasted by its faintly painted and difficult to read black text, making the viewer stop, linger and investigate.

Collage as Book
Instead of being elevated on a pedestal, this collage book's enormous open size (65" wide by 52" tall) demands that it be displayed on the gallery floor. Five double-page spreads of bold collage pages (using paint, paper and photocopies) comprise this multi-layered, rough texture book.

"The book as sovereign," forces the reader to acknowledge this reverse power play by either bending over or kneeling down to engage with its huge 32.5" by 52" pages. The physical effort is worth the visceral and visual reward.

Quilt as Book
Traditional quilts play with pattern and colour. This quilt plays with letters and words. The medium is the metaphor - fragments of fabric comprise fragments of text. This imposing (48" wide by 64.5" long) 12-panel quilt features white fabric block letters appliquéd to a bold red fabric background. The resulting text message wraps around the quilt border and circles inward. Sometimes the words appear in black fabric, calling out for our attention, like bold face text. Curiously, sometimes the letters are not appliquéd, but pinned to the fabric.

Each quilt block (14" wide by 15.5" long) is held together, not by tightly stitched thread, but at its corners with safety pins. As a result, when hung, the quilt does not lay flat, but sags with huge gaps that look like pouches. Upon closer examination, this optical illusion disappears. Is the subtext that the weight of the message is too great for the fabric to bear?

Almost all book structures require the reader to hold the book close in order to read and comprehend the text. However, in this case the opposite holds true. The reader needs to distance themselves from the book (i.e., quilt) in order to read and comprehend the text. Traditional bookbinding studies primarily focus on structure. The Pages Turning exhibition books integrate content with structure in unexpected and innovative ways.

Kehler's curatorial statement offers: "As time rolls on books may take on new purposes and forms of which we cannot conceive, and it is conceivable also that our relationship to them will change."

The Anna Leonowens Gallery is located on the cobblestoned Granville Street pedestrian mall of the Fountain Campus of NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Pages Turning is on display from July 11 to 15, 2023.

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Review by Charles Salmon

Collective Directions Exhibit

Collective Directions features a selection of works from the Halifax-based Manual Training Collective, at the Chester Art Centre in Chester, Nova Scotia. Of particular interest to book and paper artists are two tunnel books, created by film and video artist James MacSwain. MacSwain, who studied theatre arts, (U of A), describes his creations as follows: "Accordion books, or tunnel books or theatre books, are three dimensional objects... consisting of five accordion segments and a front 'proscenium' arch."


"The fifth segment is an image on acetate so that the accordion book becomes a light box that glows when a light shines on it... The inner segments contain the various characters and objects that give the accordion book its meaning."

MacSwain’s tunnel books have no covers, sleeves or slipcases, and are open and exposed for continual viewing.

Celebration, (created in 2018), features six Victorian characters framed by a "proscenium arch" of salmon-coloured marbled paper. We the viewer are exposed to a playful scene from a doll's house of static paper dolls that are frozen in movement as they dance in a foyer, to music from a pianist and a minstrel. The outdoors beckon through garden gates in the background which frame a mottled blue sky.

MacSwain's other work, Viewing Platform for the Planet Saturn, (created in 2013), is an exterior night setting featuring the luminous planet Saturn encircled by its famous ring, filling the star-filled night sky.

Two biblical figures in the mid-ground are as equally captivated by this celestial sight, as the crowd of 1930s fedora-topped men and women wrapped in turbans and furs in the foreground. Like the viewers in the tunnel book, our gaze is directed to the focal point of this creation - the legendary planet Saturn.

Both tunnel books are the same landscape format size: H 9" x W 10" x D 6". Paper, matt board, acetate and glue are listed as the materials used for both books, which make extensive use of photo prints. The effect is a more refined look than tunnel books crafted from hand-cut papers of various colours and textures.

Collective Directions is on display at the Chester Art Centre until July 16, 2023.

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Review by Charles Salmon

Artists' Books at the Mary E. Black Gallery

The Embodied Press: Queer Abstraction and the Artists' Book, is a retrospective exhibit of artists' books, currently on display at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax. Curated by Anthea Black, the exhibit features the work of 14 artists with works spanning over 45 years, from the 1970s to present day. The 14 featured artists are: Nadine Bariteau, Joshua Beckman, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Edie Fake, Tatana Kellner, Kate Laster, Emily McVarish, Heidi Neilson, Lyman Piersma, Pati Scobey, Miller & Shellabarger, Stan Shellabarger, Nicholas Shick, Clarissa Sligh.

This exhibit features "artists' books and publications by queer and transgender artists, from graphic novels and collage-works to bold experiments with letterpress, screenprinting, video, performance, and risograph." Curator Anthea Black, a Canadian artist and writer who is an Assistant Professor at California College of the Arts, recently gave an artist's talk at NSCAD about the exhibition, where they posed the question: "So what happens when a book object (or a body) 'frustrates legibility' or becomes difficult to read? It must be felt. Held in our hands. Absorbed."

The artists' books on display are absorbing, but unfortunately, they cannot be felt or handled. Many are protected under plexiglass cases. The majority of the works are strongly focused on content. Form seems to follows content. It's as though structure is an afterthought. That being said, there is an integration of content, structure, and message.

The precision of these well-constructed artists' books is impressive. They consist mainly of editions versus one-of-a-kind creations. Nicholas Shick's series of 9 books entitled Radiate, is pure eye candy with each volume being a series of shades of one rainbow colour. Bound using the drum leaf technique and letterpress printed on Mohawk superfine paper stock, the books are displayed with all the pages fanned out and is a visual magnet.

Also on display are a few zines (which are saddle-stitched) and Untitled Hand Book (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6), by Miller & Shellabarger, one of which is labelled as "case binding" but is constructed using a Japanese stab binding (tortoise shell pattern). The other letterpress books in this edition have pages printed in brown, pale blue and gold jewel tones that positively shimmer. It is the content, not the structure, that dazzles us. The pages entice the viewer to caress and touch.

Lamination is used for a few books and these books in particular challenge our notion of book structure. Kate Laster's Yearbook Photo Missing consists of multi-coloured, laminated tinsel (that resembles ribbons) and found photos. However, it is the backs of the photos, each of which are each inscribed (and resemble cue cards), which face the viewer, not the photo image. And there is more transparent plastic than there is content. Blank paper pages in book construction are rarely questioned. Then why are pages that are made of transparent plastic so unsettling?

Other distinctive laminated paper cut accordion fold books by Kate Laster include Waiting Game - Bookfair, an oversized four panel "pamphlet" (standing about 20 inches in height) that is reminiscent of Papel Picado, Mexican cut-out paper art. However, Kate Lester’s approach is not solely using cut-out patterns and graphics as Mexicans do, but Laster has substituted stylized letters of varying sizes that hint of folk art. The cut-out stencils get their power from seeing right through them. Laster also riffs on this form in Roadmap Accordion, where the book is laid out on the display table (like a road map) and the cut-out stencils get their power from the shadows created from the strong beam of light overhead. In this case, the message is amplified by the light and is ephemeral, like the material.

There is An Ocean by Joshua Saul Beckman is an 18-panel accordion fold book with six horizontal zig-zag lines of blue and grey thread that run continuously and precisely for the entire length of the book. The lines appear to have been machine-sewn without ripping the paper. Stan Shellabarger has three accordion fold books on display, each of varying lengths, whose panels feature a series of swirly dots set against white and pale blue backgrounds, with solid dark blue front and back cover panels. The dots give this otherwise static display a fanciful sense of movement. Random dots are also used in Heidi Neilson's Atlas of Punctuation (letterpress in case binding), which only features periods. While the dots may appear randomly placed on the page, one is left wondering are they simply punctuation place holders for the text that has been completely removed.

As Anthea Black notes, "Artists in The Embodied Press make important visual and material choices in their use of printing techniques, sequencing, and manipulation or absence of text... These ideas find great resonance in the artists' book field as it radically expands the ways books can be produced, read, and understood as a form of culture."

The Mary E. Black Gallery is run by Centre for Craft Nova Scotia and is located at 1061 Marginal Road, Halifax, beside Pier 21. This exhibit runs until Sunday May 7, 2023.

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Review by Charles Salmon

A Collection of Handmade Books

Rhonda Miller has accumulated a collection of over 80 handbound books and artists' books, made by nearly as many bookbinders and book artists around the world. For our March meeing, Rhonda brought most of this collection for the group to examine and discuss.

Her collection was acquired through a variety of book swaps over several years. Rhonda has participanted in many different types of swaps and she disucssed the different formats that she had participated in and how this had been a great way to build a varied collection for studying and teaching. The collection includes handbound books in a wide range of styles and structures utlizing many different materials and techniques, both familiar and unfamiliar, common and uncommon.

Blank books make up a substantial part of the collection, some of which can be seen here in the first two photographs. Most of these swaps occured between 2007 and 2012. Some of the swaps were documented on her bookbinding blog at the time, where there are also pictures of a few of the many books that she made and sent out to others.

Other swaps were more focused on content-driven books and artists' books, including numerous miniatures from an edition exchange, most of which can be seen here.

Later this year, the Nova Scotia Book Arts group is planning to host a blank book swap within the group. More details about how to participate will be shared soon.

Update: Check here for more details about our book swap.