two new macarthur fellows of note
Two of the dominant research interests guiding me right now are book history and the history of sound. What a coincidence, then, that the Macarthur Foundation has just awarded grants to
I'll get mine, yet!
September 20, 2005
January 31, 2005
a signature
What you're looking at, dear reader, is a rather large piece of paper upon which rest several items (counter-clockwise from the top):
- A single signature made by folding the large piece of paper 4 times (thus it's been folded in sextodecimo to make 16 leaves), then stitching through the folds that will be facing the spine of the eventual book of which this signature will be a part. (See WikiPedia on bookbinding terms and techniques)
- A tool known as a bone-folder, which makes creating smooth folds easier - and reportedly, glue does not stick to it.
- An awl, which punches the holes through the paper, making stitching easier.
- Beeswax, to coat the thread and make it less likely to tangle.
- A needle and thread.
Not shown: the knife I used to trim the pages after folding and sewing them. You end up with many folds that prevent you from opening the pages, so you have to "trim" the paper along those folds. Try it: take a big piece of paper and fold it four times: horizontally, vertically, horizontally, vertically. See?
Yes, I went to bookmaking class tonight. No, it's not a class on how to take bets on the Superbowl.
Bonus Link! Check out Evil Rooster's Bookbinding Pages.
January 25, 2005
analog rights management
Our first bookmaking class met last night, and I think I'm going to like it. Being a student is good practice for teachers.
We are free to pursue whatever projects we like. I guess I went in assuming we would be receiving specific assignments, so I've had to think through possibilities. What I've realized is that I'm really interested in fasteners: devices that are used to keep a book closed, whether that's a latch like on one of the Bibles I examined last summer, an elastic band like the one on my new little Moleskine notebook, or a cord like what's attached to the Tibetan notebook I bought over a year ago. What appeals to me about these devices? Perhaps it's the way in which they work against the familiar openess of books, acting as a kind of safeguard (even if only a symbolic one) against unauthorized uses.
I began to think, "What would it take to create an exact replica of one of these things?" Then I began to think, "What kinds of things did readers do with (or to) their books before they became so cheap and commonplace and before we had automated book production?" One of the above Bibles, for example, had been "hacked" at some point, by which I mean that someone took the traditionally bound Bible, split it in two, and then bound the two halves separately, but facing each other on a common backboard. The result was a book half as thick but twice as wide. My guess is that this alteration was done to fit into a particular pocket or satchel.
Users of electronic devices frequently hack them to see what kinds of non-authorized uses they can get out of them. As digital rights management technology gets more and more sophisticated (and as laws are passed to outlaw bypassing DRM), such hacking becomes more and more appealing, frankly.
Readers have long had the ability and inclination to alter their books, to make them say or do things other than what their creator intended. In some deep sense, this practice is perhaps a residue of oral culture, in which discourse exists only in conversation. Walter Ong calls writing "autonomous discourse" because it needs no interlocutor. In practice, however, we intervene in written discourse all the time, through writing marginal notes, underlining and highlighting key passages, and through altering the physical makeup of the book itself.
But how would history be different if the technology of the book had prevented such interventions? What if we were unable to try out new arrangements, to foreground different textual elements than those the author deemed most important?
Or to ask a question from a completely different angle: what elements of printed books might accurately be described (in a weird kind of back formation) as "analog rights management" features? How does the form of print seek to protect the integrity of the information it contains?
January 21, 2005
cooper black: behind the typeface
A hilarious animation via SHARP=L.
January 17, 2005
interview with william s. peterson
An email interview with one of my former professors regarding his recently published The Well-Made Book: Essays and Lectures by Daniel Berkeley Updike.
November 23, 2004
my first book...
...with a cameo by our geriatric cat.
November 21, 2004
book arts
I need a new creative outlet, so this weekend I took a trip to Urban Arts and Crafts and picked up a copy of More Making Books by Hand as well as some book making supplies.
After a little googling, I found The Book Arts Web, which features The Bonefolder, a book arts e-journal.
Among the continuing education classes at the Kansas City Art Institute is this one:
Bookmaking for Beginners This class will provide information, demonstrations and some in-class work time for making different types of one-of-a-kind and small edition books. Topics to be covered include simple book design and materials, several different binding styles and techniques, the basic operations of cutting, gluing and folding, page design and layout, and the use of text and different styles of type. Ideally, students will already have some ideas about content that might be all visual or more writing oriented or that incorporates both image and text. Students will also need to provide their own means of producing pages, such as access to an inkjet or laser printer, a commercial shop such as Kinkoís, or their own drawings, photographs or other artwork on paper that they want to make into a book.
I'm considering signing up, and I'll keep you posted.