We are excited to open our Studios to the public. Come see us!
An exhibit will be on view: BOOK ARTS BEYOND
We have cookies.
Saturday, November 6th, 10am-7pm
Sunday, November 7th, 10am-7pm
Saturday, November 13th, 10am-7pm
Sunday, November 14th, 10am-7pm
Please tell us about your work as a book artist and teacher.
For about twenty years, making books was everything to me. I made them, I taught them, I wrote about them. From the beginning, I was only interested in the book as a vessel for content. I made books with calligraphic texts, photocopier imagery, and then natural materials.
I continue to make handmade books with natural materials but also use technology through amazon’s KDP Publishing to support my bookmaking. My recent books have included Words For Our Time in response to the 2016 election, Suffragists Speak commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, an illustrated memoir titled Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again, and and the upcoming Naming The Garden: Fifty Flowers And Their Latin Names.
My teaching grew out of the books I began making when my first child was two. I wrote this about my motivation:
As our world becomes smaller, it is easy to get the feeling that all the important things are happening somewhere else. Making books is a way of reminding ourselves that the family is the center and affirming our value as parents and children.
I began working with schools and tailored my approach to what would be most useful to teachers. I created books that connected with curriculum, used accessible materials, and were easy to make. I applied what I knew of bookmaking techniques, but always put simplicity first. My goal was to have teachers be able to duplicate what I did with students. I wanted my visit to the school to inspire continued bookmaking and often taught teacher workshops and family workshops. I retired from teaching workshops some years ago but continue to share my knowledge of teaching simple books on my website (makingbooks.com) and youtube channel (susangaylord).
How has your art evolved over the course of your career?
I began my work as a visual artist with calligraphy when I was in my late twenties. My love of words (English literature major) was the foundation that grew into a fascination with letterform, design, and expressive mark-making. A series created after the birth of my first child led me to the handmade book as I sought a more personal and intimate home for my thoughts and images. My early books with calligraphy and text transitioned to wordless ones, first with photocopier imagery and then with natural materials. The Spirit Books, ongoing since 1992, express my reverence for both the book and nature. They are my primary bookwork as an artist now. https://www.susangaylord.com/spirit-books.html
Over the past ten years I have reconnected with calligraphy with a renewed energy and freer spirit. I find that words give me a chance to more directly respond to the state of the world.
What is special about book and other paper related arts?
I wrote this a few years after I had discovered making books. I think it says it:
Books are intimate; they welcome personal encounters.
Books are humble; they fulfill their potential closed as well as open.
Books have depth; even the simplest forms are rich with the possibilities of endless variation.
Books have spirit; they are dwelling places for our thoughts and dreams.
What inspires you?
The specific answer is: the spirit of nature and the beauty and power of words. The broader answer is everything and anything. After 40 plus years in the arts, I feel that my world gets wider and richer everyday.
Can you think of a specific moment or memory that best captures what it’s like to work as an artist?
In 1992 I made the first Spirit Book. The seeds had been planted four years earlier when we did a massive pruning in our yard. As I handled the cut pieces of grape and blackberry vines, lilac roots, and rose branches, I felt that they were communicating with me. I brought them into the studio and tried to make art that spoke to the reverence and gratitude I felt for these messengers from the larger interconnected world of nature. I tried handmade boxes and stacking bundles of binder’s board and twigs. I experimented and I struggled. I remember all that clearly. What I have no memory of is what led me, one fall day in 1992, to make a book and place it on a cradle of grape vines. It just happened. I think Lewis Hyde in his book The Gift describes the moment perfectly: “The process is always a bit mysterious. You work at a task, you work and work and still it won’t come out right. Then, when you’re not even thinking about it, while spading the garden, or stepping into the bus, the whole thing pops into your head, the missing grace is bestowed.”
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ABAC is participating in Amplify Austin, a city-wide 24 hrs of giving beginning at 6pm on Thursday, March 4th and extending until Friday, March 5th at 6pm.
Click here to support the Austin Book Arts Center.
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We’ve all discovered the essential role of remote resources during a pandemic, especially for children, parents, and teachers. Last year, the Austin Book Arts Center began offering online workshops, making kits, and creating free bookmaking videos for children and educators.
During Amplify Austin 2021, ABAC hopes to raise $5700 to bring the book arts, both literally and virtually, into AISD classrooms, in order to support families and educators.
With your Amplify Austin donation:
1. ABAC will re-film our currently available bookmaking videos in a dual-language format, making the lessons accessible to an even wider audience! These new Spanish/English instructional videos will be available for free on the ABAC website.
2. As a companion to the videos, ABAC will provide a Bookmaking Kit to each of AISD’s 120 elementary and middle school art teachers. These kits are composed of common materials, making them easy to replicate in classrooms. Your Amplify Austin donation will make these kits available at no cost to teachers!
The first $1200 raised will get kits into the hands of 120 local teachers. The additional $4500 will cover the costs of producing the nine accompanying videos in the dual-language format. ABAC has partnered with AISD staff to ensure that the kits and videos will be accessible to all AISD teachers.
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On November 13, 2020, the Austin Book Arts Center held an online screening* of Good Book Action: Craig Jensen Master Bookbinder, a short film by documentary filmmaker Mark Hall.
Craig Jensen is one of the most accomplished and noted artists currently working in the field of fine art bookbinding. Good Book Action captures the magic of Jensen’s work as he shares examples of his masterful books that have elevated bookbinding to a high art form.
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Following the screening, Greg Ciotti moderated a Q&A with Craig Jensen and Mark Hall about the film, Craig’s career in book arts, and Craig’s association with ABAC.
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* This premiere was held in conjunction with BLUE SKIES, a Charity GoFundMe campaign running October 30 – December 1st, with the goal of recouping a portion of lost income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
DONATIONS CAN STILL BE MADE HERE
A Bookish Memoir
When I think of Mary-Margaret Gallaway, I think of long phone calls. Full of energy, Mary-Margaret would detail recent events, travels, or amusing stories, at a fast pace in her south Texas, Kingsville accent. Usually, I would put on my headphones so I could continue to do bindery work at the bench while we talked. We had a tradition of calling each other on our birthdays.
Mary-Margaret first worked at Jensen Bindery around 1986 when Craig Jensen moved his home bindery to the building where W. Thomas Taylor ran his rare book and publishing operation on Miriam Avenue, now the site of Slugfest studios. She was primarily trained to make boxes in the Jensen style, famous for the air press that allowed the bindery to make what one client described as the largest boxes in North America.
By summer 1987, Jensen Bindery had moved to larger space in the Walnut Creek Business Park with a crew of about six, including Mary-Margaret. I joined the bindery that July after attending a two-month master class in fine binding held at Harry Ransom Center. Within a year, Jensen Bindery expanded further and became BookLab, Inc., growing to a staff of thirty plus employees over the next nine years. Mary-Margaret worked on both book and box editions, and trained staff in box-making. After her departure from BookLab in the mid 1990s, she worked for a while in book repair at the Handbridge Bindery on south Congress Avenue. She assisted me from time to time on edition projects when I established my own Hands On Bookbinding studio in 1995, first in Austin, and later in Smithville.
In the 1980s, Austin had become a center for binding and letterpress printing, which inspired Mary Baughman and others to establish a local Austin Book Workers group. Mary-Margaret attended meetings, served as Treasurer, and was a regular demonstrator at the annual Austin Book Arts Fair held each July in the classrooms of Laguna Gloria Art Museum, now part of the Austin Museum of Art. In 1991 Mary Baughman and I worked together to establish a Texas chapter of the national Guild of Book Workers and Mary-Margaret became a charter member. She exhibited a unique artist book and box work in the Lone Star Chapter’s first exhibit in 1993.
I will miss making my annual call to Mary-Margaret for her birthday this August 21. She would have been 79.
Priscilla Spitler
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Mary-Margaret was a founding donor and active supporter of Austin Book Arts Center. Mary-Margaret very kindly gave Austin Book Arts Center a board shears, tabletop cutters, and the tables to hold them, a nipping press, drawers of book binding tools, leather, book cloth, and decorative paper. The tools and equipment that she donated to ABAC are “monogramed” and I think of her each time I make use of one of her donations. We miss her humor, intellect, and skills. ABAC is grateful for Mary-Margaret’s continuing contribution to book arts in Austin.
Mary Baughman
Austin, Texas
https://beyondthedash.com/obituary/marymargaret-gallaway-1079394256?fbclid=IwAR01LEMasemOCm_uaVzh7AJ_CDt_-Qeu0m0Pl9Y6erEydPQbfPr768oV1oQ
Mary-Margaret sewing a book at BookLab
Guild of Book Workers Lone Star Chapter meeting in Dallas, (from left to right) Gayle Young, Gary Frost, Barbara Brown, Mary-Margaret Gallaway, Mary Baughman, Olivia Primanis, Jan Sobota
Mary-Margaret 1996
1.What is your background?
My background, well I started getting serious about my interest in art in high school when I took an advanced placement art course that started an hour earlier than normal school hours. I then went to college at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) where I received a BFA in 2001. While studying there I focused in graphic design, photography, and printmaking. I have had an interest for a while in the connections among these three disciplines, so when I saw there was a letterpress course offered at SAIC I signed up for it. The course was taught at the letterpress studio at Columbia College, since at the time SAIC didn’t have a letterpress studio (they do now). This course was taught by Catherine Ruggie-Saunders. A few years ago when I wanted to find a way to start doing some letterpress printing again I found out about the Rob Roy Kelley Collection and the Design Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. I spoke to Kevin Auer, who ran the studio there at that time about possibly using the studio there outside of class time. He agreed to let me do so after a refresher class on letterpress printing. He also told me about the ABAC, and I contacted them about possibly volunteering in exchange for access to their equipment.
2.What do you enjoy about letterpress?
I enjoy a lot of things about letterpress. I enjoy the physicality of it; when hand setting type you are physically rearranging the type and leading and spacing and the furniture when it comes time to lock up the type. I also appreciate the connection to history all the way back to Gutenberg (many folks don’t know there’s a copy of the Gutenberg Bible here in Austin at The Harry Ransom Center that is always on exhibit). I like that letterpress is both a technical and a creative process which compels you to slow down when you’re doing it.
3.Do you prefer to work with a particular letterpress machine or type face? Why?
I prefer working with the cylinder presses especially the Vandercooks; there is a lot more control available with them. I also really like working with wood type, which I first worked with at UT. The wood type makes one slow down even more because most of it is old and in turn requires you do some make ready work in order to get good results. Of course there is also chromatic wood type, a wonderful trick that allows for printing with two colors to look like printing with three.
4.When did you begin volunteering at ABAC?
I started volunteering at ABAC around six years ago.
Encouraged by my mother, I’ve been interested in art my entire life and earned a BFA and MFA in studio art. Over the past two decades or so I’ve been learning watercolor painting. I’m also using acrylic paints.
I am a member of The Waterloo Watercolor Group, The Hive at The Galleria, and a neighborhood art group in addition to ABAC.
Again, my mother loved books, children’s illustrations, and reading. She took my siblings and me to the library often, and I still remember the curious library smells, tall shelves filled with far more books than anyone could ever read, and lovely library garden in Palo Alto, CA where I grew up. My mother also wrote a few children’s stories that were published in the Jack and Jill Magazine when I was a child. Eventually she returned to school and became a children’s librarian. These experiences and memories eventually led to my interest in making books, and I began teaching myself. As an art teacher I also had my students make books. I joined the Austin Book Workers after moving here in 2003 and began to explore ideas and techniques for artist’s books and unusual bindings.
I want to learn more about book making, and I just like to hang out with the many talented book artists that come to ABAC. Little by little I’m learning techniques and interesting book-facts. The more I learn, the more I grow increasingly in awe of the people I meet at ABAC who are filled with knowledge that they willingly and patiently share.
Half Price Books, host of the Austin Edible Book Festival since 2014, has just announced that this year, the April 1st event is canceled…. However, Edible Book Lovers still have a chance to celebrate this weird art form.
Edible Book Festivals around the world celebrate books, humor, and imagination through the creation of dishes inspired by books and puns. Edible Book Festivals are fun and silly. Right now fun, silliness, and creativity are just what the Dr. ordered.
Are you hungry to learn more about Edible Book Festivals? During the Facebook Event to be broadcast from Austin Book Arts Center, admire inspiring images of past Edible Book Festival entries. Imagine the taste of materials you can use to make an edible book. Learn tips to prepare Edible Books with ingredients you already have at home.
Using a variety of delicious materials, Mary Baughman has created at least one yummy book for each of Austin’s past 17 Edible Book Festivals. Mary conserved inedible books at the University of Texas Ransom Center for 40 years, and now Mary serves up information about Austin Book Arts Center where everyone can have fun and learn about all sorts of book arts.
This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.
Here’s another one from the Biblio Files, a periodic profile of a community member, highlighting what makes ABAC an awesome place to work and to learn!
In the early 90s I discovered Paper Arts in Dallas (in its first incarnation as Paper Routes). I started making greeting cards with the fabulous paper I found there. When I asked the proprietor where I could learn more about what to do with paper, she suggested the Craft Guild of Dallas. There I found my first teacher and mentor, Catherine Burkhard. After a few classes I was hooked! I studied there with Catherine and then in her home studio for well over a decade.
In the late 90s I began performing repair work on Catherine’s projects under her supervision. Eventually, I began building my own book repair business that continues today.
I’ve been quoted a few times saying about becoming a bookbinder: “It’s a hobby that got out of control!”
2. What are your favorite book structure to make? Why?
My favorite structure is usually the most recent one I’ve learned. Although I rarely have time to make them, I’m drawn to exposed spine sewing. Why keep all that work under cover?
Also, I think I could sew link stitch books forever. It’s a very Zen activity. In fact, I find a lot about bookbinding and book repair meditative. So, for me, it’s not so much a favorite structure, but the ability to become hyper-focused on the task in front of me and toss aside whatever is worrying me that day.
3. Who are your biggest influences?
I’ve attended about a dozen Guild of Book Workers’ Annual Standards of Excellence Seminars around the country; all but the first Helen Warren DeGoyler Triennial Exhibition and Competition in Dallas. I traveled across the pond in 2001 to attend a Society of Bookbinders conference in Oxford, England. Additionally, I’ve had several opportunities to study with some of the best binders of our time through workshops. I even got to study with Monique Lallier—one of the best fine binders of our time—for two weeks in her North Carolina home studio.
Each time I’m in the presence of the talented individuals I’ve been lucky enough to encounter, I try to soak up every morsel of information that is tossed out. Being around the masters of any craft can only improve one, no matter if you’re a beginner, experienced or a pro.
I count all the talented binders that I was lucky enough to experience in the first decade or so of my learning curve as huge influences on what I do each day. I guess it takes a village to train a bookbinder!
4. What do you enjoy about teaching at ABAC?
It’s fun to meet people with diverse backgrounds and interests. I remember how proud I was of the first pamphlet stitch book I made, and hope that every student has a similar experience at ABAC.
Kyle Durrie of Power and Light Press, Silver City, NM
Thursday, March 5th from 6-9pm at ABAC
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This event is in collaboration with Amplify Austin, a city-wide 24 hrs of giving beginning at 6pm on Thursday, March 5th and extending until Friday, March 6th at 6pm.
Click here to support the Austin Book Arts Center.
Please note NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL!
All gifts are needed and appreciated.
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The indomitable Ms. Durrie is once again hitting the open road in her “Moveable Type” truck for a tour of the southern states. She will be setting up shop at the Austin Book Arts Center to engage visitors with letterpress demos and a stunning array of letterpress printed merchandise.
This is the second tour of the “Moveable Type” truck. Back in 2011-2013, Durrie traveled around the country in this same truck, with the mission of sharing the craft of letterpress printing. She is visiting small towns and big cities to spread the good word about printing the old fashioned way, by hosting public pop-ups, letterpress demos, and letter-writing events along the way.
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ABAC also has about 100 cans of free ink. Yes, that’s right, FREE INK! Come and take it.
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