"Book Club" group show at Hermes Gallery

Hermes Gallery in Halifax is currently exhibiting a collection of book and text-themed works in a group show called "Book Club." Works on show are by several members of the gallery as well as a couple of special guests, including the Nova Scotia Book Arts Group. The Book Arts Group has contributed a wide range of handbound books including blank journals, a sculpural artist's book, and even a medieval wooden board binding. There are photos of all the books posted on the NSBAG website.

There are two books in this exhibit that I bound. One is my copy of Lock's Bookbinding Materials and Techniques 1700-1920 which is bound using a split board library binding in quarter leather. It also features my original marbling on the covers, as well as matching marbling on the edges of the textblock.


The second book bound by me is the NSBAG community art journal that was created in October 2023 during Halifax's annual Nocturne art-at-night festival. The public was invited to create the pages for this book following the prompt, "What is your favorite thing?" As the pages were finished, they were bound together into this book so the content and structure of the book were created concurrently. This is a photo of the book as it was being sewn during the event and then the finished book.


The finished book is currently on display at Hermes Gallery and members of the public are free to flip through the pages and see the artwork that was created by members of the community or find the work that they contributed at the event! There is more info about this project on the NSBAG website.

In conjunction with this show and on behalf of NSBAG, I conducted a little bookbinding workshop at the gallery last weekend. In this workshop, everyone bound their own miniature copy of The Raven. I created the textblock specifically for this workshop, formatting the text and preparing the colophon beforehand, so everyone had a tiny textblock ready to go at the beginning of the session. At the end of the workshop, we had produced this little edition of tiny books!



There are a few more photos of these miniature books on the NSBAG website.

The "Book Club" show also features a fabulous collection of letterpress posters made by Amos Paul Kennedy. They look amazing all displayed together like this.



There are also many other items to see at this show including art books, sulptural works, text-themed photography, prints, tiny text, a tunnel book, and a variety of printed matter. Well worth a visit! The exhibit continues until April 21, 2023. More info available on the Hermes Gallery website.

Workshop Roundup

In between the ordinary day-to-day bookbinding projects, I have also been teaching workshops quite regularly although I haven't shared the results here for a long time!

New spring and summer workshops are happening soon. Registration is underway at the Centre for Craft in Halifax NS as well as Honeybee Folk School in Fredericton NB and Atelier d'estampe Imago in Moncton NB and the Chester Art Centre in Chester NS.

In the meantime, here's a recap of that last few workshops taught at the NS Centre for Craft.

Dec 2023 - Students made these personalized monthly agendas using a hardcover pamphlet binding technique.

Jan 2024 - My students made these wonderful case bound journals.

Feb 2024 - We had a workshop to make these amazing clamshell boxes.

Mar 2024 - The box making class concluded with everyone making a round box with a lid and a small trinket box.

Welcome 2024!

EDIT: Jan 7, 2024
Thanks to everyone who commented for a chance to win this handmade monthly planner! I made a list of all the names from the blog comments and the Instagram comments and then used a random number generator to pick the winner, which was #16, also known as Purple Butterfly Paper! Congrats! The book is in the mail!

ORIGINAL POST
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Happy new year, everybody! I'm going to kick off the year with a giveaway, as I've often done in the past, perfect for those of you who still like to write in real books. I have one handmade book to give away and it is a 2024 monthly planner, shown below.

It is a hardcover book with my own original marbled paper on the covers. The spine and corners are dark grey cloth. The book contains a printed monthly calendar for 2024. In addition to the calendar pages, there are also standard pages for personal information, lists, and some blank pages at the back. The various preprinted text is in both English and Chinese. There is a flyleaf of handmade paper, which happens to be a sheet of paper that I made myself. There is also a pocket inside the back cover for tucking in whatever loose things you need to save throughout the year. It is 15cm wide and 21cm tall (6" X 8.25").

To get your name included in the draw, leave a comment on this post before 11:59 PM (Atlantic Time) January 6, 2024 and include your email or a profile link that will allow me to contact you if you win. Also, tell me something interesting: maybe your new year's resolution, or perhaps a book recommendation for my reading list, or tell me some obscure fact that you happen to know! You can get a second entry if you also leave a comment on the associated Instagram post.

After the deadline, I will number all the entries and use a random number generator to select a winner. Then I'll contact you and let you know. I will ship the book, for free, anywhere in North America.