I giggled at this comic from the New York Times, “the book of the future,” by Grant Snider. I do hope that both analog and digital books have a place in the future of the book. Check out the digital vs analog media tag for more work exploring the future of the book form in art and society.

Fascinating paper fashion and art by Stuart McLachlan. Fantastically whimsical and architectural.

From his website:

Paper is a medium without boundaries, it can be molded, formed and cut into almost any form imaginable, I endeavour to push its physical boundaries and create imagery and art that is not expected from such a delicate structured material. The goal of art is to surprise and excite, to bring something new to the table.

Art is our universal language, one which all of us relate to in one way or another, be that sculpture, painting, film, music or even sport. The practice of ‘hand making’ my work is integral to what I do as I believe this is what fascinates people, they love rediscovering that it is still possible to create arresting objects and images by hand, and I get great joy from the challenge of bringing them to life.

I discovered Stuart McLachlan via Upon a Fold, here and here.

It’s a common fallacy to assume that other people are just like us. But surely it’s not a fallacy to assume that people who like books and bookmaking and ephemera also like tea, right? I certainly do! (More on that below.) Here’s some book and paper arts incorporating an affection for tea, demonstrating that other artists share my affection.

Teatimes by Allison Cooke Brown, above and below. I love the color and texture of the “teabags,” as well as the attention to detail with the tags and shape. A wonderful and evocative way to organize text on paper.

I discovered this hanger tea by Soon Mo Kang (immediately above and below) via swissmiss. You might argue it’s not quite a book (at any rate it’s certainly paper sculpture) but after seeing the piece by Allison Cooke Brown above, who’s to say? It’s information organized linearly on paper. And it’s beautiful.

Cup Book, a dust jacket / carrying case shaped like a teacup, complete with a tag from the teabag hanging out. I love how the handles of the mug become the handles for the book!

A similar idea, a book called Tasseology beautifully conceptualized by Linna Xu. I found it via Lushlee. Great choices, especially with the lovely teabag bookmark.

And now some of my own work, using used teabags to experiment with book forms. See more of my first and second teabag book (below) on my blog.

More beautiful Harry Potter inspired design and paper art! This beautiful wedding invitation is inspired by the marauder’s map. By etsy seller oneLittleM.

From the description:

This enchanting map takes you through the fantastic adventure of the betrothed couple’s proposal story. Wedding event details lie within a secret folded chamber in the back of this extraordinarily unique wedding invitation! Measures approx 8.6″ x 22″ open, 8.6″ x 5.5″ folded.

Discovered via etoile26 on tumblr.

Table with Rhiannon's latest specimen project

Last Saturday was Open Studio Day on Bryant Street and I decided to pay SFCB’s own Rhiannon Alpers a visit at her studio. I work with Rhiannon everyday, and I know she’s a book artist but I was still blown away by the great work that I saw.

Welcome to Rhiannon's studio

Rhiannon’s most recent project was set up on a table outside of her studio space but first I went in to check out where she worked. She shares her studio with two other printers/bookmakers (also part of the SFCB community).

Rhiannon's platen press

Besides a lot of table space, Rhiannon also has her own board shear (pictured above) and standing platen press.

One of Rhiannon's 'normal' books

I knew that Rhiannon knows how to make a lot of different book structures, like the one pictured above, and she has casually mentioned she makes sculptural books but boy, did she underestimate herself. Her most recent series is called Specimen Books and it really pushes the idea of what books are to a whole new level. As the title suggest, the books (and boxes, and paper sculptures) contain either insect or plant specimens and sometimes it’s difficult to tell what’s real and what’s handmade. I would hardly do the work justice by describing it in words so to get a better idea of what the work is all about, I snapped some photos so you can see for yourself.

Title display for the project

That sound you just heard was me squealing with delight. This is SO AMAZING. Paper artist Sheung Yee Shing created this amazing pop-up of Notre Dame Cathedral, complete with apse and flying buttresses. I’ve watched the video above repeatedly on a loop since I discovered it. It looks like a modified chessboard pop-up structure filled with gorgeous papercuts. Astounding work!

A short vignette following the printing of Suzanne St Albans’ Mango and Mimosa, using the traditional book-binding methods of the England-based Smith-Settle Printers. Beautiful! via Devour

Keith A. Smith has written a number of thorough books on the art and craft of bookmaking. Here is a section of one of my favorites, Structure of the Visual Book, in which he lovingly describes the care to be used in handling a physical book:

CARE in VIEWING a BOOK: Holding near the gutter and lifting the page will cause stress and very likely kink the paper. To anyone who loves paper, kinks are upsetting. The paper loses its freshness. Bent surfaces catch raking light, casting shadows which distract from the image.

The page should not be turned by placing the index finger under the upper right-hand corner of the recto, then slipping the hand to the verso and palming it while turning the page. The entire verso receives an application of oil from the hand.

The extreme vertical edge of the recto should be lifted and placed to the extreme left. The area touched should be varied with each viewing to dissipate wear.

“Hand-held” refers to format size and that the book is experienced through touch. It does not refer to position of viewing. The book should be placed on a table and opened, allowing both covers to rest on the table, if the binding permits. After viewing, the book should not be pushed aside, as friction can mar the back cover.

The physical object has to be handled to be seen; it has to be stored. Care requires awareness. If books are abused, it is because 99% of what we read or see is mass-produced, inexpensive transients: the newspaper, magazines, paperback books, television.

Structure of the Visual Book, Keith A. Smith, pg 48

The photos and gif above are from Astronomical by Mishka Henner, a scale model of our solar system in twelve 500 page volumes printed-on-demand. On page 1 the Sun, on page 6,000 Pluto. I found the image via Fuck Yeah Book Arts.

I wish I could find out more about this beautiful suspended book installation! I imagine walking under it would feel like walking on the bottom of a pond…with books up above instead of lilies. If you know where / what this is and who made it, please let us know via the comments.

Discovered via F*** Yeah, Book Arts!, photo by Hanif Shoaei on Flickr.

More than 100 of Peter Gentenaar’s ethereal paper sculptures were installed inside the Abbey church of Saint-Riquier in France. Gothic architecture + paper art = SWOON!

I love how the curves and organic forms of the paper sculptures echo the beautiful vaulting and cluster piers of the church interior – look how the sculptures have ribbing just like the ribbed groin vaults! Gothic architecture, facilitated by the invention of the flying buttress, is characterized by the towering, luminous spaces created by the higher ceilings and huger windows that flying buttresses allowed for (compared to the engaged buttresses of Romanesque architecture). So the true lightness and airiness of the suspended paper objects reminds us how the seemingly light and airy walls are actually a monumental stone structure. Just gorgeous, and amazing photos too.

Here is a link to Peter Gentenaar’s site translated into English. Google didn’t do a seamless job in the translation, but here’s some bits from his artist statement that I liked:

My interest in paper dates from the time I worked with it as a graphic artist…. Because I worked from the mind of the sculptor and graphic artist, I stayed as a long paper which printed material or a mold that could be filled. As my technique has improved, I found that I have not dried with a paper had everything I wanted…. A sheet of paper is thin and strong, like a leaf of a plant. When the sheet is reinforced with thin bamboo strips that resemble the veins of the leaf and woordt the agreement between the two even more stressed.
Through my long flax pulp, grease, grinding, arise during the drying enormous tensions between the bamboo is not shrinking and shrinking greatly in drying paper pulp that has changed. These tensions give the sheet a form that is most reminiscent of a opkrullend leaf in autumn.
All my work comes as a 2 dimensional plain wet pulp on my vacuum table, which ultimately shaped by the tension during drying.
The pulp is the bearer of the shape, color and texture, the simplicity and directness with which this
entails makes it a wonderful material.
My paper is made from bleached flax fiber, which Dehollander with lightfast pigments are colored, the paper can be transparent. The molds are sprayed with a flame retardant and sturdy enough sense to be cleaned.

Discovered via Upon a Fold.

PS: I am so glad that I had an excuse to add a “ribbed groin vault” tag to the SFCB blog. My work is complete!