This workshop will begin with an overview of artists books including slides and physical samples followed up by a half hour discussion of the process of making the book. It will include a history and description of publishing and how it relates to the book artist's many roles: author, illustrator, editor, publisher, printer, and binder.

The second hour of the course will involve learning and playing hands-on with different simple book models and structures. Before breaking for lunch each student will pick a model that they will then spend the afternoon filling with content.

After lunch, students will work with the instructor to add content to the book model they chose to focus on. The instructor will give various content adding/generation demos according to student needs, including collage, stenciling, image transfers, and others.    

The workshop will conclude with a mini-critique of each student's progress with discussion of strategies for furthering and expanding concepts developed during the class.

Materials to Bring: Two-three short quotes (no more than a couple sentences) or poems (4-6 lines) to be used as inspiration for your book; ideas; old magazines, books, and Xeroxes you might want to use; X-acto knife, if desired for detail cutting.

Workshop + Materials Fee: $150.00

Date & Time: Sunday, April 2, 2017 :: 9:30am-5:30pm

Location: 375 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Note: Please read over the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class

REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE 3 DAYS PRIOR TO THE START DATE OF THIS WORKSHOP.

About the Instructor | Matt Runkle

Matt Runkle is a writer, cartoonist, printer, and book artist. His short fiction collection, The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales, was published in 2014 by Brooklyn Arts Press. His writing has also appeared in Monkeybicycle, The Collagist, Beecher’s, matchbook, and BOMB. He is creator of the zine, RUNX TALES, and was a resident at the Cartoon Art Museum. His comics have been anthologized in Gay Genius (Sparkplug Comic Books, 2011) and Rob Kirby’s THREE. A member of the board of directors of the College Book Art Association, he has exhibited letterpress work at venues including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Compound Gallery, and Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, where it was included in SGC International’s 2014 Queer Communities in Print portfolio exchange. He has read and performed at spaces varying from SOMArts to Unnameable Books to Headlands Center for the Arts. His new artist's book, titled Catholics, is a limited-edition memoir composed of drawings, collage, and letterpress-printed prose. The winner of a Caxton Club Grant, it is included in permanent collections at the Newberry Library and the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections. He teaches workshops in letterpress, zines, comics, sequential collage, and other modes of writing for visual and material genres.

Past Student Reviews:

“Matt is a great teacher-- very thoughtful, knowledgeable and able to communicate book making techniques to students at varying levels of expertise. He was well prepared with samples, instructions and pre-cut paper. It was very satisfying to walk away with our hand-made books at the end of the day. In addition, Matt was also very flexible to requests we had as a class in terms of having time to explore technique.”

“Matt was very laid back, but instructive and encouraging... a good instructor."