New York Center for Book Arts graduate and Parsons School Of Art teacher, Hungarian born Andrea Dezsö wears the hats of book artist, journaler and paper artist - a trifecta here at the Rag & Bone Blog! And she’s a teacher too - awesome. And her husband was in the Peace Corps - when will it stop?

Andrea’s work features traditional techniques such as embroidery and bookbinding, but thematically include edgy narratives influenced by her memories of growing up in Hungary as well as Transylvanian legends and folklore.

The New York Times interviewed Andrea in June with photos of her handmade books. Andreas work has been featured in McSweeneys with a dust jacket and poster for issue #23. Her illustrative style has roots in communist culture, while also bringing to life underworld and otherworldly creatures. She creates paper-tunnel theaters, little dioramas with flashing LED lights, like modern day Kabuki theater.

Her one-of-a kind handmade books showcase her intricate illustrations and water colors, some with pop-up scenes. Be sure to visit her gallery pages at the Parsons site for lots of inspiration.

View the gallery at parsons
Watch the opening at You Tube

Tokyo artist Noriko Ambe cuts pages of open books to create three dimensional interior landscapes. Viewed from above, they have an almost organic quality and it’s difficult to see where the book form ends and the structure itself removed from the medium begins. They’re a little different from the representational paper cut books we’ve seen before from Su Blackwell and Georgia Russell, who both alter books in response to their written contents. Noriko also cuts stacks of white paper to create landscapes which look like architectural models. See her website for more.

Visit www.norikoambe.com

I posted the button work of Lisa Kikin before, and as promised, here are images from her beautiful book structures and book art.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Visit www.lisakokin.com

Ukulele Series Books
Artists Peter and Donna Thomas create book art structures from traditional Hawaiian Ukuleles. Each piece has a connection to Hawaiian music and traditional stories. The artists describe the structures as books because of the way they tell a story, also explaining how the stories can be different for each viewer.

Visit www.baymoon.com
Via Ulla!

Peggy Johnston, Waveland Studio Starship Log and Pod

The Guild Of Bookworkers page promoting the 100th Anniversary Exhibition Schedule lists June 18th as the opening date for the Bridwell Library exhibit, but visiting the library website, it looks like the exhibit has been up since June 8th - sorry for the delay, I thought it was the 18th - however the exhibit has been travelling to different venues since September last year, and will continue until November 2007.

Check out the online gallery for lots of bookbinding inspiration.

Timothy Ely Clockwerk Men Before Enlightenment

Susan Collard The Winter Palace

Barbara Lazarus Metz Birds of North America and Know Your Wild Birds

Chela Metzger Bird Book

Emily Martin, Naughty Dog Press Sleepers, Dreamers & Screamers

Sue Allen, Studio Ink Suite Sixteen

Guild Of Bookworkers
100th Anniversary Exhibition
June 18 – July 27, 2007

Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Galleries
Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology
Southern Methodist University
6005 Bishop Blvd, Dallas, TX
(214) 768-3483.

Visit the Guild Of Bookworkers
Visit The Bridwell Library
Visit The Online Gallery

Book artist Sarah, AKA: “littlepaperbird’, makes beautiful concertina, perfect and accordion style books with pages that take center stage in their designs. Don’t these photos make you want to start sewing up book blocks?

More At flickr
Read Sarah’s blog

Artist Sara Lechner collaborates with friends and artists to create beautiful altered books worthy of a gallery exhibition. This collaborative book project, with Cecilia Levy, was created for the Library Flickr group. Beautiful!

VIsit The Fabric of Meditation
Visit the Library Flickr Pool

I wanted to post lots of art Journal images from Dawbis, but had to include collage, and other paper illustation pieces as well their so inspirational. Dawbis is:

…a self taught artist living in San Antonio with her Husband and kitty. She is an environmentalist who loves to draw, embroider, sew, and glue things together every now and again. She enjoys working with her hands to create tiny pieces of art ranging from collages to handmade greeting cards and gift tags. One day she hopes to illustrate a children’s book and to help save the planet.

Right on! Her tiny pieces of art are ones to covet. She even trades from time to time so visit her website often.

Visit Dawbis Online
View Flickr Photos

I’ve posted Georgia Russell’s work before, but here are new 2007 pieces.

Russell uses a scalpel instead of a brush or pen, and works with obsessive perseverance and patience to make her constructions of cut paper. She appropriates found materials and utilises their decorative qualities and inherent potential as she manipulates, cuts and transforms books, music scores, newspapers, currency, maps and photographs.

I think her work is just absolutely stunning. Someday I hope to see them in person.

Visit www.englandgallery.com

Henrik Drescher, who I know best as the creator behind “Postal Seance: A Scientific Investigation into the Possibility of a Postlife Postal Existence”, has a large website with plenty of images of his artwork including examples of his book art and journals.

In addition to contemporary art, Henrik illustrates children’s books. “The Boy Who Ate Around” is one of the New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books.

Henrik refers to his work as a “junkyard of the imagination.” He works in sketchbooks and notebooks which he uses both as professional source books and personal diaries. In these he picks through new ideas, used motifs, and discarded thoughts. From these, Henrik develops a compelling visual vocabulary that grows slowly and selectively, evolving through sketchbooks and artist’s books to finished illustrations, and back again.

Visit www.hdrescher.com

Book arts exhibition

The Republic of Letters
Percy Thomson Gallery
Stratford, New Zealand
June 16 to July 15, 2007

There is an extensive gallery at the website with detailed book descriptions and artist website links.

Visit The Republic Of Letters

The Prague Anagram Bookshop uses amazing book art pieces for their advertising, similar to the work by book artists mentioned here, here and here. I wish I knew who did these, anyone here know? I’ve emailed the book shop but haven’t received a reply yet.

The cop & robber have legs which look like stacks of books. Beautiful work.

Visit the Anagram Bookshop
Via bibliodyssey

Western New York Book Arts Collaborative
Typo Festival [Book Arts & Typography Event]
May 8 - 11, 2007

[various locations, New York State.
Visit www.wnybookarts.org for locations]

A celebration of the graphic and typographic arts Featuring the Western New York Premier of “Helvetica: A Documentary Film” by Gary Hustwit. Additional events include a studio visit to Paradise Press, exhibitions and lectures.

Visit www.wnybookarts.org

Pacific Center for the Book Arts
33rd Annual Book Arts & Printers’ Fair
Saturday, May 5th from 9am to 4pm
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
Wharf at Buchanan St & Marina Blvd

Free Admission. Letterpress printers, book artists, calligraphers, paper marblers, ‘zine publishers & book enthusiasts share their love of the word in all its forms. Come meet artists, see crafts-folk at work & see the tools & equipment of the book arts. Features a children’s area where kids can make their own books & try handpress printing. Vendors offer unique handcrafted books, papers & journals, old-fashioned equipment, book-making supplies, letterpress zines & subscription art. Presented by the Pacific Center for the Book Arts.

Workshop Schedule

10:30 Non-toxic Intaglio Etching Process with John Sullivan
11:00 Woven Book Structure with Debbie Kogan
12:30 Work Flow for BoxCar Bases and Polymer Plates with John Sullivan
3:00 Collecting Miniature Books with Peter and Donna Thomas

Details: www.pcba.info
Directions: www.fortmason.org

I’m a little late with thie post, which was going around the first week of March, but it’s never too late to mix art with charity. This postcard-book showcases post-Katrina work by New Orleans based designers and serves as a medium to share their personal recollections through design narratives. 5% of proceeds will go towards the AIGA New Orleans Design Educational Fund.

Buy at: www.degreesnola.com

Fiber and paper artist Laura Fairbrother [and little Clara] make wonderful soft plushie dolls but have recently tried their hands at pop-up books, which is not an easy task. I’ve tried pop-ups and they’re… challenging. These books make it look so easy, maybe I’ll try it again. Be sure to visit their Etsy shop too.

Blog: www.cupcakesforclara.typepad.com
Flickr: www.flickr.com
Etsy: www.etsy.com

Miniature Bookbinding Class
May 5–6 (Sat.–Sun.)
Garage Annex School for Book Arts
One Cottage Street #5, Room 503
Easthampton, MA 01027

$200 plus $25 materials fee
Enrollment limited to twelve

Miniature books present difficult design and structural challenges to the bookbinder. After all, a true miniature is less than three inches tall. During the course, students will construct three books of diminishing size from two inches down to a half inch.

Class information at www.garageannexschool.com
Visit www.reid-cunningham.com

The Paper Studio [I have to interview these guys someday…] have an online gallery of their latest book arts show. The Tempe, Arizona retailer has a paper shop as well as a bookbinding, letterpress and papermaking studio and a gallery for book and paper related shows. The last show just closed but there is a gallery of photos from the show, which looks inspiring.

Visit www.paperstudio.com

Dawn DeVries Sokol is curating a book for Rockport Publishing [they’re my publisher too - a fantastic company, if you’re looking to author a creative book, contact them] tentatively titled 1,000 Artist Journal Pages.

She is in need of submissions for the book, specifically - you guessed it - images of artist journal pages, preferably already in a journal. There is a submission form on Dawn’s website with all the details you need to get started.

Deadline is May 15th
That’s right around the corner!

More information at www.dblogala.typepad.com
[Top left, look for the PDF link]

Russian illustrator and journaler Irina Troitskaya says she was:

…born and raised in Izhevsk, Russia - city of dead ends, sad electronic music and Finno-Ugric cultural roots.

I had to look that last reference up in Wikipedia, and it refers to Russian people living near Finland. I think. However she got her sense of style is fine with us. Her quirky and sweet, yet dark, images remind me of fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm and the shapes of tree branches on a windy day. And also a walk through any big city.

She is an illustrator by day, artist by night, and kindly shares her illustrated journals with the world. There’s a lot to choose from and I promise to post more.

More at irtroit.ksan.ru
Photos at www.flickr.com