Report of the 2007 Guild of Book Worker's Standards of Excellence in Hand Bookbinding Seminar

American Airlines Training and Conference Center
Dallas, TX
October 17-20, 2007

Reported by Eric Alstrom, Collections Conservator

Although this conference didn't start on a very auspicious note (delayed shuttles, lost luggage), in the end it proved very informative and quite worthwhile. For those who don't know, the Guild of Book Workers is the largest organization in the United States dealing with the art and craft of bookbinding and its related activities (including book conservation). The odd name of the conference refers to the fact that our organization is trying to raise the standards of bookbinders and book artists and revive lost and/or dying traditions in our craft.

The conference was held at the American Airlines Training and Conference Center, which is conveniently located five minutes from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, but far away from either city or anything else besides office parks and conference hotels. This was the downside of the venue, but the facilities were top-notch for our presentations, with large screen video projectors to help us see all the minute details as masters of their craft showed us tips and tricks of the trade.

The first presentation was by book artist Roberta Lavadour, who lives in rural eastern Oregon. Her inspirations include traditional and contemporary Plateau basket weaving, which could be seen in the Twined Binding she demonstrated. For those who saw the book arts exhibit in Special Collections in December 2006/January 2007, one of Ms. Lavadour's books was on display (which has a very different inspiration!). You can find out more about Roberta Lavadour and her Mission Creek press at .

The second demonstration was by Chela Metzger, instructor of conservation at the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record at the University of Texas at Austin. She has been studying the history of stationer's bindings in the late mediaeval and early modern eras. Stationer's bindings were the books used by accountants, government officials and for other archival purposes. These books had to be rugged, able to open flat and withstand heavy, constant use for a long period of time. But they also were often highly decorated and innovative in their structure. The covers were usually made of vellum (or parchment) and maybe some leather with decorations of lace and tooling. The pages were gathered in very thick signatures (a group of folded pages) and either attached to the cover as a unit or individually sewn to the cover with what we would call staples, but these staples were made out of vellum. Sometimes these books would be over two feet thick as more sections were added to complete a fiscal year or group related documents together. Ms. Metzger gave a brief, illustrated history of these bindings then proceeded to demonstrate how they were made, from the sewing (or tacketing) of the signatures to the complex lacing patterns used to decorate the cover. An example of the complex lacing pattern can be found at . Ms. Metzger is also a book artist and had a piece in the GBW exhibit in Special Collections.

The last major presentation was by Stuart Brockman, an English binder who has learned the craft from his father. Mr. Brockman gave an excellent demonstration of gold tooling, or applying gold decoration to the covers of books. He approaches this skill from the tradesman's perspective, rather than from that of a fine binder. The results look almost the same, but perhaps are not quite as polished around the edges. He talked about his training, working with his father (yet another dying tradition -- skills being passed down from generation to generation), and how they have streamlined a very complicated process to work in a production mode. Gold tooling involves taking a piece of gold leaf (approximately 1/200,000" to 1/250,000" thick!), placing it on the cover of a book which has been prepared with glair (an adhesive made from egg whites or shellac) and then using a heated metal tool (this could be lettering, a straight or curved line or a decorative pattern) to press the gold into the leather. This greatly simplifies a very complicated process. A sneeze can send the gold leaf flying through the air and a too dry environment can make the gold not adhere and there are so many other factors which a master tooler must address. And to continue a theme, Mr. Brockman (as well as his father) had a piece in the recent book exhibit, as well, and shows an example of gold tooling.

There were three breakout sessions I attended. Two dealt with the art of design and fine binding. First, Priscilla Spitler, a design binder and edition binder from Truth or Consequences, NM, talked about how she creates the designs for her beautiful design bindings. Of course, Ms. Spitler had a book in that oft-cited exhibit. This was one of the books she brought to discuss her design philosophy. The other design talk was by graphic designer Keith Owens. Mr. Owens teaches graphic design and book arts at the University of North Texas School of Visual Design. His talk, which was more philosophical in nature, focused on creating visual designs for both bindings and page layout. Mr. Owens was not represented in the recent Guild of Book Workers exhibition.

Last, Catherine Burkhard, from Dallas, TX, demonstrated some of her techniques in the conservation and restoration of books. Ms. Burkhard is a conservator and binder in private practice and has to please her customers, do quality work and make a living. She showed us some of the ways she can streamline her work without cutting corners... although she did show us a great way to round the corners, such as on a bible. One of the most useful things I learned was how to easily reattach the parts of a textblock when the sewing has broken.

Since I arrived a day early to attend the GBW board members meeting, on which I serve as the chair of the communications committee, I was also able to attend a pre-conference session on adhesives and materials for editions (or binding multiple copies of the same book). Kitty Maryatt is a book arts instructor from Scripps College in California where she has been teaching undergraduate book arts courses for over 20 years. She demonstrated how she uses various materials and the types of adhesives she prefers in order to speed up production. Each year, she has her class make a professional-quality book in an edition of 100. These books are letterpress printed, hand-sewn and often have an unusual structure or use non-traditional materials. And for most of her students, this is the first time they have ever made a book! I was eager to see her presentation and talk to her afterwards since MSU is beginning a book arts program in the new Residential College in the Arts and Humanities. And to continue an earlier theme, Kitty Maryatt and her students had a book in the GBW exhibit in Special Collections, as well.

Now in case you are wondering, I did find my luggage and it was delivered to the conference hotel a few hours after I arrived. But I was a bit doubtful if it would. I flew on United Airlines and our conference was held at the American Airlines Training and Conference Center. Every time I tried to tell the United representative that I wanted my luggage delivered to the the American Airlines Tr... she would cut me off and try to transfer me to American Airlines. After several attempts to explain and almost just spelling the words for her, I finally made myself clear and the luggage showed up before bedtime.

The AATCC facility is a bit dated with early 1960s architecture, but is a very nice place for a conference. It has very nice conference rooms for both big and small groups, an on-site cafeteria with lots of different foods which were actually pretty good, and snacks all over the place (by the last session, everyone had their little plastic cup of M and M's in hand!). The downside is that the AATCC is in the middle of nowhere, so we didn't have much opportunity to sight-see or eat meals elsewhere and the entire complex must be a half mile long, so getting from one end to the other seemed to take forever (but was good at working off all those M and M calories!). Since this is the American Airline's training center, there were lots of pilots and flight attendants all over the place. There were even flight simulators and full-scale models of various airplanes where we could see the flight attendants practicing on. And our reception was held in a mock airport terminal, complete with check-in terminals and baggage pass-throughs!

Overall, an excellent conference where I learned a lot which I'll be able to apply to my day-to-day work.