Patricia Sargent

Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Member for 38 years

California Dreams: The Art of Stanley Mouse
Bound full black Harmatan goatskin with multiple color onlays.
31 x 23.5 x 2.5 cm
Completed in 2020
For Sale - $4,600

Is there something about this binding that isn’t visually apparent that you’d love people to know about?
It’s extra illustrated with a full-page self portrait of the artist.

Patricia Sargent is a graduate from the School of the Worcester Art Museum (1972) and Rhode Island School of Design (1977). From 1982 - present Patricia is a partner at Dragonfly Bindery/Studio in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. See more of Patricia’s work here.

Jackie Scott

Providence, Rhode Island
Member for 7 years

Songs and Poems, Lord Alfred Tennyson 
Chocolate goatskin, handmade paper, gold leaf, linen thread, metallic thread.
23.4 x 14.9 x 2.3cm
Completed in 2016

What is your favorite thing about this binding?
This binding was inspired by Tennyson's poem "In Memoriam," a few lines of which are stamped on the paper doublures. Like the poem, the binding is a tribute to an incredibly important figure in my life who passed away. I love how through the way I used color and texture, this binding feels simultaneously celebratory and solemn.

Jackie Scott studied traditional bookbinding and book repair at the North Bennet Street School, and then worked in the book lab at Northeast Document Conservation Center. She recently received an MFA in textile design from the Rhode Island School of Design and is working on a soon-to-be-launched knitwear line called Jackie Ambrose Scott. See more of Jackie’s work here.

Julie B. Stackpole

Thomaston, Maine
Member for 47 years

Heloise and Abelard, George Moore
Black Niger goatskin, antique silk brocade, gold leaf, linen, ink & vellum.
22.0 - 23.4 x 15.8 x 4.6 cm
Completed in 2020
For Sale - Book: $1,325 // Book & Box: $1,750

Did you fully plan every aspect of this piece before starting to work on it, or did you make design decisions along the way?
Pierre Abelard was a 12th century French priest & theologian who had a secret affair with his young, brilliant student Heloise. Originally, many years ago, I was going to bind the book in just a plain black leather cover, with all the color of silk brocade and gold leaf confined to the inside. However, I set it aside when I realized that it would not be very effective in a show. This year, I finished the binding after I contrived a way that the outside could reveal the rest of their story: Her guardian discovered the affair, Abelard was attacked and mutilated, and Heloise made to join a distant nunnery. (They never met in person again but her correspondence with him is considered part of the foundation of French literature.)

Julie Stackpole studied German, French, and British bookbinding after college and set up her bindery on Nantucket in 1975, moving to Maine ten years later. She does all kinds of fine binding as well as rare book restoration. See more of Julie’s work here.

Colin Urbina

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Member for 10 years

So Far, Colin Urbina
Paper Board, eco-dyed Japanese tissue, ink.
12 x 15 x 1.5 cm
Completed in 2020

What inspired you to create this work or select this text for your submission?
When the pandemic hit, my studio was far away and not super accessible. I needed to make something to react to the moment and used the materials I had at my home. So to both express my anxieties of the current moment, I decided to make a timeline of what's happened. Now in September it's easy to forget the desperation for masks that gripped us all in March and April. It's easy to forget that hydroxychloroquine was a scandal and false lead for a treatment. Seeing it all laid out helped me remember.

Colin Urbina is a graduate of North Bennet Street school and has been binding books professionally since 2011. See more of Colin’s work here.

Gerritt VanDerwerker

Waldoboro, Maine
Member for 23 years

Roots to the Earth, Poems by Wendell Berry, Wood Engravings by Wesley Bates
Undyed tanned goatskin with recessed onlays of dark green and dark brown goatskin, sewn silk endbands in yellow ocher and red ocher, hand marbled endpapers by Karli Frigge, linen thread, and braided linen tapes. 
25.9 x 23.9 x 2.2 cm
Completed in 2019

Did you fully plan every aspect of this piece before starting to work on it, or did you make design decisions along the way?
Last year I was in the middle of working on a series of collages using casein pigments on printed papers on panels and wanted to incorporate this same approach in this bookbinding, but since this was a design problem that uses positive-negative space, not an artwork per se, I had to plan everything beforehand instead of working intuitively.

Though trained as a research biologist, Gerritt VanDerwerker has been a visual artist since 1977 and a hand bookbinder since 1994.

Robert Walp

Chestertown, New York
Member for 14 years

Les Festival des Murmures, Dylan Willoughby
A variety of mould and handmade papers, Asahi book cloth.
22.5 x 15.5 x 1.8 cm
Completed in 2018
For Sale - $350

Did you fully plan every aspect of this piece before starting to work on it, or did you make design decisions along the way?
I usually start with a pretty complete mockup of my books. I use Affinity Publisher to create a digital copy including text and illustrations. As planning progresses I'll choose paper and binding materials, then print an inkjet copy using the chosen materials. Last I set type, make printing plates or woodcuts, and print the final copies. As I print I stay open to changes in the plan and will incorporate them if I can. 

Robert Walp printed his first book around 2001. A few years later he found himself at The University of Alabama where he earned an MFA in Book Arts. He has taught workshops at Penland and PBI, and occasionally teaches in his studio in the Adirondacks in New York State. See more of Robert’s work here.

Joelle Webber

Westport Island, Maine
Member for 16 years

Spring's Bright Awakening
Katie MacGregor handmade papers, written in gouache, decorative threads, book board, sonotube, book cloth, PVA, metal hangers, silver leaf.
40 x 30.5  x 17.5 cm (closed)
40 x 38 x 20.5 cm (open)
Completed in 2020
For Sale - $8,000

What inspired you to create this work or select this text for your submission?
One late winter/early spring morning, I was walking a favorite stretch under bare deciduous trees, which reach over the trail. It had rained before dawn and the sky was still overcast. The day was already heating up, creating a heavy mist rising from the slushy snow pack. 

The ground, the sky, the very air was diffuse with white light, contrasted with the dark wet trees. The only signs of life were the lichens and mosses. There are certain lichens that blend with dull gray bark, and shine brightly upon damp bark. As if the trees have been gilded. 

Spring's Bright Awakening is my sculptural memory of that beautiful morning. A fortunate moment when variables in nature align for one to witness something magical. Something I had never before experienced, and may never again see in my lifetime. 

Joelle Webber creates artist books that combine her almost forty years of collecting binding techniques with her love of philosophy, nature, writing and sculpture. See more of Joelle’s work here.

Stephanie Wolff

Norwich, Vermont
Member for 17 years

Place Memory
Acrylic ink, paper, bookcloth, board.
15.9 x 12.1 x .9 cm
Completed in 2020
For Sale - Price on request

What inspired you to create this work or select this text for your submission?
In the first months of the pandemic I found myself thinking about specific moments from various points in my life—travel via my imagination. The maps of those places, along with brief written sketches of the associated memory, are collected in this book. The binding structure was based on The Standard Road Book, a New England road atlas from 1904.

Stephanie Wolff is an artist who works with paper, text, textile and the book form. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and Germany and is in many collections, public and private. See more of Stephanie’s work here or on Instagram.

Pamela Wood

Tempe, Arizona
Member for 17 years

CANDIDE by JFMA de Voltaire
Burgundy goatskin, hand sewn silk endbands, handmade paste paper endsheets, inlays use a variety of colored goatskin and original watercolor paper.
25.5 x 16.5 x 2 cm
Completed in 2019
For Sale - $900

What is your favorite thing about this binding?
My love for the inlay process allows me to use their simplicity, strength, surprise, and color to create a variety of design paths for this fine leather binding.

Pamela Wood received a BFA in printmaking at Kent State University, post-graduate study at Cleveland Institute of Art in graphic design, and technical binding courses at the American Academy of Bookbinding. Many of her books have been acquired by local, national, and international libraries for their permanent collections. She produces fine binding and artists books full time in her Tempe, Arizona studio. See more of Pamela’s work here.