Book Arts in the Lab

This semester the Preservation Lab is collaborating with the English department and Associate Professor Gary Weissman to teach ENGL 3097 – Book Arts. The experiential learning portion of the course is taught in the Preservation Lab by Holly Prochaska, with much assistance from Jessica Ebert, Catarina Figueirinhas, and Hyacinth Tucker. The course offers students a foundation in the history of the codex, artists’ books, and zines, as well as a hands-on introduction to paper making, bookbinding, and printing.

Last week the students finally got their hands on our beloved board-shears while making a tux box to house the many models they constructed during the course.

It has been a fun and rewarding spring thanks to the enthusiasm of our 12 students!

Students learning to use a board shear
Students measuring and folding a tux box enclosure.
Students measuring and folding a tux box enclosure, other half of class.

If you are interested in learning more about the experiential learning portion of the Book Arts curriculum, please reach out to holly.prochaska@uc.edu.

Holly Prochaska (UCL) — Preservation Librarian