hand-made books · the accordion book is a folded structure; the book block is made by simply...

ALTERED BOOKS

HAND-MADE BOOKS

ACCORDION BOOKS

HAND MADE BOOKPROJECT OBJECTIVES

The objective of the bookmaking project is to introduce students to the traditions and techniques of the handmade book, as well as expressive qualities available with the artist’s book.

Students will produce two books for this project.

1. Students will create one book using the accordion form. This book will demonstrate a use of text as the main focus of the design of the book. It will incorporate a variety of media and techniques to include but not limited to text, monoprinting, collage, illustrations, pencil, paint, and ink.

2. Students will transform a discarded book into a creative work of art that encompasses a theme and utilizes a variety of media and techniques.

BRIEF HISTORY OF BOOK-MAKING

Humans have used leather, bark, clay, soft metals and papyrus to record everything form laws to cultural stories. The word “book” is Old English in origin meaning “written sheet.”

In the 4th century B.C. the Greeks and Romans wrote on papyrus scrolls as well as wax covered wooden tablets. Some of the wooden tables were hinged together with leather thongs or pieces of metal, and were called a codex. This style construction was the earliest form of what we would define as a book.

The people of Asia used several different materials to write on and preserve their thoughts; silk, palm leaves, birch bark and stems of bamboo were made into scrolls. It was the Chinese that were given credit for inventing paper about the 2nd century A.D. and then developing printing techniques around 500 A.D. By the 5th century most Chinese writing used only paper. But, were not yet produced into books as we know them now


From the 7th to the 12th century the Islamic Arab Empire flourished. Because of Arab conquests of the Chinese, Islamic scribes learned how to make paper and became great book writers. Cities like Damascus and Baghdad were centers for book production. The Muslim bible, the Koran, was compiled by copyists by 651 A.D. It was beautifully decorated with elaborate borders, backgrounds and patterns called Arabesques. These same copyists worked to translate the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.


Printing as we know it today had it’s start (again) in China and Japan. It was the 6th century and words and images are being carved into wood blocks that could be inked then printed onto paper and even on silk fabrics.

In the 11th century the Chinese had the first moveable type we know of.

The Europeans were a little slower, it wasn’t until the 1300's that they began printing from wood blocks. Johannes Gutenberg, in 1438, was the first European to revolutionize printing with his special jeweler’s tools and an old wine press. It is Gutenberg that is given credit for the Gutenberg Bible, dubbed Europe’s first printed book even though it was never signed or dated.

The Signature Book

Case binding is the most common type of hardcover binding for books. The pages are arranged in signatures and glued together into a "textblock." The textblock is then attached to the cover or "case" which is made of cardboard covered with paper, cloth, vinyl or leather.

“Anatomy of a book”


PROJECT ONEACCORDION BOOKorCONCERTINA BOOK

The accordion book is a folded structure; the book block is made by simply folding a sheet of paper back and forth in page-width increments.

Concertina books were traditionally used for Buddhist sutras or for albums of calligraphy or paintings. A typical concertina is made from sheets of paper pasted into a long strip that is then folded accordion fashion into the desired length.

ACCORDION BOOKorCONCERTINA BOOK


This book was made using two accordion books stacked on each other.


These books can either be expanded outward or kept flat.

ACCORDION BOOKorCONCERTINA BOOK Example of an

accordion book displayed outward.


To understand the form of the accordion book, we will make one together. Follow these easy instructions.

UNDERSTAND

Step 1: Take a long sheet of paper Step 2: Fold in half. Step 3: Fold edges back toward the centre.

Valley

Peak/mountain

Step 1: Fold hinge in ½

Step 2: Glue sections onto hinge.

Hinge

CONNECT ACCORDION UNITS

FOLD ACCORDION UNITS

3d FUN OPTIONS


Step 4: open folded sheet; push central panel out to create pop-up

Step 2: Cut two parallel lines.

Step 1: fold paper in 1/2

Step 3: fold central area back and forth to crease

90 degree pop-up

3d FUN OPTIONS


Step 1: clip shaded area and fold along lines.

Cut two parallel lines on the page

Step 2: Glue shaded area to page.

Tramlines – great for holding thin objects

Pocket – basic layout


Windows

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

Shape of the book

Another accordion Pop-up

Belt-loop

pocket


Score

COVER

Step 2: score spine by folding each edge toward the other, minus width of spine.

Width of the spine

Step 1: cut a strong piece of card to slightly larger than the book’s dimensions, plus spine (the thicker the book contents, the wider the spine)

Step 3: glue outside page(s) of the books to inside cover(s)


INQUIRY/RESEARCHSTEP TWO: THEME

Choose a passage to be the main focus of your design. This passage can be a quote or part of a poem, song, paragraph from fiction or non-fiction.

Most importantly, it must be of meaning to YOU!


INQUIRY/RESEARCHSTEP TWO: THEMEFrom this passage, find a theme/concept to explore and express as the core of the book. (You’ll use the same theme for the Altered Book project).

The passage may express the emotions such as love, anger, hurt, unrequited love, despair, passion etc.

The passage may deal with social justice themes of race, gender, sexuality, feminism, class, poverty, environmentalism, or other forms of inequality.

The passage may deal with universal ideas of home, memories, loss, revenge, tolerance, commitment, responsibility, respect, loneliness, kindness, etc.


INQUIRY/RESEARCHSTEP TWO: THEME

Once you have chosen your theme, gather images, draw thumbnails, explore printmaking and other techniques to begin creating your artist book.

Think as to the presentation of the book: Will it stay flat or will it be expanded outward;What type of cover will it have?Will there be images on one-side or both sides?

Once you have established the presentation, look at lay-out, font & typeface, lay-out and illustrations or drawings.


1. This can be achieved by making a mock-up of the book. *A mock-up is a small model or replica for experimental purposes.

OR

2. Make a layout map/template.

Start to plan the layout of your book. This refers to how the text and images will be arranged or organized on a page, and in the whole book. Begin by determining how many words will be on a page.

INQUIRY/RESEARCHSTEP TWO: LAYOUT

The length of the passage will determine the size and length of the book.


Choosing a style means choosing an implication. Use italics for emphasis and bold to make text stand out. Typeface can imply certain feelings. Typeface have a lot of personality and clearly communicate a subtext because of how they look. When you're choosing a typeface, its style can be very important.

Choose a font that for your book that complements the subtleties of the passage. Think of how the appearance (colour/size) of the font will influence everything else on the page.

What's the difference between a font and a typeface? Creative producer Norbert Florendo offers a very concise explanation: "A font is what you use, and typeface is what you see."

INQUIRY/RESEARCHSTEP TWO: FONT & TYPEFACE


Vary the Sizes for better Emphasis

Know how your font works regarding its size. For example, some fonts work very well both small and large; while others work fine large, but are not readable as small font.



FORMAT YOUR TEXT & IMAGES TO BEST COMMUNICATE YOUR MESSAGE

The way you arrange your text on a page has a

compelling visual impact. Think about its orientation, its relation

to other text on the page, how it interacts

with images, the spacing between the characters

and lines.



Experiment with the different drawing, painting and printmaking techniques.

APPLICATIONEXPERIMENT & APPLY

Design and construct your book so it that communicates a story to the viewer.

Ms. Toor will hold small workshops for a few classes to support the creative juices.


CRITERIA

Monoprinting- use on inside or on cover) - can use the monoprints we completed in class;

Quote or passage of a poem, song, paragraph from a story;

3 illustrations or images;

Appropriate font & typeface (enhances the design and communicates the story);

One pop-up feature;

Expressive, and clearly communicates a theme based on the quote or passage.

SUPPLIES

Any materials can be used for bookmaking

X-acto knife & cutting mat

Glue sticks/spray adhesive/double-sidedtape

Gesso or gel medium & foam paint brush

Stamps & hole punches,

Drills, fabric-tac, book-binding tape

Pens, markers, coloured pencils, oilpastels, crayons, paints, prints

Magazines

STYLES & TECHNIQUES

Collage – images from magazines, otherbooks

Closure/handle on the outside

Photographs

Pop-ups

Found Objects (from nature or yourimmediate environments)

Painted pages

Monoprint pages

HISTORY OF ALTERED BOOKS

Altered books is an art form in which existing books are reworked into works of art, often manifests in a variety of ways. The existing book becomes the canvas for the new ideas and images. Sometimes words or images from the book are retained as a part of the altering. At other times it is the books is entirely obscured to become a new idea totally.

Altered books are actually an old way of recycling. In the 11th Century Italian monks recycled old manuscripts written on vellum by scraping off the ink and adding new text and illustrations on top of the old. This was known as "Palimpsest."


In the late 19th century people used old books as a sort of scrapbook, pasting on its pages the ephemera from their society including magazine images, personal recipes, and family pictures.

This is "Grangerism", a Victorian practice of illustrating a particular book with engravings torn from other books.


Today artists are exploring the form of the book along with its substance. Existing images and text become something entirely new. Tom Phillips' Humament is one of the first contemporary examples of this art.


Tom Phillips. A Humanent

By covering, cutting, and changing the structure, altered books run the gamut from books that have become shrines to books that are transformed into colorful images totally unrelated to their origins.

CONTEMPORARY ARTIST’S BOOKS

Artists express their ideas through altered books in many limitless amounts of ways.

Often books are turned or transformed into sculptures with the addition or deletion of images and text to create new meaning or visual interpretation of the book.

Book Installation LeadonhallMarket, London UK, via Flickr

Book Installation Detail by Yeshiva University Museum Exhibitions, via Flickr

ALTERED BOOKS: DEFINITION

An altered book is an old manuscript that has been embellished, decorated, painted, torn, or altered in any way to turn it into an art object. Often altered books begin as a comment about the original book, but the theme of an altered book may also be something unrelated.

ALTERED BOOKS

TECHNIQUES :WINDOWS & CUT-OUTS

TECHNIQUES:Painting on Pages

Using positive-negative space to show image

TECHNIQUES:Painting on Pages

Covering Text and adding an Image

Allowing some of the text to peek through

TECHNIQUES:Painting on Pages & Adding text

Adding text to the image

TECHNIQUES:

Inserting Found Objects

Making several windows

TECHNIQUES:Cut out text

Using the text to form the negative space.

TECHNIQUES:Cut out text

Using collage on the cover or inside.

TECHNIQUES:Pop-up

TECHNIQUES:Pop -up

TECHNIQUES:Pop Up

GENERAL TECHNIQUES TO TRY

Deconstruct a picture. Paint over it, ageit with sandpaper, rip it and put it backtogether, etc.

Pop-ups!

Delete – create poem by removing textfrom a page in the book.

Thread a ribbon on inside of the spineand tie in a bows.

Alter photos using photo editingsoftware such as Photoshop

STYLES & TECHNIQUES

Collage – images from magazines, otherbooks

Closure/handle on the outside

Photographs

Pop-ups

Quotes

Found Objects (from nature or yourimmediate environments)

Painted pages

Monoprint pages

ALTERED BOOKS

INQUIRY/RESEARCHTHEME

The theme of this book is based on passage of that you chose for your accordion or concertina book. The focus of this book is to show your theme without using the passage.

You can use SOME words from your original passage.

ALTERED BOOKS

INQUIRY/RESEARCH

THEME

Start to think about which techniques you can use for your book.

You can’t make a mock-up, but you can plan out the book.

ALTERED BOOKS

CRITERIA

Text: uses one of the techniques to alter text;

3 illustrations or images;

ONE pop-up feature or ONE found-object or ONE cut-out;

Expressive, and clearly communicates a theme based on the quote or passage;

Demonstrates a relationship to the accordion book.

DEADLINE

Accordion Book & Altered Book

DEADLINES

November 3– Day ANovember 4– Day B

hand-made books · the accordion book is a folded structure; the book block is made by simply...

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