Creative Writing students go behind the pages to learn the basics of bookbinding

Patricio, Melissa

English

DOCS@RWU

Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger11-24-2015Under Cover: The Art of the Book with RWULibrarians Lindsey Gumb and Heidi BenedictMelissa PatricioRoger Williams UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Higher Education CommonsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Week at Roger at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in FeaturedNews Story by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact mwu@rwu.edu.Recommended CitationPatricio, Melissa, "Under Cover: The Art of the Book with RWU Librarians Lindsey Gumb and Heidi Benedict" (2015). Featured NewsStory. 549.https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_news/549 News ArchiveUnder Cover: The Art of the Book with RWULibrarians Lindsey Gumb and Heidi BenedictCreative Writing students go behind the pages to learn the basics of bookbindingNovember 24, 2015 Melissa A. PatricioBRISTOL, R.I. – In the age of the e-book and discount paperbacks, it’s easy to forget that, until the 20thcentury, books were exclusively bound by hand – a practice that can be traced back to the  rst centuryB.C. But the ancient art form was alive and well at the Roger Williams University Library recently, whenuniversity librarians Lindsey Gumb and Heidi Benedict instructed a workshop in book arts for creativewriting students.The Mary Te t White Cultural Center was a con ation of modern technology and antique bookbindingtools when students from Associate Professor of Creative Writing Renee Soto’s “Writers ReadingPoetry” class sat down to make their very own books. It’s safe to say that these budding authors knowtheir way around a book – though they typically  nd themselves  lling the pages rather than stitchingthem together.   Soto was inspired to incorporate lessons on bookmaking – including paper marbling, which involvestapping paint onto a viscous solution to create striking patterns that are then transferred onto papercoated with aluminum sulfate – when a student in her senior seminar decided to make her own booksas part of her creative writing thesis.“It’s something that my students are really becoming curiousabout and think more about,” Soto says. “What constitutes abook? What is the nature and spirit of a book? What is the e ortin terms of making the book?”She took a course on paper marbling – a common techniquefor designing paper to cover handmade books – to teach herstudents and recruited the library sta  to instruct them on themechanics of constructing a book. Librarians are not o enlooked at as faculty, Soto says, but they are professors in their own right and should be called upon as ateaching resource.During the two-hour seminar, the students were walked through the process of bookmaking – fromcreating signatures to stitch together a text block to attaching the binding and dressing up the coverboards with paper they had marbled in the visual arts studio just a day earlier.“Ironically, I’m the technology librarian here, but I truly enjoy working with physical books,” says Gumb,who was  rst introduced to book arts in library school and trained at the North Bennet St. School. “Iwas trained to book bind from scratch. So I’m really drawn to the de nition of book arts being the bookas an art object while also observing the traditional practices of the art of the book.”By the end of the class, each of the students walked away with their original book, as well as a newappreciation for the process behind the books they’re so passionate about reading – and writing –excited for the opportunity to further explore this new (albeit ancient) artform.  

Under Cover: The Art of the Book with RWU Librarians Lindsey Gumb and Heidi Benedict

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Under Cover: The Art of the Book with RWU Librarians Lindsey Gumb and Heidi Benedict

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