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Saturday, August 14

A week of Book arts

I had the honor of being a substitute book arts teacher this week for my friend Michelle, who is now on her move West to California. She had to leave before the last class, so she gave me the materials and instructions for how to create tunnel books.
Tunnel books are a series of "pages" with cutouts that allow one to see through a series of images. The pages are held on either side with a skinny accordion fold. Pages and cutouts are attached to subsequent layers of the accordion fold, creating separation between the pages and visual depth. It's a very theatrical form of book, you see everything in 3-dimensions all at once, not like the sequential, unfolding nature of most books with pages to be turned. The students really enjoyed this opportunity to insert some content into their books, which up to the last class had been various technical constructions and bindings of blank books.
They each searched through magazines, pulling out pages that caught their eye, then found ways to connect the images through cutting and layering. There was a lot of experimentation and great results.
That was not the only book arts fun this week- I finally finished the accordion book I'd been collaborating on with a high school student through the WCA. This afternoon I took all the books over to the Free Library at 20th and Vine to install in the cases on the 2nd floor hallway to the Print and Pictures Department.
Since the cases were only viewable from one direction and all the books were double-sided I purchased small mirrors to prop and make the back sides visible. I also included photos of the workshops and descriptions of the project. Stop by the Free Library and check it out! They'll be on display from now until October 29th.

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