Bytown Bookshop » Book Arts

Five Fabulous Workshops!

Richard — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:35:54 +0000

Mixed media and book artist Holly Dean will be hosting a series of weekend workshops starting the second Saturday in February at her studio in Merrickville. Workshops range from how to incorporate text into your artwork to creating hand-bound muse journals, all with the goal to help you learn new techniques and approaches to your artwork. Details and registration for the Workshops can be found on Holly’s website here: http://www.hollydean.com/the_rest/holly_dean_workshops.html

Alcuin Society Book Design Awards

Richard — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:26:40 +0000

Each Spring, The Alcuin Society holds an annual competition for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. The 30th anniversary of the Alcuin Book Awards will be held this coming March 31st and is open to all Canadian book designers.

The Alcuin Society encourages students, private presses and self publishing artists to participate in this prestigious event. The Limited Editions category is most appropriate, as only one copy of a book needs to be produced to be eligible (although it must be a complete book, and is judged alongside books produced by seasoned book artists). Books in this category are returned to the senders.

Although there are no cash awards for winners, there is considerable promotion and prestige attached to winning. Photographs of the books appear in the Alcuin Awards Catalogue and on their website. The books will also be exhibited in venues across Canada, at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, and will be Canada’s official entries in the February 2013 international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany. Winners also receive a beautifully calligraphed award certificate which is presented at the Alcuin Award ceremonies.

This year’s Call for Entries can be found here, and the deadline for entry is March 10, 2012.

Good Luck!

CBBAG Book Coming Soon!

Richard — Tue, 31 May 2011 03:02:47 +0000

Hope to see everyone there!!

Letterpress course coming up this July

Richard — Sat, 07 May 2011 03:55:30 +0000

Margaret Lock will once again be running her letterpress course this July. I would highly recommend taking it for anyone looking to get a solid understanding of proper printing techniques and design. Details are below:

Introduction to Typesetting and Letterpress Printing Workshop
2-3 July, 2011
taught by Margaret Lock, at 231 Johnson Street, Kingston

Workshop hours are 9:30am-5:30pm.
The cost for each participant is $185.
(A non-refundable deposit of $50 is payable when participants register.)

Participants will learn basic typographic design concepts, and how to set lead type by hand and print on a Vandercook proof press. The workshop will cover setting type, letter-spacing capitals, imposition, proofing, registration, and printing on handmade paper. As an exercise, participants will design and print a broadside up to 10 x 14 inches in size. The text should be a poem of up to 20 lines, or a piece of prose of fewer than 160 words. Notes and all materials are provided. Space is limited to only three students, so pre-registration is necessary.

Please contact Margaret Lock at 613 544-3505;
or 231 Johnson St., Kingston, ON K7L 1Y2
or lockfp@queensu.ca

Hand Papermaking Auction

Richard — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:50:48 +0000

Hand Papermaking’s 13th Annual Online Auction is taking place April 30 through May 7, 2011 with opening bids are as low as $10. This year’s offerings include rare and unusual books about papermaking, stunning paper artwork, spirit paper, prints and broadsides, raw fiber, studio time, paper clothing, marbled and decorated sheets, historic artifacts, gift items, and more!

Check it out at http://auction.handpapermaking.org and plan to bid often before the gavel falls on May 7 at 9:25am Pacific / 12:25pm Eastern.

Alcuin Award Winners Announced

Richard — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:10:13 +0000

The winners of the Alcuin Award for excellence in book design for 2010 have been selected. With well over 200 Canadian entries across 9 provinces and 96 publishers, these winners certainly had a strong field with which to contend. The winners are as follows:

CHILDREN
First prize: JESSICA SULLIVAN and NAOMI MACDOUGALL, designers of The Little Hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Greystone Books)
Second prize:JEAN-FRANÇOIS LEJEUNE, designer of Au lit, Moka! by Danielle Marcotte and Laurence Aurélie; illustrated by Sophie Casson (Les éditions de la courte échelle)
Third prize: SARA BOURGOIN, designer of Devant ma maison, by Marianne Dubuc (Les éditions de la courte échelle)

LIMITED EDITIONS
First prize: CRISPIN ELSTED, designer of The Play of Pericles, Prince of Tyre … by William Shakespeare, edited with commentary by Crispin Elsted; illustrated by Simon Brett (Barbarian Press)
Second prize (tie): JASON DEWINETZ, designer of Alphabetum Romanum: the Letterforms of Felice Feliciano, c.1460 (Greenboathouse Press)
Second prize (tie): LINDA GUSTAFSON, designer of Words Have No Meaning, edited by Zengetsu Myokyo (Enpuku-ji Press)
Third prize (tie): RAPHAËL DAUDELIN, designer of L’Absent by Fernand Ouellette, illustrated by Christian Gardair (les éditions du passage)
Third prize (tie): JASON DEWINETZ, designer of Light & Char by Jake Kennedy (Greenboathouse Press).

PICTORIAL
First prize: PETER COCKING, designer of Visions of British Columbia by Bruce Grenville and Scott Steedman (Douglas & McIntyre)
Second prize (tie): LINDA GUSTAFSON, designer of Inuit Modern by Gerald McMaster (Douglas & McIntyre & Art Gallery of Ontario)
Second prize (tie): NICOLE LAFOND, designer of Compagnie Marie Chouinard Company by Marie Chouinard and collectiF (les éditions du passage)
Third prize: TONY GRIFFIN and JANE EDWARDS GRIFFIN, designers of Helen Griffin’s Savary Island, edited by Tony Griffin (Savary Island Heritage Society & Tony Griffin)

POETRY
First prize: ANDREW STEEVES, designer of A Short History of Forgetting by Paul Tyler (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers)
Second prize: CARLETON WILSON, designer of Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon by Ray Hsu (Nightwood Editions)
Third prize: CARYL PETERS, designer of Sea Legend by Mark Callanan (Frog Hollow Press)

PROSE FICTION
First prize: PETER COCKING, designer of I am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière (Douglas & McIntyre)
Second prize: PETER COCKING, designer of Darwin’s Bastards by Zsuzsi Gartner (Douglas & McIntyre)

PROSE NON-FICTION
First prize: HEATHER PRINGLE and JESSICA SULLIVAN, designers of Cigar Box Banjo by Paul Quarrington (Greystone Books)

PROSE NON-FICTION ILLUSTRATED
First prize: PETER COCKING, JESSICA SULLIVAN, and NAOMI MACDOUGALL, designers of The Armchair Book of Gardens by Jane Billinghurst (Greystone Books)
Second prize (tie): ROBERTO DOSIL, designer of The Wild Ride by Charles Wilkins (Stanton Atkins & Dosil)
Second prize (tie): MARVIN HARDER, designer of Relations on Southeastern Hudson Bay by Toby Morantz (Avataq Cultural Institute)

Congrats to all the winners and be sure to check the Alcuin Awards website to see when and where these beautiful books will be displayed as they go on tour across Canada.

CBBAG Ottawa Valley now on Groupspaces

Richard — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:45:22 +0000

Interested in the book arts? Curious as to what book binding courses may be happening in the Ottawa area? Want to know more about how you can get involved in the local books arts community?

Look no further than the new CBBAG Ottawa Valley Site on Groupspaces.com for all your News, Events, Member Information and a Who’s Who of local book art talent. A handy resource whether you’re curious how to get involved in the books arts community or to simply trying to remember when the next meeting will take place.

Book Art Taken to a New Level

Richard — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:39:07 +0000

The time and vision that went into these book based artworks must have been staggering. This is just one of the amazing pieces that “The Book Surgeon” (Brian Dettmer) has done, many of which can be seen on the Modern Met page here. Also check out the galleries on his website here.

Redbone Bindery

Richard — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:01:45 +0000

Ottawa Press Gang member Natasha Herman’s Redbone Bindery was highlighted in an excellent article in the Ottawa Citizen yesterday covering the history of her love for books and the restoration work she does to keep old treasures alive. I have called upon Natasha’s skills in the past a few times and have always been overjoyed at the fine craftmanship she has put into the repairs. It is also wonderful to see a paper like the Citizen take notice and highlight such fine talented book arts people in our city.

Canada Reads Graphic Art Contest

Richard — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:23:28 +0000

With Canada Reads sporting it’s first ever Graphic Novel in the running for the title this year, the CBC has launched a contest in which a daring artist must explain one of their favourite books in 4 panels, graphic novel style.

Friend and fellow bookseller Andrew Cornell’s son Harry has put in an excellent submission of The Demolished Man by Bester (and by far the front-runner so far in my humble opinion). Be sure to keep checking the site as they are adding more and more as the submissions come in.