Alison Kuller is a practicing bookbinder and book conservator who began her studies at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. She has worked in several libraries and conservation labs over the years, including those at Widener Library, Harvard University, and the renowned Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, MA. She has treated books and manuscripts from the 16th Century through the present, frequently designing and building enclosures to house them. Since her return to the mid-coast area, she binds books, photograph collections and corporate reports and continues her work in book conservation, box making, and teaching. Currently, Alison is researching unusual bindings under a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
Introduction to Bookbinding
From the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress, books have been mankind’s predominant repository for knowledge and communication. Continually evolving over time and geography, book structures are appreciated now more than ever for their versatility, variety, and creative potential. This workshop is an introduction to the materials, tools and techniques used in basic bookbinding structures. Working in a fully-equipped studio, participants learn the properties of materials ranging from paper to threads, adhesives, and binding boards. Using tools that have changed little over the centuries, participants begin by learning simple, non-adhesive book structures such as the accordion, Japanese stab binding, the long stitch, and Coptic. These are all binding methods that artists, bookbinders, even book conservators use now for a wide range of purposes.
By the end of the week participants will explore the form most familiar today, the case binding, in which the text is folded into signatures, sewn through the fold, and finally secured to its covering boards with adhesive. Throughout the workshop students are encouraged to make variations on the structures they learn, and are exposed to principles regarding the conservation and care of books. All materials and tools are provided, but participants may bring textblocks and decorated papers if they wish.
Instructors
