Minerva Shows Her Books

After Minerva left Fritz Otto's studio, he was finally able to clean up and close the studio for the night, but not before agreeing to meet again …

Finally finding a time to meet, Minerva arrived with her books – a nice assortment of structures, and she was clearly proud of talking about them and how they were taught.

"So, brought books I made during that class. When we came in, the librarian had arranged numerous examples for us to look at. They were grouped by structure and then historical and 'modern' interpretations. It was really interesting to see them laid out that way."

"Why's that?" Fritz Otto asked.

"Ummm, okay, they had a clay tablet literally thousands of years old paired with a simple notepad and an old Palm Pilot. After describing what they knew about the tablet's contents, they made us think about parallels to the modern items. Then, they asked us if these were books. I never really thought about what a book was and what made it one – also wondered about the point of the lesson, but it went on and on. Towards the end, I started to see the connections between the objects. My favorite part was feeling how these books felt in my hands."

"So," said Fritz Otto, "let's look at what you brought, and you can tell me about them, including making them."

Minerva plops down her backpack and pulls out her books ...  

"Let's start with the scroll, perhaps the simplest one", said Minerva. "The librarian provided the materials and what they called a 'bone folder,' but we had to share things like scissors. Also, no glue – too messy – so instead, double-sided tape and glue sticks. They also provided an assortment of materials like old magazines and larger scraps from 'preservation.' Since it was also described on the syllabus, I got a few materials of my own too."

"Looking at the scroll in the library, an 'artist's book,' I saw that it was attached to a stick, and then the paper was rolled on. At the end, it was reinforced to go around completely with a string to tie it closed. I used some marbled paper and a dowel I had."

"Next, I made this accordion thing from some of the same paper. I attached it to a simple cover. What I liked was that you could read it like a normal book, turning the pages, but also stretch it out to view the whole book. I dislike seeing books on display where they often can show only one spread. I could see exploring this one some more, and found examples online with cutting to create pop-ups or little pamphlets sewn in. The librarian described it as a gateway to 'freaky-foldies.'"

 

"Here is a simple pamphlet I made from a magazine article with lots of pictures of old papers from books. I kind of randomly folded them into folios (new word I learned) so that each page was different, even if from the same image. I titled it Codex.”

 

"Finally, I made this Asian stab-sewn book. I know it's not as good as the others, but it was hard stabbing that needle through all that paper. I used some Japanese paper I ordered for the pages, rough cut them, then folded into folios, like for the pamphlet. But, with this book, each folio was stacked so the folds all became the fore-edge. I then looped some thread through the text to hold it together before punching even more holes, this time with simple paper covers too. I love how soft the paper is and how easily it opens. Thinking back to the scroll, I could see cutting it up and then binding it this way. I just need to make sure the text and images are the same size and in the same place, so things line up. Easier than taking this really big sheet that then gets folded in so that the 16 or so pages appear in order when bound."

"In the class, they also gave us a list of websites, people to follow, and books that were more like manuals in case we wanted to learn more. That's how I found out about you," Minerva said.

"I'm really glad that you showed me your books and told me more about what you learned and how you made them", Fritz Otto said. "You clearly gave them thought, and your work is pretty neat, especially given your experience and the workshop setting. It can be really hard to do good work with the wrong or bad tools, no supplies, and the chaos of the classroom. Lots of distractions, but it's a fantastic way to understand the history of 'books' and how they're made. Thank you for all this."

Breaking the "fourth wall", Fritz Otto turns to you, the reader of this to ask whether anyone had any experiences like Minerva's when they were in high school, college, or other learning opportunities? What did you see and learn about that left an impression?

Minerva looking around the studio then asked, "so what have you been working on since, and how did those really big books turn out?"

"Well then, let's go to the press and take them out ..." said Fritz Otto.

That will be a topic for our next installment here ...