SRISA Santa Reparata International School of Art - Departaments and Program structure

Summer Courses

Book Arts

July 8- August 7

Credit hours: 3--Contact hours: 90

Artists’ books are less a category of things than a zone where the attentions of reading and viewership overlap.

Course Description: This intensive course will introduce students to the traditions and methods of the handmade book, as well as the expressive possibilities available with book making. The course will begin with simple foundational structures such as pamphlet-stitched and accordion style books and progress through more complex historical structures such as books sewn on supports, long-stitch and coptic bindings. Exploration with materials is encouraged and students can combine other media that they are familiar with (such as photography, printmaking, painting, etc.) in creating their book-works. In addition students will be introduced to traditional methods of typesetting. To help acquaint the student with the long and on-going tradition of book arts in Italy, selected fieldtrips will be organized to visit contemporary artists (bookbinders, papermakers) in their studios as well as visits to museums and institutions in the area which maintain collections relevant to the art of the book. Slide presentations, sample works and lectures, will give an overview of the history of the book and its development in Western art.

This course is open to all students with an interest in the book as an art form. Previous bookmaking experience is helpful, but not required. Students with experience in other artistic techniques will be encouraged to use those in their bookmaking. Class meetings will be a combination of lecture/discussion and demo/practical work in the studio. Classroom instruction and practice will include basic bookmaking skills and explore the relationship between image, text and The Book.

Exploration with materials is encouraged and students can combine other media they are familiar with (i.e., printmaking, papermaking, photography, letterpress) in creating their own unique book or edition of books.

The city of Florence provides the backdrop to this intensive workshop, and there is frequent class time outside the studio in which to work on-site. The city itself - rich in history as the epicenter of the Italian Renaissance - is resplendent with some of the world's finest museums and monuments. The hill towns of Settingnano and Fiesole are only fifteen minutes away by car or bus and provide breathtaking panoramic views of the city from which the group will work. Two half-day guided walking tours of Florence, and an additional one of Siena, are included in the course and provide further opportunity for on-site work.