Earlier this year Bill Stewart from
Vamp & Tramp Booksellers came to Jackson Library and gave a wonderful presentation on art books. One of the books he brought with him is called
Soap Story which consists of two packages wrapped in archival copies of pages from a 1950s woman's magazine. One package contains 6 cubes of soap that the reader is meant to wash with. Inside of each cube is a page of linen paper screen-printed with part of the story. The other package contains a blank album. The reader is instructed to dry and press the pages after they have been released from the soap cubes and insert them into the album to create the finished book.
Jackson Library purchased a copy to be housed in Special Collections and Audrey created yet another lovely custom clamshell enclosure for it. Somehow we managed to resist the urge to tear into the packaging and furiously wash our hands so we could read the story.
Soap Story by Angela Lorenz
Custom clamshell enclosure by Audrey Sage
Another handmade artists' book from Special Collections. This time with the very interesting choice of turkey-foot leather for the binding! The unique shape offered a challenge and a custom-fit clamshell box was created to make shelving easier.
Earlier this year Bill Stewart from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers came to Jackson Library and gave a wonderful presentation on art books. One of the books he brought with him is called Soap Story which consists of two packages wrapped in archival copies of pages from a 1950s woman's magazine. One package contains 6 cubes of soap that the reader is meant to wash with. Inside of each cube is a page of linen paper screen-printed with part of the story. The other package contains a blank album. The reader is instructed to dry and press the pages after they have been released from the soap cubes and insert them into the album to create the finished book.
This miniature volume is called A Victorian Garden and has little line drawings of various garden plants. I thought it would be fun to make it "grow" up out of the enclosure so I made this box--when the reader gently opens it a ribbon lifts the book.
This miniature book from Mosaic Press is about the size of a postage stamp and is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. It is filled with survival tips for mice and wonderfully tiny lithographs.
If a book is shorter than six inches it gets routed to Preservation Services. Our job is to figure out a way to keep it from getting lost on the shelf. Special Collections sent this little one down and Audrey made a brilliant enclosure to keep it safe.