Goals:

The main objective is for the person participating in the workshop to reach an initial level of knowledge of the artist’s book that will allow them self-sufficiency, either to create limited edition works bound entirely by hand, to create physical mock-ups with a professional finish or to effectively lead a work team for the production of publications in a collaborative context. The maquette, both physical and digital with mockups, will be the basic tool for reflection, but also the most suitable format for presenting the project to calls for proposals, publishers, curators, etc. Although many of these tasks may be carried out by external collaborators, the handling of certain knowledge will give us a great advantage, of a curatorial nature, to lead the whole process of creation. The workshop will also serve as a starting point, in terms of acquiring basic knowledge, so that each person can evolve and explore the book as an art object on their own and enter into the fascinating task of exploring its limits.

The workshop is fundamentally practical. Among other techniques, we will see binding without sewing, when it will be convenient to use a type of Japanese binding or sewn sheets with soft cover or more advanced bindings such as the use of hard covers, several booklets, flat spine, as well as the different types of sewing on exposed spine.

Contents:

In the workshop we will analyse artists’ books that are art objects, where form and content go hand in hand in favour of the story. We will see how their structure works, what makes them different, where it is very common to find an advanced interpretation of the concept of binding and a questioning of the conventional structure of the book format.

In addition, the workshop will provide a series of functional knowledge to tackle this fundamental format for communicating a project. In terms of technical issues, we will practice with folding techniques and we will see how it is possible to build a book without a spine, without sewing and without adhesives, simply by broadening the notion of the structure of the book. We will also analyse aspects such as the parts of a book, the characteristics of paper, what to take into account when printing, the different types of binding, thread, stitching, adhesives, materials for covers and other physical elements of a paper publication. We will also see that with a few very basic and affordable tools it is possible to produce professional quality bindings.

– Analysis of reference artist’s books and object books. Several artist’s books will be analysed in order to study their technique, the treatment of the story and its relationship with the binding used, as well as their character as objects.
– Introduction to the tools, materials and basic concepts of bookbinding. Among other concepts, the characteristics of paper, the direction of the fibre, composition, manufacture, etc. will be analysed. As well as the anatomy and parts of a book, the imposition of the pages, analysis of the printing sheet, reference guidelines, etc.
– Study and comparison of prototypes with different bindings available, Japanese, booklets, flat spine, etc. With physical prototypes to view and analyse.
– Analysis of other techniques within the book, fold-outs, inserts, pop-ups, etc.
– First practice: Folding and sewing a book with 5-hole stitching and cover. A simple practice that will introduce us to the very easy construction of a book.
– Second practice: Binding a flat spine book with hard covers. This practice will allow us to acquire a large part of the concepts and techniques of bookbinding in order to be able to tackle more complex projects in the future and to be able to make our own book models.