Several special events are planned by the Book Club of California. In collaboration with CODEX, the BCC will host a talk by Imi Maufe, founding member of Codex Polaris, on book arts from Northern Europe on February 4 from 5 - 7 p.m. at its San Francisco headquarters, 312 Sutter Street, Suite 500. Then, on February 7 from 6-8 p.m., Rare Book School Director Michael Suarez will present “Printing Abolition: How the Fight to Abolish the Slave Trade in Britain was Won.” (This event will be held at the Commonwealth Club of California, 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco). If you’re still in town on February 11, the BCC will host a talk on the menu as a literary document, from 5-7 p.m. An exhibition highlighting women printers and book artists, as well as some of the club’s oldest and most sought-after books, will be on view at the Oakland fair.
Courtesy of the BCC.
Apropos to the Codex fair, San Francisco’s Legion of Honor opens Small Inventions: Artist’s Books by Charles Hobson on February 2. The exhibition celebrates the museum’s acquisition of 29 works by San Francisco artist Charles Hobson as a gift of collector Marian Kinney. According to the museum, Hobson’s “process calls for expanding the definition of what can be called a book and devising a unique form for each volume in relation to its content. His books become physical embodiments of their textual concepts, engaging the reader as an active collaborator and transforming reading into a participatory rather than passive activity.” Pictured here is Hobson’s accordion-style book, Man Ray’s Kiss, 1995, published by Pacific Editions, San Francisco. The exhibit is open through June 30.
Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
The SFCB will open a new exhibition, POSTED/UNPOSTED++, with a reception on the evening of February 2 from 6-8 p.m. Following on the Codex Nordica theme of this year’s Codex Fair, the exhibition will include the work from the original POSTED/UNPOSTED exhibition, plus a selection of artists’ books from participating Nordic artists. (Note that the title of the exhibition has two plus signs at the end indicating that it is “in addition to” the original exhibition.) The SFCB, located at 375 Rhode Island Street, also offers workshops in letterpress, bookbinding, and related arts. If you’re in town for the book fairs, check out the online calendar.
Credit Nina Zeininger.
The Book Arts & Special Collections Center at SFPL (100 Larkin Street) presents Visual Poetry: A Lyrical Twist, featuring San Francisco lettering artist Thomas Ingmire’s unique modern and expressive calligraphy in the creation of collaborative works with eleven contemporary poets: Jack Hirschman, Dean Rader, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Li-Young Lee, Robert Bringhurst, David Annwn, Christine Kennedy, Geraldine Monk, Alan Halsey, Allen Fisher, and Robert Sheppard. Meet the artist during a gallery talk on January 19 or February 9, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m., Jewett Gallery, Lower Level.
Courtesy of San Francisco Public Library.
Letterform Archive is a nonprofit center for inspiration, education, and community with over 50,000 objects related to type, lettering, and graphic design. On February 7, from 6 p.m.–9 p.m., the Archive welcomes book lovers to a special reception featuring a hosted bar, nibbles, and a show-and-tell of rare bibliographic items from the collection. Location: 1001 Mariposa St., Unit 304, San Francisco. Contact info@letterformarchive.org for more details.
Courtesy of Letterform Archive.
ABM tells the story of the book, from hand binding in the Middle Ages through the Industrial Revolution. The collection is home to equipment, books, and periodicals on bookbinding. Located at 355 Clementina St., the ABM is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; tour tickets are $12-15. During Rare Book Week West, the museum will premiere a new exhibit, Long Live the Book! Contemporary Bookbinding as Art and Craft, on February 2 (through May 4).
Credit Michelle Wilson.
Stanford Libraries & Hand Bookbinders of CA
On Thursday, February 5, from 6-9 p.m., Stanford Libraries and the Hand Bookbinders of California are co-hosting a celebration of books and libraries at the American Bookbinder's Museum in San Francisco. Enjoy light refreshments and drinks while visiting with Bay Area colleagues and visitors. The evening will include a presentation from Elizabeth Ryan, book conservator with the Stanford Libraries conservation department, about the cultural and scholarly significance of book damage and previous interventions in research collections. There will also be museum and exhibit tours. Address: 335 Clementina Street.
Courtesy of Stanford Libaries.
The Book as Place: Visions of the Built Environment, curated by California book artist Julie Chen, opens at UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library on February 2. This exhibition includes artists’ books by 25 artists from around the country including Robbin Ami Silverberg, Inge Bruggeman, Sarah Bryant, Clifton Meador, Barb Tetenbaum, and Karen Kunc. The books explore the built environment in myriad ways through text, image, materials, and the architectural capabilities of book structures. Located on campus at 210 Wurster Hall.
Credit: Karen Kunc: Glass Towers.
Opened last April by collector Mark E. Sackett, The Box SF is a unique iron hand-press & letterpress shop in San Francisco that also houses the largest antique printed advertising and ephemera archive in the United States. In conjunction with Rare Book Week West, they’ll be hosting an Open House on February 6 from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. with coffee, tea, water, and tours of its super cool space designed to look like an 1850s general store. Located in the former William Randolph Hearst printing plant at 1073 Howard Street, The Box SF houses over fifteen million items, including books, manuscripts, and “All Things Printed!”
Courtesy of The Box SF
Continuing a tradition to feature the work of a book artist during the Codex Book Fair, the Seager/Gray Gallery opens Inge Bruggeman: Deposits, an installation of bookworks, on February 1. “Inge Bruggeman’s work revolves around the idea of the book—the book as object, artifact, and cultural icon,“ writes the curator. Pictured here is the artist’s “Tensive Language” depicting stacks of torn letterpress printed pages with metal type (2018). A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, February 2, from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. Address: 108 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley.
Courtesy of Seager/Gray
