The Book Arts Program presents

The Naked Book: Casebound Without Cloth

Saturday, April 12
9:00a – 5:00p
Book Arts Studio, Level 4
J. Willard Marriott Library
Workshop fee: $80; Materials fee: $25

Turn a hardbound book into an artist’s canvas with bookbinder and conservator, Chris McAfee. Make a cover for a pre-sewn text block and finish it – not with cloth, paper, or leather – but with acrylic modeling paste. Then texture, scribe, and wax the covers to create a personal design. While spinning traditional techniques into innovative processes, investigate how bookbinding materials react to moisture and how to counteract related problems.

The Rare Books Division holds an example of this technique:

THE BOOK OF THE APOCALYPSE
Christopher Mcafee
Springville, UT: C. McAfee, 2001
N7433.4 M257 B666 2001

Chris, who for many years taught the Book Arts Program’s bookbinding courses, received a BFA in printmaking from Brigham Young University and an MFA in bookbinding from the University of Alabama. He is Senior Conservator at the Church History Library.

The Rare Books Division holds many of his works:

JUNKYARD DOG
Christopher McAfee
Tuscaloosa, AL: Small & Simple Press, 1993
PS3563 A225 J85 1993

Edition of twenty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 16.

SPIRAL TRILOGY
Christopher Mcafee
Tuscaloosa, AL: Small & Simple Press, 1995
N7433.4 M257 S65 1995

Edition of ten copies. University of Utah copy is no. 5

RODENTIA ABECEDARIUM
Christopher Mcafee
Tuscaloosa, AL: Small & Simple Press, 1998
N7433.4 M257 R63 1998

Illustrated with acrylic, gouache, and ink. Bound in goat and rabbit with hemp cords and leather endbands.