The Book is the name of the course I teach periodically at Western Connecticut State University designed for students just beginning a book-length projects or others with manuscripts in various stages.
On Oct. 12, Prof. Hugh McCarney presented a wide variety of exquisite, hand-made books by Keith Smith.
While we generally only cover the writing process related to book publishing, students nevertheless are always interested in almost every aspect of the business. McCarney, a long-time friend of Smith, showed off a wide range of work by this innovator, who writes, edits and distributes his own titles from offices and a warehouse in Rochester, N.Y.
Since 1967 Smith has been making books. They range from artist books to poetry, textbooks and dictionaries. He has made over 150 one-of-a-kind artists books, most of which are in his own collection, seen by only a handful of people. Smith has published over two dozen small editioned artists books and book-length poems and written ten small dictionaries to aid structure and vocabulary in his poetry. The only books to have widespread distribution are his eight books-on-books: Structure of the Visual Book, Text in the Book Format, Bookbinding for Book Artists and the five volumes of Non-Adhesive Binding: Books without Paste or Glue, 1- 2- & 3-Section Sewings, Exposed Spine Sewings, Smith’s Sewing Single Sheets and Quick Leather Bindings.
You can find him yourself at www.keithsmithbooks.com
Prof McCarney not only lectured about Smith’s unique, handmade books, he made it clear that Smith is an innovator in the field, showing off more than a dozen of hand-made, one of a kind books Smith has sent McCarney over the years. Students were treated to folded, papercut, photoshop-doctored volumns.
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Comment by worldbookproject — October 14, 2006 @ 2:05 pm