The Libraries welcome book artists Katie Baldwin and Colette Fu for a series of workshops and exhibitions at McCabe Library, complemented by concurrent exhibitions at the List Gallery.

An artists' book is an art form that uses the concept, structure, or function of a book as its creative foundation. It becomes an art object through the artist’s vision, expressed in its materials, illustrations, design, layout, and method of production. Library exhibitions feature works from the Libraries’ Book Arts & Private Press Collection—comprising more than 6,000 fine press and artists’ books—which supports teaching and research by faculty, students, and visiting scholars. The series also utilizes the Libraries’ book arts studio, which serves as a space for instructional workshops. Amy McColl, Curator of the Rare Book Room, explains, “We work closely with faculty and staff to design hands-on experiences in the book arts for students that both align with the curriculum and introduce students to printmaking.” The Book Arts Studio was created when McCabe Library agreed to house a Vandercook letterpress and a French Tool etching press, two major pieces of printing equipment, that had formerly belonged to the Art Department, along with various typefaces, ink, and other book creation tools. 

Katie Baldwin is widely recognized for her innovative printmaking practice, which incorporates techniques such as letterpress, screenprint, and mokuhanga, a traditional Japanese woodblock printing method using water-based inks. A display of Baldwin’s artists’ books from the Libraries’ collection is on view through February in the windows of the McCabe Rare Book Room (3rd floor). Her solo exhibition Katie Baldwin: Reimagined Landscapes, on view at the List Gallery through February 22, features more than 34 works, including mokuhanga prints, ink marker drawings, and hand-quilted textiles.

Recently Baldwin led a drypoint workshop in the McCabe book arts studio. Using etching engraving pens, participants scratched their original designs into acrylic plates, which they then printed onto paper using the French Tool engraving press. The workshop introduced participants to fundamental printmaking processes and allowed them to leave with finished prints of their own work.

Colette Fu is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work explores her Nuosu Yi ancestry and the cultural traditions of diverse ethnic minority communities (xiaoshu minzhu 小數民族) in China. She will lead a one-day workshop, open to the campus community, on March 28 at McCabe Library, sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundation, Asian Studies, and the Libraries. Workshop participants will investigate paper as a material for construction, problem-solving, and creative expression.

Fu’s work will be featured in Artists' Books: Pop-Up!, an exhibition highlighting the many innovative and diverse pop-up artists’ books from the Libraries’ collection, on view in the McCabe Library Atrium (1st floor) through April 26. In addition, her solo exhibition Paper Journeys: Pop-up Books and Constructions by Colette Fu will be on display at the List Gallery from March 3 through April 19. Paper Journeys presents bodies of work from We Are Tiger Dragon People, her ongoing series that celebrates the cultural diversity of ethnic minority communities in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in southwestern China.

For questions about using the Libraries’ Book Arts & Private Press Collection for teaching or research or scheduling a workshop in the book arts studio, please contact Amy McColl (amccoll1@swarthmore.edu).