The Way They See It

I took each of my three eight-year-old daughters out for a "camera adventure," looking for letters. Here's what we ended up with.

Winchell Factor +1

Artist, Poet, Canal Boat Pilot and WNYBAC member Chris Fritton has embarked upon a major woodtype project using the digital version of the Winchell font (a font digitized exclusively for WNYBAC members), shellac, maple wood and "lasers". This ambition project is documented in great detail on his blog

Last minute gift buying panic marketplace

Starts today!

At the main gallery, 1st floor of the Western New York Book Arts Center 468 Washington St at Mohawk in Downtown Buffalo
Friday Dec 11, 4-8pm
and
Saturday Dec 12 12-6pm
Free admission and open to the public
Artists, craftspeople, printers, & other handmade/self published/locally produced items. Perfect gifts for giving or hoarding.

This year's Vendors include:

• Elizabeth Leader
Paintings & Drawings
• Crowbiz
"...funk for the old soul..."
• Hero Design Studio
Screen Printed Posters & Cards
• Donald Trainor/ Shiny Object Media
• Where to Roam
Buffalo, NY themed wearables
• Amy Greenan
paintings, drawings, prints, collage, handmade books
• Rene Hoover
Letterpress cards, & coasters +handmade ornaments
• Jan Nagle
Upcycled and Vintage Jewelry
• SunnyOutside Press
Independent Small Press
• Queen City Gallery
Buffalo Books & original Photo Prints
• Buffalo Heritage
Books about Buffalo
• Amanda Maciuba
Intaglio & releif Prints
• The Hall Family Woodworkers
• Theresa Barnack
handmade jewelry & cards
• Dennis Piatkowski
Origami Man
• Kate Parzych
• UB Deprtment of Print Media
Prints, printed ephemera
• WNY Book Arts Center Shop and More!

Old Brother Hubbard

Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft were highly influential and important in the American Arts & Crafts Movement and a fixture in WNY printing history. The Roycroft Press is what started the ball rolling for all other areas of activities at the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora. A new PBS documentary has recently premiered and can be seen online. No survey of WNY Book At History can be complete without a major chapter dedicated to the Roycroft.

Buffalo Type

Check out "Buffalo Type" on Flickr. With over 50 members, the image pool is a great place to discover and share the many typographic treasures found in and around Buffalo. Signs, posters, architectural details, tattoos and metal type photographed while locked in the Book Arts Building - there's a little bit of everything found in the 700+ image collection. Take a look. Think about adding a find of your own.

B->F->T

WNYBAC Blog posts now auto-feed to Facebook. Facebook posts auto-feed to Twitter. So if this works, it will be tweeted.

The Western New York Book Arts Collaborative
Presents a new Exhibition:

WRITING PICTURES
Art/Text Works from the Gerald Mead Collection

September 11 – October 3, 2009

Text and image have frequently intersected throughout the history of art and design, for example, during the Pop Art and Concrete Poetry movements and in disciplines such as editorial cartooning and graphic design. A number of contemporary artists associated with Western New York have created work that fuses the visual arts and text in intriguing ways, often using words or letters as much as a visual tool as a conceptual one. This exhibition of prints, paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures have been selected from the extensive collection of Gerald Mead, a noted Buffalo artist and educator, to demonstrate the range of approaches and techniques that artists have used to explore the interconnectedness of written language and imagery.

Opening Reception Sept 11, 2009 6-9pm

Discovering James Joyce - Last chance

There is just over one week left for the James Joyce Exhibit at UB's Anderson Art Gallery. The University at Buffalo's Joyce collection is the largest Joyce Collection in the world. The Exhibit is a rare opportunity to see rooms of Joyce printed and written material including stack of notebooks from Finnegan's Wake and an astounding collection of artfacts. Ends Sept 13th 2009.

A collaboration between the Poetry Collection, the UB Art Galleries, and the School of Architecture and Planning, Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection presents rarely seen items from the James Joyce Collection. Covering the span of his entire artistic life, the Joyce archive in the Poetry Collection is the largest and most distinguished in the world. Discovering James Joyce features a substantial selection of the writer’s notebooks, manuscripts, letters, publications, photographs, family portraits, and other significant Joyceana.

UB Anderson Gallery
One Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo, NY
Hours: Wed. - Sat. 11am-5pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm

Elmwood Festival of the Arts

WNYBAC is near the Lafayette avenue stage at the 10th annual Elmwood Festival of the Arts. Stop by and print a piece you can take home on our tabletop platen press and our brochures can be hand bound on the spot also. Stop by and say hello.

Turkish Paper Marbling at the Fair

from the website of the Erie County Fair:

Artisan John Bielak will demonstrate the ancient art form known as paper marbling. See how pigments become paint, how the paint can "float" on water and how it is then absorbed onto special paper in stunning designs. Marbled paper has many uses including decorative note writing paper, book binding and box making. See daily demonstrations at the Historical Building.

John is a very nice guy and set up daily outside the Historical Building. Stop by to see him demonstrate. He also sells marbled sheets and mini blank journals.

Richard Rockford Exhibition

As mentioned in the Buffalo News and Buffalo Rising:
WNY Book Arts Center presents:
A selection of assemblage work by
Richard Rockford


"I try to create art that causes the viewer to start seeing old things, discarded things, items around them everywhere, as having beauty of color and texture. I take old surfaces - wooden panels, ink-stained blocks, deconstructed household furniture - and without changing their color and texture, I make them part of something colorful, genuine and beautiful."
-Richard Rockford

With clear influences of Joseph Cornell, Duchamp and Malevich, Rockford's assemblages focus on disused industrial artifacts. The Exhibit at the WNY Book Arts Center will showcase a selection of work which reinterprets artifacts from the printing industry and Buffalo’s colorful past.

August 7-September 5 , 2009
Opening reception Friday Aug 7, 6-9 pm


WNY Book Arts Center
468 Washington St
Buffalo NY 14203

Just Buffalo moves to the WNY Book Arts Center

Just Buffalo Literary Center (JBLC) has announced the move into the 2nd floor of the WNY Book Arts Center. Artistic Director Michael Kelleher spoke with Joyce Kyzak on NPR station WBFO about the move. JBLC will now have dedicated space to offer workshops, readings, performances and meetings. JBLC has been lacking dedicated space but now will be working more closely with the WNY Book Arst Collaboratiev on joint programming and complimentary events on all aspects of the art of the "book". The joint efforts of WNYBAC & JBLC in one (previously blighted) location will act as a beacon for further downtown quality of life improvement.

Stencile on Main Street

WNYBAC secured permission from the owners of 477 Main St in downtown Buffalo to transform their in-progress construction site storefront into a hybrid sanctioned graffiti canvas and signage pointing people towards the WNY Book Arts Center around the corner at Mohawk & Washington St.
We started with a blank press board façade and then added a layer of newsprint and laser printed pieces that were joined up in rough approximation with wheat paste cooked up in our state of the art printshop/kitchen. We added some ceremonial chinese papers but left ample space for artists to add their own work. We encouraged stencil and wheat pasting artists to showcase their work in this highly visible forum. After a couple weeks only one addition (and some fading from the elements) appeared...a brilliant Tromp l'oeil of an apparent 5 year old expressing his opinion of formalized education. This addition has been already damaged and we hope the anonymous artists will be able to restore it to the state you see below. We invite an encourage other artist to add to our mural (disclaimer...we do not sanction any graffiti on buildings or otherwise, if you do it, you are on your own)

Infringement at the Book Arts Center

The Western NY Book Arts Center will be one of the host sites for the Buffalo Infringement Festival

The show will run July 23 until August 2 2009

The Opening reception at WNYBAC will be Saturday July 25 from 6-9pm
At WNYBAC - 468 Washington St.

Included in the exhibition will be visual artists:
- Laurie Tanner
- Creative Edge Art Studio
- Tom Van Deusen
- Salvatore Scianda
- Madeleine Cutrona
- Victoria Sieminer
- John Kindelan
- Amanda Maciuba
- Jessica Rauche
with live music at the opening by:
- Pat O'Keefe
- Noah Gokey
- Amanda Nuguery

Please RSVP if you are on facebook:

We hope you will visit this exhibition and other infringement events around town.

Best of WNY Award

The WNY Book Arts Collaborative has won one of the Buffalo Spree Best of WNY Awards for Best Art Classes. We humbly accept the award.

Iranian Typography

Last Spring as we were planning Typecon in Buffalo, I was fortunate enough to get to York University in Toronto to see the ‘50 Years of Iranian Typography’ exhibition in person. The exhibit was originated in Basel Switzerland in 2007. We didn't have the resources to bring the exhibit to Typecon and be the first to show it in the US, but I truly wish we could have. The range and inventiveness of the work seen in the exhibit and the accompanying book is breathtaking. Similar no doubt to Americans seeing works from the Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland and the Czechoslovakia at the fall of the iron curtain. Being able to see the expressive graphic art of "the enemy" may just help to de-demonize, and even *gasp* humanize a culture that has been kept at arms length. Below are a few on my favorite posters from the book. Several other images can be seen here.

The Golden Ticket

The WNYBAC shop is now stocked with dozens of papers, books, hand printed cards, prints, and book arts supplies (including bone folders, linen thread, headbands, screw posts, wheat paste, book cloth & more). If for some reason you stop by for a gift for Graduation or Fathers day and something amazing doesn’t jump out at you, you can get one our Gift certificate (of course letterpress printed in our printshop on gold paper with a matching gold envelope).
The WNYBAC shop is open Wednesday-Saturday 12-6pm at 468 Washington St in Downtown Buffalo

Summer Worshop Series

WNYBAC is pleased to announce its Summer 2009 workshop series. This series at its new home at 468 Washington Street in downtown Buffalo covers some basic intro classes in printing & book binding. As facilities & demand increase, we will offer additional and more in-depth classes. We have kept the fees reasonable (plus WNYBAC members receive a 20% discount on all workshops). We welcome your feedback and hope you will join us for one or more of these workshops.

WNY Book Arts Center
468 Washington St
Buffalo NY 14203
www.wnybookarts.org
info@wnybookarts.org

Summer 2009 WORKSHOPS

June 10 & 11 - Clam Shell Portfolio Box workshop

June 13 - Miniature and Wearable Books

June 17 & 24 - Intro to Hand Typesetting and Letterpress Printing

June 20 - DIY screen printing workshop

July 11 - A-Z Pressure Printing!

July 15 & 16 - 2 Color Gig Poster Workshop

July 23 - Basic Book Binding

August 1 - Altered Books

August 8 & 9 - Letterpress Animal ABC

August 22 -Intro to Hand Typesetting and Letterpress Printing

WNY Book Arts - Good press week

WBFO - NPR Podcast May 22, 2009

"The printed word is fading rapidly in a society obsessed with the disappearing ink of mediums such as Twitter and Facebook. But on the other side of the spectrum are die-hards who want relief from the cyber world of printing. Actual relief that is"

Buffalo News May 22, 2009:

"With a full complement of printing technology—some of it more than 100 years old—a roster of workshops in printmaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding and a book shop, the center is poised to establish itself as a serious presence on the city’s arts scene. It’s also in a good position to foster collaborations among disparate art groups and bring together the concerns of poetry, literature and the visual arts under one roof."

Artvoice v8 #21:

"Asked what traditional printing adds to art in this day and age, Kegler equates book-making and artisanal printing to the slow food movement: “You could go out to McDonalds and Burger King to get a meal, or you can grow your heirloom tomatoes and have a meal that has seasons of planning behind it. It may not take much longer to consume, but the preparation and what has gone into it has a value to people that is worth something.”

Buffalo Rising

Stop by, smell the ink, become a member, help this fledgling organization soar!

WNYBAC Members' Exhibition

With a reception May 21, WNY Book Arts officially opens at 468 Washington St in downtown Buffalo NY!

The WNYBAC members' exhibition features work by:
Alice Alexandrescu, Mollie Atkinson, Rita Auerbach, Jozef Bajus, Olga Bajusova, Diane Bond, Courtney Brent, Michale Clark, Don Dehoff, Jennifer Farrell, Cynthia Endres, Lorrie Frear, Timothy Frerichs, Chris Fritton, Dawn Gibson, Donald Grimble, Justin Hall, Mark Hatley, Adele Henderson, Abbey Hendrickson, Phil Hendrickson, Hero Design, Eric Jackson-Forsberg, Alan Kegler, Kevin Kegler, Kyla Kegler, Richard Kegler, K.C. Kratt, Ryan Legassicke, Amanda Maciuba, David McNamara, Gerald Mead, Greg Meadows, Linda Meyer, Brett Mikoll, Julian Montague, David Munson, Sue O'Donnell, Kathleen Parzych, Barbara Rowe, Jeffrey Sherven, Hyeyoung Shin, Gordon Sisler, Shasti O'Leary-Soudant, Peter Sowiski, Virocode, Margaret Urban, Christine Walsh, Carol Wannemacher, Mark Wisz

work shown by Diane Bond

Publication Design Boot Camp

Designer/Educator Peter Gariepy has announced the 2009 Summer Immersion Workshop in Publication to be held at the Western New York Book Arts Center

This ten-week workshop combines informative lectures, timely discussions, instruction, lively critiques, special guests and field trips with professional designers, art directors, editors, and facilities tours of businesses involved in publication production. A demand of the workshop is intensive project work with real world deadlines and demands. The workshop addresses the language, approach and methods of publication design, with an emphasis on the practical application of design concepts.

The workshop meets twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9am to 12am and is limited to 8 individuals. The 10-week workshop will begin on June 2 and end on August 13.

For more information and application details, download the PDF

Moxon's Mechanik Exercises

Vandercook proving press guru Paul Moxon is in town to teach his Vandercook maintenance workshop at the WNY Book Arts Center. Day One has already covered more details and tricks to better presswork and smoother operation than ever expected. This guy is good. Moxon's vandercook website has a wealth of information on all known models plus a census of individual existing presses.

Small Press Symposium -April 19 & 20

Poet-Publishers: A Contemporary Small Press Symposium and The Aesthetics of the Contemporary Small Press
2 days of Small Press events

Presenters:Charles Alexander, Brenda Ijima, Jay MillAr, Anna Moschovakis, Rich Owens, Andrew Rippeon, and Kyle Schlesinger
Location:Karpeles Manuscript Museum, 453 porter Avenue
Time:Sunday April 19 8:00 p.m.

and

Location:Poetry Collection, 420 Capen UB North Campus
Time:Monday April 20 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Cost:Free

For more information

Pop Up Buffalo Souvenir Shoppe -Call for Entries

Buffalo based Designer/Artists Patricia Schraven and Nick Bruscia have put out a call for entries for a pop-up storefront exhibition to be hosted at the WNY Book Arts Center.

Participants are asked to re-think the idea of the souvenir, and create NEW objects to be shown in a temporary POP-UP storefront in the City of Buffalo.   This is a chance to redefine and comment on the social and cultural atmosphere of our city.  Souvenirs for Buffalo will be a one-off exhibition in late June of 2009.  Objects must be produced in multiples. There is a $20 submission fee for any number of proposals up to 4. for submissions and more info, email forsalebuffalo (at) gmail.com
 

Æsthetic Outburst

WNYBAC Collaborator and Program Director and collaborator Abbey Hendrickson caps off her graduate work at UB this weekend with her thesis show:

1716 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14209
An exhibition of recent work by Abbey Hendrickson, Shelby Baron + Ryan Legassicke
Opening Reception Saturday April 18, 7-10 pm

For Abbey's musings "about art, artists, collecting, and design...all mixed in with daily musings on life in general" see her blog http://www.aestheticoutburst.blogspot.com/

Letterpress Vignettes

Here are some images from a recent letterpress workshop for WNYBAC held at Paradise Press by its proprietor Hal Leader. Photos by Mark Hatley.

Vini, Readi, Eati

The Edible Book Show was better than expected. A full recap of all entries can be seen here. Images on this post by Greg Meadows.

Edible Book Show - April 1

The Western New York Book Arts Collaborative is pleased to be taking part in the International Edible Book Festival!

This festival has taken place around the world over the last several years and WNYBAC will host the annual event on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 6pm at the WNY Book Arts Center, 468 Washington Street in downtown Buffalo.

Edible Book Show at WNY Book Arts Center
This hybrid pot-luck dinner meets art show will push the limits of what defines a "book" and open up the WNY Book Arts Center for one last public event before the Grand Opening in May. Participants are encouraged to create something tasty and ponderous...bordering on preposterous.

From the festival website: "April 1st is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food. April fools' day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the "books" are consumed on the day of the event. This ephemeral global banquet, in which anyone can participate, is shared by all on the internet and allows everyone to preserve and discover unique bookish nourishments. This festival is a celebration of the ingestion of culture and a way to concretely share a book; it is also a deeper reflexion on our attachment to food and our
cultural differences."

All are welcome to attend and participate. Admission is free with an edible book entry or food dish.

for more info

What's in a name?

To help with some confusion that often comes up about WNYBAC, here is the basic outline:

The Western NY Book Arts Collaborative is the name of the non profit organization.

The Western NY Book Arts Center is the name of the building that houses the organization, its equipment and majority of activities.

Both use the WNYBAC abbreviation/anagram (Often pronounced Winney-back)

P22 is often seen as the same thing or an extension of WNYBAC (or vice-a-versa). It is not. P22 type foundry is the company founded by Richard Kegler & Carima El-Behairy who are also founding members of WNYBAC. P22 has been of tremendous assistance in setting up WNYBAC but despite overlapping focuses and interests in typography & printing, the two are completely separate entities.

Postcard

Special thanks to WNYBAC members Nicole Lecht and Josh Spaulding who have lent their design talents to our new promo postcard. We hope to do a series of these from guest designers. If interested in this project, just email info (at) wnybookarts.org

WNYBAC Printshop

The basement printshop at WNYBAC is now functional and being used while fine tuning the presses and workshop planning. The photo above taken by WNYBAC member Mark Hatley shows Sunnyoutside publisher David McNamara running a limited edition letterpress book on the vandercook 219. The printshop is open to members to use on a proposal and availability basis. The printshop itself may need a unique name...considering Mohawk Press or something to help distinguish it as an entity within the WNY Book Arts Center. Suggestions welcome.

WNYBAC demo days

That's Demonstration, (not demolition)

In advance of our Spring Workshop Schedule, we are doing something a little more casual to help members become acquainted with our facilities at 468 Washington St. Starting for the next 3 Wednesday evenings, we will have 2 hour demonstrations of some of our equipment. These are not in-depth workshops but rather overviews where you can see various processes, ask questions or offer input. In some cases, we are still learning ourselves, so in the spirit of collaboration and creative inspiration:


Demo Days...open to all
WNYBAC Members - Free
Non members - $10.00 fee


Wednesday January 14 6pm-8pm
---Thermography
The "raised" type you see on many business cards or "Poor man's engraving" is a relatively simple process but getting it right and using it in the right situations can be tricky. See some examples of this technique and try out our modest set up for this elusive post-printing technique.
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Wednesday January 21 6pm-8pm
---Ludlow line casting
Our newly tuned-up Ludlow Typograph machine and selection of over 100 fonts is ready for some serious use. Members who joined before December 20 will have received a holiday ornament cast on the Ludlow. See what it takes to use this machine and cast a line to take home.
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Wednesday January 28 6pm-8pm
---Punching & Cutting machines
Paper Drills, grommet machines, corner rounders, and a trusty Guillotine are but a few of the resources we have to make paper yield to your will. Some of these machines will always require WNYBAC staff assistance, but many others are just fun to put holes in paper. Get a tour of these tools that can help put that final touch on your book edition project.
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Please RSVP if you plan on stopping by so we know how many people to expect.
To reserve a spot on any of these days
RSVP to info @ wnybookarts.org
Non members send a check
468 Washington St. Buffalo NY 14203
or paypal payment to payments @ wnybookarts.org


Additional resources in our collection