Book + Art: Handcrafting Artists’ Books focuses on content and suggests simple and elegant ways of presenting it in book form. It covers:
• An introduction to bookmaking tools and common materials
• The basics of selecting paper and other substrates
• Traditional and digital ways to incorporate images and words
• How to utilize blank and altered books
• Simple handmade book structures including multiple examples of
single sheet, glued and sewn books
• Covers
• Alternative presentations including unbound collections, boxes,
sculptural forms and interactive books
With Examples, Projects, Tips and Creative Explorations, this book covers accessible image-making techniques, (like acrylic paste painting and alcohol gel transfers that can be done into bound books), the adhesive drumleaf binding, (which uses double page spreads and requires no sewing), and covers that are created separate from the book structure and are simple to attach.
Examples have been chosen from more than 50 books produced in the last decade by Krause. Each chapter contains a wealth of information designed to provide inspiration for many bookmaking sessions.
Each of the spreads shown below can be enlarged by clicking on them and more spreads can be seen on Amazon when you “look inside this book”. Published by North Light in 2009, Book + Art: Handcrafting Artists’ Books can be ordered from Amazon.
Excerpts from reviews of Book + Art can be read below.
Reviews of Book + Art: Handcrafting Artists’ Books
“Book+Art is a great starting place for an artist who wants to learn about book structures, for a bookbinder who wants to know more about image making, and for anyone who wants to jumpstart their process to successfully put the two together in a meaningful way.”
Karen Hanmer, is a Chicago binder, book and installation artist, Exhibitions Chair for the Guild of Book Workers, and serves on the editorial board of The Bonefolder
Read more in CBAA Newsletter – Winter 2010
“Krause has done the book arts a great service in writing this book, in just helping people grasp a more concrete idea of just what it is that makes an artists’ book an artists’ book. And if her book makes only a handful of artists think beyond the book beautiful and more deeply into the concepts of content and meaning, it will have helped that handful of artists create more engaging work. Hopefully it will be more than a handful that have that experience.”
John Cutrone, Programs Coordinator for the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University and a partner in Convivio Bookworks
Read more in The Bonefolder, an e-journal for the bookbinder and book artist, Vol. 6, No. 1, Fall 2009, pp 50 – 51
“Dorothy Krause’s new book, Book + Art: Handcrafting Artists’ Books, is a cross between a how-to and an exhibition catalogue. In particular its photos are a glorious showcase of Krause’s work. While she talks about bookmaking, her subject is really how to use the book format, and even pre-made books, for your artwork in one-of-a-kind books.”
Susan Angebranndt, Artist, Bookmaker and owner of Green Chair Press
Read more in Ampersand: The Quarterly Journal of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts, Vol. 26, No. 4, Summer 2009, p 17
“The projects, beautifully illustrated with examples of Krause’s own works, are inspiring. She has a lovely way of describing the creative process as she gives step-by-step directions for making books. Throughout the book, she places Creative Explorations. These help readers in expanding the materials they use and to rethink their original plans as the progress.”
Barbara Adams Hebard, Conservator of the John J. Burns Library at Boston College, book artist and author
Read more in Bound & Lettered, Vol. 8, No. 1, Summer 09, p 40
“Of course one of the benefits of an artist book is that it allows you to experiment with the sequencing of images, creating narrative in a different yet somewhat similar way to that of an exhibition. But the book adds a very key extra dimension that few exhibitions provide, tactile involvement. The illustrations in the book certainly make this clear as Dorothy walks us through a huge number of artist books filled with luscious textures and tactile experiences.”
Wayne Cosshall, Editor, Digital Imagemaker, leading Australian photography, digital art and related area online magazine
Read more on Dimagemaker.com, August 2009
“Rather than a book solely on binding techniques, this book’s premise is to view the book as a form of creative expression. The book presents a wide range of binding techniques & structure styles and methods to transform or create the pages through mixed media/collage, printmaking and more. Step-by-step photos and complete instructions for each of the binding and mixed media applications are provided. Krause is a book artist, collage-maker and printmaker.”
John Neal Bookseller, June 2009
“This book is surpassed my expectations, and it is possibility the best book I’ve purchased all year.”
Gloria Hansen, author “Digital Essentials”
Read more on Gloria’s blog, June 2009
“It is a wide-open, intensely beautiful doorway to discovery.”
Eugenie Torgerson, book artist
Read more on Eugenie’s blog, June 2009
An article on my books, “Book + Art”, was written in 2007 for the YLEM Journal: Artists Using Science and Technology and can be read here as a pdf file.
Add your comments to the ever growing number of reviews on Amazon.com.