The Art of the Book is a team taught course cross-listed as both an art history and studio class offered  every two years in Art & Design.  Laura Dufresne, an art historian specializing in medieval manuscripts, lectures and leads discussion on one day and Laura Gardner, art educator and book artist, demonstrates techniques and directs the studio in the following class.  Accordion books, Coptic stitching, ancient scrolls, children’s books, Japanese stab binding, paper making, European binding, Medieval miniatures, Scientific Illustration and the altered book are just a few of the topics and techniques learned this semester.

The projects in this exhibition reflect the student’s choice of one particular type of book or technique of historic merit, researching it and then designing a book related piece of their own based on their studies.  They can explore the process very closely, as does Amy Chapman in her Evangelist Portraits miniatures, or use it as a starting off point for their own creations, as did Rachel Thomason’s two books inspired by Persian book arts.  The students are not all artists, and for some it is their first experience with art making.  Johanna Drucker’s definition of book arts as “a zone of activity” and books as “carriers of meaning” provided the philosophical premise for most of the assignments.