March 12, 2006 - 4:00pm
Feathers, leather and even a metal log dog have made it onto the covers and bindings of the more than a dozen hand-crafted books on display at the Malaspina University-College Library this month.
Book Arts 2006 features the united talents of graphic arts, visual arts and creative writing students. But instead of filing the books away on a shelf, they are artistically displayed on pedestals and framed in clear acrylic boxes.
Each book has been lovingly hand-crafted and hand-bound to protect the original poetry, writing, illustrations and photography inside.
Creating a book is an intensive but satisfying process, said Gregory Ball, a visual and applied arts professor at Malaspina.
"It shows students the development of their work and how ideas and illustrations can be used to build a narrative," said Ball. "It’s a very rigorous process, especially when printing on a press and when learning how important esthetics are."
"I’ve always been fascinated by books and I just think in the electronic age we are living in today it is important to keep the book tradition alive and to make sure it doesn’t disappear," said Adrienne Robillard, a second-year visual arts student.
Robillard’s book is called Log Dog and features photos she took of an abandoned log boom on Texada Island. She loves sculpture and found inspiration in the shapes and colours of the old rusting chains, gears and log dogs – a bolt used to chain the logs together while they floated on the water.
Harry Olson, a second-year graphic design student, also found inspiration in his own interests when creating his book, Futurism: Urban Writings of the Past and Present. He bound the history of the Futura style of typography –big letter forms and fonts – into a contemporary metal cover befitting his modern topic.
"I have a real passion for typography now," said Olson.
The books will be on display in the Malaspina University-College Nanaimo campus library until March 31. For those interested in a career in visual and applied arts, applications are now being taken for fall 2006.
Tags: In the Community
