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This page last updated on
July 29, 2011
Catalogs for Sale
Catalogs for many of the exhibits listed below are still available. These are for sale on the online order form.
Online Exhibits Quick Links
Time has long captured the imagination of artists, writers, scientists, philosophers, and theologians. Guild of Book Workers members are invited to interpret "marking time" as broadly or narrowly as they wish. Possibilities might include but are not limited to: a specific incident in or period of history, the future, science fiction, time as a scientific or spiritual concept, the measurement of time, current events or the role of time in one's own life. The show traveled around the country from May, 2009 through January,, 2011. Both a full-color print catalog and an online catalog are available.
The 100th Anniversary Exhibit celebrated the Guild as it reached its 100th anniversary. This exhibit opened at the Grolier Club in New York City for the Guild's Centennial Celebration in 2006. The opening featured both a Retrospective exhibition and a juried exhibition of Current Members' works. The complete exhibition is online and there was a print catalog available for sale (it sold out in record time). The Current Member's work then traveled around the country and closed in November, 2007.
The 2003-2005 GBW Exhibit, In Flight, offered a broad range of bindings, from traditional fine bindings to experimental book arts structures, with a few calligraphy and letterpress printed broadsides as well. Whether inspired by aircraft from the past, of the future, or the beauty of flight in nature, these bindings were not limited to aeronautics. The theme of flight also lended itself to the whimsical such as a "flight of fancy", and to the dramatic interpretation of flight from a place, as in fleeing from danger. An online catalog is available.
At the end of the century, Guild members celebrated with "the best of the best" of their recent artists books, design bindings, small press printings, and anything bookish. There is a stunning variety of work from traditional techniques to the latest technologies of inkjet printing. All are a part of the Guild's 2000-2002 travelling exhibit. The Guild celebrated the new millennium by looking at the best from the last. An online catalog is available.
Celebrate the alphabet with ABeCeDarium the Guild's 1998 members' exhibition. This exhibition is an excellent representation of contemporary work in binding, letterpress printing, calligraphy, illustration and artists' books. ABeCeDarium featured the collaborative work with binders and calligraphers, binders and printers, binders and illustrators, as well a numerous other combinations. With 40 participants from 17 states and Canada, this exhibition featured 38 books and one wall mounted piece. A online catalog is available.
The Guild's 1996-1997 travelling exhibit, PaperBound, featured different binding interpretations of Peter and Donna Thomas' book Paper. This book is a collection of samples of handmade paper from some of the finest hand papermills at work in this country. Of the 21 binders who submitted their bindings there were many new faces. An online catalog is available.
Fine Printers, Finely Bound, Too
1992-1994
This exhibit traveled around the country and was seen in San Francisco, Claremont, CA, Dallas, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Chicago and Swarthmore, and Ithaca. This was also one of the few theme exhibitions which the Guild has mounted, in this case examples of fine printing in fine bindings, both unique and edition. Featured was the work of North American presses.
GBW 80 Years Later
1986-1987
This was the 80th Anniversary Exhibition of the Guild. There was a fully illustrated catalog printed in black & white.
Fine Printers Finely Bound
1986
A small exhibit held at the Metropolitan Museum was the idea behind and namesake to the larger travelling exhibit. Most of the items were illustrated in black & white in this letterpress printed catalog.
The Book Thought Through
1985
Another small exhibit of the Guild held at the Metropolitan Museum. The catalog was illustrated in black & white and printed letterpress.
GBW 75th Anniversary Exhibition
1981
This was the group's first major exhibition, appearing at the Grolier Club in New York City. The catalog was illustrated in black & white and color.
Contemporary American Bookbinding
This exhibition was co-organized by the Guild and the Grolier Club at the invitation of Les Amis de la Reliure Originale. 106 Bindings, most illustrated in color travelled to Paris, Brussels and New York in this first ever foreign tour by an American group.