Book ARTS 101: Still Summer
Instructor John Cutrone

Sunday September 23, 2018
1 PM to 4:30 PM
Jaffe Center for Book Arts / Library

Tuition Schedule: Self-determined - you decide what your tuition is.
Class Limit: 18 (you must register ahead of time!)

September 23 brings the first full day of autumn by the almanac. And though September brings chilly nights and thoughts of apples and drifting leaves to our friends in northern climes, it is for us that time of year when we here in Florida begin to get a little punch drunk on summer's lingering qualities. The heat and humidity have been with us for so long, it's hard to imagine life without them. Each day is still very much the same as the one that came before it and the next day will probably be just like today: About 90 degrees, sunny, with a good chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. What we need is a little change of pace. What we need is a good escape.

JCBA has just the ticket. We can change you into a book artist (and a cool one at that) with this three and half hour introductory immersion in the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. We’ll begin with a screening of a 7-minute video in which you’ll meet JCBA founder Arthur Jaffe. We’ll follow this with a thorough sampling of the amazing collection of artists' books that is at the core of the Jaffe Center for Book Arts––books that will entertain you, inspire you, educate you, and astound you. We'll honor summer by finding some particularly summery books from the collection... and maybe even encourage summer to pack its bags by conjuring some books that bring to mind cooler, more varied days. Expect a summertime story or two, as well (perhaps an autumnal one if the mood strikes), from the instructor's cache of Convivio Dispatches from Lake Worth.

After a leisurely break for coffee, tea, and cookies, we’ll move on to the JCBA Letterpress Studio, where each participant will print a sheet of paper from type set by hand from JCBA's collection of historic wood type. These sheets will be the covers for the books we’ll make, a brief history of the book arts that we’ll bind by hand in the Single Signature Pamphlet stitch, a simple bookbinding technique that you can use again and again in your own book projects. You’ll go home with a book you made yourself––one that you can read as sleep calls later that night, as you reflect on the new outlook on books (and maybe even life) that you’ve found earlier in the day at JCBA. “For there is great joy in knowing how to do things.”

Registration

Advance registration is required for all JCBA workshops. To register, email JCBA Director John Cutrone at jcutrone@fau.edu. Sending your email will begin the registration process.

Instructor

John Cutrone is Director of the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. He is a graduate of the MFA in the Book Arts Program a the University of Alabama. Aside from his work at JCBA, he is also a writer and a partner in Lake Worth's Convivio Bookworks, a book arts studio specializing in limited edition letterpress printed books and broadsides. He is the author of the Convivio Book of Days blog, which explores the quirkier side of seasonal traditions, encouraging us to live the ceremony of each day.