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I spent a delightful weekend in Asheville making books at a workshop in west Asheville called Bookworks.

The books I made were made with no glue, hence the title “Non-adhesive Bookbinding.” The instructor was Steve Pittelkow, a native of Minneapolis and an internationally know paper-marbler and teacher. Bookworks is a world class facility with a number of letterpresses, a large binding work area, book presses and board shears and a paper making studio. The class was made up of a dozen or so mostly Ashevillians, many of whom were practicing book artists. I t was great to see everyone work and create these small books simply by sewing. The book artist who really created this form of working is Keith Smith. Smith has created hundreds of deigns for non-adhesive bindings and painstakeningly created instructions for creating these bindings. The problem is almost no one can figure out these highly complex designs (think the blueprints for the Eiffel Tower). Steve demystified Keith smith for our class and helped us all see the simplicity of it all through Smith’s complexity.

This workshop helped me learn how to do something I’ve been wanting to learn for years ZSR owns all of Smith’s books!). I also made some great contacts with others in Asheville and this, I believe, will help me do my job as Preservation Librarian better. I plan on returning to Bookworks soon….and I found a great bakery and coffee shop.