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Krista Coltrin
(630)
293-2200 x139
kcoltrin@westchicago.org |
City of West
Chicago
475 Main
Street
West Chicago,
Illinois 60185 |
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The Bookies Exhibit their Passion for the
Art of Hand Bookbinding at Gallery 200
"The Bookies" Opening Reception
Gallery 200, 200 Main Street, West Chicago
Friday, January 7, 2011
6:00 - 9:00 p.m. |
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West Chicago, Illinois: December 22, 2010 – The Bookies are a passionate group of women dedicated to the art of hand bookbinding. Meeting monthly in each other's homes, Cheryl Mahowald, Mary Hagerty Sabo, Marilyn L. Schweitzer, Barbara Erickson and Carla Klausler hone their skills and learn new bookbinding techniques, growing both artistically and socially from the community atmosphere. Their combined works, entitled The Bookies, will be on display throughout January as the Featured Artist Exhibit at Gallery 200, 200 Main Street, in downtown West Chicago.
Looking for a way to continue learning that did not involve traveling long distances for classes, a group of women from The Book and Paper Arts Guild expressed an interest in forming a small, self-taught group as an offshoot, which they later named The Bookies. The small size of the group has allowed the women to develop deeper relationships with each other and a strong commitment to bringing new and unique techniques to each meeting.
The Bookies share a love of papermaking and bookbinding, yet the artists are as unique as the individual pieces they create:
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Cheryl Mahowald used wood and Stiff Leaf Structure binding to create her photography book. |
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Cheryl Mahowald, a member of Gallery 200, is an experienced papermaking and bookbinding artist and teaches book arts at the DuPage Art League. Her art includes mixed media works with hand-made paper using fabric techniques such as dying and machine and hand stitching to create depth and texture. Her favorite bindings include exposed sewing and sculptural and she prefers to personalize her books by adding content and creative expression. Her "Artist's Favorite" is an accordion book entitled "Stream of Conscientiousness," which has an environmental theme and includes quotes, distressed paper, and stitching embellishments.
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Mary Hagerty Sabo used Single Needle Coptic binding to complete a journal. |
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Mary Hagerty Sabo has a master's degree from Northern Illinois University with an emphasis on printing and dyeing. Her early work in textiles with printing and dyeing fabrics has commonality with paper, as both are made from fiber. She incorporates these skills into her contributions to The Bookies by including some fabric as covers and pages within her books as well as covers made with metal and wood. Mostly interested in hand-made books, she uses photographs, hand-made paper, weaving, beading, and hand and machine stitching to visually extend the various ideas and feelings of an individual piece. Her favorite book incorporates a cover of metal strips found during neighborhood walks and paper pages.
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"Mr. Potato Head Revisited" is an example of Spectabular binding by Marilyn L. Schweitzer. |
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Marilyn L. Schweitzer began papermaking and bookbinding classes while a graphic arts student at College of DuPage. She met other women in the classes and joined The Book and Paper Arts Guild to continue promoting the paper arts after classes had been discontinued. Eager to learn new bookbinding techniques, she searches for new ideas and finds it fun and intriguing to reverse engineer the process, or figure it out on her own. She particularly enjoys personalizing the content of her books. For example, rather than simply keeping a childhood memento in a drawer, she chose to photograph an assortment of fruits and vegetables using the original Mr. Potato Head kit from her mother's kitchen. The photographs, along with a short write-up, were bound using a Spectabular binding and will be on display as part of The Bookies exhibit. She titled it "Mr. Potato Head Revisited" and shared additional copies with her siblings.
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An accordion effect is created by Interwoven Concertina binding on Barbara Erickson's patriotic book. |
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Barbara Erickson has a background in graphic arts and taught book arts at the LaGrange Art League. She met fellow Bookies members while attending art classes at College of DuPage and enjoys the close friendships that have developed through their monthly workshops. She feels that the bookbinding process is much like meditation; the engineering process of binding requires devoted concentration and creating content can be a healing process when one has something important to say. The structural component of her books is often as important as the content within, noting that her Star Book, which opens 360 degrees to form a star, will be on display as her "Artist's Favorite" during the month-long exhibit.
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Carla Klausler's book is an example of French Stitch binding. |
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Carla Klausler is a mom, employed part-time and teaches papermaking and bookbinding at the DuPage Art League. She began papermaking 13 years ago after seeing a display case at College of DuPage which led to attending classes in the art form. Bookbinding was the logical next step after creating an assortment of handmade papers. She finds papermaking to be very relaxing and looks to her garden as a source of inspiration for the pulp fibers, using items such as daylily and tulip leaves, corn husks and banana skins. She prefers to create covered journals with lined pages and her favorite style of binding is Coptic because the books lay flat when opened.
As an extension of their exhibit, The Bookies are offering a free workshop on January 23, 2011 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. The artists will teach a simple Japanese stab binding and how to fold an origami mouse. The class is for beginners from ages 8 through adult for a maximum of 10 students. All supplies are provided. Prior registration is required by contacting Gallery 200 at (630) 293-9550 or online here.
An Opening Reception, at which you can meet the artists, will be held on January 7, 2011 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., and is open to the public. On display will be 24 different bookbinding technique samples as well as educational information regarding book arts and the "Artist's Favorite" display. Regular Gallery hours are Thursday and Friday 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, call Gallery 200 at (630) 293- 9550 or visit www.gallery200.org.
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| CITY OF WEST
CHICAGO 475 Main Street, West Chicago, Illinois
60185 T - (630)
293-2200 www.westchicago.org |
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