The book Arts guild of central florida HAS A NEW WEBSITE!
Thanks to everyone who PARTICIPATED and volunteered for I N K Y F I N G E R S Printmaking and Zine Fest ‘23!!! It was a super fun AFTERNOON of community art making!
About Us
The Book Arts Guild of Central Florida is a community group open to book artists and book arts enthusiasts. We support one another’s creative practices through our shared interest in artists books. Membership includes access to educational programs, opportunities for member exhibitions and community building. The group was founded in 2018 by Suzanne Oberholtzer and M.K. Shaw. We are committed to the values of diversity and inclusion. All are welcome!
MEETINGS & upcoming events
All upcoming meetings, workshops, and exhibitions will be listed on the calendar of events . Please check it for accurate info on dates, times and locations, and look for announcements and updates on our social media platforms. Regular member meetings & workshops for 2023 will be held on the second Thursday of each month from 6-8 pm. We usually meet at either the Winter Park Library and or the Rollins College printmaking & book arts studio.
Please contribute to our photo archive by sharing documents and photos. Please send your submissions by email bookartsguildcf@gmail.com
Moments from our 2002-2023 meetings & workshops (Photos by Rachel Simmons)
Letterpress poster by BAGCFL member Rachel Simmons
IN SPRING 2022, WE COLLABORATED WITH THE PUBLIC ON AN ARTIST’S BOOK FOR ALL BIBLIOPHILES AT THE WINTER PARK LIBRARY.
BECOME A MEMBER & PARTICIPATE in the exhibition!
The annual exhibition is open only to members of The Book Arts Guild of Central Florida. To become a member, please fill out a registration form and pay dues. Annual dues are $20 for regular members and free for current students. Dues fund materials and programming throughout the year. To be eligible for the annual exhibition you must be a current member, and dues must be renewed no later than July 30th of each year.
For this year’s third annual exhibition, Magnifying Voices, members were invited to submit works on the theme of freedom, whether personal, artistic, political or social. The exhibition highlights a variety of techniques including bookbinding, folding, quilting, calligraphy, natural dyes, cyanotype, collage, letterpress, printmaking, painting, drawing, and stamping. The artists’ voices are expressed through myriad forms, but all the works share one thing in common, an expression of the desire for freedom. Looking around the exhibition, one can see bullets and prayers, a box of matches to burn bad ideas, quilted books about racial and gender identities, an allegory about an empress who saves her people from disaster, images of women seeking freedom through movement, a painted portrait on a book cover, a game of self-discovery and love played on a tennis court, an homage to artists who inspire others by taking risks, a tornado of words tossed by a violent wind, a kaleidoscope of images with the freedom to shine with light or burn in celebration, an imagined undiscovered universe, experiments with natural materials, academic research in zine form, and prints that ask for respect and acceptance for everyone regardless of sexual or gender identity.
The in-person exhibition will be on view until August 5th, while the virtual exhibition will be archived on our website at http://www.rachelsimmons.net/bookartguildcf.
The guild would like to thank this year’s exhibition curators, Alex Moonsang and Liliana Gerardi, as well as the participating artists whose extraordinary work is on display.
Karen Esteves
Nikki Fragala-Barnes
Liliana Gerardi
S. Piper Head
Holly Jefferies
Bronwyn Merritt
Alex Moonsang
David Nees
Marie Patrick
Jenifer Patrick
Jacky Prada
Chris Saclolo
Rachel Simmons
Saturday, July 29 from 4-6 pm
Sunday, July 30 from 4-6 pm
Monday, July 31 from 2-4 pm
Tuesday, August 1 from 4-6 pm
Wednesday, August 2 from 2-4 pm
Thursday, August 3 from 4-6 pm
Friday, August 4 from 2-4 pm
Saturday, August 5 from 4-6 pm
We Love Book Arts!
If book arts is new to you, here’s a quick primer on the genre and its history from Printed Matter: “While artists books can take many forms, there are a few elements that are common across the practice. Understanding a book as an artwork invites a reflection on the properties of the book form itself. Much like any act of reading, an artist’s book is a physical experience that allows a connection with the medium that – while social in its implications – is individual and personal. The artists book invites us to hold it and turn through its pages. Whether the contents are visually or linguistically based (often a mix of both), physically moving through an artwork implicates notions of sequence, repetition, juxtaposition, and duration. The interplay of text and images, as well as considerations of printing process and the design of the book, allows for many exciting possibilities within narrative, media, and meaning that are specific to the artists book alone.” —https://www.printedmatter.org/about/artist-book
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM @BOOKARTSGUILDCF
Member Jenifer Patrick builds her printing muscles on a Chandler & Price platen press for a recent book project.
BENEFITS OF GUILD MEMBERSHIP
Benefits of membership include access to lectures, book arts collection tours, workshops, participation in members exhibitions and of course, having fun as part of an active and supportive arts community!
MEMBERSHIP DUES
Persons shall be admitted as members upon payment of dues to BAGCFL. Membership is for a calendar year. All memberships expire on June 1st. Annual membership dues are $20.00 for regular members and free for student members. Annual dues are collected in June each year.
RENEWING or NEW MEMBER INSTRUCTIONS Please select either Regular Membership $20, Student Membership (free), or Pay by Check (pay in person or through the mail). Then fill out the member registration form and submit your “order” even if your total is $0.00. If you wish to pay online, you can use Paypal at checkout. If you wish to pay by cash or check, please select the PAY BY CHECK Option and fill out the membership registration form. Complete Check Out to submit your member registration form, and then bring a check to the next in-person meeting or mail it to Rachel Simmons at 1000 Holt Ave. Winter Park, FL 32789. Dues must be renewed by June 30th each calendar year.
ORGANIZATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBERS Our organization is staffed by volunteers and we’re always looking for ways to match your expertise with the needs of the guild. Feel free to review our Annual Report from 2022 to see which leadership positions are available and to get a sense of our goals for the coming year.
Questions? Email us at bookartsguildcf@gmail.com
Brandy Fransen and others at an early guild meeting back in 2018.