Judging books by their covers
The Daily Pennsylvanian
September 25, 2006
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Book arts expert Sandra Kroupa lectures about the process of marketing art books to libraries in the Kelly Writers House
Photo by Yanik Ruiz-Ramon/The Daily Pennsylvanian
A small but enthusiastic audience at the Kelly Writers House got to learn what it takes to turn a book into art Saturday.
Sandra Kroupa, book arts curator at the University of Washington Libraries, spoke about the challenges facing book artists and librarians involved in "book arts," using pictures, bindings, special paper and other materials to make books more than chunks of text.
Ideally, a book artist takes all the aspects of a book - the cover, the binding, the arrangement of the text on the pages, the material the pages are made of - and incorporates them into a cohesive work.
Kroupa advised aspiring book artists to "compare their work with other people's work" and to talk to people who were part of the book art community.
"Librarians are not sterile, boring and difficult to talk to," she said, and book artists should be more willing to approach them directly regarding their work.
The event was attended mostly by women, and according to Kroupa, over 80 percent of book artists are women.
She attributed this to the fact that it's hard to make a living in book art, which she said discourages men who, in the United States, "are programmed to make money."
She added that it was a "more intimate, more sensual" form of art and therefore appealed to women.
Otherwise, the audience of about 25 people was "a mixed lot," according to organizer Michelle Wilson, and included "librarians, special collectors and book artists" from across Philadelphia.
Poliana Irizarry, a librarian at Temple University, said that she came because she was interested in setting up a library of primary sources at her school.
On the other hand, Jennifer Renko, a Visual Studies graduate student at Penn and an aspiring book artist, wished to learn how to get her work noticed from those already established in the field.
Kroupa's speech was part of a day-long event on book art at the Kelly Writers House organized by the Philadelphia Center for the Book, which works to "advance the book as a vital contemporary art form," according to its Web site.