Book Club of California

This week I had the pleasure to present some of my books at a public talk for the Book Club of California. The club, which has been in San Francisco for about 100 years, is on the 5th floor of a commercial building a stone’s throw away from Chinatown. Walking into the space is kind of like going back in time. There were columns painted gold, a roman block print frieze ran above the picture rail, and various glass cases filled with special edition books framed the room. (of course!). It was a very nice place to be indeed. I talked about shadow books: about the process, materials, and about screens and the death of the book.

Oh look that’s me at the front! My book wonderful arts instructor, Grendl Lofkst, took this picture from the back -it was quite the bibliophilic crowd.

Some of my books -I always feel a bit strange about displaying my work like this, as it is intended to be played with, or as part of a workshop. After the talk I encouraged people to handle them.

This woman got really into handling the book!

This was the sample circuit that the woman in the picture above was playing with -and it is really addictive to play. Must make this into a book soon!

The other speakers -it was a fun evening and great to meet other folks making books!