Experience Sessions

A book town like no other, Iowa City is where the legendary Writers’ Workshop, which has occupied the vanguard of literary creation for decades, shares a campus with the University of Iowa Center for the Book, which has been pushing the boundaries of physical bookmaking since its establishment in 1986. This confluence of innovative book production has put Iowa’s most creative destination on the global map as a town synonymous with the book.

On Wednesday afternoon, those attending the RBMS Experience Sessions will have the rare fortune to work with some of the creative minds that have given Iowa City its bookish reputation. Emily Martin, whose work can be found in libraries and galleries around the world, will teach ten conference goers a non-traditional book structure. Book artist and UICB instructor Kimberly Maher will introduce others to letterpress printing on the Vandercook Proof Press, perhaps the leading press of choice among today’s fine printers. By guiding participants in their own calligraphy, lettering artist Cheryl Jacobsen will help them understand historic scripts from the scribe’s point of view. Finally, MacArthur Fellow Tim Barrett, one of the world’s foremost historians and practitioners of traditional papermaking, will help ten lucky attendees make paper the old-fashioned way.

Students making paper at the UICB Paper Facility (Image credit: University of Iowa Center for the Book)

This chance to work with some of the world’s most respected practitioners of the book arts is sure to make the 2017 RBMS Conference a memorable one. Even if you can’t get into an Experience Session, you’ll still have the chance to visit the Center during Tuesday evening’s Choose Your Own Adventure: Book Studies at Iowa. And remember, downtown Iowa City is a vibrant nexus of creative minds. You may just run into these folks on the ped mall!

-Patrick Olson
Rare Books Librarian
Special Collections Library
Michigan State University