Mortimer Rare Book Room Exhibitions

Book Arts Gallery (Neilson 3rd floor)
May 10-July 31, 2012

Sally Fisher, an Ada Comstock Scholar graduating in May 2012 with a degree in Studio Art, has selected, written, and arranged a fun and fact-filled exhibition of books and prints featuring historical cats, cats and rats, cats as mothers, cats in advertising, costumed cats, cute cats, and much more. Most of the items on display are from the collection of the Mortimer Rare Book Room, with a few pieces on loan from the curator or other members of the Smith community of ailurophiles.

Elisabeth Bonsall. “The Cat-Lover Speaks.” Original drawing
(circa 1913) for The Cat by Agnes Repellier (New York, 1913) 

A Paste Paper Celebration
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 4-6 pm
Mortimer Rare Book Room, Neilson Library, Level 3

View the exhibition Paste Papers of the Pioneer Valley and meet the paste paper makers.

See paste papers being made and make your own.

Refreshments will be served.

Paste Papers of the Pioneer Valley
January 15 through May, 2012
Mortimer Rare Book Room, Neilson Library Level 3 (hours)

The Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts is a national center for the book arts: printing, bookbinding, calligraphy, and paper decoration. Paste Papers of the Pioneer Valley, an exhibition on view until mid-April in Neilson Library at Smith College, celebrates the variety of color, design, and technique of a special type of decorated paper—paste paper—produced as artwork on its own and for use in collages and bookbindings. The nineteen paste paper makers whose works are on display are primarily bookbinders who live and work in the area or who have strong ties here. Some of them are: Carol Blinn, Sarah Creighton, Claudia Cohen, Daniel and Babette Gehnrich, Elisabeth Hyder, Sami Keats, Dan Kelm, and Mark Tomlinson. Also on view is a reproduction of a rare paste paper by master bookbinder Arno Werner (1899-1995), who taught and inspired many of this area, and this country’s, finest bookbinders. The exhibition at Smith also includes eight books bound using paste papers created by some of the paste paper makers whose work is on display.

The paste papers on view are from the Mortimer Rare Book Room’s deluxe copy of Paste Papers of the Pioneer Valley, a book designed by Michael Russem and co-published by Catawba Press (Northampton, MA) and Kat Ran Press (Cambridge, MA) in the fall of 2011. The book also includes brief biographies of the paste paper makers and an introductory essay by the late bookbinder and book designer David P. Bourbeau. Twenty deluxe copies, with boxes handmade by Barbara Blumenthal in Northampton, feature matted original pieces of the papers which were reproduced in three hundred copies of the book printed by Capitol Offset in Concord, New Hampshire.

David Bourbeau, who made some of the paste papers shown at Smith, described the process in his introductory essay: “Paste paper is basically a mixture of paste … and ground watercolor pigment (or acrylic paint as is more common now), which is applied to dampened paper with brushes, rollers, or sponges. It is then combed, scraped, pulled, or otherwise manipulated into a seemingly unlimited variety of textures and patterns. As the moisture evaporates and the paper dries, light and dark shadows create an interesting three-dimensional effect inherent in this method.”

Michael Russem, a printer and typographic designer, is the proprietor of Kat Ran Press. He has produced numerous limited edition books for many writers, artists, and publishers. Barbara Blumenthal is an independent bookbinder, as well as the rare book specialist in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College. Since 1980, she has designed, bound, and published five books under her Catawba Press imprint, as well as bound hundreds of books for small press publishers and private collectors.

Paste paper by Carol J. Blinn

Paste paper by Claudia Cohen

Paste paper by Elisabeth Hyder

Paste paper by Sarah Creighton

Paste paper by Meredith Broberg