Events

This year the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center is proud to celebrate its 15th anniversary. With the support of the Kalamazoo community, generous donations, and the help of many volunteers, we have grown to become a fully equipped nonprofit center for the study of book arts. From the beginning the KBAC has strived to act like an umbrella, supporting creative individuals working in all the disciplines that emerge from the history of the book: hand papermakers, fine printmakers, letterpress printers, bookbinders, and creative writers. We were planning an exhibition for this fall that would feature many of the nationally and internationally recognized artists we have worked with over the years. Like with so many things, these plans have changed. Instead we offer an online exhibition that highlights the variety and creativity of our visiting artists. We hope you enjoy exploring the work of our colleagues and friends in celebration of this milestone in our history!

Shawn Sheehy

Shawn Sheehy has been teaching book arts courses and workshops on the national level for nearly 20 years. His broadsides and artist book editions have been collected by such prestigious institutions as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Library of Congress, UCLA, and Harvard. He has created two trade pop-up books: Welcome to the Neighborhood (2015) and Beyond the Sixth Extinction (2018). Both were originally produced as artist books, both were published by Candlewick Press, and both won numerous awards. His pop-ups have been featured twice in both Hand Papermaking magazine and Vintage magazine. He has served as director of the Movable Book Society since 2018. He holds an MFA in the Book Arts from Columbia College Chicago. Shawn will be teaching pop-up book workshops this fall at the KBAC.

Learn more about Shawn at shawnsheehy.com

 Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.

Amos P. Kennedy, Jr. is a printer, book artist, and papermaker, who is best known for creating brilliantly-colored letterpress prints that express social and political commentary. Using hand presses, he produces large editions of typographically-driven posters on inexpensive chipboard stock, often layered with many vibrant colors of ink. His bold and challenging prints have been collected by libraries, and he has taught workshops throughout the US, South America, and Europe. The feature-length documentary film Proceed and Be Bold, focused on his life and work. Recently his prints were published in the NY Times with the article “How the Black Vote Became a Monolith,” by Theodore R. Johnson (9/16/20). In addition to “putting ink on paper” his current project is to convert a large warehouse building in Detroit, MI, into the new home of KennedyPrints! & The Printing Plant, the Printery of the Americas.

Learn more about Amos at kennedyprints.com

 Mary Heebner

Mary Heebner is painter and book artist whose work is often inspired by her international travel. About her work she writes, “My intent has always been to form bridges between words and images in order to best convey the heart of a story. There is a story in everything. My task as an artist is to discover the core, the essence of the story and then to find the form that best conveys it clearly in the most well-crafted and compelling way I can. I find painting to be a very solitary practice; however, making books is more like a play, a collaborative effort. My imprint, simplemente maria press, in truth is a net cast wide filled with many skilled and generous people, living and deceased, who have guided me and to whom I am ever grateful. Best of all are the strong friendships that have begun, grown, and will endure through the process of making and of sharing words and images with others.”

Learn more about Mary at maryheebner.com

John McKaig

John McKaig is painter and printmaker who teaches at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. He has exhibited work in group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. About his work John writes, “I create pictures that help me explore the idea of escape, ideas of mortality and passage after life, and about how to deal with trauma and healing from that trauma. My use of the figure explores my identity as a queer man that is still expected to justify my experiences and basic human identity. I use nautical imagery, water and the human figure in order to communicate essential ideas of how we relate to each other, how we affect each other, and how to move to space that is empowering and encouraging.”

Learn more about John at johnmurraymckaig.com 

Jennifer Farrell & Starshaped Press

Since 1999, Jennifer Farrell has operated Starshaped Press in Chicago, with a focus on designing & printing everything from business cards to posters, as well as custom commissions, wholesale ephemera and limited edition prints & books. All work in the studio is created with metal and wood type, making Starshaped one of the few presses in the country producing commercial work while preserving antique type and related print materials. Jennifer’s work has been repeatedly recognized in books, magazines and design blogs, and has appeared in poster shows throughout the USA and Europe.

Learn more about Jennifer at starshaped.com

Helen Hiebert

Helen Hiebert Studio’s mission is to share and expand the love of hand papermaking and crafts through artwork, classes, retreats, videos, how-to books, a blog, and a podcast. Helen says about her work, “The bonding of the fibers in hand papermaking reminds me of the intricate networks of our lives: from our intimate connections to our mothers in the womb to a casual wave to a stranger; from our inter-personal connections to the threads that bind us to all of humanity. My work seeks to visually portray these connections. My installations and sculpture are expansive, filling rooms, defining spaces, and allowing the audience to move through them and walk around them. And yet, because of the everyday nature of paper and thread, my work is intimate. I use materials that aren’t normally thought of as filling space, and my techniques draw on the traditional handcrafts of papermaking, sewing, embroidering, and crocheting.” 

Learn more about Helen at helenhiebertstudio.com

Jean Buescher Bartlett

Jean Buescher Bartlett is an artist, designer and proprietor of Bloodroot Press & The Very Tall Bookbinders in Ann Arbor, MI. In her work she combines letterpress printing, original text and illustrations, and inventive binding structures to create limited edition books and broadsides as well as one-of-a-kind artists books, blank journals, and purpose-built books. Bartlett has taught at the University of Michigan and the College for Creative Studies, as well as letterpress printing and bookbinding workshops across the country at venues such as: the Paper and Book Intensive, the Women's Studio Workshop, the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, and the Penland School of Craft. Jean's handmade books, photographs, and works on paper reside in over fifty public collections worldwide, including: the New York Public Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Learn more about Jean at bloodrootpress.com

Chad Andrews

Chad Andrews is an Assistant Professor at Bloomsburg University, and a founder of Studio Paper+, a community printmaking facility in the Pajama Factory in Williamsport, PA. His work includes large silicone drawing installations and innovative prints. The focus of his recent work began with a letter he wrote to his mentor and friend, Hitoshi Nakazato. He says, “The letter to Hitoshi shared my gratitude and heart felt acknowledgement of his influence on me to pursue a life of art making. We did see each other a few times after that letter was sent, but there was never a word spoken about its content. Within that year, he suddenly passed away. My grief was overwhelming, and my only refuge was knowing that I had shared my deepest feelings with him. This recent body of works explores conversations that the dead could have with us and what the dead may reflect upon with each other after a shared life.”

Learn more about Chad and Studio Paper+ at studiopaperplus.peifferdesigns.com

Aimee Lee

Aimee Lee is an artist who makes paper, writes, and champions Korean papermaking in the U.S. Her Fulbright research helped her build the first hanji studio in North America and write her award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking. She exhibits and is collected internationally; her work has shown at the Fuller Craft Museum, Islip Art Museum, Museum of Nebraska Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, and the Korean Cultural Centers of the Korean Embassy in D.C. and Korean Consulate in NYC. Library collections that hold her work include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Stanford University, UCLA, and Yale University. She travels the world to teach and serves her regional community as an Ohio Arts Council Heritage Fellow, establishing a paper studio for Oberlin College and teaching book arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 2021, she will return to Korea on a Fulbright Scholarship for further research of Korean papermaking tools.

Learn more about Aimee at aimeelee.net

Jim Horton

Jim Horton is a printmaker and wood engraver. He founded the Wood Engravers’ Network which includes several hundred practitioners from around the world. They organize exhibitions, workshops, print exchanges, and publish a journal called Block & Burin. About his work Jim writes, “My father was a sign painter and when I was young I worked painting signs and billboards. After college, I served as an illustrator in the Viet Nam War. I was an art and graphic design teacher for 42 years. Wood engraving, printing, and drawing are how I get to look closely at things—to take my time and practice in a culture that often promotes immediate gratification and surface experiences. All the while you engrave, it gives you a connection to your subject. It is a form of meditation. I learned to engrave from the remnants of commercial wood engraving companies. I scrounged and saved much of the old equipment and tools of that era. I help to keep these processes alive and enable people to discover the satisfaction of using them. At heart, I am a student of art. I try to stay away from electronics and social media. I’m still learning and practicing to use my hands and eyes. There is so much to learn and explore.”

Learn more about Jim and the Wood Engravers’ Network at woodengravers.org

Pamela Paulsrud

Pamela Paulsrud's exploration of energy and vibration, letters and lines, her love of the land, the earth and its resonance, inspires both her work and her life. Her research and practice in energetic healing modalities simultaneously inform her art. Pamela is a visual artist recognized internationally as a papermaker, calligrapher, book artist and collaborator creating both intimate pieces and large-scale installations. She is the founder of the Treewhispers, an ongoing international collaboration awakening our connection to trees.

Learn more about Pamela at pamelapaulsrud.com

Paul Robbert

Paul Robbert was a founding member of the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. He was dedicated to art from a very young age and explored a range of mediums including painting, printmaking, and hand papermaking. He served on the faculty of Western Michigan University for more than forty years, where he established the printmaking and papermaking curriculum. Following his retirement, he remained active in the arts, continuing to produce his own work and was also known as a dedicated mentor and advisor to other artists. His affinity for materials and color eventually led to his exploration of paper as an art form. He pursued this medium for 30 years, developing innovative techniques and creating many large-scale works. Paul inspired many young artists with his experimental approach and spirit. The papermaking area at KBAC is dedicated to him containing much equipment he built himself and used in his studio at Park Trades Center. 

Learn more about Paul at paul-robbert.com

Melissa Jay Craig

Melissa Jay Craig is a Chicago sculptor, book and installation artist whose primary medium is handmade paper. Her work is included in many collections and she has been awarded numerous residencies and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Arts studio residency at Women’s Studio Workshop. She is a Distinguished Resident at the Ragdale Foundation, where she was also a Prairie Fellow. Melissa says about her work, “I am nearly deaf. I hear with my eyes. When I communicate with people, I read lips while simultaneously observing unspoken nuances to provide context, which also often reveals subtexts. Walking alone in nature is a lifelong source of fascination. Away from the obligation to process spoken words, I am free to interpret my environment in the same multifaceted, minute ways I comprehend speech, and to become as absorbed as I do when I’m reading the most compelling novel or provocative essay. I use those experiences to imply narratives authored by our beleaguered planet, set forth in languages long overlooked by humanity’s intellectual arrogance. I perceive this as a language of dichotomy, of adaptation, of infinite cyclical renewal, of double-edged humor, of fierce, disturbing beauty and always, of the ultimate triumph of time.”

 Learn more about Melissa at melissajaycraig.com

Chad Pastotnik

Chad Pastotnik’s books are printed via letterpress on fine papers and are illustrated with artwork from original wood engravings, linocuts, and intaglio prints created directly by visual artists. The text is from metal type cast on a Linotype composition castor or handset from the type cases. These sheets are then bound by hand in traditional and contemporary book structures using fine leathers, book cloth and papers often with a slipcase or drop spine box to hold them. All this is done in one place. Each aspect of a book is conceived, created and finished at the studios of Deep Wood Press. Chad was also featured in the PBS television series A Craftsman’s Legacy in season 1 episode 11 titled “The Bookmaker.”

Learn more about Chad and Deep Wood Press at deepwoodpress.com

Andrea Peterson & Jon Hook

Hook Pottery Paper is the studio and homestead of Jon Hook, clay artist, and Andrea Peterson, paper and print artist. Andrea and Jon have been living their dream in northwest Indiana since 1997. In both of their fields of work and study, they attempt to live in harmony with the surrounding environment. They apply regenerative and sustainable methods on their small farm that entwines their work and life. Hook Pottery Paper consists of a clay studio, a combined book, paper and print studio, and a gallery shop.

Learn more about Andrea, Jon, and Hook Pottery Paper at hookpotterypaper.com