Venice as I Imagined

This year I was lucky to join the KBAC’s Book Arts in Venice trip. As the Studio Manager at the KBAC I’ve heard about this trip for years from Jeff Abshear, KBAC Director and trip leader, as well as from interns and friends. I have become familiar with people’s names and seen pictures of the studios they visit, and now it was my chance to see them in person.

We started our trip in Venice where we had wonderful, centrally located apartments near the Rialto bridge. In the mornings, after a breakfast of a baked good and a double espresso we would take the vaporetto boat to the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica. The Scuola has a beautiful studio with many presses and plenty of space to spread out and make art. The first few days we worked on our drypoint plates and the concept for our collaborative book, and on Saturday we printed our images. Everyone on the trip had interest in art and books, but not everyone was a practicing artist. All the drypoint prints turned out beautifully regardless of previous experience, and we had fun printing in a group! You don’t have to clean your hands as much if you have inkers, paper dryers, and press operators. We needed to print 15 copies of 12 images, so spent most of the day working, but had time for a combo lunch of a rappini pizza and a spritz for only 7 euro!

 We had plenty of time outside of the studio during our trip. As a group we visited the Accademia and Guggenheim, both of which were on my list of places to see. A surprise group visit to the Frari Basilica led me to explore many other amazing churches in Venice. I joined others from the group to visit Ca’ Pesaro the modern art museum and the Doge’s Palace. Four of us also decided to go on a gondola ride, which was something I would never have done alone. I loved exploring Venice with people with similar interests in art and who invited me to try new things!

 After Venice we traveled to Cornuda. I was very excited to visit Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione, since I love type and printing.  While there, we set and printed poems we had written about our experiences in Venice and designed a cover for our collaborative book. We had access to their studio, and to a huge collection of metal and wood type. These were some of the busiest studio days, but my favorite. Although it was similar to the work I do every day at the KBAC, it’s always interesting to print in other printshops with experienced printers like Danelle. I was also curious about setting type in another country; Italians don’t use the California Job Case to store their type like we do in the USA. It was a challenge to find the letters in a new layout, but it was surprisingly fast to memorize the most common letter combinations.

On the last day we had an excellent tour of the museum, learned about monotype machines, how music is printed, and saw an exhibition of the work of the Bodoni Press. We were even given a surprise gift of beautifully printed folios of original Bodoni press pages held in a letterpress cover printed at Tipoteca.

 In Cornuda we had a relaxing stay at Villa Bolzonello, Since we were busy in the studio there was less time for exploration, but I hiked up to Madonna Del Rocco. The walk was steep but worth the view, and it made me very hungry for dinner that night! A group of us got drinks and sandwiches at a spot right next to the villa. While we were eating the bells of the church across the street started ringing and didn’t stop for at least a full minute! It gave us something to talk to the waitress about as she practiced her English and tried to teach us Italian.

 If you have interest in art, bookmaking, or printing and would also love to spend time in Italy this trip is for you! Information for our 2024 Book Arts in Venice trip is already online and, as a bonus, it is the year of the 60thVenice Art Biennale so there will be even more art to explore!

Katie