Week 4 – Making Books – Center for the Book Arts

Note: Today’s class will take place at the Center for Book Arts. Please meet promptly at 4:15 at the front door: 28 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001 (https://goo.gl/maps/PSWrmtyCUAWR1heg9). The Center for Book Arts is a 10 minute walk from the Graduate Center. Please do NOT go to the classroom at the CUNY Graduate Center first.

In class

We will be taking a letterpress workshop this day. Please arrive promptly so that we can begin right at the start of class.

Readings

  • Abbot & Williams, pp 57-70
  • Fry, Stephen. “The Machine that Made Us” (Gutenberg Documentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ88yC35NjI (1 hour)
  • Houston, Keith. “The Prints and the Pauper: Johannes Gutenberg & the Invention of Moveable Type.” The Book pp 102-154 [Commons]
  • Werner, Sarah. Studying Early Printed Books. Part 1 pp 8-25 [Commons]

Assignments

  • Blog post: Drawing from the week’s reading, write a 300-word blog post responding to the following question: How does the history of print shape the way we read today? Explain how things have or have not changed since the early days of print.