News + Events

04/12/2017

Last Saturday (April 8) more than 450 people came together to celebrate the art of print at (un)bound, RISD’s first book fair. Featuring artists’ books, zines and experimental publications from 60 exhibitors, the day-long event highlighted exquisite work by RISD students, faculty and alumni, along with local artists.

“We were overwhelmed by the response,” says Special Collections Librarian Claudia Covert, who helped organize the event along with colleagues in the Graphic Design and Illustration departments and the Center for Student Involvement. “We’re hoping to make the fair a new RISD tradition.”

Providence-based book artist Lara Henderson, who heads up a summer book arts and printmaking studio at the local arts collective AS220, says she relished “the opportunity to reach a wide audience at the RISD event” and to bring attention to social welfare issues.

She showed abridged versions of some of her more popular pieces for people who can’t afford the more expensive standard editions.

Henderson also joined Brown senior Sophie Schwartz and RISD grad students Shawn Bush MFA 18 PH and Vanessa Nieto Romero MFA 17 PR for a panel discussion called The Power and Potential of the Book Form. Romero explained that in every new piece she makes she attempts to deconstruct the format of the book since she sees the structure of each book to be as important as its content.

—Anina Major MFA 17 CR