The CBAA conference (Jan. 8-10, 2009) was an exhilarating experience. I met some amazing new people, saw dear old friends, and now have a lot of new ideas bouncing around thanks to the panels and demos. One of my favorite volunteer duties of the weekend was to help Veda and Meda Rives set up their paper/book work installation at the Arts Iowa City Gallery. The installation is down now, but you can see some of their work at Mirror Image Press.
A few other personal favorites:
~ Tate Shaw of Preacher's Biscuit Books and Visual Studies Workshop kicked off the conference with his keynote address about book openings, not only structurally but also as content.
~ Megan Berner, an artist in Reno, Nevada, showed how she transformed her book about daydreaming into a video.
~ Johnny Carrera of Quercus Press explained his process in creating "Pictoral Websters" a letterpress printed and handbound book that compiles dictionary images into one book.
~ David Berona talked about the evolution of the woodcut graphic novel, with images and text from his new book "Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novel". He also introduced me to the Center for Cartoon Studies.
~ Amanda Nelsen showed a video of her recent installation work, where she used bundled squares of recycled junk mail to create 'pixels' of color.
~ The Moving Crew gave a synopsis of what they've been up to these past few years, from handing out fake passports to granting land in a gallery in Omaha.
This is just a smidgen of all the extraordinary conversations that took place in our little Iowa City during those few days. If you missed out on this one, keep your eye on the College Book Art Association website for the next, coming in 2011.
