I sometimes wish that Artists Book House was small and cuddly, with silky warm fur, twitching whiskers, and beseeching eyes, because if ABH was a cute little mammal we probably would have found a nice home for it much sooner. Since ABH happens to be a book and paper center, it took us a while to find a suitable location. After a couple false starts, we eventually Goldilocksed our way to something that is just right: 4207 West Irving Park Road, in Chicago.
2024 has been transformative for ABH. After some challenges, we have secured a space where our book arts community can thrive.
Treewhispers is an ongoing international collaboration that celebrates the connection between trees and humanity through handmade paper and artistic exploration. Participants contribute handmade paper rounds with personal memories, poems, images of tree rings, leaves or their beloved trees. These rounds, bound with bookbinding thread, form paper columns and create an ever-evolving forest of paper. As the project travels, it grows with new stories, new voices, and a collective reverence for nature.
In honor of Treewhispers 25th Anniversary, we are hosting a live story telling experience. Guests are invited to submit their tree-related stories to read live at the event. It will be held on January 29th from 6pm - 8pm.
We’re inviting all armchair story tellers, those who can deliver a good yarn or those seasoned in front of an audience; all are welcome. To enter your tree story for a chance to perform amongst the Treewhispers installation, follow the guidelines and submit your story by January 22.
This is a workshop for fiction writers, or anyone interested in creating characters for comics, graphic novels, creative non-fiction, etcetera. Students will concentrate on techniques for building groups of characters with complex interior lives and interesting relationships.
So you want to write for youth and you’re new to the business? Great. But writing stories for kids means going beyond the fun of a great idea. You must grasp the secrets of the industry while also mastering plot, word choice, word count, and voice. This workshop digs deep into the layers that create strong stories.
A self-described “humble negro printer,” Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. is internationally recognized for his type-driven messages of social justice and Black power, emblazoned in rhythmically layered and boldly inked prints made for the masses. This event will celebrate the publishing of Kennedy’s monograph, Citizen Printer, from the Letterform Archive, with an author signing, an exhibition, and posters for sale at the event.
