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On 23 July, 2020, we visited Evanston-based artist Mardy Sears. She is a printmaker, ceramicist, and artist book maker.
It’s been a long, cold winter, but spring is finally here. We’ve been busy cooking up new ideas and new learning opportunities for the ABH community. We’re excited to welcome you back to 4207 W Irving Park Rd.
Our 2026 calendar is filling up. Keep an eye out for more information and links to register for the workshops, classes, and events listed below. We’ll also be announcing additional classes in the coming weeks.
Have you ever wanted to know how a hardcover book is constructed? Are you looking for the perfect sketchbook filled with your favorite paper? The Introduction to Bookbinding course will introduce students to bookbinding tools, materials, and terminology.
We are excited to announce that construction has begun on our roof, and will soon begin on our facade. If all goes well, work will be completed in mid-November. Because of this, ABH will be closed until early December. We will send an email out to everyone once work has been completed. Until then, check out our upcoming workshop, Paper Masks with Erin Cramer, which has been rescheduled for December 6th and 7th, 2025.
A Macabre Merriment Honoring the Edward Gorey’s Centennial and to benefit the building renovation of Artists Book House
Artists Book House (ABH), the literary and book arts nonprofit, will host a new feature on its website. ABH will be the new home of Goreyesque, an online literary journal featuring stories, poems, and artwork inspired by Edward Gorey. The journal, founded by ABH co-founder Ken Gerleve and Board member Todd Summar, is moving to ABH as part of a series of late 2025 celebrations and fundraising events honoring the work of Edward Gorey.
Artists Book House founder and former Board President, Audrey Niffenegger, will be exhibiting new work at Zolla Lieberman gallery from September 5 - October 11, 2025 with an opening reception on Friday, September 5th from 4 to 7pm.
Artists Book House Founder Audrey Niffenegger and Board President Ken Gerleve were recently featured in the Chicago Sun-Times!
Thank you to everyone who came to the March 29th poster sale and book signing with Amos Kennedy! It was a delight getting to host Amos and his work, and we are so excited that our first book sales and signing in our new building went so successfully.
We have also just been notified that we will receive a grant of $5,400 from the organization Pitch Your Peers Chicago.
We are pleased to announce that Artists Book House has been selected to receive a Community Development Grant from the City of Chicago in the amount of $249,032.03 for the renovation of the roof, facade, and back wall of our building.
Artists Book House Founder Audrey Niffenegger was invited on WGN Spotlight Chicago to talk all things book arts.
Artists Book House was recently featured in an article on Redfin on the Chicago Art Scene - read the entire article here.
Everyone has a tree story. Do you remember running to a tree for safe base in a childhood game of tag? Plucking ruby-red apples on a crisp fall day? A treehouse that felt larger than life, where secrets were whispered, and dreams took shape? Many of us recall climbing high into the branches, feeling the rough bark beneath our hands, the gentle sway. Trees stand as silent witnesses to our lives, marking the seasons of change and growth.
Many of us here at ABH draw great inspiration from the weird, wonderful work of Edward Gorey, born here in Chicago on Feb. 22, 1925.
Edward Gorey was a prolific writer, illustrator, set designer, and playwright, who is most known for the animated opening titles to the PBS Mystery! series, and creating dozens of small illustrated picture books – many decidedly not for children – including the Gashlycrumb Tinies.
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.
I am delighted to report that Artists Book House has a new home: 4207 West Irving Park Road, in Chicago. This is a single-story, double storefront in the charming Old Irving Park neighborhood. It is near the Irving Park stops on the Blue Line and the Union Pacific Northwest Metra line. It’s just west of 90/94. It should be easy to visit us!
Welcome to our new website. Due to platform and support changes with our website provider, Squarespace, the need to create a new website that takes advantage of their new features and ongoing development has become a necessity. We are working diligently to migrate all of the content from our old website to our new online home, so some sections will not be immediately available. We hope to complete the migration by Monday, August 26th. If you have questions in the meantime, please email us at info@artistsbookhouse.org.
Take a little walk to the edge of town, and go across the tracks to where the Schnappviecher looms like a… well, like a Schnappviecher, and you’ll find cartoonist Marie Enger binding that prickling shiver up the back of your neck into the shape of ink on paper.
Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, ABH’s first Executive Director, will be shifting roles at the end of March, leaving her staff position to take a seat on ABH's Advisory Board. We are grateful for Deborah’s many innovations, for helping ABH to become more professional and for connecting us with so many wonderful opportunities and friends.
As I prepare myself, and ABH, for the transition from my current role as Executive Director to that of Advisory Board member, I think back on this Prologue year with fondness. I’ll continue to wholeheartedly cheer the organization on in this capacity, and I’ll be available to offer guidance and support whenever it is needed after this shift.
We asked our founder Audrey Niffenegger why the time is now to build a center for book arts in Chicago. Audrey Niffenegger is a writer and visual artist who has been making artists books for many years. She helped to found the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts and taught in the MFA in Book and Paper Arts program there for many years. She is the founder of Artists Book House and serves as a member of its Board.
“Sewing Books” instructor and friend of Artists Book House Katie Chung made an appearance on WGN 9 on November 14 to demo how to sew a book, and discuss Artists Book House and our mission. Check out the segment above! Thank you to Katie Chung for being such a rockstar ABH representative and Book Arts advocate, and thank you to WGN 9 for reaching out to us about the feature
After our Book Arts in Chicago: Past, Present, Future panel last month, we sat down with Julia Arredondo for a bit of advice on being a book artist.
Julia is a formally trained book artist-entrepreneur who founded Vice Versa Press and Curandera Press, along with QTVC Live!, a DIY home shopping channel. Their latest work "explores magic, objects, and mediumship heavily inspired by botánica culture and the syncretic spirituality of South Texas." Check out and/or shop Julia's art onwww.juliaarredondo.com.
We had a fabulous time at the Paper Jam Publisher's Fair this past Saturday! Thanks to all of the great organizers at Chicago Printers Guild for putting this together and to all of our new friends who stopped by. We look forward to jamming with you all next year!
On October 5th, ABH’s panel “Book Arts in Chicago: Past, Present, Future” offered a rich opportunity for new and old friends to gather at Colvin House to discuss all things book arts — and in particular, what our new center combining book arts and literary arts could become.
We’re delighted to introduce the ABH community to our new Program Assistant, K. R. Fowler, who joins us after having worked as Assistant Director and then Interim Director of Art at Epiphany Center for the Arts. We’ve been working together for less than a month, and already their contributions have been a tremendous boon–both to the organization and to me.
Remarks given by Executive Director Deborah Siegel-Acevedo at Artists Book House's Prologue Party on June 15th, 2023.
Remarks given by founder Audrey Niffenegger at Artists Book House's Prologue Party on June 15th, 2023.
Have you ever wanted to know how a hardcover book is constructed? Are you looking for the perfect sketchbook filled with your favorite paper? The Introduction to Bookbinding course will introduce students to bookbinding tools, materials, and terminology.
This course focuses on learning a variety of styles to create journals and sketchbooks that lay flat for multiple uses. Ideal for those who want to write, draw, use mixed media, or use the book format for collecting and gathering information. The course is intended for those with little to no experience in the book arts. It also presents an opportunity to explore content-building techniques, experiments with prompts and processes, and using other artists’ methodologies as inspiration.
Stab bindings are a useful and decorative non-adhesive binding technique that works well as ledgers and sketchbooks. Students will learn four traditional Japanese stab bindings and will be introduced to endless possibilities of patterns using this method. All materials and supplies provided, and no experience is necessary.
***Students may attend one or both classes. This listing is for both sessions.***
An introductory-level course for individuals with little to no experience making books, with an emphasis on using recycled and repurposed materials such as cardboard boxes, food packaging, and found objects. Participants will learn a variety of book techniques, including zines, pamphlets, accordions, and several spine-sewn books.
An introductory-level course for individuals with little to no experience making books, with an emphasis on using recycled and repurposed materials such as cardboard boxes, food packaging, and found objects. Participants will learn a variety of book techniques, including zines, pamphlets, accordions, and several spine-sewn books.
Ideal for sketchbooks and journals, the buttonhole stitch is a versatile and functional book for multiple uses. This non-adhesive bookbinding method allows for a continuous front-to-back cover format with multiple signatures. Participants will be introduced to a variety of methods for approaching the creation of this unique book using traditional and repurposed materials. No previous experience is necessary, and all materials and tools will be provided.
Regin Igloria, visual artist and founder and director of North Branch Projects (NBP), has been leading Community Binding workshops throughout the Chicagoland area (and beyond) since 2010. These monthly workshops introduce bookbinding skills and techniques to participants in a collaborative setting. Various binding techniques are covered, including variations on hand-sewn pamphlets and zines. Prompts are incorporated in the process to build content within the books, and instructional handouts and samples are shared, offering expanded resources to explore the medium beyond the work session.
An introductory-level course for individuals with little to no experience making books, with an emphasis on using recycled and repurposed materials such as cardboard boxes, food packaging, and found objects. Participants will learn a variety of book techniques, including zines, pamphlets, accordions, and several spine-sewn books.
