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.

It had been months since she’d handed over the keys to the mansion. She often dreamt of it: wind blowing through its broken windowpanes, mysterious water in the basement, all the ghostly memories of happier times. But she knew she had to go.

Most of you in our ABH community already know and love the book arts. Many of you live, dream, create, and teach in this wide field.

Yet as the past six months have unfolded, we’ve encountered new potential partners and supporters who are intrigued by what we’re up to, but who are far less familiar with the varied arts of the book.

When I first learned about ABH’s vision, I was enchanted. The more I learned, the more I came to realize how truly our paths align. I’ve been long drawn (moth, flame) to ventures that foster diversity, equity, inclusion, humanistic expression, and creative voice.

The arts education organization founded by author & artist Audrey Niffenegger turns a page.

Chicago, April 18, 2023: In April, Deborah Siegel-Acevedo PhD, an author, teacher, and social entrepreneur, joined Artists Book House (ABH) as its inaugural Executive Director. Founded by Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, ABH seeks to promote, teach, and build community around the literary arts and the crafts of book making. Through courses, exhibitions, readings, lectures—and pop-up creative and community-oriented delights—the nonprofit is on a mission to empower people to tell their stories and transform their worlds into books.

Mimosa, the new queer graphic novel from Archie Bongiovanni opens with middle aged queer people lamenting the state of their careers and sex lives and let me tell you I feel seen.