Welcome to our inaugural Artists Book House 2020 Holiday Gift Guide. Our guide includes links to online shops, so if you’re out of town, you can still order goodies from all of these makers. The list will grow throughout the month. We hope you find the perfect gift for your loved ones.
For your printmaker or print-lover
Daredevil Furniture from Springtide Press
If you have a letterpress printer on your list who has everything except the ability to set type on angles and curves. Jessica Spring of Springtide Press has you covered. Her Daredevil Type is just the thing!
Visit Springtide Press’ Etsy Shop.
See Jessica's work here: springtidepress.com
Letterpress Holiday Cards by Starshaped Press
Sending cards this holiday season? You can not go wrong with cards from Starshaped Press. The unmistakable Chicago Skyline was carefully constructed from metal ornaments and printed on the Chandler and Price press at Starshaped.
Visit starshaped.com
We've tried to personalize our #abhgiftguide2020 to individual ABH board members, but this one came from so many of us, we'll all take credit.
P22 printing supplies (and more!)
Ben Blount, Artist Book House board member and proprietor of Make Studio in Evanston, recommends P22 Type Foundry for holiday shopping, and not just for the printers in your life.
Sure they have line gauges, printing aprons, type specimens and more, but they also carry broadsides and books.
Visit: p22.com
Chicago Printmakers Collaborative’s
Small Print Show
Chicago Printmakers Collaborative is having its small print show both online or in person (by appointment). Find the perfect small print for yourself or someone else.
Visit: chicagoprintmakers.com
Got a real print lover? Consider their printmaking care package, a steal at just $75. It includes a personalized print for the recipient as well as many more surprises.
Current Location Press
Printmaker and state park lover Raychel Steinbach of Current Location Press, creates beautiful block prints inspired by state parks. These are available in prints for your walls and on tea towels and face masks. The fabric is all small batch hand-dyed.
Raychel's print at home tutorial is also available on the Artists Book House website.
Visit: currentlocationpress.com
The Bird Machine
For our ABH FUNdraiser way back in February, Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine created a very special poster for us, of a house made of books, which we passed out to party-goers on their way out. Some of you have this poster in your homes or studios as we speak (thank you!).
We're so happy to add The Bird Machine to our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, From Our House to Yours, and hope that you'll peruse the website and order artwork for all of your print and animal lovers.
We're particularly fond of this text-based poster. Get it while it lasts!
Visit: thebirdmachine.com
For your design lover
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
Shopping for graphic designers, collectors, or social activists? ABH board member Tom Greensfelder recommends the book on British designer David King whose work is "incredibly varied and took him away from the mainstream design industry—first towards political activism, then finally to visual histories."
Visit: eyeondesign.aiga.org for more about the book.
For your paper maker
Hook Pottery Paper
Need something for the paper maker in your life? ABH Board President Audrey Niffenegger recommends a visit to:
Not only do they have supplies for your favorite pulp-person, they have all kinds of lovely items for sale in their online shop. Please order from their 23rd Annual Fall Sale (virtual this year!) before December 19th.
Krampus HMP pulp paintings
by Upcoming Evanston Bound guest Don Widmer
Don Widmer combines hand papermaking, bookbinding, and printing to create works inspired by storytelling and real and imagined histories. His sculptural artist books include his own writing and incorporate unusual book structures featuring movement and light. He create images within sheets of handmade paper using plant pulp as a painting medium, a technique called Pulp Painting.
Don Widmer’s holiday pulp paintings feature Krampus. This series of four 24 x 36 prints are individually or as a set in his Etsy site.
Visit: Etsy
For your book binder
Pocket Bookbinding Kit from Clever HandS
This sweet little Pocket Bookbinding Kit would be a great stocking stuffer for anyone on your list who has never made their own book before.
You can find it at the Etsy store of Clever Hands, among other great binding kits and tools.
Visit: etsy.com
Bari Zaki Studios
While assembling the #abhgiftguide2020 a board member asked for a pencil recommendation for a possible gift (name redacted until after gifting season passes).
Board President Audrey Niffenegger recommends the excellent graphite and colored pencil collections (in addition to Bari’s wide selection of bookbinding tools and supplies, journals, cards and more) at Bari Zaki's store.
Visit: barizaki.com
For your readers and lovers of words
Envious Siblings by Landis Blair
Morbid nursery rhymes written and illustrated by former Evanston Bound guest Landis Blair
Inspired by the dark imagination of Edward Gorey, Envious Siblings is a twisted and hauntingly funny debut. Comics artist Landis Blair interweaves absurdist horror and humor into brief, rhyming vignettes at once transgressive and hilarious. These charmingly perverse creations take ordinary settings—a living room, a subway car, a playground—and spin them in a nightmarish direction.
Envious Siblings heralds a brilliant new cartooning talent, and will captivate readers who have thrilled to the lurid fantasies of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, and Tim Burton.
Visit his website at: landisblair.com
The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm By Jack Zipes, Illustrated by Andrea Dezsö
Featuring beautifully intricate hand cut paper illustrations by former Evanston Bound guest Andrea Dezsö
The original vision of Grimms' tales in English for the first time. When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published theirChildren's and Household Tales in 1812, followed by a second volume in 1815, they had no idea that such stories as Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella would become the most celebrated in the world. Yet few people today are familiar with the majority of tales from the two early volumes, since in the next four decades the Grimms would publish six other editions, each extensively revised in content and style. For the very first time, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimmmakes available in English all 156 stories from the 1812 and 1815 editions. These narrative gems, newly translated and brought together in one beautiful book, are accompanied by sumptuous new illustrations from award-winning artist Andrea Dezsö.
Purchase at bookshop.org
A is for Another RabbiT by Hannah Batsel
Picture book written and illustrated by former Evanston Bound guest Hannah Batsel
A rabbit-obsessed narrator makes an owl increasingly irate by refusing to play by the rules of a conventional alphabet book. Every entry is about bunnies, from delightful, dynamic, daredevil rabbits to xylophone rabbits and rabbits on drums! Readers will pore over scenes of bunnies at the circus, in a tiny town, at the museum, even in a motorcycle gang. Author-illustrator Hannah Batsel takes readers on a delightful romp through the alphabet and keeps them laughing all the way to the ridiculously fun conclusion.
Purchase at bookshop.org
Independent Bookshops
We hope you order books through one of the many independent bookstores we are still lucky to have in the Chicago metro area. Holiday shopping is going to be critical for these small businesses, so please consider using them!
Libro.fm
ABH Board Member Eileen Madden loves audiobooks. Libro.fm not only has an excellent selection of audiobooks, they allow you to select an independent bookstore to share in the proceeds from any book you buy. You can either gift the reader in your life with a subscription to libro.fm, or you can gift individual books from your own account.
Miscellaneous gifts and shops that we love
Stumble & Relish
Evanston’s own Stumble & Relish carries so much creative goodness, you are certain to find something for everyone: paper goods, jewelry, candles—lots of Chicago and Evanston artists, and lots of Chicago and Evanston art! Stumble & Relish is located at 1312 Chicago Avenue in Evanston.
Visit: stumbleandrelish.com
Another World By The Flat Five
Got a creative person on your list who could use some new music? Chicago's own The Flat Five just put out an album - Another World. "From the laid-back simple to the oddly romantic to the slightly subversive, there is a heart of wide-eyed sweetness coloring Chris Ligon’s songs." All done in beautiful harmony. And who doesn't need more harmony right now?
Why not buy one for yourself and one for someone on your list? It’s available in all the formats—digital, vinyl, CD.
Visit: flatfivechicago.com
Squeezebox Books & Records
Stellar virtual event planner and ABH Board Member Jennifer Friedrich (bonchicago.com) recommends checking out Squeezebox - a boutique style, thematically based used book and music store in Evanston for your holiday shopping. Shop thousands of books and records as well as art, puzzles, prints and gifts. They are open for in person (masked and socially distanced) shopping Mon - Sat 12 - 6 at 743 Main Street in Evanston.
Visit: squeezeboxbooks.com
Nice Lena
ABH board member Jennifer Friedrich recommends custom ceramic ornaments from Nice Lena. The Wizard of Cute has a brick and mortar shop in Evanston at 1235 Chicago Avenue, and an online shop. Nice Lena carries stickers, mugs, cards, masks, DIY craft kits and so much more.
Visit: nicelena.com
Budding Relationships
For your plant (or word!) lovers: Every plant deserves a name. These hand-stamped aluminum markers will help your Budding Relationship bloom.
Choose your name or let the name choose you for each marker you order. These quirky markers can bring life and friendship to the plant you already have or to the plant you are about to give.
Each maker is made to order. Hand-stamping is never perfect, which adds to the charm of each piece. Allow 3-5 days for each order to be made.
A perfect gift for the person who has everything or the person who needs something. Visit their shop at: etsy.com
Justin Roberts’ Grammy nominated album Wild Life
If you have music lovers with kiddos in your circle, you probably already know of Justin Roberts, who has consistently rocked out with the younger audiences for years.
What you may not know is that his music transcends age groups—he's extremely talented and we were quite lucky to have been able to hire him this past summer to compose and create our Artists Book House theme song (thanks to all of you who donated to our Musician Fundraiser back in July!) for our online content.
He's got some lovely music out there for purchase, and we encourage you to think of his recent Grammy-nominated full length album Wild Life when you're trying to find something special for any music lover in your life. You can purchase on his website: justinrobertsmusic.com
Backlot Coffee and Roasters
Part of the dream of ABH is to have a small cafe serving lovely coffees and teas and snacks, where we can all sit around and talk about bookish things, on break from making bookish things. Until that happens, we all must be content to make our own coffee at home, from beans roasted by a local coffeeshop, hopefully.
If you have a coffee drinker in your abode, or are one yourself, please check out local roaster and coffee purveyor Backlot Coffee, which has two locations in Evanston, but will ship all around if you order from their website: backlotcoffee.com
Shawn Sheehy’s pop up cards DIY kits
Still looking for last minute stocking stuffers that are creative and fun?
Head on over to previous Quarantour guest Shawn Sheehy's website, where he has a LOT of holiday DIY pop up kits available---and they are all $5 or less!
He also has other pop up kits available, too, so you have a lot of choices.