The final project for our Textile Cultures class was to use the textile we had printed to create some sort of sculpture, installation, or garment. Since the theme of the pattern I created was travel and change, I chose to make six books that would each represent a place I have lived. It was a lot of work, but it was really cool learning how to bind books. Below you can see a picture of the books I made along with my artist statement.
AW
World Books
Cotton, ink, cardboard, paper, glue, thread
Six books, between 3×3 inches and 11×9 inches
I created six books using the cotton blend fabric I screen-printed a pattern onto last unit. To stay consistent with the theme of the symbols in my pattern (travel and change) my books represent the many places I have lived in my life. They are a sculptural installation the audience can interact with, since they can look at three lists I made and try to order the books based on those. One list is of the locations themselves, another of the dates in which I lived in each place, and the last one is what each place means to me. Judging by the various shapes and sizes of the books, the audience can guess which corresponds to which, then open the books to discover the answers.
After brainstorming this idea and creating a blueprint of the books, the process of going from a textile to books began with turning the fabric into covers. I measured the pieces needed for each book, then glued kozo paper to the back so it would stick well to the cardboard. The next step was to wrap the cardboard with the textile, and cover the extra space with paper. I included maps of each place on the inside covers of the corresponding books. Once the covers were complete, I bound the pages inside using a number of different kinds of stitches: pamphlet, long, and coptic, plus one with accordion-style pages.