Course Information:

Title: Summer Book Arts and Print, ART 342 / EPC 582

Credits: 3.00

Dates: Summer 2025: Monday, July 7 – Friday, July 18, 2025

Meeting Times: M-T-W-R-F from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Location: Portland Campus – Wishcamper Center, room 103 (Campus Map)

Instructor: Annie Lee-Zimerle

Prerequisite(s): ART 241 and successful completion of the Foundation Portfolio review, or permission of instructor. Email Annie Lee-Zimerle at aemin.leezimerle@maine.edu to request permission.

The Summer Book Arts and Print class is a two-week intensive course that will introduce students to the foundational skills of creating artist’s books and items related to the book arts. Students will learn from USM faculty and visiting artists the techniques that give them insights into design, history, and the aesthetics specific to book arts. Each student creates an artist’s book for a September exhibition in USM Glickman Library on the USM campus.

Additional Course fee: $300

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 

  • Completed prerequisite ART 241 OR received instructor permission to add the course.
  • Students attend all 10-day (two-week) class sessions on the Portland Campus.
  • Students Complete one book after the workshop as a Final Project, which will be exhibited on the 6th floor of Glickman Library during the months of September and October.
  • Attendance to the opening reception/lecture of the exhibition early September.
  • Failure to complete projects by the end of the semester will result in a failing grade.  


REQUIRED ESSENTIAL TOOLS: (For every class and every day, have this kit with you)

  • X-acto knife and blades or a knife with break away blades or Olfa knife (small, with snap-off blades), and supply of replacement blades
  • 12”-18” Metal Ruler-preferably stainless steel / non skid
  • Self-Healing Cutting Mat about 12” x 18” (Classroom has some to share.)
  • Pencil & Eraser
  • Notebook
  • Scissors
  • Bone Folder
  • Glue brushes: white Bristle brush 1-1.5” and .5” small flat bristle brush for glue (inexpensive chip brush, about $1.50 each)

DAILY WORKSHOP SCHEDULES:

Monday, July 7 – Tuesday, July 8

  • The Book as Lens: Transforming and Expanding Ideas into Book Form with Ken Botnick

Wednesday, July 9 

  • Collective Connect: Sharing Thoughts and Developing Ideas with Annie Lee-Zimerle

Thursday, July 10

  • From Watercolor to Handmade Book with Valerie Carrigan

Friday, July 11

  • Storage Book with Valerie Carrigan

Monday, July 14

  • Exploring Gouache Pochoir with Lucky Platt

Tuesday, July 15

  • Visual Narratives: Crankies! with Lucky Platt

Wednesday, July 16 

  • Fabulous Paste Paper! with Cynthia Ahlstrin

Thursday, July 17 

  • Buttonhole Stitch Binding with Cynthia Ahlstrin-Zimerle

Friday, July 18 

  • Creating and Presenting with Annie Lee-Zimerle

DAILY SESSION INFORMATION

DESCRIPTIONS, ARTIST BIOS, & ADDITIONAL SUPPLY LISTS: 

Monday, July 7 – Tuesday, July 8

Description:
The form of the book is a powerful space in which to explore one’s visual and textual ideas. This course employs hands-on methods to make ideas a reality. Students will expand and strengthen their visual concepts in material form through exploration of two essential components of the book: the two-page spread and the sequential experience of the codex book form. The intention of this workshop is to employ craft techniques of bookmaking as catalyst for developing concepts. Along the way, we will discuss the history of book design, typography, and text/image relationships. This is an iterative process; come ready to make multiple prototypes and expand your thinking.

Ken Botnick has been printing and publishing works in limited editions for over 40 years, first as co proprietor of Red Ozier Press in New York and today in Haydenville, Massachusetts. His work is found in collections around the world, including the Library of Congress, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, The Getty Center for Humanities, the Boston Athenaeum, The Newberry Library, The National Library of the Netherlands in the Hague, and libraries at Yale, Smith, Harvard, Wellesley and notable private collections. Botnick was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in 2006 to support his residency at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. He served as Professor of Art at Washington University in St Louis, where he directed the Kranzberg Book Studio for 21 years.

Wednesday, July 9 

Description:
We will spend the class collaborating on a day project, playing with the idea of connection. We will practice several simple creative exercises as an introduction and develop into more complex exercises as a group. Students, bring your energy and enthusiasm!

Additional Supply List:

  • Any additional drawing, painting, and/or printmaking media (bring whatever you have)

Annie Lee-Zimerle is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in printmaking, painting, drawing, and book arts. She received her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries and is in numerous private and public collections, including the Dayton Metro Library in Dayton, Ohio, Harold Washington Public Library in Chicago, the Joan Flash Artists’ Book Collection in Chicago, the Maine Women Writers Collections, and the Special Collections & Archives at Bowdoin College. Annie Lee-Zimerle has held solo exhibitions at the Springfield Museum of Art, Kent State University, and Paper Circle Southeast Ohio’s Center for Paper and Book Arts, among other locations. She was recently an artist resident at Hewnoaks, Cleveland Institute of Art, and the Studios at MASS MoCA. She was also featured on The Art Show on PBS. She is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts at the University of Southern Maine.

Thursday, July 10

Description:
Make your own painted book covers and explore decorative sewing on the spine! We will spend the first hour of our workshop making experimental watercolors – with pigment, salt, and stencils – to be used as creative covers for our books. Using those covers, we will construct a series of one, two, and three section bindings using a variety of decorative sewing patterns through the spines of our books. Later in the day we will create a full cloth-covered hardbound book with a recessed watercolor image and more advanced sewing through the spine. You will leave this workshop with a set of colorful and uniquely bound books and the knowledge of how to make more. This class is great for both a motivated beginner and advanced bookmaker. No painting or bookbinding experience necessary, just an open mind and love for books and color.

ADDITIONAL SUPPLY LISTS:

  • Awl
  • Watercolors – a simple set is fine
  • Watercolor brushes – 1⁄2” flat and #8 round are suggested
  • Watercolor palette (white dinner plate works well
  • Paper towels or cloth

Valerie Carrigan works out of her studio in a historic mill in western Massachusetts where she produces artist books and prints that explore the intersection of the natural world and the human spirit. Her work has been exhibited at the International CODEX Book Arts Fair and Symposium, San Francisco Public Library, Boston Athenaeum, Minnesota Center for the Book, and the Women’s Studio Workshop Art Book Fair, among others. Residencies include Penland School of Craft, Vermont Studio Center, and Maine Media Workshops + College. Carrigan’s artist books are held in special collections across the United States with recent acquisitions by Baylor University, Colby College, and Colorado State University. Valerie holds an M.F.A. in Printmaking/ Book Arts from the University of the Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Bryant University, where she is the Program Coordinator for the Arts and Creative Industries major and teaches courses in drawing, design, and book arts.

Friday, July 11

Description:
Looking for a unique way to house objects and present images in your books? In this workshop, you will assemble a storage book model (designed by the instructor) in which you will learn techniques to encapsulate, recess, and suspend objects, insert images, deboss shapes, and create a volvelle. After completing this book model, participants will begin to design their own books with images and ephemera they have collected for the project. The Storage Book is a structure invented by Hedi Kyle.

ADDITIONAL SUPPLY LISTS:

  • Awl
  • Flat objects, ephemera, and images to begin your own storage book

Valerie Carrigan works out of her studio in a historic mill in western Massachusetts where she produces artist books and prints that explore the intersection of the natural world and the human spirit. Her work has been exhibited at the International CODEX Book Arts Fair and Symposium, San Francisco Public Library, Boston Athenaeum, Minnesota Center for the Book, and the Women’s Studio Workshop Art Book Fair, among others. Residencies include Penland School of Craft, Vermont Studio Center, and Maine Media Workshops + College. Carrigan’s artist books are held in special collections across the United States with recent acquisitions by Baylor University, Colby College, and Colorado State University. Valerie holds an M.F.A. in Printmaking/ Book Arts from the University of the Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Bryant University, where she is the Program Coordinator for the Arts and Creative Industries major and teaches courses in drawing, design, and book arts.

Monday, July 14

Description:
An introduction to gouache pochoir (stencil) for printmaking and as an illustration technique. We’ll practice handling and mixing gouache, and hand-cutting stencils from vellum. As we develop a comfort with color mixing, pouncing, changing colors, and layering, we’ll sample gradients, overlapping shapes, and patterning. In the afternoon, we’ll expand our stencil portfolio and create one or more standalone pochoir compositions and/or a small series of pochoir prints.

Additional supply lists will be provided to registered students.

Lucky Platt creates children’s picture books, crankies, mixed media animations, prints, paper sculptures, and more delights in her lakeside home studio in Burnham, Maine. Her debut picture book, Imagine a Wolf (Page Street Kids 2021) was a 2022 Maine Literary Awards Finalist, a 2022 Ezra Jack Keats Award Finalist, a 2021 New England Book Award Finalist, and has been translated into Korean and Russian. Her stories
explore themes of resilience, healing, positive self-expression, and inclusion. She has presented art and writing workshops through the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Maine Media Workshops & College Book Arts, Maine Crafts Association, Waterville Creates, Farnsworth Art Museum, Waterfall Arts and many libraries, schools, and indie bookshops. Lucky is a regular contributor to Maine Home + Design Magazine Showcase and is the Artist-in- Residence for her rural town library, Unity Public Library (UPL), where she helped found the library’s Children’s Storyteller Series. Lucky grew up in northeast PA and studied writing, painting, drawing, and printmaking at Vassar College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Complutense City University of Madrid.

Tuesday, July 15

Description:
A crankie is a time-based art form in which a long illustrated scroll is turned by a crank within some kind of frame. We’ll start with a storyboarding exercise to open up possibilities for narrative expression, and then, building on the previous day’s work with gouache pochoir, we”ll layout the foundation of a visual narrative – illustrative or abstract – using existing and new hand cut stencils and mixed media to cover a long scroll paper. There will be time reserved in the afternoon to share and ‘perform’ our crankies in progress.

Additional supply lists will be provided to registered students

Lucky Platt creates children’s picture books, crankies, mixed media animations, prints, paper sculptures, and more delights in her lakeside home studio in Burnham, Maine. Her debut picture book, Imagine a Wolf (Page Street Kids 2021) was a 2022 Maine Literary Awards Finalist, a 2022 Ezra Jack Keats Award Finalist, a 2021 New England Book Award Finalist, and has been translated into Korean and Russian. Her stories
explore themes of resilience, healing, positive self-expression, and inclusion. She has presented art and writing workshops through the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Maine Media Workshops & College Book Arts, Maine Crafts Association, Waterville Creates, Farnsworth Art Museum, Waterfall Arts and many libraries, schools, and indie bookshops. Lucky is a regular contributor to Maine Home + Design Magazine Showcase and is the Artist-in- Residence for her rural town library, Unity Public Library (UPL), where she helped found the library’s Children’s Storyteller Series. Lucky grew up in northeast PA and studied writing, painting, drawing, and printmaking at Vassar College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Complutense City University of Madrid.

Wednesday, July 16 

Description:
In this session, students will have a full day of fun investigating the methods of creating hand-designed decorative paste paper, which is often used in book arts, collage, and beyond. We will start the day by learning the process of mixing paint and glue. Students will then have the opportunity to learn how to incorporate underlying marks and use a variety of tools to create professional quality paper with colorful abstract designs and patterns. You will love the results!

ADDITIONAL SUPPLY LISTS:

  • Spray water bottle – some available in class, but if you want your own, bring one.
  • Apron/old shirt
  • Mark-making media such as soft pastels, colored pencils, pens, markers. (optional)

Cynthia Ahlstrin is an interdisciplinary artist with an ongoing interest in altered and traditional bookmaking, drawing, and printmaking. Her work investigates wisdoms handed down from past generations, the distortion of memory, botanical oddities and the domestic “rules” placed on women in our society. Ahlstrin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2004 from the University of Maine at Augusta, Summa cum Laude. Additionally, Cynthia earned a Book Arts minor from the University of Southern Maine and has attended advanced classes at the Maine College of Art. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and libraries throughout the United States. Her work is held in public and private collections from Maine to California. Currently, Cynthia is an adjunct professor at the Kennebec Valley Community College, where she teaches drawing and bookmaking. She also maintains a working studio in Winthrop, ME, where she has lived with her family and furballs for the past 27 years.

Thursday, July 17

Description:
Students will learn to make a wonderful book structure which incorporates various bookmaking skills such as stack folding, cutting an open spine and sewing. Students will have the opportunity to create a softcover Buttonhole Stitch binding in which a window cutout along the spine beautifully exposes the folded signatures within. This lovely book highlights the exterior sewing on the book’s spine, done in such a way that it allows the pages to open into a flat position.

ADDITIONAL SUPPLY LISTS:

  • awl

Cynthia Ahlstrin is an interdisciplinary artist with an ongoing interest in altered and traditional bookmaking, drawing, and printmaking. Her work investigates wisdoms handed down from past generations, the distortion of memory, botanical oddities and the domestic “rules” placed on women in our society. Ahlstrin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2004 from the University of Maine at Augusta, Summa cum Laude. Additionally, Cynthia earned a Book Arts minor from the University of Southern Maine and has attended advanced classes at the Maine College of Art. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and libraries throughout the United States. Her work is held in public and private collections from Maine to California. Currently, Cynthia is an adjunct professor at the Kennebec Valley Community College, where she teaches drawing and bookmaking. She also maintains a working studio in Winthrop, ME, where she has lived with her family and furballs for the past 27 years.

Friday, July 18

Description:
Students will build on the dummy books for the final project. We will have opportunities to review and share ideas and dummy books in class through individual and group critiques and presentations.

ADDITIONAL SUPPLY LISTS:

  • Bring materials that you would like to use for the final project and/or dummy book(s)

Annie Lee-Zimerle is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in printmaking, painting, drawing, and book arts. She received her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries and is in numerous private and public collections, including the Dayton Metro Library in Dayton, Ohio, Harold Washington Public Library in Chicago, the Joan Flash Artists’ Book Collection in Chicago, the Maine Women Writers Collections, and the Special Collections & Archives at Bowdoin College. Annie Lee-Zimerle has held solo exhibitions at the Springfield Museum of Art, Kent State University, and Paper Circle Southeast Ohio’s Center for Paper and Book Arts, among other locations. She was recently an artist resident at Hewnoaks, Cleveland Institute of Art, and the Studios at MASS MoCA. She was also featured on The Art Show on PBS. She is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts at the University of Southern Maine.

Questions about the workshop?

Please email Annie Lee-Zimerle, the faculty director of the Summer Book Arts and the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts, at aemin.leezimerle@maine.edu.

Registration Dates

  • Current USM/UMS students: March 1 & 2
  • Open Registration*: March 3
  • For Information on Registration Click Here

*Registration continues up to the first start date of a course.

Summer 2025 Registration Options:

When registering for undergraduate/graduate academic credit, participants may choose to receive a grade or to audit the course. Auditing means that the participant is enrolled in the course for academic credit but will not receive a grade.

Costs for participation include full workshop participation, undergraduate tuition, university fees, and some course materials. Participation in the September student exhibition and attendance at the September public lecture is required for all those who wish to receive a grade. In order to complete this course for full academic credit, you must design and make an artist’s book inspired in some way by your week in the program.

Undergraduate course code: ART 342 60238

  • Visit Undergraduate Student Financial Services for tuition & fees based on residency: In-State residents, NEBHE residents (NEBHE states include: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island.), Out-of-state residents.
  • Additional Course fee: $250
  • Payment for summer is due on or before May 13, 2023.

Costs for participation include full workshop participation, graduate tuition, university fees, and some course materials. Participation in the September student exhibition and attendance at the September public lecture is required. In order to complete this course, you must design and make an artist’s book inspired in some way by your week in the program.

  • Graduate Students Only: In addition, you will write a research paper on some aspect of the week-long program.  For instance, you might write about the history of printmaking, or on a particular book artist, binding, and/or Artist’s Books. This will also be due on or before September 6, 2023.

Graduate course code: EPC 582 60307

  • Visit Graduate Student Financial Services for tuition & fees based on residency: In-State residents, NEBHE residents (NEBHE states include: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island.), Out-of-state residents.
  • Additional Course fee: $250
  • Payment for summer is due on or before May 13, 2023.

Maine residents 65 and older are eligible to apply for a Senior Citizen Tuition Waiver. The Senior Citizen Tuition Waiver covers tuition, unified fee, and the summer administrative fee. Individuals must be a Maine resident, 65 or older, and registered for undergraduate academic credit. Learn more about USM’s Senior Citizen Tuition Waiver.