Course Code: 26FWR100I
This one day, in-person workshop takes place at CBA on Saturday, September 19th, from 11AM to 5PM ET.
-
Saturday, September 19th, from 11AM to 5PM ET
Please Note: Registration for this workshop closes on September 6 at 11:59 pm.
About the Workshop:
This in-person class at Center for Book Arts is taught by instructor Maria G. Pisano.
What is poetry? How do words inspire us? The class will begin with choosing one’s own text or a favorite passage, and proceed to extract words that can be formed into poetic form. Discussion will center on various forms of poetry, how to pull out meaningful text and compose one’s own poem. The next step is to respond visually to it via drawing, collage, printing and/or painting on the pages and transform them into a creative work of art. If time allows we will bind your pages into a book.
This workshop references Tom Philip’s A Humument – Please visit his site and read the introduction at: https://www.tomphillips.co.uk/humument
Required Materials:
-
Choose 2 spreads, or 4 pages of a literary novel book you like – something that is of interest to you and has meaning that you can respond to. Xerox the pages you have chosen – so you will have multiple pages to bring to the workshop and work on them. Please use good acid free art paper to Xerox your pages, no larger than 8.5 x11. Bring at least two copies of each page, so you can practice on one and use the second for your final.
-
Think of a media you like to use for painting (acrylics or watercolor only), printing – stamp pads, triangular make-up sponges – one per color; drawing – markers, colored pencils; collage, etc. – bring all relevant materials with you.
-
Additionally please bring your basic bookbinding kit: Self healing mat, small snap blade knife, triangle, stick glue, small scissors, pencil, eraser, 12″ metal ruler, bone folder, brushes
All other materials will be provided by the Center for Book Arts at no additional cost.
About the Instructor
Maria G. Pisano is book artist, printmaker, curator and educator. Her works reflect concerns about immigration, human rights, women’s rights and the environment. Memory Press works are represented in The Library of Congress, 9-11 Memorial Museum, National Library of Medicine, Columbia University, UCLA Berkley, Stanford University and many more.
Memory Press works are exhibited in many venues. Her book Via Dolorosa: From Sea to Shining Sea, has been selected for the exhibit: Who Is America at 250? : Artists Books in the Age of Democracy – The exhibit will be shown at Francisco Center for the Book, Minnesota Center for the Book and The Boston Athenaeum thru 2026. Previously, her book Caudex Folium was part of the exhibit Towers Rising, at the 9-11 Memorial Museum in NYC from 2024 to 2025and in 2022 her work was in “And Yet We Rise: A Retrospect of the Days and Times Surrounding 9/11 at the American Consulate in London.
She has curated a number exhibits including Book as Witness: The Artist’s Response at CBA in NYC and Crossroads: Book Artists’ Impassioned Responses to Immigration, Human Rights and Our Environment, at the Hunterdon Museum of Art, NJ. Ms. Pisano contributes to book arts publications and has presented lectures at the Library of Congress, College Book Arts Association and the Art Libraries Society of North America. Her article “Mark To Impress” was published in California Society of Printmakers and The Blue Notebook in the UK. She continuously gives workshops nationally and internationally, at her studio, libraries and institutions such as Bridwell Library, TX and Center for Book Arts in NYC and CBBAG.
All images courtesy of the instructor unless otherwise noted.