Accordion Book Mania: A book art community event with artist Erin Sweeny

All ages are invited to participate in book artist Erin Sweeny’s Accordion Book Mania, a community arts workshop at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. This event is being held in conjunction with the Art Center’s fall exhibition, Bibliomania.

One of the oldest and simplest forms, the accordion is the foundation of many book formats. When paper-making progressed and paper could be folded without cracking, the book evolved from papyrus scrolls to accordions, initiating bound volumes with separate pages. This fun, hands-on community workshop will explore several varieties of the folded form, including simple pop-ups, books with folded pockets and others with sections of sewn-in pages. Adding different kinds of covers, participants will create a finished book or two of their own. In addition, each participant can make a personal contribution to a community accordion book to celebrate the ideals of books as art, making art about books, and books as special objects worth preserving.

Erin Sweeney’s current artwork combines fibers, text, and the book form and focuses on the concepts and processes of building community, storytelling, and preservation. Making handmade objects, manipulating space, and utilizing printmaking processes in non-traditional ways are part of Sweeney’s vocabulary. The artist lives and works in New Hampshire and has exhibited her work nationally. Sweeney is also an instructor, teaching book arts workshops at her Lovely In The Home Press, in Peterborough, NH, and other locales. To learn more about the artist, visit Erin Sweeny's website.