Description of Program
The University of Alabama MFA Book Arts Program is a 60-credit hour course of study in the fine art and craft traditions of the book. Courses in letterpress printing and publishing, typography, hand bookbinding, hand papermaking, and the history of the book provide training and context for the role of the book as a medium for expression in art and society. Our emphasis is on the book as an integrated unit, although there is opportunity for a student who wishes to pursue a specific interest in one or more of these areas after the initial year of general study.
The Program emphasizes the development of original scholarship and creative practice by educating and preparing students to become technically proficient in book arts, cognizant of the historical background in which these various crafts evolved, and knowledgeable about the professional environments in which our graduates will work. Individual artistic expression is emphasized through development of craft skills based in historical and contemporary principles, practice, and technique.
The following projects were produced by students as part of their thesis defenses from 2021 and 2022.
Sarah Bryant
Assistant Professor
The University of Alabama
Gina Louise Fowler
An Ideal Nowhere
Press Name: The Puzzled Press
Media: Letterpress printed artists’ book + pamphlet
Size: 8″x5″x1.5″ (closed)
Year: 2022
An Ideal Nowhere is a collection of work that explores the relationship between personal experiences and utopian societies.
In Dreamland is a letterpress printed artists book that intertwines text from Annie Denton Cridge’s feminist utopian fiction piece Mans’ Rights; or, How Would You Like It? which was originally published in 1870 with river imagery representing the convergence of the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison rivers near Three Forks, Montana, which mark the official start of the Missouri River.
An Ideal Nowhere: Finding My Utopia is an essay on the connections between utopian literature and contemporary social issues, written by the artist.
Contact Information:
Email: gloufowler[at]gmail[dot]com (or thepuzzledpress[at]gmail[dot]com)
Sarah Scarr
Gay and Lesbian Studies by Sophie Strohmeier
Two Trick Pony Press
Media: letterpress printing (linoleum relief, photopolymer, pressure printing), hand binding
Size: 6.5”x10”
Year: 2021
Gay and Lesbian Studies was developed as a collaboration between Sophie Gertrude Strohmeier, the author of the short story that serves as the backbone of the book’s text and the illustrator of the images adorning it, and Two Trick Pony Press and Bindery who orchestrated the combination of the elements, edited and prompted an expansion of the hypotext and illustrations, then designed, letterpress printed, and bound the book. The tension in the story, which hinges on the fetishization of the coded eroticism in classic lesbian films, is mirrored and in the design: staid footnotes frame the central text, while the fold-outs point to an underlying, unbridled eroticism.
Contact Information:
Email: sarahscarr[at]gmail[dot]com