For our first field trip, we visited Joyce Sievers. Her studio is within her house which is located near Smithville, TN. She is an accomplished book artist and shared her collection of books with me. She had many works that were completed museum quality pieces, some pieces in progress, and many many ideas about the nature of bookbinding. She is a member of Book Babes- a group that meets at the Liberty Paper Mill, and she also teaches workshops on bookbinding.
Joyce's work really is exactly what bookbinding can be when it is at it's best. Her materials are well chosen and meaningful. She spoke about how books are about containing and revealing content, that opening and experiencing a book is what it is all about. A good book artist controls how that content is revealed to the viewer: the process of experiencing the physical, tactile materials and the visual information in time. (Until meeting with Joyce, I never realized the importance of time in the experience of a book.)
Me and Joyce, Joyce's studio:
