Print Paper Book Minor: Degree Information

This course introduces students to the interrelated fields of printmaking, papermaking, and bookbinding. Class topics include: basic printmaking techniques, such as screenprinting and relief; Western papermaking, along with commercial printing papers and nontraditional materials; and basic bookbinding techniques, including accordion, stab binding, and single-signature pamphlet binding. While subsequent courses explore each field separately and in-depth, this introductory course provides an opportunity to study all three areas as an integrated whole.

Traditional and sculptural books provide exciting options for artistic expression. This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of art in the book form, ranging from one-of-a-kind books to printed multiples and sculptural works. Individual projects focus on the relationship of form and content and employ a wide range of media and materials for text and/or images. Contemporary and historical artists’ books are explored through critique, samples, slide lectures, and field trips.

In this course, students explore the materials and techniques of book construction through a variety of forms, from simple pamphlets to hardcover multiple-section books. Adhesive and non-adhesive bindings and covers, folded and sewn structures, and Japanese and Western styles are examined. Additional projects include presentation cases, envelopes, and box-making. Integration of contents with outer wrapping is discussed as it relates to self-promotion and to client presentations. Demonstrations, material exploration, and class discussions complement student projects.

This class examines the traditional forms and contemporary possibilities of the printed book. From one-page poetry and political broadsides to multi-page books, students explore a range of printing and distribution methods. Text and image, page layout, and overall book design are discussed. Print technologies covered include letterpress with handset type and photopolymer plate, relief and collagraph techniques, and the wood-type poster press. Projects may be one-of-a-kind, editioned, or collaborative. Basic bookbinding appropriate to the projects is covered.

This class explores the internal structure and content of the book form. The relationships between image and text and the development of voice, rhythm, and timing are examined as components of narrative structure. Although simple bookbinding is incorporated, the class concentrates on developing subject matter and ways of telling. Assignments include small editions and collaborative and student-proposed projects. Work may be produced using the student’s choice of medium, including photo, illustration, digital, printmaking, and drawing. Lectures, films, and readings complement course material.

In this course students learn how to make artwork with handmade paper from recycled materials, botanical fibers, and imported fiber. The class covers sheet formation for drawing, painting, and printmaking purposes, as well as three-dimensional applications in sculpture or lighting projects. Work in related areas such as bookbinding, surface applications, and paper uses in other disciplines is encouraged. Students are expected to experiment with the technical information presented and develop new work.

In this course students are introduced to Western and Eastern fiber techniques of making three-dimensional paper works. Students are encouraged to investigate experimental methods of production in order to develop their own working methods and projects. Students experiment with scale and materials to produce works ranging from the sculptural form to textured drawings and collage.

Through experimentation with process and practice, including the editioning of copper plates, students use different grounds, aquatints, acids, and dry-point techniques to gain an understanding of the intaglio process. Line and tonal work, transfers, chine colle, viscosity, and color printing are all possibilities. Both historical and contemporary applications are explored.

The process of lithography allows the artist to draw directly on grained lithographic limestone and aluminum plates to create printable matrices. Students experience both the graphic capacity and painterly possibilities of this medium through a wide range of dry and wet lithographic drawing materials. Students develop a portfolio of print-based work emphasizing personal imagery using plate and stone lithography while incorporating drawing, transfer, and digital processes. Historical and contemporary contexts are explored through lectures and field trips to museums and/or print studios.

Screenprinting is a direct printmaking technique that builds images from layers of color. Students in this class explore photographic, computer-generated, hand-drawn, and painted stencil techniques. Through field trips, slide lectures, print samples, and critiques, the class provides an overview of the wide range of historical and contemporary approaches to screenprinting. Students complete a portfolio of editioned and non-editioned prints using nontoxic, water-based inks.

In this course students explore a variety of textures, mark-making, and image techniques in the direct and versatile mediums of relief printmaking and monotype. Media include linoleum and wood block, collographs, pressure printing and embossing, painting with printmaking ink, stenciling, and trace monotypes. Technical information on cutting techniques, printing by hand and press, reduction, multi-block and combination prints, overprinting, and color layering are all covered. Demonstrations, lectures, and field trips support class material.

This course introduces students to contemporary printmaking trends and concepts in relation to digital technology. Emphasis is placed on experimentation and discovery through various techniques, including exposure to CNC and laser cutter technology for making printable matrices, the inkjet printer as a painting tool, the scanner as a camera, and the production of hybrid prints that combine digital printing, papers, and fabrics with traditional print. Through screenprinting, relief, artists’ books, and digital output, this class considers the shift and overlap of old and new techniques as a vital investigation of contemporary visual culture. Contemporary artists working in digital and print-based media are discussed.

This course enables students to gain working knowledge of a variety of printmaking techniques that involve photographic and digitally generated images. Students explore photo-plate processes such as Z*Acryl etching, photolithography, and photopolymer gravure plates. Techniques include working with halftones, four-color separation, combining photographic and hand-drawn imagery, and more advanced color printing work for students who have already studied lithography or intaglio. Students are encouraged to experiment within a wide range of possibilities and forms while exploring the conceptual and aesthetic exchange between printmaking and photography.

In this class, students broaden their understanding and practice of printmaking to consider the public sphere as a source of inspiration and site for engagement. Students will be introduced to various print-based approaches to investigating place, from travelogues to capturing trace impressions, from political posters to community-based projects. Beginning with research, interviews, and observation, students will begin to define the parameters and possibilities of art in relationship to everyday life, through simple books, zines and printed documents. As the semester progresses, students will conceive and realize more in-depth projects that utilize and build upon print-based strategies of their own choosing. Students can expect to work collaboratively and gain experience with MCAD’s mobile printing unit.  

This course nurtures concepts and strategies for approaching installation, constructed objects, or wearable art through a print-based lens. Printmaking is ubiquitous in contemporary culture and therefore uniquely positioned to address personal, social, and political concerns in an endless variety of forms, both referential and invented. Students will be introduced to designing and printing repeat patterns for paper and fabric through the creation of modular systems, motifs, networks, and non-repeating repeats, in addition to large-scale printing techniques and surface printing for unique three-dimensional forms and site-specific environments. Students will apply basic screen printing and relief techniques in the production of works that interrogate notions of place, identity, and the everyday. Artists’ books and paper as art will be discussed.