News Release

San Francisco – The Hand Bookbinders of California will celebrate their 32nd anniversary with an exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library. A reception in the Skylight Gallery on Thursday, November 4, 2004 opens the exhibition.

The show features the work of professional hand bookbinders and design binders, as well as amateurs and students of the art and craft of hand bookbinding. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to an active group of bookbinders who practice their craft alongside a large community of book artists and calligraphers.

The Hand Bookbinders of California was formed in 1972 with the intent that the exchange of information and promotion of hand bookbinding and related book arts, such as calligraphy and designing should be brought to public attention. They meet monthly and sponsor workshops and classes, and publish the quarterly newsletter, The Gold Leaf. For over thirty years, the Hand Bookbinders of California have been displaying their members’ work and the San Francisco Public Library is honored to present the work of this distinguished group. The public will delight in these jewels of bookbinding design, deriving inspiration and appreciation of the art and craft of hand bookbinding.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center of the San Francisco Public Library, and will be on view in the Main Library’s Skylight Gallery (6th Floor) from November 4 through December 31, 2004. All programs sponsored by the Library are open and free to the public. For more information, please visit www.sfpl.org or call 415.557.4277.

The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center is home to The Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book, The Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering, and The Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor. For more information about these collections, please contact Book Arts & Special Collections at 415.557.4560.