Risobookapalooza will unpack the exciting printing machine that has taken the art and design world by storm: the Riso digital duplicator. We’ll use a variety of book and zine formats to explore the countless ways these quirky stencil printers can be used to produce printed matter that’s rich in color, character, and content. Risobookapalooza will touch on analog approaches to image making, incorporating hand-drawn and collage methods, as well as other improvisational techniques. We’ll also cover digital methods of color separation, color profiling for photographic work, and a range of applications and resources that can aid in computer-to-Riso output. This 5-day workshop is the perfect opportunity for the Riso-curious and Riso-experienced alike to learn, experiment, and enjoy all that risography has to offer.

Josh Dannin is an artist and printmaker originally from Philadelphia, now based in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. Dannin runs Directangle Press, a letterpress and risograph printmaking studio and artist residency in the White Mountains. Previously a regular contributor to Printeresting.org, he coedits Power Washer Zine, a semiannual publication about screenprinting featuring artist interviews and essays, high-end humor, and lo-fi graphics. In addition to leading workshops at Directangle Press, Dannin teaches printmaking as a Lecturer at Dartmouth College. His printed and bound works have been exhibited at galleries, artist-run spaces, and museums throughout North America and Europe.

Wood engraving is a relief printmaking process that involves carving into endgrain hardwood, making it possible for an artist to create highly detailed images and tonally rich compositions. Used as the primary means for printing illustrations alongside of moveable type from the late eighteenth century through most of the nineteenth century, wood engraving is still a great way to incorporate imagery into letterpress cards, book plates, printed ephemera, artist books, broadsides, and of course to develop graphic stand-alone images, especially when there is a need to work small. Workshop participants will be guided through the entire process from transferring an image, to engraving, to printing small editions. Participants will learn about types of wood used for engraving, care and sharpening of tools, safe use of printing equipment, ink mixing, and types of paper. Printing by hand as well as on a Vandercook proof press will be covered. No previous engraving or printing experience is necessary, but patience, good eyesight, and a steady hand are very helpful.

Rebecca Gilbert is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work exemplifies a dedication to traditional printmaking processes. Representations of longing, mystery, and communication between the realms of the living and the dead are embedded throughout much of her work. Rebecca’s artwork can be found in numerous public collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum, and Princeton University Library’s Graphic Arts Collection. Her extensive exhibition record includes galleries and museums in New York, California, Spain, Canada, Korea, Estonia, and England. Rebecca’s most recent awards include a Victor Hammer Fellowship from Wells College; an Illuminate the Arts Grant; a Creative Research and Innovation Grant; an Independence Foundation Fellowship; and a Winterthur Artist/Maker Fellowship. Rebecca earned her MFA in Printmaking & Book Arts from The University of the Arts, and her BFA from Marshall University. She has experience teaching at numerous institutions, including Maryland Institute College of Art and University of the Arts. She serves on the board of The Wood Engravers’ Network,and is represented by The Print Center. https://rebeccaprint.com/  @rebecca_print

Gain a robust introduction to papermaking as a historical, contemporary and expressive art form. Through demos and facilitated inquiry-based investigation, participants will develop both essential and foundational papermaking skills, and experiment with artistic processes such as embedding, wet collage, and pulp painting. Participants will also spend time developing a small body of work that bridges their artistic practice and papermaking techniques; they will leave this workshop with an array of handmade paper samples and a small body of completed works.

Candy Alexandra González is a Little Havana-born and raised, NYC and Philadelphia-based, multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, activist and trauma-informed art educator. Candy received their MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2017. Since graduating, they have been a 40th Street Artist-in-Residence in West Philadelphia, a West Bay View Fellow at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, NY, Leeway Art and Change Grant Recipient and the 2021 Linda Lee Alter Fellow for the DaVinci Art Alliance. Candy is currently an Art + Art Education doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. candyalexandragonzalez.com @candy_alexandra1

In this weeklong workshop, we’ll cast off our hair shirts, sharpen our quills, and enter the medieval scriptorium! We’ll immerse ourselves in two basic scripts of the Middle Ages, minus the usual plagues, feudal attitudes, or torture chambers. We will coax the chisel-edged nib to reveal its secrets as we indulge in luscious medieval letterforms from the sanctuary of our scriptorium. Together, we will tackle Uncial, Gothic Textura, and Textura’s accompanying majuscules. If you’re a total beginner, no worries — this welcoming workshop is appropriate for both novices and seasoned scribes. And for those who want to bring their practice into the (gasp) 21st century, you’ll have the option of translating your work into a substrate suitable for printing! We will spend a day on the letterpress, printing multiples of your calligraphic quotation or message. All necessary tools and materials will be provided. Let’s get medieval!

Grendl Löfkvist, Education Director at Letterform Archive, teaches type history at Type West, the Archive’s postgraduate certificate program in type design. She is also an instructor at City College of San Francisco, and has taught calligraphy at a handful of Bay Area institutions, including the San Francisco Center for the Book, Stanford University, and Pixar. Grendl has ink in her veins: she was a press operator for 20 years, and she serves on the Board of the American Printing History Association’s NorCal chapter. She’s always on the lookout for macabre print, type, and lettering lore.

In this course we will explore both folded and sewn structures and the ways in which these can be combined. We will learn a myriad of folded one sheet structures. Focusing on several simple bindings like Sewn Chains and long stitch variations, we will practice stitching methods and will utilize the folded structures as sections to be bound. These fun and flexible bindings are deceptively simple and can be multiplied to create multi-section bindings. We will also learn variations on the Coptic binding. We will also explore the fabulous accordion and all the things we can do with this simple structure. There are so many different ways to use the accordion—using one sheet of paper, making it into a spine, adding multiple folds to each other, and using these as part of a sewn structure. We will experiment with size as well—going very small to very big. The class will also have the opportunity to collaborate with the Risograph workshop!

Erin Sweeney lives and works in southern New Hampshire. She received her MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the Elizabeth C. Roberts Prize for Graduate Book Arts. She also has a BFA in Sculpture from the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Sweeney exhibits nationally, most recently at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Twiggs Gallery and Kimball Jenkins Gallery, both in New Hampshire. In 2019, Sweeney was awarded a Ruth and James Ewing Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 2020 was a juror for the Awards. Additionally, Sweeney is the Coordinator of the Art Education program and Assistant Professor of the Practice at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She teaches workshops at her Lovely in the Home Press and at many locales, including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, North Country Studio Workshops in Bennington, Vermont; Pratt Fine Arts in Seattle, Washington and Maine Media Workshops and College.