In 1998, Wells established the Victor Hammer Fellowship to benefit the College by offering courses in the practice and history of the book arts. This Fellowship brings an emerging book artist to Wells for two years.

Jocelyn Webb, the inaugural Fellow, served from 1998-2000. Webb was instrumental in establishing printing courses, initiating the broadside series for the Visiting Writers Program, and laying the foundation for future Fellows.  She and Michele Brown, the Binder-in Residence, were the Book Arts Center.

Terrence Chouinard, the second Fellow, arrived at Wells in 2000. His two years were marked by major improvements in organization of space and facilities, acquisition of more presses & type, and the development of a Book Arts Minor. The popularity of his printing courses and his beautiful broadsides brought campus-wide attention to the Center. Chouinard stayed on as Director of the Book Arts Center after his tenure as Fellow, a position he held until January of 2008. He is the proprietor of the Wing and the Wheel Press.

Sarah Roberts, the Fellow for 2002-2004, refined curriculum, taught History of the Book, the first course in calligraphy, and one section of introductory printing, with Terry Chouinard teaching the other. She and Chouinard organized the Book Arts Symposium Matter and Spirit in May 2004, which featured Donald Jackson, director of the St. John’s Bible project, as the keynote speaker. After her term as third Fellow, she stayed on for another year as Director of Book Arts Initiatives, in which position she organized the Wells Book Arts Summer Institute.

Margot Ecke joined the Center in fall 2004. Having completed the apprenticeship program at North Bennet Street School in Boston, Margot was the first Fellow to teach bookbinding. She taught rigorous binding courses, including a second level course that had many students on a waiting list. At the end of her fellowship, Margot went to the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, Athens, where she teaches printing making and is developing the book arts program. She has sent several students back to Wells as interns in the Summer Institute.

The fifth Victor Hammer Fellow, Rachel Wiecking, came to Wells from the Oregon College of Art and Craft. A book artist who had already been exploring the artist book, Rachel taught her binding students the possibility of using book structures to respond to text in a number of ways. Her work was featured in a collaborative visual arts and poetry exhibition with poet Ben Moorad in Portland. As of fall 2008, Rachel has returned to school, this time at SUNY Purchase.

Sarah Bryant arrived at the Center in summer 2008. She interrupted the completion of her MFA in the Book Arts Program at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, in spring 2008 when invited to teach book arts at the University of Georgia program in Cortona, Italy. She will defend her thesis project in late November of 2008. As our sixth Fellow, Sarah is teaching the introductory binding course her first semester and will teach that and an upper level printing course, The Printed Book, in spring 2009.
 

Susan Garretson Swartzburg ’60 Memorial Book Arts Lecture

The Wells College Book Arts Center is pleased to announce that Martin Antonetti will present the 27th Susan Garretson Swartzburg ’60 Memorial Book Arts Lecture, entitled “Arrighi’s ‘New Invention of Letters:’ Scribes, Printers, & Patrons in Renaissance Rome.” The lecture will be given at 8:00 pm on Thursday,  April 17th in the auditorium of Stratton Hall. The event is free and open to the public; a reception for the speaker will follow.

Ludovico degli Arrighi,  or Vicentino (1480?-1527?), printer, scriptor in the Papal Chancery, and calligrapher of luxury manuscripts, was active in Rome in the early decades of the 16 th century. His experience in calligraphy led him to create an in?uential pamphlet on handwriting in 1522 called “La Operina,” which taught italic type script in the chancery style. This work, a 32-page woodblock printing, was the ?rst of several such publications.  Fewer than ?fteen manuscripts have been attributed to him, of which only two are signed. An examination of a hitherto unknown illuminated manuscript of the works of Petrarch, signed by Arrighi and bearing the date 1508, now adds substantially to our knowledge of Arrighi's early days in Rome and alters some of our basic assumptions about his professional life.

Martin Antonetti is the curator of rare books in the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College, where he also teaches courses in the history of the book and in contemporary artist’s books for the Smith College Art Department. Antonetti has written and lectured on many aspects of these ?elds including ?ne printing, the evolution of letterforms, bookbinding, and book collecting. Before coming to Smith College, he was librarian of the Grolier Club in New York City, the country’s premiere organization for bibliophiles. Between 1986 and 1990, he was head of Special Collections at Mills College, where he regularly taught courses in the history of books and printing. Antonetti is also on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School and is currently vice-president for publications of the American Printing History Association. He took his library degree from Columbia University where he specialized in bibliography and special collections librarianship.

Summer Institute 2009 

Looking ahead to the future and another summer of hands-on experience in the book arts, our confirmed faculty for Summer Institute 2009 thus far include Carol Barton, Hedi Kyle, Monique Lallier for binding; Steve Miller and Rachel Wiecking for printing; and Nancy Culmone and Susan Skarsgard for lettering arts. Check back soon to see who else will join our faculty for 2009.