Brent Budsberg, Ellen Kaspern, and Jeff Altepeter, “Reading Craft”

Boston Athenæum

December 16, 2019 at the Boston Athenæum. Panelists from Current Projects and North Bennet Street School—representing the worlds of traditional woodworking and craft bookbinding—explore the significance of their work for the Required Reading exhibition: a full-scale replica of a unique Colonial Revival bookcase; a faithful copy of a seventeenth-century “bookpress;” and leather-bound books emulating those in the historic King’s Chapel Library. By reproducing historic objects, we reach a level of intimate dialogue between past and present difficult to achieve through other means. What new questions emerge when we move beyond merely examining a piece to actively remaking it? How does the process of reproducing an object serve as a form of research, lending insight into past practices, tools, materials—and even the object’s social functions?