The Booker Prize was founded in 1968 to champion the very best of contemporary literature written in English.

Since 1990, Designer Bookbinders, a society devoted to championing contemporary artistic bookbinding, has collaborated with the Booker Prize to create unique commemorative bindings of the six shortlisted books, which are then presented to the authors.

For the bookbinders, this is a challenging enterprise. They receive an unbound book a few weeks before the event and have to read it, absorb it, create a unique design for the cover, bind the book and make a presentation box for the binding.

In 2022, designer binder Dominic Riley requested to be matched with Alan Garner, one of his favorite authors, to design the binding for Garner’s shortlisted book Treacle Walker. When Dominic discovered that Alan lived merely ten miles from him in Cheshire, the usual solitary binding process turned into a journey of collaboration and friendship.

Riley has participated in the tradition of binding Booker Prize works seven times; in this talk, he will share details about the bindings he has made, explaining the evolution and execution of the designs including his work for Treacle Walker.

Friday, July 31, 2026
6:00-8:00pm

Talk begins at 6:30pm

This event is at capacity.

Every year, we select two to three artists to create a special edition of artists' books — each just 4 x 4 inches and limited to 100 copies. We provide workspace, studio access, technical support, and a materials stipend to help bring each project to life.

Since the program launched in 2008, more than 40 editions have been created. This year, we’re is excited to be working with artists Quinn Keck, Grendl Löfkvist, and Rachel Phillips. Join us to get a first look, to purchase your copy in the Biblioshop, and to celebrate these amazing editions!

Meet the Artists

Thursday, June 18, 2026
6–8 PM
The Small Plates artists will make remarks beginning at 6:30 PM.

This event is free and open to the public.

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Current Editions is the collaborative publishing practice of Bay Area artists Jessalyn Aaland and Paul Morgan, formed in 2017. They publish projects about micro histories, niche artifacts, and public discourse, ranging from protests on San Francisco’s Market Street to New England’s unique contribution to target sports.

Their work has been exhibited at SFMOMA, Gallery 16, Women’s Studio Workshop, FOG Art Fair, and art book fairs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston. Current Editions publications are stocked at Printed Matter, the ICA London Bookshop, McNally Jackson, Skylight Books, and Good Press, and distributed worldwide through Public Knowledge.

You can see more of their work at currenteditions.biz.

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, June 4, 2026
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Quinn Keck (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates concepts in sociology, physics, technology, mathematics and philosophy. Working across artists' books, printmaking, creative coding, and installation, their work discusses memory, perception and grief through questioning the manifestation of systems.

In their work, constellations of hand cut shapes, equations and symbols expose hidden layers of their worldview and a taxonomy of icons creates webs of visual spells and spirals out of research. Through the building of new worlds, they look beyond the arithmetic to dissect the axioms that define what is rational, logical and default.

Quinn is one of the 2026 SFCB Small Plates artists.

You can see more of their work at quinnkeck.com.

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, May 7, 2026
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

We’ll see you at Kala’s annual Printmaking Festival!

Free and fun for all ages! Celebrate spring and the art of printmaking and more: Join for a fun day of art activities including community art workshops, artist demonstrations, and artist vendors and print studio tours. Stop by throughout the day and see what’s happening at Kala Art Institute, and drop by the SFCB table to say hello!

For more information, and a schedule of events, visit kala.org.

Saturday, April 11
12–4 pm
Free and open to the public

Kala Gallery & Community Classroom
2990 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

A lifelong Bay Area resident, Rachel currently resides in Pacifica, just south of San Francisco. She began studying photography while completing her undergraduate degree at Skidmore College, attracted to the ways the medium could incorporate many other interests. In numerous group and solo exhibitions since, she's presented a series of projects exploring the photograph as object, often resulting in unique works incorporating specialized printing techniques.

In tandem to exhibitions, Rachel publishes artists’ books through her imprint Treadwell Press. Altered Archive, the latest title from Treadwell Press about a fictional archivist losing control of her archive with alarming and magical results, was published in winter 2025.

Frequent themes in all her work include considering the intersection of analog and digital technology, collecting and re-purposing vernacular photographs and ephemera, blurring the line between truth and fiction, and understanding the impact of our technology on the natural world around us.

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, April 2, 2026
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Beldan Sezen (Wiesbaden, Germany, 1967) explores themes of war, confinement, and human resilience through minimalist works and artists’ books. Her practice sits at the intersection of memory, identity, and collective experience.

In 2015, she was awarded a Global Arts Fund by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice for her exploration of survival, freedom, and possibility regarding Queer bodies. This support culminated in her guerrilla art project, BUTCH IT UP!, in Istanbul, Turkey. She also received a "Book as Art" development grant from the City of Amsterdam in 2018 and was awarded the 2022 Herzog August Library Artists’ Book Prize for her "walk-in book," Spielraum.

As a curator of artists’ books, Sezen is a member of Booklyn Inc., an artist-run non-profit organization specializing in book art and social justice. Additionally, she co-founded Cypher, a digital comics magazine spotlighting the bold lives and perilous work of global human rights defenders.

Beldan lives and works in New York and Amsterdam.

images shown from left: All Right, Death (2025) and right: Kitchen Table Diaries, Vol. 3

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, March 5, 2026
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

The Symposium brings connection, conversation, and a deeper dive into some of the work and ideas our community members are focused on.

The first morning will highlight Who Is America at 250? Several artists and curators will discuss this important exhibition of artists’ and fine press books. The second morning will focus on France with a keynote lecture from Marie Minssieux-Chamonard, Chief Curator of 20th and 21st Centuries in Special Collections at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Please note: those wishing to attend the symposium or exhibitor expo must purchase tickets through the Codex Foundation. Complimentary tickets are not available for this event.

Sunday, February 8, 2026:

Highlight: Who Is America at 250?

Schedule

• 9:00 am – 9:10 am: Opening Remarks

• 9:15 am – 9:35 am: Artist Talk: Ana Paula Cordeiro

• 9:35 am – 9:45 am: Q&A

• 9:50 am – 10:10 am: Artist Talk: Beldan Sezen

• 10:10 am – 10:20 am: Q&A

• 10:40 am – 11:20 am: Panel Discussion: curator Yuka Petz and artists Anne Covell, IBé Bulinda Crawley, and Jocmarys Viruet Feliciano.

• 11:20 am – 11:30 am: Q&A

For more details, and to register, visit codexfoundation.org/events/symposium.

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Paul Oh is a mixed Malaysian-Chinese writer and printer with a focus on conceptual work which explores intersectional identity. Collaborative approaches sit at the core of Paul’s ethos, since he views artistic work and education as foundational to community development.

Formerly based in the Bay Area, where he primarily worked as an intern for the CODEX Foundation, Paul is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing and Book Arts at the University of Utah. He also prints under the press name Rascally Sophist Press.

Paul was a 2025 Small Plates artist at SFCB, creating an artist book edition entitled “Fathomless".

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, February 5, 2026
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

This month we’ll visit with Minoosh Zomorodinia, an Iranian-born interdisciplinary artist, educator, and curator based in the Bay Area, whose work explores the complex relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Drawing on psychogeography and daily ritual, she documents the passage of time and movement through diverse environments, redefining borders and challenging the colonial legacies of land while revealing our deep interconnectedness with the natural world.

Zomorodinia is the 2025 Artist in Residence at SFCB. Her show, The Unintended/Body Mapping, will be on display in the SFCB gallery from November 8-December 21, 2025, with an opening reception on Friday, November 14 from 6-8pm.

Zomorodinia has received numerous awards and residencies, including the YBCA 100, Lucas Artists Fellowship, Andy Warhol Foundation, Kala Media Fellowship Award, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi Residency, and Recology Artist Residency. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, Pori Art Museum, and Nevada Museum of Art. It has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Hyperallergic, KQED, and SFWeekly. She holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MA and BA from Azad University in Tehran.

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, December 4, 2025
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

First Bite Press is a private press in Portola Valley, California that publishes original writing and collaborates with artists to illustrate limited edition, fine press books. The Press operates a Victoria Parallel Platen Press (Jane Grabhorn's "Colt Press," formerly run by the Grabhorns and then Arion Press), a Vandercook Universal III, and an Albion Handpress. The Press also operates a full bindery where books are bound by hand by edition binders using materials carefully selected to create a unique tactile and visual experience for the reader based on the book's content. We also work with outside limited edition bookbinders.

Stephanie Kimbro Dolin designs and prints the books along with assistants in the pressroom and bindery. She began repairing books as a volunteer in a preservation department of a museum center, and from there, learned book binding, followed by printing. First Bite Press books can be found in the collections of private fine press collectors and institutions nationwide. 

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, November 6, 2025
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Join us for a conversation with the Director of Type West, Grendl Löfkvist.

Type West is the only year-long certificate program in type design on the West Coast, offered by the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. It is also available as an online program.

Designed to accommodate the schedules of working professionals through evening and weekend classes, Type West provides a supportive and challenging environment to deepen student knowledge of typography and expand their creative skillset with the ability to make their own typefaces.

The history and theory of type design serve as the basis for the core classes of type production. Students practice hand lettering, calligraphy, and drafting as a foundation for original letterform creation and master the digital tools necessary for making fonts.

Type West In-Person students have access to an unparalleled typographic library as they research and create their own original typefaces. Librarians, curators, and other members of the Archive’s knowledgeable staff guide students through thousands of type specimens, reference books, and original examples of lettering and graphic design.

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously also known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, October 2, 2025
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Mitchel Gundrum (he/they) is a bookbinder, conservator and researcher of historical book structures and decorated papers. He began his training at the San Francisco Center for the Book, afterward earning a diploma in traditional bookbinding techniques from North Bennet Street School and an MA in book conservation from West Dean College. He has previously worked at the US National Archives, the American Antiquarian Society, and UCLA, and taught workshops in book repair and related arts at North Bennet Street School, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, and West Dean College.

Recent and upcoming projects include a peer-reviewed article identifying the toxic yellow pigment orpiment as a 17th-century textblock edge colorant, an online catalog exploring their personal collection of decorated paper and paper bindings, and a research trip to Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp to study the earliest known European bookbinding manual from 1612. He currently works as a Book Conservator at The Huntington.

Mitchel will talk about his fascination with bindings and conservation treatments as mechanical puzzles, and also muse on the idea of establishing provenance for historical decorated papers through material and pattern analysis.

You can learn more about Mitchel’s research into decorated 18th Century papers at schwebenbuntpapier.com.

Please visit our YouTube page to see our past tours, previously known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, September 4, 2025
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

From the Bench is SFCB's series of short studio tours with friends near and far. From favorite tools to works in progress, you never know what you'll learn about from these amazing artists.

Patricia Wakida is an illustrator, linoleum block carver and letterpress printer. At the heart of her practice is a deep respect for the power of storytelling, both in its visual and literary forms. She is equal parts hands-on artist and historian, working in community engagement, printmaking, and publishing, with an emphasis on traditional art practices, myths, and ancestral power.

At the beginning of her practice, she studied as as an apprentice papermaker in Warabi, Gifu, Japan and as an apprentice printer and hand bookbinder with the Arts and Crafts Press when they were located in Berkeley, California. She first picked up carving tools while studying paper in Japan, and has ever since, dedicated herself to linoleum block carving and printing. Recently, she created numerous lino illustrations for logos, posters, book covers and public signage. She has also been commissioned to create permanent public artworks located in Fresno, Dublin, Oakland, and Hayward. Her home studio consists of a table top C&P, a student etching press, and an 8 x 12 C&P New Series press.

You can learn more about Patricia at her website: www.wasabipress.com

Please visit our Vimeo page to see our past tours, previously known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, August 7, 2025
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).

It’s the 100th episode of From the Bench/Shelter in Studio and we are honoring the occasion with a very special guest: design bookbinder Eleanore Edwards Ramsey.

Eleanore Edwards Ramsey is an American design bookbinder. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree and began studies in America and English bookbinding with Dr. Harry Green in 1975. She continued her studies in fine binding in the French tradition with Barbara Hiller from 1975 to 1980. She has been exhibiting her work, teaching fine binding and accepting commissions, privately, since 1980.

Eleanore’s artist statement reads, in part:

“I seek to create bindings that are beautiful works of art, while being mechanically and structurally as perfect as I can make them. I like to think design and technical skill are inseparable to the whole; if a work is to be beautiful we should not have an conscious awareness of the execution. When viewed, the focus should be on the design and not the craftsmanship, good or bad.”

Join us for a conversation about her life and work as a bookbinder, as well as a tour of her studio, a veritable museum of esoteric tools and intriguing objects.

You can learn more about Eleanore at her website: eleanoreramsey.com.

Please visit our Vimeo page to see our past tours, previously known as Shelter in Studio.

Thursday, June 5, 2025
12:30 PM (Pacific Time)

This is a free online event.

Registration will close at noon on the day of the event. The zoom link will be emailed at 10:30am Pacific time (two hours before the start time).