Each year, SFCB offers a one-on-one mentorship for book artists and printers residing outside the Bay Area. This program is an opportunity for mid-career and established artists from underrepresented communities to learn from skilled professionals in the bookbinding, letterpress, and artists book fields. Our selection process prioritizes increasing representation within these fields; we encourage artists who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or genderqueer to apply. Mentees will work closely with their mentor who will provide personalized guidance tailored to their individual artistic goals and needs.
SFCB is pleased to announce the 2026 Mentors: e bond and Macy Chadwick. Both mentorships will take place at SFCB from July 6-10, 2026. Please click through to learn more about each mentor and their criteria for applicants. Only one application will be accepted per person.
The application is now closed. Award notifications will go out in April 2026.
Two selected mentees will be hosted for one week in SFCB’s San Francisco studio and classroom facilities, engaging in intensive, hands-on collaboration with their chosen mentor. Experienced book artists and letterpress printers are encouraged to apply. Each selected mentee will receive a USD $3,000 stipend to support travel, housing, and related expenses.
Past Mentor and Mentee Pairs:
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Julie Chen is an internationally known book artist who has been publishing limited edition artists’ books under the Flying Fish Press imprint for over 30 years.
Her books combine text and image with innovative book structures to create reading experiences that engage the reader in interactions that go far beyond the simple turning of a page. Her work can be found in numerous collections worldwide including the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland, NZ. In 2009 she was a featured artist in the PBS television series, Craft in America and in 2020 she was one of the featured artists in the documentary film, The Book Makers. She is a professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
Zach Clark is an Oakland, CA based artist, educator, and publisher, publishing as National Monument Press, a publishing project focused on supporting uniquely American stories through small edition printed matter and curatorial projects, completed largely through collaboration with other artists.
He received his BFA from University of Illinois Chicago, and MFA from University of California Davis. His work is rooted in locational memory and is based in the intersection of printmaking, photography, and publication. He is one half of Chute Studio, an Oakland-based Risograph publishing studio. He is a lecturer at California State University East Bay, and has shown, worked, taught, and is in collections across North America, Europe, and Japan.
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John DeMerritt (bookbinding)
Areas of Expertise: Edition binding, box making, foil stamping and embossing, collaborative design work, project management, small business operations. Click here to learn more about John DeMerritt.
Li Jiang (letterpress printing)
Areas of Expertise: Letterpress printing on proof, platen, and hand presses; editioning for both printing and binding; tight printing registration, multi-color prints; incorporating make-ready techniques into artwork; free software suite of design programs such as Inkscape, Gimp, and Scribus. Click here to learn more about Li Jiang.
Emily McVarish (artists’ books)
Areas of Expertise: Artists’ books; expressive typography as an extension of writing; interaction of textual and book features (graphic composition of page-space and sequence); systematic design that makes creative use of the material processes and technical conditions of letterpress (Vandercook only); experimentation with text and image relations, integration of photographic imagery through fearless engagement with relief halftone processes. Click here to learn more about Emily McVarish.
Meet the Mentees: