Bookbinding with Decorative Paper

with Sophia Rauch & Kellie Romany
PRINT 622 001 | 1.5 credits | $100 lab fee
August 24–30, 2025

In this class, students will apply the processes of cyanotype, marbling, and dyeing on paper for use in a bookbinding project of their design. Students are welcome to bring their paper (store-bought or hand-made) for use in this class, and some paper will be provided. Students will learn bookbinding techniques including pamphlet, stab, and case binding. Lectures will invite students to consider the sustainable characteristics possible in paper treatments, including strategies for foraging, natural dyeing, and re-using materials to create one-of-a-kind sheets and book projects. As a group, the class will look at the work of Sol LeWitt, Krista Franklin, Bethany Collins, and Olafur Eliasson and discuss pertinent readings and resources. Students can expect to spend the first two days of class experimenting with decorative paper treatments and then using those materials to learn three bookbinding techniques.

Sophia Rauch, Untitled, 2024, Inkjet print on paper, 10 x 8 in. 

Sophia Rauch (she/her) is a 2D artist focused on abstraction and artistic myth. Her practice is an interdisciplinary romp through a formalist empire rooted in material experimentation. Rauch uses sculpture, drawing and printmaking to explore artistic authorship and originality. Her work celebrates the complexities of beauty with humor and curiosity. Rauch was born in Berkeley, California, in 1984, and is based in Brooklyn, New York. She has shown internationally and published her artist book Scans at Home with FLTFL. Rauch received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2008, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012.

Kellie Romany, Hold Me, 2023, paper, book board, book cloth, clay, and oil paint

Kellie Romany (she/her) is an abstract artist interested in bodies and systems. Using a color palette of skin tones, Romany creates objects that act as a catalyst for discussion about human connections, race, and the systems surrounding these themes. She received a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008. Romany has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including museum shows at the High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and DePaul Art Museum.