Book a visit to Smith College on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, when the region’s used and antiquarian booksellers, fine letterpress printers, book binders, paper-makers and book artists will be displaying beautiful and unusual finds.
The 32 exhibitors at the fourth annual Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair are some of the best antiquarian booksellers and book artists from western Massachusetts and beyond, according to Mark Brumberg and Duane Stevens of Book Arts Promotions, producers of the event.
In recent years, the fair has drawn between 500 and 600 people from throughout New England and the greater northeastern United States. According to Brumberg, the fair attracts private book collectors and representatives of special collections for academic libraries and exhibitions. Sponsored by Smith College Libraries and New England Public Radio, the fair is free and open to the public.
Exhibition hours are 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1, with sales being held at the Campus Center at 100 Elm St.
Aside from the sale and exhibition, the fair includes a roundtable discussion on Friday, Nov. 30, at 4 p.m. about private and institutional collections of books from the curators of special collections at the Five Colleges. That discussion, moderated by rare book librarian Sidney Berger, will be held in the Graham Hall auditorium.
“There is no end to the designs, illustrations, materials, texts, genres and fascination of fine-press books,” Berger said. “For more than 150 years, they have been produced and seriously collected.”
After the roundtable discussion, there will be an opening reception, with wine and cheese, at the Campus Center’s Wilson Atrium.
■Artist Michael Kuch of Northampton, who studied and apprenticed with Leonard Baskin, portrays a world both fantastic and familiar in his books, prints and paintings from his Double Elephant Press. After graduating from Hampshire College, Kuch continued to work closely with Baskin, printing etchings in color for Baskin’s Gehenna Press.
In 1994, Kuch started Double Elephant Press with the publication of a book of frog etchings with the sly title “A Plague on Your House.”
■Monroe Bridge books, which sells books online and at the Shelburne Falls Booksellers, is notable for antiquarian books on the British Isles, Scottish literature and books written in Gaelic; other subjects include music, travel and Americana. The publisher also offers general antiquarian items.
■Sheryl Jaffe, an award-winning Valley artist, specializes in handcrafted books featuring her own handmade paper and prints. Her recent ventures include making paper from local plants and recycled materials, such as horseradish leaves, mulberry leaves and linen rags. She makes her paper and prints through a variety of means, using sugeta molds of different sizes, large screens and numerous other molds.
■Carol Spack’s Original Antique Maps specializes in Americana and international maps from the 18th through 20th centuries.
“The philosophy of Original Antique Maps is that antique cartographic materials are also relevant to contemporary culture and ideas,” Spack writes on the company’s website.
For more information about the Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair, including a full list of vendors, visit northamptonbookfair.com.