Virginia Book Arts

❤️ books+beautiful blank journals, & want to learn to make your own? Come get a friendly intro to bookbinding & making; learn methods like long stitch, woven spine, Japanese stab binding; make your own leather-wrapped journal or meander no-sew sketchbook; or take an intensive 4-day bookbinding intro

Printing-curious & near Charlottesville? Come get a friendly intro to printing w/our beautiful Vandercook presses, print your own poster, learn to make art from movable type, create gorgeous prints using craft presses+tetrapak (oat milk cartons!) or brush up any rusty existing press skills:

Virginia Book Arts members get a discount on classes—more about member benefits & how to join below. Beyond good things for you (like reservable equipment access+mentorship!) joining helps us build sustainable infrastructure to keep our presses, type, & book arts space+community in Cville 💜

Our winter/spring class list is up! Visit vabookarts.org for a range of book arts workshops on various kinds of printing, bookbinding & making, & more—including some free intro classes. And our free, open-to-all, drop-in Open Studio Nights (bring your own work) continue weekly on Thursdays 5-7pm. +

Photo of a small art print showing a platen letterpress press in the snow, with a digital caption saying "Rescheduled for Saturday, December 13 3-5pm". In the background is the Virginia Book Arts shop.

This Saturday 12/13 3-5pm, skip the shipping fees+meet the humans who make the art! Come by VBA (600 E Water St Suite F, Cville) for our Holiday Art Sale, w/work by artists who print+bind right here at VBA. We’ll also be selling treasures from our archive of over 20 years of cards, prints & books

Brick walls in background with prints framed and hanging on wall. In foreground examples of other work and books produced there, alongside an old book press. Oak furniture shelving holding the examples.

Thanks to Nancy Kober and @virginiabookarts.bsky.social for a tour of their printing space in Charlottesville. Inspiring, amazing collaborative and creative work happening there!

Photo of people gathered around a Vandercook printing press inked i bright yellow ink on one side

Photo of people gathered around a large table full of bookmaking implements like paper, scissors, and bone folders, as one person stands to demonstrate a style of paper folding

Grateful for the students who joined us for our 1st class at our new home @ the Station last week! They spent a rainy Tuesday evening exploring letterpress printing & book binding w/teachers extraordinaire Lyall Harris & Nancy Kober. More classes like this: vabookarts.org/classes/wint...

Photo of a signboard that lists upcoming classes at Virginia Book Arts; the latest info on these is at https://vabookarts.org/classes/

Photo of several handmade books in beige, leaf-print, and light blue covers, with the topmost letterpress printed with the title "Make a Book"

Photo of a spread of letterpress-printed holiday greeting cards in red, blue, and olive inks, including one that says "happy everything", oen that says "let it snow / let is now / let it snow", and one with three ornate snowflakes.

Photo of a person letterpress printing in a Vandercook press with copper-orange-red inked rollers; in the background another person hangs paper letterpress prints on a line with many prints alreay hung on it with clothespins

Interested in learning about Book Arts, typesetting & printing your own Holiday Cards, or exploring Folded Book Structures? Come take a class with us! vabookarts.org/classes/

Photo of a red brick wall displaying a 4 x 4 grid of small (about 3" square) aqua and black art prints of trees, sea creatures, and more, under a title print that says "TetraPak Prints"

Photo of a red brick wall displaying a long strip of material printed in aqua and black with the backwards words "TetraPak Prints"; a tab at the bottom of the strip says "LIFT to see back of printing plate"

Photo of a red brick wall displaying a long strip of material printed in aqua and black with the backwards words "TetraPak Prints"; a tab at the bottom of the strip says "LIFT to see back of printing plate" and has been lifted to show the back of that printing plate is just a strip of chicken broth carton material

Photo of an exhibit label on a red brick wall. It says "Tetra Pak Printmaking The following sampling of prints were made by visitors to our Book Arts Demonstration Day held during the Virginia Festival of the Book in March of 2025. We made printing plates cut out of Tetra Pak, a material commonly used for packaging food such as broth, oat milk, soups and more. Guests were invited to "draw" on a piece of Tetra Pak with a pointed awl. Each plate was then inked, wiped clean of excess ink, and run through a small etching press with a dampened sheet of watercolor paper to produce a print. Tetra Pak printing has become quite popular as a fast, affordable and eco-friendly method of printmaking. Look for classes and demos at Virginia Book Arts in the coming year."

Seen at @virginiabookarts.bsky.social, Liz Schneiders & students' printing using just tetrapaks (eg broth & oat milks cartons!) & tiny plastic Sizzix craft/scrapbooker presses or etching presses #DHmakes

Upcoming *free* intro to book arts workshops (letterpress printing+bookbinding!) 11/18 & 12/2, plus paid classes (w/member discount): typeset+printing your own holiday cards; simple folded book (or zine!) structures; & if you've printed before a brushup on our presses vabookarts.org/classes/wint...

We'll resume weekly open studio night soon, when anyone (member or no) can gather in our space to work on your own book arts+printing projects (like bookbinding, linoleum carving, zinemaking & more) while hanging out w/others doing the same. Join our newsletter to hear about these & more events:

Photo of a red brick buidling with double doors open wide to show folks gathered at an open house event inside. A signboard outside the door lists upcoming classes.

Photo of several people of all ages grouped around a Vandercook printing press, about to print a poster

Thanks to everyone who came out to our (re)opening events this weekend! See vabookarts.org to check out our upcoming classes (including some free intros to letterpress & bookbinding!) or become a member. We aren't open to drop-ins daily, so email us (info@vabookarts.org) if you want to learn more.

The best way to hear about our book arts events & workshops (including a weekly free drop-in time available to non-members & members alike!) is signing up for our newsletter (bottom of vabookarts.org). You can also follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/vabookarts/

Screenshot from Virginia Book Arts' Instagram account showing a photo of the new book arts community studio, a room full of bookbinding and letterpress printing gear with exposed red brick walls. A colorful digital banner and the dates of upcoming free public events are overlaid: "First Firday, November 7, 5-7" and "Open House, November 8, 10-4"

Screenshot from Virginia Book Arts' Instagram account that's a photo of someone's hand holding a brayer (rubber printing roller) over a bed of typeset wood type that's been inked in yellow and red

Virginia Book Arts is re-opening to the public! Join free events open to all next week:
1ST FRIDAY: Fri Nov 7 5-7pm
OPEN HOUSE: Sat Nov 8 10-4pm
Drop by 600 E. Water St (Cville near Downtown Mall)
Pull a print on a press, 👀 past collab projects+member art, enjoy snacks & meet local book artists 📚🎨

Closeup photo of someone's hands adjusting part of a Vandercook printing press after changing out the tympan paper

Photo of several racks of wood blocks organized according to size; these are "furniture", use to space and hold movable type in place on a printing press

One of our many racks of "leading" organized according to size; these are thin strips of metal of varying lengths and thickness, used to space and hold movable type in place on a printing press

Photo of several cans and jars of machine oil and lubricants sitting on top of a Vandercook Universal printing press (a large grey metal floor press). A brick wall and print drying line ar evisible in the background.

10 days 'til open house! Busy calibrating presses, readying makeready, building new ways to explore our huge type collection. All (nonmembers welcome!) are invited to visit 11/7 5-7 (Cville 1st Friday) & 11/8 10-4. See our new space+learn how you might dig book arts w/us! mailchi.mp/ccb542e70408...

We're reopening soon! Lots of info on joining as a member or donating to help us become sustainable & accessible, upcoming workshops, & free public events this Nov 7 & 8: mailchi.mp/ccb542e70408... Also see our Insta (www.instagram.com/vabookarts/) & website (vabookarts.org) to learn more.

Today we changed the tympan paper (sheets covering cylinder that holds paper you're printing onto) on @vabookarts.bsky.social's 2 Vandercook presses. Beautiful layers of folks' past printing (including lots of mine, between being one of the most frequent printers & getting sloppy when testing 😂)

Photo of a hand holding up a 3"x3" acrylic square that's been lasercut to resemble the grid of a letterpress typecase. A light is shining through the translucent acrylic; the acrylic is transparent in 3 cells of the grid, where the lowercase letters v, b, and a are stored (it's Virginia Book Arts' logo)

Hoping to print with this at the printshop as soon as the presses are available again.

Photo captioned "The drying line is up!" showing a wire art-drying line covered with wooden clothespins, hung in the air with a few paper prints attached. The drying line is in the new Virginia Book Arts shop; you can see an exposed red brick wall and various book arts supplies (like an organizer holding wooden blocks: wooden furniture for letterpress).

Photo captioned "The drying line is up!" showing a wire art-drying line covered with wooden clothespins, hung in the air with a few paper prints attached that say show a specimen of Gill Sans type in teal blue ink on white paper. A small yellow rubber chicken hangs at the end of one wire. The drying line is in the new Virginia Book Arts shop; you can see an exposed red brick wall and various book arts supplies (like an organizer holding wooden blocks: wooden furniture for letterpress).

Photo captioned "The drying line is up!" showing a wire art-drying line with a small yellow rubber chicken at the end of one wire. The drying line is in the new Virginia Book Arts shop; you can see an exposed red brick wall and various book arts supplies (like an organizer holding wooden blocks: wooden furniture for letterpress).

Our drying line (and rubber chicken!) is up, & our steering group has been hard at work pecking at various other infrastructure needs toward filling that drying line with our community's prints again.

Drop in anytime at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library (JMRL) downtown Charlottesville branch, in the 3rd floor Madison Room.

Cville folks, tonight 5:30-7:30=our weekly BookMakers gathering! Free+open to all. Mix of old+new attendees, book artists+folks just getting started. Many bring projects to work on, but there's often short demos & equipment you can experiment w/too (wood letterpress type+BookBeetle press tonight!) +

An image titled "logo inspiration" showing an old drawing of a letterpress type case in the "California job case, now almost the universal type case" layout style, with the cells where the lowercase letters V, B, and A go highlighted. Caption: "the inspiration for VBA's new logo!"

The Virginia Book Arts Logo, which says VBA's name followed by "create / collaborate / teach / preserve", next to a rectangle broken up into a grid of different-sized cells that looks like a letterpress California job case for moveable type; the places where the lowercase letters V, B, and A (for VBA) would go are highlighted.

In "case" you weren't sure what our new logo was referencing...it's a California job case (particular layout for organizing moveable type for letterpress work) with the cells for letters V, B, A highlighted:

Next stop, printshop (& bindery)! Our new space is in Charlottesville's former railroad station, near the downtown bus center & east end of the pedestrian Downtown Mall. We're full steam ahead on getting the space ready to open for community art & learning.

Closeup photo of a hand holding a miniature book, jsut under 1" tall, open to show a tiny binding, handdrawn art, and the title "twenty-two bugs"

Photo of a BookMakers attendee working on bookbinding, with an array of equipment including a bone folder and container of paste, and array of notebooks in the process of being bound

Photo of two BookMaker attendees engaged in printing work, with one showing off a blue-paper print of the words "1963 to 2022" they've made using craft-foam letters and the BookBeetle press

Photo of a BookMakers attendees lifting a print off the BookBeetle press (a small, wooden tabletop screw press) to show both the printed blue ink arrows design and the craft foam shapes inked and used to print them.

We've folks at all levels of experience—you *don't* need to feel "good at" art to come enjoy making something. We've had folks working on miniature artist books, ceramic(!) book covers; papermaking, marbling, bookbinding; craft & common press letterpress & image printing, zines, lino carving & more!

Photo of a table of BookMakers attendees with various bookish art implements spread in front of them, including a colorful cascade of craft-foam letters, paper, bone folders, in-process print and bookbinding work.

Composite of three photos of BookMakers attendees; two are showing off colorful prints they made on the BookBeetle press next to the press, and the 3rd photo shows a table full of folks and book arts supplies smiling at the camera

#Cville region folks, missing (or excited to learn more about) book arts? Drop in for BookMakers: every Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm (downtown JMRL Madison Rm) for friendly, free printing, bookbinding, zine, etc. text art community. Open to all: bring your own project, or try out the BookBeetle press! +

Still from a video of a Vandercook printing press (a large, grey metal floorsize proofing press roughly shaped like a kitchen island with a crank attached) being moved on a large cart, outside a red brick building.

Photo of Virginia Book Arts Exec Office Kevin McFadden clapping while looking at a sucessfully moved Vandercook printing press (a large, grey metal floorsize proofing press roughly shaped like a kitchen island with a crank attached). It's in a room in the process of having equipment moved into it, with grey-painted concrete floor and red brick and white-painted wood walls.

Virginia Book Arts members clean the new printshop and bindery space before move in, scrubbing windows and using a long yellow pole to change lightbulbs in the high ceilings. It's in a room with no equipment in it yet, with unpainted concrete floor and red brick and white-painted wood walls, one window in view, and lit by natural lights from other windows and door outside the photo edges.

Photo from inside the new printshop space through frosted glass doors to the outside; natural light glows through, and a tree, grass, and Water St are visible. Someone is crouched behind the frosted glass working on cleaning the door.

The Vandercooks have landed! 🛬Volunteers have been hard at work cleaning, painting, & moving our printshop & bindery equipment into our new space. Next up: unpacking & planning everything up through reopening (membership, open house, workshops...). Sign up at bottom of vabookarts.org for updates!