23. Book Illustration to 1890

17-21 July 1995

The identification of illustration processes and techniques, including woodcut, etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, lithography, wood engraving, steel engraving, process relief, collotype, photogravure, and various kinds of color printing. The course will be taught from the extensive Book Arts Press files of examples of illustration processes. As part of the course, students will make their own etchings, drypoints, and relief cuts in supervised laboratory sessions.

1. How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Would have been very useful. 2: Very useful. 3: Good overview, but will be much more useful now after having seen so many examples. Now know the Gascoigne numbering system and can use more easily as a reference. 4: As good as could be. Hands-on necessary. 5: Could not obtain the Bible [Gascoigne] for the course. In retrospect, it was indeed important. Everyone should be required to own Gascoigne to enroll in this course. 6: Extremely. I've used Gascoigne for years. 7: Since we used Gascoigne, the pre-course readings were very helpful, although none of them discussed the processes in any substantial manner. Maybe some reading on that aspect would be helpful. 8: Perfect -- except for the difficulty of finding copies of the temporarily OP text. 9: Very useful, but Gascoigne made more sense after having TB explain the processes. I only read half of Prints and people but thoroughly enjoyed it. 10: Very helpful -- although it was as much looking as reading in my case. 11: Very useful. 12: Not very helpful. Absolutely need the course as an experiential focal point for using the main text as a reference. 13: I was unable to get a copy of Gascoigne in the couple days I had the list before leaving.

2. Did your instructor prepare sufficiently to teach THIS course? Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful?

1: Always armed with new stories. 2: Yes. Things were occasionally a bit disorganized because the ``show and tell'' items were being used elsewhere. 3: Yes -- lots of prints. An unbelievable number of primary examples to look at. 4: Yes. 5: He's been preparing for 30 years. The syllabus really made a lot of difference. All materials were immensely useful. 6: Yes. 8: Preparation of an extraordinary level -- years to accomplish and no doubt enhanced each time. 9: TB could not have been more prepared -- even the ``trolls'' were prepared for us. 10: Yes -- beyond adequately (in a good sense), the bibliography is helpful now and will continue to be in the future. 11: Yes! 12: All first rate. TB's preparation, his astounding command of the instructional material is truly remarkable. 13: Yes, yes.

3. Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?

1: Just right for me and probably for the class. 2: Yes, and the instructor took into account our varying backgrounds. 3: Yes -- our class composition was varied and we were intellectually stimulated, sometimes too much -- it is an overwhelming experience to learn how much you don't know! 4: Overwhelming -- but the subject is overwhelming. 5: Yes. But the humor and anecdotes were the real teachers. 6: Yes. And the jokes/anecdotes were smart and charming. 8: Unequivocally. 9: Yes, and it seemed to be appropriate for all the different types of people we had in the class. 10: Yes -- and tempered with humor. 11: Yes! 12: Yes, except for the hands-on exercises in processes. That time, or half of it, could have been better spent in recitation and critique of print identification by the students. 13: Yes!

4. If your course had field trips, were they effective?

1: Several of us did Lucile Tuesday afternoon. A group went to see the Lewis and Clark exhibit in Special Collections during lunch one day. Another group of us went to see Joan Klein's collection in the Rare Book Room of the Medical Library one lunch hour. 2: Yes (trips to Newcomb for museums, &c.). 3: N/A. (Although a group did go to the Health Sciences Library's historical collections at lunch one day to see some medical examples; people seemed to appreciate that opportunity/experience.) 7: The time spent ``poking'' in the museum was helpful, but less obvious examples were often seen there, causing questions, and no one was around to explain or settle the issue or even discuss it. 8: Everything was brought to us! 10: Very much so. 12: Friday morning material was not available in the Newcomb museum space, a minor flaw, however, in light of the rich resource of classified prints keyed to the text that was readily available to us. 13: Would love to have visited Special Collections one afternoon, maybe instead of one lab?

5. Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Expanded Course Description? Did the course in general meet your expectations?

1: Yes, but I wasn't expecting Babette's feast. 2: Absolutely. Exceeded expectations. 3: Yes. Yes. Still so much to learn, but now I know where to begin and have a sense of the vocabulary. I will look at the illustrations in my collection and transfer my new-found knowledge to real life (or try to!). 4: Yes. 5: It was the most gratifying week of 1995 and it's only July. I knew to expect a lot, but this was far beyond my expectations. 6: Yes. It corresponded exactly. 8: Yes -- but exceeded expectations -- which becomes the expectation in RBS. 9: The course exceeded my expectations. I have never had a course taught by TB before. I knew he was a great fountain of knowledge, but did not realize that he is a truly gifted instructor whose great talent is sharing that knowledge. 10: Yes on both counts. 11: Yes. 12: Yes! 13: Yes.

6. What did you like best about the course?

1: TB, the attendees, the location, and all the work involved in the extensive collection of examples. Overwhelming, but great! 2: The personality, sense of humor, and experience of the instructor. The fact that others in the course came from a variety of backgrounds that were different from mine. We were cohesive because of a common devotion to some aspect of the book, and became friends because of the congenial, collegial atmosphere of the place. 3: Lots of examples!! TB's knowledge and enthusiasm (and good humor). My classmates and their willingness to share advice and counsel. Glad the class was small. Would like to have kept cohorts A and B together, but know that would be difficult. 4: The combination of lectures and studio examples for everything. 5: Tough? I suspect feeling that this was a part of our learning experience, knowing that we've laid a foundation for decades of discovery and knowledge. 6: The opportunity to work with several techniques in the studio. It gives a physical, bodily sense of the strengths and limitations of different reproductive media. 7: I liked the ability to actually get a feel for the processes in lab sessions (although seeing a demonstration of lithography would have helped); seeing scarce examples of processes (like Baxter) was wonderful since it's difficult to find them. 8: The extraordinary opportunity to get eyeballto-surface with virtually every kind of print we read about! And we could put our cotton-picking hands on them, too. 9: The practical hands-on experience. An a non-artistic person, I now truly appreciate what it takes to make an illustration and understand the process. I don't think I will ever look at an illustration again without great respect for the individual who produced it. 10: TB (his anecdotes and dedication to teaching and his incredible ability to communicate ideas/concepts clearly) and the actual looking at original prints from the BAP collection. 11: The lab work. It was very helpful in getting to understand the processes. 12: The rich resource of illustrative prints and theencouragement that was given by TB to assimilate them. 13: Everything -- I liked the lectures, I liked looking at prints, I liked the hands-on.

7. How could the course have been improved?

1: I'll think on it. 2: Perhaps centered more on one typical or outstanding example of each technique (ie, one print or page), with additional examples in the ``consulting'' folders? At one point I had the impression that I would be buried in paper. 3: Could be longer, but really couldn't be, as that would be too overwhelming. There is too much to learn and comes a point you have to say, Enough. 4: Space for lab: it was distracting to hear John Bidwell's excellent lecture while trying to concentrate on print identification, for example (but it inspires me to try to take his course another year). 5: Give the students energy and memory pills. The course hasn't ended -- regular consultation of Gascoigne, studying prints here and there will be of great interest immediately. We need access to BAP for further studies. 6: It's rather a lot to jam into a week, but necessary, I guess. 7: Seeing a demonstration of processes like lithography, gravure, &c., would have been very helpful. 8: Making it longer is all I can think of, or dividing it into sections by process. Either way, it's just a question of time -- it takes more. 9: Provide practical instruction on cutting a lino block on Day 1. Even though the point of the course is to understand the processes through hands-on experience, all of us wanted to do the best job we could and produce something we were proud of. 10: 1) Slightly less information. 2) Have the folder sets filled before the classes begin. 3) And have them labelled in some order -- if such a thing is possible. 12: The hands-on exercises are valuable in many ways, but consume too much time in the larger scheme of the course. I would have liked more show-and-tell, show by TB, followed by tell by individual class members, who would be asked to recite their identification methodology and then obtain a critique by TB and other members of the class. Sue Allen does this in the c19 bindings course to good advantage. Without this outlet, there can be far too much ingestion without assimilation and utilization of the knowledge obtained. The recitation would help to project confidence and encourage utilization of the ``vocabulary'' in the active voice. 13: 1) Let each student choose his/her own original to make into a drypoint, etching, and linocut. (Just provide multiples of the same images you now use -- it would not matter if all students chose the same image -- it is actually fun to see how differently they come out. 2) The index to the lifetime reading list is slightly off in its numbering (perhaps ProCite would help in updating).

8. Any final thoughts?

1: None that come to mind after three glasses of chardonnay. 2: I hope that TB's health remains good. He is obviously carrying a heavy load, but will have a prominent place in book history here in the US. Bravo for a real intellectual entrepreneur. 4: Inspiring and humbling, as always -- a great combination. 5: You'll be lucky. Maybe TB should mix the sections rather than keep the divisions for two days. Everyone has a lot to offer each other and especially in the study sessions, you share many things. 6: I would recommend it very strongly. I came expecting it to be educational and have been surprised to find that I have enjoyed my time here enormously. 7: Great class. 8: Only to reinforce the ease of the hands-on block, drypoint, &c., printmaking for anyone who might be intimidated! 9: Don't be dismayed by Gascoigne -- this course will bring it all together. TB is one of the best instructors I have ever had. He can truly do three things at once! 10: The digs here at UVa are certainly a step up from those at Columbia, but I wish it were still in NYC, partly because it's closer to where I live and largely because I love NYC. 11: Yes. I highly recommend it, regardless of the person's capacity in a museum or library. It is vital to know something about illustration processes. 12: A marvelous and informative experience that should not be missed. The problems were peccadillos and I am certain that TB is very well focused on continuing to improve the quality of the experience. 13:This was a wonderful class. I loved every part of the course. Other students complained a lot about the linocut project. If you decide to change because of their complaints (did they complain to you or only within?), here are some ideas: 1) You could use erasers instead of linoleum. They would be smaller, but process and tools are identical. They are very fast and easy to cut. The relief process is still understood in the same way. Like your drypoint on plexiglass, it would be very fast. 2) The paper glued to the block makes them frustrating and difficult to cut. The image can be transferred to an eraser (and probably linoleum as well) by placing Xerox copy face down on the block and rubbing the back with fingernail polish remover. A very light image is transferred. 3) Several members of the class could have used some basic instruction in how to insert the blades in the holder and how to hold the tool. It seems simple when you know how, but may not be obvious when you've never done it. I know you have more than enough to organize, BUT: They don't take regular tourists to the dome room at Monticello, but they do take special ``qualified'' groups. Could RBS arrange a Saturday morning (or Sunday afternoon) tour of Monticello that would include the special spots?

Number of respondents: 13

Percentages: