The San Francisco Center for the Book is a unique nonprofit devoted to teaching the many arts and crafts that go into making books by hand. They have an amazing collection of manual presses, letterpress type, and other bookbinding tools. This year they published two artists’ books as part of their Small Plates series, Imprint, the Center’s publishing program.

Last week we went to the publication party for Rabbitpox, which is written, designed, illustrated, and bound by Allison Weiner. Housed in a box slipcase, Rabbitpox was set in Century Schoolbook.

Rabbitpox is based on a true story in which rabbits are the heroes and the pawns in a scheme of biological warfare.

I love the simple two-color design and the minimal graphic approach. It’s a bold, controlled, and high-contrast design. Rabbitpox is available for purchase in the Center’s Etsy store.

We saw two other artist books on display: John Hersey’s Thumb War and Daniel Gonzales’ Bichos del Campo—one very playful and the other a more traditional direction. Artist Michael Bartalos posted some cool process shots in this great post on his blog.

Even if you’re not already into bookmaking, it’s hard not to get the urge to play with all the cool presses at The Center for the Book. You can take classes on so many paper-based arts—from linoleum printmaking to wood engraving, letterpress, and even Polaroid transfers!

These large-format prints were printed during the center’s annual steamroller Roadworks fair. The above work is by selected artists, but anyone can have their linoleum print pressed by the steamroller for $10.

I can’t wait to sign up for the “Printing on Tabletop Platen Press” class and learn to use these beauties. Designing books is only part of the fun.

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

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“Butterfly in the sky…I can go twice as high.”

These were the first lines of Reading Rainbow’s theme song in the 1980s. They filled the living room after Sesame Street and Mister Rogers—the end of the PBS children’s weekday afternoon line-up. The song concluded with “Take a look, it’s in a book, a reading rainbow.” There was a fluttering butterfly, a seashore, some brief live-action scenes, a sandcastle…

Just when the cartoon and live-action images threatened to overtake the television screen, a book appeared, the covers opened and the pages calmed the clutter, giving rise to a rainbow. At four or five, I knew that this was all somehow connected to reading, and that books should be an important part of my life.

I was most struck by the kids in that opening sequence reading oversized books and being instantly transformed as they turned the pages. A girl becomes an astronaut—a boy, a king.

Then, during the show, a few kids were introduced by host LeVar Burton’s, “Here are some other books you might enjoy, but you don’t have to take my word for it…”

(GPN/Nebraska ETV Network and WNED Buffalo)

LeVar Burton! Star Trek meant nothing to me, but LeVar was a star just for being associated with so much excitement. (Gila Monsters Will Meet You at the Airport! Miss Nelson is Back! Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain!) I wanted to know him, and certainly to read whatever he’d just featured in an episode.

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Here at Art and Design central, we recently heard the great news that two friends of Chronicle are teaming up in an exciting new way. The legendary Jen Bekman (of 20×200 and The Jen Bekman Gallery fame) has hired our very own beloved former editor Alan Rapp to be Associate Director of Hey Hot Shot!, one of the coolest photo contests around. The announcement is here, and you can find out more about the contest here—we’re as pleased as punch that two such delightful folks are going to be working together to make cool things happen in the world of photography going forward.

This got me thinking—in truth, it doesn’t take much—about photography books. And from photo books in general it’s only ever a short leap to thinking about our very own photo books. And from there the train of thought just naturally rolls right along to the freshly hatched crop of new photography titles we’ve got lined up for you this Fall. So, a little preview seems to be in order!

Closer by Elinor Carruci—this classic of contemporary photography celebrates and interrogates family, intimacy, the body, and human relationships. Now back in hardcover for the first time in five years, it’s also available as a limited edition with a signed and numbered print.

Jim Marshal Proof special edition—Michelle blogged here last week about the story of bringing this stunning collectors edition into being. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have such an astonishing testament of artistry and rock on our list.

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It is with much pleasure that I announce the release of Lotta Jansdotter’s Printing Studio!

This craft kit has been literally years in the making. Creating these DIY delights involves many steps and lots of love and care to get it right. First, Lotta comes up with the projects, testing different materials and writing instructions and tips clearly so we mere mortals can achieve the same great-looking results she does. For this project, she even provided us with pages from her sketchbook to reveal a bit about where she gets ideas for her projects and fabric designs.

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Congratulations to Michael Chiarello, who came in second place in last week’s Top Chef Masters finale! Tell us what you thought looked like his most delicious food creation during Top Chef Masters and why, and enter to win a copy of Michael’s best selling 2005 cookbook At Home with Michael Chiarello, the tie in book to his Food Network series Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello.

Roasted Tomato Soup with Sunny-Side-Up Crouton

This recipe was created to celebrate the tomato in all its summer glory. Too many tomato soups are made with tasteless tomatoes. You need to roast them, and roast them really well until they are black in spots. Use good olive oil and vinegar, plenty of salt and pepper, and, of course, lots of garlic.

Cooking Notes: When you use tomatoes at the absolute height of their season, their skins are thin, so you don’t need to peel them for this soup or strain the skins out of the finished soup.

Entertaining Notes: Everything here can be made hours ahead except for the eggs. You can use a poached or basted egg, but basted eggs with bright yolks look nicer, and the flavored oil makes a delicious drizzle. The benefit to poaching the eggs is they can be cooked an hour in advance and put in ice water a little underdone, then simply immersed in simmering water briefly before serving. I love barely warm soups in summer, and this soup can be served warm or at room temperature.

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