Two courses at NAU are reviving century-old trades by teaching students traditional print and bookmaking practices. In one class, students learn the fundamentals of handmade book construction, including paper folding, stitching and binding methods rooted in a time-tested craft. In the other, students work with a letterpress, using centuries-old methods in setting metal and wood type and operating specialized printing equipment to produce original, fine art prints.
Together, the courses are helping revive skills that were once essential to publishing and design and now have become an artisan craft in the digital age. The hands-on work provides students with a creative outlet that complements contemporary media training while preserving techniques that have shaped print culture for generations.
Introduction to Handmade Books 
Barbara Ryan Gartin, associate teaching professor at the School of Art and Design, said ART 143-Introduction to Handmade Books was first offered in 2014 by David Williams, a recently retired professor of printmaking. The class started to give students experience in bookbinding but later delved into the history of bookmaking.
“Students don’t just learn how to create book structures,” Ryan Gartin said. “We do a lot of what we would call maquettes, where they’re learning how to do book forms and different ways to create imagery. We work on a project where they make a page for everybody in class and do a Japanese stab-binding form, creating their own covers, so everyone gets an image and their haiku. It is a big print exchange, and each student creates a book with something from everyone in the class.”
The bookmaking class is capped at 18 students due to the applied and individualized learning that happens in the classroom. Students participate in hands-on classes, interactive critiques and discussions, and the class is composed of students from all across the university.
“We do have a lot of students in different majors who take the class, from bio-med to engineering, anthropology, psychology and education,” Ryan Gartin said. “Our engineering students are interested in it because of the physicality of making something, making a structure. It is a very interesting, engaging and full experience. I think at the end of the semester, we end up making about 12 book forms, sometimes even more.”
Each unit is broken down into different structures and forms. Students learn suminagashi—the Japanese art of paper marbling— make books with and without covers and learn the differences between lay-flat and leather-bound bookmaking techniques. They also learn about sustainable practices like repurposing paper.
Letterpress
ART 399 Special Topics: Letterpress goes hand-in-hand with bookmaking
“Letterpress is very tied into printmaking because artists often want to make prints that are going to go into books,” Ryan Gartin said. “The idea is for the students to be able to self-publish books because they can make them and then print the words, creating the full structure.”
The studio has a specialized motorized and manual press including a Vandercook SP15, and other smaller sign presses on which students can practice. Spring 2026 is the first time the class will be offered, and it filled right after registration opened and has a full wait list.
The class will teach students how to use and care for letterpress machinery, as well as letterpress forms, practices, vocabulary and history. It is project-based, and one of the assignments includes printing the lyrics of their favorite song with only a limited typeset or alphabet.
Ryan Gartin is hoping to take students to see letterpress printing studios in Phoenix or Prescott so they can explore possible career opportunities and get to know the Arizona letterpress community.
“The creative part of this is that they are going to learn how to use text as art, making imagery with it,” Ryan Gartin said. “We’re going to look at contemporary artists and printers who make music posters for concerts, and that’s how they make their living. There are printmaking houses like Fire Cracker Press and printers like Dan Gibson, who makes posters for people; that’s his bread and butter. Print is not dead; it is just going into analog, and people are being entrepreneurs about it.”
The classes are graded in three categories: project objectives, productivity and artisanship. They are recommended for students who are interested in creating and making things with their hands.
“Both classes are for students who consider themselves makers, who are interested in writing, image making and structural engineering,” Ryan Gartin said. “They will learn skills, practices and trades that have been around for centuries, and they will be able to carry them throughout their lives.”
For more information, visit the NAU Academic Catalog website.
Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu