Book Arts/Printmaking (Graduate)

Susan Viguers
sviguers@uarts.edu
Director
215-717-6270

The MFA Program in Book Arts/Printmaking focuses on the book as a conceptual departure for art making and personal expression. It is a two-year, 60-credit program, to be taken in four full-time semesters. Built upon the University’s long tradition of involvement with the book and the printed image, it is open to qualified students with an undergraduate degree in liberal arts, design, photography, printmaking, or fine art. Students explore the book as an art form that incorporates three-dimensional as well as two-dimensional structure, time and sequence, text, and image. It embraces both the rich history of the book and the new processes and forms created by digital technology. Its concept of book arts includes fine-press printing and illustrated texts, visual and verbal narratives, and works that push the idea of a book toward expressions as different as sculpture and multimedia.

Important features of the program are its printmaking opportunities, its emphasis on investigating traditional and modern bookbinding, and its encouragement of writing and the use of text. Its situation in an arts university gives the students a unique opportunity to draw on other art areas.

Specialized Facilities

Dedicated graduate studio space provides individual workstations where light tables, storage space, book presses, and paper cutters are available. Adjacent to that space is the graduate bindery with its stationary vertical and portable book presses, board shear, table-top shears, guillotine paper cutter, hot stamp press, dry mount press, rounder backer, and plough. Students enjoy the full use of University’s papermaking studio with its Raina beater and the well-equipped print studios for non-silver photography, water-based screenprinting, letterpress, intaglio and relief printing, stone and plate lithography, and offset lithography. Letterpress facilities include five Vandercook proof presses, two platen presses, a photopolymer platemaking system, and over 600 drawers of monotype, foundry, and wood type. One of the letterpress studios is dedicated to Book Arts graduate students. Five etching presses and four lithography presses are available for printing. Besides an ATF-Davidson offset press in the lithography pressroom, students have access to the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts, equipped with a Heidelberg KORS offset press and a full darkroom for experimental and production printing. An imaging lab houses a darkroom equipped with enlargers, horizontal and vertical copy-cameras, and a state-of-the-art filmsetting system integrated with the University’s Macintosh computer labs.

In the graduate resource room, students can find books, journals, and newsletters relating to book arts and printmaking, and professional materials on book artists, presses, and programs.

Students also have access to many of the University’s other extensive facilities, including state-of-the-art computers, galleries, and the Greenfield Library, whose visual art collection (books, periodicals, and slides) is one of the largest among the nation’s visual art schools and whose special collection of artists’ books is a valuable teaching resource.

Academic Requirements

A cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required for good standing and for graduation for graduate students. A qualifying review at the conclusion of the first year’s coursework is required to continue in the program. The final semester culminates in an MFA Thesis Exhibition. Please refer to CAD Graduate Programs for further information on graduate requirements.