The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle that Shook America
Nora May French and Carrie Sterling arrive at Carmel-by-the-Sea at the turn of the twentieth century with dramatically different ambitions. Nora, a stunning, brilliant, impulsive writer in her early twenties, seeks artistic recognition and Bohemian refuge among the most celebrated counterculturalists of the era. Carrie, long-suffering wife of real estate developer George Sterling, wants the […]
Information-Graphic Masterpieces: Designing Data Stories
Information graphics transform data into compelling visual narratives, illuminating insights that might otherwise remain hidden. From the earliest printed charts and maps to today’s innovative designs, these visuals bridge art and science, helping us engage with complex phenomena. Often featured within books—whether rare historical volumes or contemporary publications—information graphics elevate how we understand the world […]
Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong
You might not know the name Tyrus Wong, but you probably know some of the images he created, including scenes from the beloved Disney classic Bambi. Yet when he came to this country as a child, Tyrus was an illegal immigrant locked up in an offshore detention center. How did he go on to a […]
When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors
Wildness beats in the heart of California’s urban areas. In Los Angeles, residents are rallying to build one of the largest wildlife crossings in the world because of the plight of one lonely mountain lion named P-22. Porpoises cavort in San Francisco Bay again because of a grassroots effort to clean up a waterway that […]
Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850-1950
Join historian Nathan Marsak as he shares the story of a lost Los Angeles from an era before the freeways; a time when downtown Los Angeles was unmarred by wide-scale redevelopment and retained much of its original character. Marsak will share newly unearthed information on these lost architectural treasures along with stunning black-and-white photography—some never-before-seen— […]
Print Your Own Broadside Affair
Letterpress print your own broadside on the Book Club’s Columbian hand press with Li Jiang, Lemoncheese Press. A limited number of broadsides will be printed. Registration required.
In Conversation With: Richard Wagener
Printmaker and book artist Richard Wagener talks about his creative process and the wood engravings that he has published under his Mixolydian Editions imprint. He will discuss his work on the numerous fine press editions of Arion Press, Peter Koch Printers, Nawakum Press, and others. And Wagener will be in conversation with Book Club of […]
Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books
A cross between a book exhibition and a conceptual art installation, this exhibition consists of a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books and associated arealia from his collection—all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers—of lost books that have […]
The Man Beneath the Paint: California Impressionist Tilden Daken
The Man Beneath the Paint: California Impressionist Tilden Daken is the untold, multifaceted story of one of the most adventurous and prolific landscape painters of the American West. California Impressionist Tilden Daken (1876–1935), famous in his day, painted in every California state park and national park in the West—from the redwood forests to the High […]
Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts: Designing the Book
Before the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, books were designed, written, and illustrated by hand. Today these handmade manuscripts are highly valued, and greatly sought after by collectors and institutions around the world. This presentation addresses two aspects of illustration in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts before the dominance […]