Pequot Library To Host Public Opening Reception For New Exhibition

The following release is from Pequot Library:

FAIRFIELD, CT — Pequot Library celebrates its newest exhibition–The Book Beautiful: Selections from the Private Press Movement–with a free, public opening reception on June 22 at 6:00 p.m. The Private Press movement was an offshoot of the Arts and Crafts movement and flourished around the turn of the 19th century. Led by author and social activist, William Morris, who is most known for his textile designs, its adherents rejected modern, mechanized book production in favor of exquisitely crafted texts and bindings produced using traditional techniques. The Book Beautiful: Selections from the Private Press Movement explores this rich period in book design, highlighting fine examples from Pequot Library’s Special Collections. It remains on view through September 23.

The Book Beautiful opening reception runs from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., with a gallery tour led by Special Collections Librarian and curator Cecily Dyer at 6:30 p.m. A number of companion programs follow. On June 24 at 2:00 p.m., the library hosts a program called The Book Beautiful Today: The Resilience of Traditional Book and Letter Arts. This conversation with printers Jerry Kelly and Jesse Marsolais focuses on why traditional bookmaking practices continue to flourish and the historic works that inspire them. The event will include a printing demonstration and a keepsake for attendees.

On June 27 at 6:00 p.m., learn more about the impact of Morris’ work during a lecture by Victoria Hepburn, a Yale University instructor and researcher at the Yale Center for British Art, entitled Private Press: William Morris | Earthly Paradise. Hepburn is an expert on nineteenth-century British art and has written and taught widely on Morris and the book arts.

Yale University art historian Sarah Leonard appears on July 6 at 6:00 p.m. for an engaging presentation on the textiles and wallpaper of William Morris called Private Press | William Morris: His Textiles and Designs. Leonard serves as Vice President of the William Morris
Society in the United States, a non-profit dedicated to promoting interest in and study of Morris
and his circle.

Pequot Library has planned related programs for children and teens as well. On June 22, children in grades 3 to 5 can gather at 3:30 p.m. to make their own “book beautiful” during the Make Your Own Zine workshop. They’ll learn how to plan, craft, and write their own zines that they can put out into the world for people to read. The library leads the same workshop for teens entering grades 6 to 12 on July 19 at 3:30 p.m. Children ages seven and above are invited to Make Your Own Print, which also takes place on July 19 at 1:00 p.m.

720 Pequot Avenue
Southport, CT 06890
(203) 259-0346
fax (203) 259-5602