Bonnie Thompson Norman

The Alphabet!

This origami fold book was created using type set by hand. It was printed on a Vandercook press and the hand-binding was done by Jalene Durham, Katherine Rorschach, Fruma Shrensel, Mary Tjarnberg and Emily West. The piece has simple book board covers.

The Alphabet! poses puzzles printed among the letters of the alphabet, such as, “Why is A like twelve o’clock?” – “Because it is in the middle of day.”

Artist Bonnie Thompson Norman has been proprietor of The Windowpane Press, a letterpress printing and book arts studio, for over 20 years. She works full-time as a hand bookbinder in a commercial bindery and teaches classes in printing and bookmaking. Class participants learn how to set type one letter at a time, hand-feed pages into a press, bind a book by hand, or create artists’ books.

Press: Windowpane Press
Date: Undated
Number and Edition: Unnumbered of Unnumbered
Size: 3.5” x 3.5”

Mealtime Blessing

Artist Bonnie Thompson Norman said: “I learned this mealtime grace when my children and I were visiting my dear friend Jill Littlewood, who learned it from a friend of hers. The blessing concludes with a squeeze of hands that travels round the table from one person to the next. This book is meant to be like that pressing of palms: acknowledging with gratefulness family, friends and the bounties which some of us are so fortunate to receive.”

The book slips into a letterpress printed sleeve that is then laid in a wooden box. The book was printed on a Vandercook SPIS from photoengraved plates, and the hand-sewn binding is based on palm leaf book structures found throughout Central and Southern Asia that date from ca. 450CE. Jennifer Kennard created the book’s artwork.

Press: Windowpane Press
Date: 1995
Number and Edition: Unnumbered of Unnumbered
Size: 11.25” x 8.5”