Rag Cutting and Discussion
Monday, July 22 at 7 PM
at 6018 N Kenmore Ave, Chicago

Catalog Cover Printing
Monday, July 29 at 7 PM
at 6018 N Kenmore Ave, Chicago

Join Nathan Lewis of Out of Step Press to help create our handmade catalog for Myth of the Organic City. 

On July 22nd we will be processing clothing rags into paper pulp. Making handmade paper from rags starts with gathering, sorting, and cutting the fabric. Join us and help process clothing into paper pulp. We will sit around a table and cut rags, military uniforms, and other fabric while discussing the material's origin, environmental impact, the history of paper, and U.S militarism. Stop or drop in for as long as you like beginning at 7 PM.

Once the materials are prepared, Lewis will be working alongside Melissa H. Potter at the world-renown Columbia College paper studio to create material for our catalog cover.

The following week, on Monday, July 29 on a small but very heavy printing press, we will be printing the covers for a limited edition exhibition catalog. Join us and engage as we print the covers using letterpress type and lino-block on a 100+ year old table top proofing press.   

Nathan Lewis is a papermaker, book artist and Iraq War veteran.  He makes prints, journals, and chapbooks that focus on U.S militarism and reacts to his experiences in the U.S Army through his artwork.  He has taught workshops in papermaking and bookbinding through Combat Paper, Frontline Arts, Veterans' Sanctuary, and the USO.  He maintains Out Of Step Press, a book arts studio and micro press in Ithaca, NY.