The Sunday Paper #546

March 9, 2025

I spent Friday in Colorado Springs where I visited Jillian Sico, who runs The Press at Colorado College. Among other things, she took me and my friend to see a poster show that she curated, featuring posters and prints displaying a range of responses to the state of our country, including both personal and political points of view. I love this one by Ladyfingers Letterpress (based in Colorado Springs).

The highlight of the day was visiting the exhibition (and meeting the artist) Alisa Banks, Unerased at the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, also curated by Jillian Sico. The multi-dimensional works in Unerased challenge the systemic erasure of Black American history and honor Banks’s personal and ancestral roots. The show is up through September 6, 2025 and is well worth a visit (she incorporates handmade paper into many of her works).

Alisa Banks, Half (detail), 2014. Courtesy the artist.

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University at Buffalo faculty member Crystal Z Campbell’s first solo museum exhibit, “Currents 124,” is currently on display through March 9 (today) at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The multidisciplinary exhibit explores Campbell’s recent works using “underloved” and overlooked historical narratives, particularly those tied to U.S. colonialism in the Philippines, which is influenced by her Black, Chinese and Filipinx heritage. Campbell created a series of paper pieces at Dieu Donne in NYC.

A view of Crystal Z Campbell’s installation at the Saint Louis Art Museum. This image features the handmade paper works Campbell created in collaboration with Tatiana Ginsberg at Dieu Donné Papermaking Studio. 2024. Photo: Saint Louis Art Museum.

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Book artists and papermakers, Radha Pandey and Johan Solberg, will be leading a Book Arts and Culture Tour in India in February 2026. This intimate look into India is for those who wish to see behind the scenes of various working artists and craftspeople. With visits to art and craft centers, museums, studio visits and workshops, participants will have a chance to observe traditional wood block carving and printing on cloth, experience natural dyeing, visit a miniature painter’s studio, engage in traditional papermaking methods, and attend tailor-made workshops on traditional paper cutting and palm leaf binding with master craftsmen. The tentative dates for this trip, which will take place in Delhi and Jaipur, are February 16th to March 2nd, 2026.  The spots on this tour are limited to 6 in order to keep the group small and have one-on-one engagement with workshop instructors. Registration is open and you can secure your spot by paying a deposit of $500.

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Check out this Udon paper! These noodles lose their chewiness and flavor after they are prepared, and large quantities of noodles are discarded at the end of each day. Kagawa University professor Naotaka Tanaka has figured out how to produce sheets of “paper” made from Sanuki udon.

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Paper Tidbits

• A spot has opened in my Taos Paper Retreat. We’ll be weaving paper during the week of July 21st in the land of enchantment. Click here to read all about it and join us!