Lead letters are arranged on a “KWIK PRINT” gold-stamping machine. Unadorned white walls rise from the black laboratory surfaces where Eric Alstrom is working on his next book. His inspiration does not come from his work space, but from the fascination of what one person can create with a few sheets of paper, a leather binding and a sliver of gold leaf. “It’s a mixture of the hands-on, the artistic and the historical,” Alstrom said. Alstrom, the collections conservator in the Conservation Lab of Giltner Hall, has been conserving and creating books for about 20 years.
He said he has been fascinated with books since attending the University of Michigan, where he worked in the Bentley Historical Library.
Although his title reads conservation, that’s not Alstrom’s only job. He also works with the university’s special collections, restoring rare books.
Alstrom said most people confuse conservation with restoration. Conservation is using as much of a book’s original material as possible to get the book back into a usable condition, while restoring focuses on bringing the book back to its original condition.
In fall 2007, Alstrom became a visiting professor in a new book arts program in MSU’s Residential College in the Arts & Humanities in Snyder-Phillips Hall.
The 13 students in the class learn history of the letter press, how to bind a book and then publish their own poetry as a final project.
“It’s really a wonderful start,” said Peter Berg, head of special collections for MSU Libraries.
Stephen Esquith, dean of the residential college, said the book arts program is an ideal creative workshop for MSU.
“It’s a medium of transmission — your own words and thoughts, your own images — to create a message and convey it in a powerful way,” Esquith said.
The program began after printing presses were donated by Arie Koelewyn, a letter-press printer from East Lansing. Koelewyn also is a visiting artist with MSU’s book arts program.
Only a few thousand people in the U.S. know how to operate the presses, he said, and the majority of them are aging.
To keep letter-press techniques alive, artists such as Koelewyn and Alstrom are sharing their skills with college students.
“I’m always looking forward to passing this information of how to use the equipment on to a new generation, a new group of people,” Koelewyn said.
Programs like the one in MSU’s residential college are rare at large universities, Esquith said.
“(They) shouldn’t just be at elite institutions, we think they belong at land-grant institutions like MSU, not just at schools like Yale University,” Esquith said.
Alstrom said he has made dozens of artist books in his career, most of which were made for specific book shows or exhibits.
Alstrom received the book’s loose pages, sewed them together and is fashioning a unique leather cover for an upcoming exhibit in Massachusetts.
But more rewarding than having his work displayed is seeing a project translate from strips of leather and loose pages to a finished product, he said.
“The best part is having an idea knocking around and seeing it finally germinate into a book that you can see and hold and share with people,” Alstrom said.
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