The reader of books formed with handmade papers engages with a record that offers evidence of ecology, practice, maker, and craft. The persistence of handmade paper, and of books formed by handmade... Show moreThe reader of books formed with handmade papers engages with a record that offers evidence of ecology, practice, maker, and craft. The persistence of handmade paper, and of books formed by handmade papers, in an increasingly digital production environment is evidence of the continued valuation of these material narratives, and of paper itself as a text. This paper offers an artifactual discussion of handmade paper (within the context of functional books), placing emphasis on explicating its material narratives, evidential significance, and lastly, its function as a particular communicative form. An argument can be made that the continued presence of handmade paper, as craft, process, and object, is informed by an assignment of value to its material narratives, and the information and evidential elements that these express. Read archivally, these works are also valued for the material, craft, maker contexts that they can evoke. Show less
