Let's Make a Book!

Book made by Co-Editor Max Fyfe

A video with Professor Melanie Mowinski on how to make a Cardboard Box Book

Recycled Cardboard Box books are books that I started making in 2000. They were an attempt at trying to remember how to make the first book I made in a printmaking class while I was in art school. I later found that book, and it utilized a completely different binding. I preferred this one that I made up. But these books! They celebrate my love of found materials, especially the logos and designs on fruit and vegetable boxes, wine and liquor, and other boxes. I've been known to pack a particularly spectacular box into a backpack, lash a good one to my bicycle, or have friends/relatives ship them to me from afar. 

I teach this structure in my Collage classes, and occasionally other classes to hold collages, drawings, and other artistic explorations that support a daily artistic practice. You can make one of these books with very simple materials: paper, cardboard boxes, waxed linen or dental floss, a needle. Sure, there are other tools I use, but you can make do with just that. 

~Professor Melanie Mowinski

You can Check out how to make a book like this yourself here!