Randy Asplund: Making Illuminated Medieval Books An Exhibit of Technology and Application

Making Illuminated Medieval Books

An Exhibit of Medieval Book Technology and Application
By Randy Asplund

The display cases in the University of Michigan School of Art and Architecture, in front of the

Slusser Gallery. The exhibit runs through February, 2008.

The "Making Illuminated Medieval Books: An Exhibit of Technology and Application" exhibit by Artist and Medieval Book Arts researcher Randy Asplund is a display of the various tools, raw materials, and techniques of the complex process of making medieval books and illuminated manuscript pages. In these cases you will find the tools and materials used to make parchment, inks, paints, to gild, to write, to illustrate, and to bind medieval books. The tools are reproductions made by the artist. The raw materials include minerals, plants, rare insects like Kermes, and alchemical types such as lead colors and verdigris. On the walls behind these objects are photographs of the artist at work making all of these things. There are also single page works of art, and two full books, including a 15th c. style Gothic bound 3" high "Life of Jeanne d'Arc" and a 14th-16th c. type Limp Leather bound book.

All of these materials and photographs are part of the vast amount of material Randy Asplund has been assembling for inclusion in the book he is writing about how Medieval Illuminated Books were made.

Case 1 Parchment, Inks, Layout, Calligraphy	Case 2 Making paint
Case 3 Calligraphy, Painting , and Binding	Case 4 Mesdieval Manuscript Illumination for contemporary clients. Collector book Ecclesiastes, Magazine cover, Contemporary art as manuscript page

Making Paint

Colors and Bookbinding