Innovations Unbound: The Artistry and Collaborations of Daniel Kelm

Daniel E. Kelm is a book artist known for his innovative structures and comprehensive knowledge of materials. For the past 40 years Kelm has designed and produced artist’s books, interpretative fine bindings, and book sculptures in his Easthampton, MA studio, The Wide Awake Garage. His work integrates science and the arts, often exploring alchemy, maps, and mysticism–themes informed from Kelm’s work as a chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota.

This exhibit features Kelm’s independent and collaborative artists books, both of which are significant to the genre. Kelm’s solo pieces are geometric, kinetic sculptures that require a viewer to unpack, assemble, explore, and interpret the components. Once constructed, Kelm’s books show us new ways for books to exist, revealing maps to previously unknown worlds and ideas.

Kelm has worked extensively with artists published through Granary Press, a renowned fine press founded in 1985 by Steve Clay in New York City. Kelm’s bindings have literally brought together book work with collaborators such as printer Robin Price, UW Printmaking alum Pati Scobey, multidisciplinary artist Shelagh Keeley, and illustrator Henrik Drescher. Throughout these collaborations he uses his signature wire-edged binding, a style Kelm pioneered in which wire secures the book pages. The wire binding allows pages of the book to open perfectly flat, but it also allows the book to exist as a series of interconnected panels that can be manipulated as sculptural objects. Glimmers of wire can be seen in many of the book bindings on exhibit.

“The deep, expressive qualities of a binding are to be found not just on its surface, but in its form, material, and movement,” says Kelm. “When these integrally support the text and imagery there is a synergistic effect, and the impact is potent.”

The wire-edged binding has influenced subsequent generations of bookmakers, expanding the simple codex and accordion structure into complex configurations. Kelm continues to teach his technique to students, and the first wire-edged binding guide was published by Elbel Libro Bookbinding in 2023.

Daniel Kelm will present the Sixth Annual Bernstein Book Arts Lecture on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, at 5:00 PM in the Chazen Auditorium, Chazen Museum of Art. His talk, “Poetic Science: The Bookwork of Daniel E. Kelm,” is open to the public.

Innovations Unbound: The Artistry and Collaborations of Daniel Kelm, will be on view at the Kohler Art Library from September 15, 2023—January 15, 2024.