What is book art anyway?

Why the title of my post today? Because thats what I was thinking before this weekend happened. I'm not going to pretend I know some fancy definition of what book art is after one weekend workshop but I defiantly have a much better understanding. 

Its about making a book into a piece of art work, not something just to read but something to look at and interpret and appreciate as more than just pages with information or a story on them. 

Today was day two of the book art workshop taught by Rachel Hazell at the Lewis and Wood Mill in Woodchester, Stroud. See yesterdays post for what we got up to on day one. 

Today we worked on our own individual projects creating a consertina type book with no main spine as such. We used somerset velvet paper/card for the main body and then added our bits of whatevers to embellish it and create a story. 

My content isn't finished yet so I don't want to give too much away just yet. I'm aiming to have it finished in time to submit to the anticurate exhibition at the MAC.

  Here are some pictures of the process so far. See if you can spot the theme.....

working out how to join up the pages

Envelope templates - great wee invention

Making a little pocket but sewing ribbon along the bottom of two pages to join them together

can't go wrong with a bit of lace embellishment 

was lovin' these alphabet stamp letters

glueing fabric onto hard grey board to make the cover

with a book like this you really need something to keep it together

here is what the last two pictures joined up together look like

inside front cover with little envelope, my button broke :( but I've got another one to replace it so its all good

Birds eye view. its got sections that open front and back

this in the pocket I made one the ribbon trim was stitched along the bottom

this is one of my content pages

I used a chain stitch to bind the pages into the frame of the book and then continued it onto this page to link it in with my theme

Okay so maybe the theme is a bit vague so far but I've got so many more ideas it'll all make sense once its finished.But of anyone have got any  guesses let me know....