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Abecedary: Arranged in alphabetical order; elementary, devoid of sophistication. As this list, in both senses. AAA: Yes, the Automobile Association. Lock your keys in the van just twice in a year; the break-in-without-breaking-glass service arrives in 30 minutes to prevent tears or blood. Worth every penny. Action/Interaction: Book/Art Conference (Columbia College of Chicago, June): There is a North Coast where things are happening. We were lucky enough to have a huge space, bigger than we’ve ever had anywhere, to fill with wonderful work. It was a joy for us to see so many of the works we represent out at one time. In Birmingham, they stay for the most part shelved; on our stops no more than 40 or 50 works at once; never anything like this. It reminded us of why we do this: the I-can’t-believe-this variety and endless creativity. Ashland (Oregon) Shakespeare Festival: Stellar drama, both traditional and on-the-edge, in a walk-the-mainstreet small town. It’s worth a stop, a night, a weekend, a season.

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The Bonefolder: an eJournal for the Bookbinder and Book Artist: Along with the Book Arts Listserv an invaluable resource and service made possible in part by Peter Verheyen. Books-on-tape: We take 10 to 20 (borrowed from the library) on a trip. It’s a way to keep up with traditional books and an invaluable stay-awake aide on long drives. Not reading, it’s performance. Get the right performer and we’ll listen to almost anything. Richard Ferrone, George Guidall, CJ Critten, or Mark Hammer could read the Domesday Book and we’d stay with them. Billboard: On I-75 in Georgia a billboard for a Gentleman’s Retreat declared “We Bare All / Grand Opening.” How intentional is that double-entendre? Black, White, & Read: An exhibition that occupied the last days of Gloria Helfgott. These dichromatic works will travel for another year as a tribute to her vision. (See Gloria Helfgott)

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CODEX: In February Peter Koch and Susan Filter, with tremendous input of time, money, and chutzpah , orchestrated a gathering of book artists — from all we can gather the greatest ever in this country — in Berkeley. The atmosphere in the book fair room was electric. At least a third of the 100 tables were personed by artists from outside the US. We hope the non-US dealers did well enough so they will return to the next Codex, which will (may?) take place in 2009. College Book Arts Association (CBAA): After years of stutters it looks as if the CBAA will be a full-throated presence in the near future. They have an organizational document, a slate of officers, and a meeting planned for Tucson in early 2008. Carolee Campbell’s ingredients for a successful artists’ book:  craft honed by constant practice; knowledge of the field; invention; and magic. (N.B. Only the first two can be acquired by hard work.)

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Desmond Lim: the man who takes care of our website. Vicky makes the changes and suggestions, Des refines and polishes, and lets us know when we show our techno-challenged side. He’s a jewel whom we appreciate each day. Michael Dirda: A wonderful discovery (by and for Bill) of the past year, Dirda writes for the Washington Post’s Book World and is a past winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Book by Book and Life & Readings do just what criticism should do: in the form of good conversation, they make you want to go to the sources, to read, and to re-read. Johanna Drucker: We crossed paths at Scripps College and later at Columbia College (See Action/Interaction). Still the voice of cogent criticism on Artists’ Books, uniquely positioned as both practitioner and academic. Agree or not, you miss out on a lot if you avoid her. Direction of the Road: This 2007 production by Foolscap Press combines an anamorphic woodcut and a short story by Ursula le Guin in an exquisitely fertile marriage of fine press and artists’ book. 35 copies found a new home just through V&T. The star of a fertile year.

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Edwina Leggett: Long time (20 years) proprietor of Califia Books, Edwina has earned our thanks and admiration again and again since we folded her ground-breaking business into V&T. Email: The boon and the bane of our lives. It certainly allows us to do things no one could have imagined ten or twenty years ago, but at what cost? Part of the joy of traveling so much is that on the road there is only once a day that we can deal with this Beast Who Must Be Obeyed. Elizabeth Stark: daughter and step-daughter, mother of our two grandchildren, she influences V&T more than she will ever know even though she has nothing to do with it.

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Films: Our longtime indulgence has become a source of solace and recuperation on the road. When we have time, we spend a few hours in the dark with popcorn, a Diet-Coke, and a focus that allows us to forget schedules and itineraries until The End roles around. One nettlesome observation: whether we have 10 theaters to choose from or just one, every venue shows essentially the same films. Modern marketing and distribution systems make it so. Even college towns are less and less the exception. Independent filmmakers have the same problem as book artists: few places to show their work. A situation to be addressed.  (See Movies and New Retail Outlets) Fabulist: an elegant euphemism for liar. In our world truth has become a rare thing, believing what you read or hear is a risky, skepticism is the coin of survival. The language of advertising, land of weasel words and hype, pervades all arenas of our world.

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Grandchildren: What it’s all for. Victoria and Casey Stark, aged 8 (soon to be 9) and 7, and on the cusp of 21. Still in the wonderful time of pre-adolescence, no irony, no posing upfront joy, a refreshing honesty always. (See Elizabeth Stark)

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Gloria Helfgott: book artist, friend, died this fall of a rare disease. Rare is the word for her: a rare talent who taught us to look at and appreciate the world in different ways. Jeanine Herrmann: Jeanine keeps V&T running and us out of all the trouble she can when we are on the road. The Homogenation of the US: The outskirts of city after city are the same: the same fast food, the same big box stores, the same chain restaurants, the same strip malls — the same same. Do we get what we want? Or what we deserve? Regional differences, if they exist, don’t appear on the highways.

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In-and-Out Burger: Hot, basic, and good. In-and-Out is one of the reasons we enjoy being in the West. (See  Trader Joe’s) Nothing frozen, so even if it didn’t taste better, the idea would be worth pursuing. Personed by scrubbed college-agers, uniformly quick and pleasant. (You can identify regions of the country by the quality of the fast-food service crew. The West and upper Midwest get the highest scores from us.) Internet: There are those who can’t remember the world without the Internet. A change in how the world is presented to us, and thus how we deal with the past, present, and future? The internet presents such a lucrative set of possibilities for business that the internet-model may be foisted on us without our knowledge/choice (See Email)

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Arthur Jaffe, Jaffe Center (Florida Atlantic University): The newly expanded version opened this year, a tribute to Arthur and Mata Jaffe’s taste and good sense. A working shrine for displaying and teaching about artists’ books. It will be a model for a long time. Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches: We found them first in Illinois, but they are franchised across the country. Basic submarine sandwiches. Don’t analyze, enjoy the food.

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Ron King: Our entry into the world of artists’ books. Blind and looking for Modern Firsts, Bill came across Antony and Cleopatra (Circle Press) at a book fair in the late 1990s. The big WOW; one of those moments when you begin to see. After that it was a simple matter of rebirth and redirection. Ron appears in 2007 not just because of his influence, but because he published new work (this several years after “retiring” to a new home in West Sussex). Jim Koss: In our minds a much under-recognized major artist working in the book form, Jim has for over three decades created one-of-a-kinds combining his own text and images. Dense poetry, clear and elegant images. "Insistent clarity.” This has been a year of health challenge, but he prevails.

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Librarians who have moved on: Friends, acquaintances, contacts. We miss them all, not in the same way or for the same reason; their institutions will never be the same. Their impact on us and on the artists we represent has been major: BJ Fine (Indiana), Connell Gallagher (Vermont), Herb Gore (Pepperdine), Craig Likness (Miami), Stanley Strauss (Cerritos Public Library), Pat Thompson (UNC-Chapel Hill), Constance Woo (Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus). Lethologica & Lethonomia: We act daily as if we are fervent adherents of a strange religion whose doctrine is founded on these two lethos. The first is the inability to recall the right word, the second the inability to recall the right name.

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Movies Our tastes run wide: Across the Universe, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, Live-In Maid, Lost in the Fire, Charley Wilson’s War, Gone Baby Gone, The Lives of Others, Eastern Promises, The Golden Compass. This is a start. (See Film. We see enough that it deserves at least two entries.) Milwaukee Art Museum: Designed by Santiago Calatrava, with its moveable wing-like brise soleil, it is public architecture as it can be: stunning, functional, inspiring. It turned a weekend in Milwaukee to a highlight. Henning Mankell: Another discovery. Swedish writer of crime fiction. His books have the feel of Bergman (his father-in-law): bleak but not black, hope-deferred but not hopeless. Mussitation: a low continuous indistinct sound; often accompanied by movement of the lips but no articulate speech. The first words of many librarians come in this form; the topic is always this year’s budget.

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New Outlets for Artists’ Books: 23Sandy (Laura Russell, Portland, Oregon); Abecedarium Gallery (Alicia Bailey, Denver); Another Room (Lucy Childs, Alameda, California); Back Space Book Arts (Marcia Moore, Venice, California). More places for the uninitiated to see artists books can only be a good thing. Nourishment: From the mouth of Norman Mailer, “There is much more nourishment in questions than in answers.” Thank goodness.

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