Chapter Board
The Board for the Northwest Chapter directs events and communications for its specific region underneath the national umbrella of the Guild of Book Workers. All members of the Board operate as volunteers.
Jodee Fenton
Chair
Jodee Fenton attends the American Academy of Bookbinding. She received degrees from Ripon College, the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Washington. She was the head of the Special Collections at the Seattle Public Library for almost thirty years. She is a member of the Book Club of Washington and recently received their Emory Award for her work in the State of Washington for the culture of the book. She contributes regularly to the Newsletter of the Guild of Book Workers. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their Welsh Terrier puppy.
Her studio work Aubergine Atelier can be seen by clicking the icon above.
Bonnie Thompson Norman
Events Coordinator
Bonnie Thompson Norman has been the proprietor of The Windowpane Press for over forty years. She has held full time jobs in a commercial letterpress shop and a bindery working with Patrick Reagh, and as a hand bookbinder at Puget Bindery for nearly twenty years. Evenings and weekends, she has taught classes in printing and bookmaking. Bonnie's work reflects concerns about timeless and/or contemporary issues, offering challenging questions, provocative puns and inspiration in the form of broadsides and artist's books. These pieces are included in institutions and collections throughout the United States, New Zealand, France and England.
Elsi Vassdal Ellis
Secretary & Treasurer
Elsi Vassdal Ellis taught design production and book arts at Western Washington University for 40 years, retiring in June 2017. As EVE Press she has produced over 150 book and broadside editions via offset, letterpress and digital printing, and 127 unique books in a well-equipped studio with a view of Mt. Baker since 1983. Her work is permanently housed in over 140 collections including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, San Francisco Public Library Grabhorn Collection, Yale University Library Arts of the Book Collection, and The Wiener Library for the Study of Holocaust and Genocide, London.
Mel Hewitt
Director of Communications & Newsletter Editor
Mel is a German Mexican-American book artist based in Spokane, WA. She attends the American Academy of Bookbinding while teaching classes on the book arts at Spokane Print & Publishing Center of which she is a member-owner and active board member. Her work ranges from utilitarian one-of-a-kind journals to sculptural artist books. Mel is a recent recipient of a Spokane Arts Grant Award for her artist book "Grown Up's First Alphabet." You can also find her knitting socks while binging a show on Hulu or indoor rock climbing with her husband and two kids.
Follow her personal studio work by clicking the icons above.