Join us for an afternoon of bookmaking with Purgatory Pie Press. Participating families will make drawings and collages that reveal secret hidden pictures through the magic of simple folding. They can stitch their finished pages into covers to build a book.

Esther K. Smith is the author of How to Make Books, Making Books with Kids, which was chosen for Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, Specimens of Chromatic Wood Type, Borders, &c., and several other art books. Artistic director of Purgatory Pie Press (one of the longest-running artists’ presses), Smith makes limited editions and artist books, collaborating with letterpress printer Dikko Faust and other artists and writers. These limited edition are in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, the National Gallery, the V&A, the Tate, and many other public and private rare book libraries.

Event photos by Christine Wise.

Educational programs are sponsored in part by Con Edison, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Department of Youth and Community Services, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and City Council Member Helen Rosenthal.