James Madison University Special Collections is honored to welcome acclaimed book artist, teacher, curator, and owner of Popular Kinetics Press, Carol Barton. Barton was JMU’s first ever Dorothy Liskey Wampler Distinguished Art Professorship visiting scholar and she will return to campus on Wednesday, March 22 to present History of Pop-Up and Movable Books.

The development of movable page formats began with early Renaissance science texts that employed volvelles and lift-up flap mechanisms. Barton will discuss and provide examples of movable illustrations from astronomical, navigational, mathematical and medical books. The presentation will also include a discussion of childrens’ pop-up books from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with examples of current commercial and artist-made dimensional books. The lecture includes discussions of die-cutting and hand-assembly processes used in the modern manufacture of pop-up books.

Event will be held in Duke Hall Gallery Court. Refreshments will be served.