Showcasing marbled paper, paste paper, fold-and-dye papers, and more, this book reveals a little-known arts phenomenon from its grass roots in the 1960s to artistic heights in the following decades Pattern and Flow chronicles the flourishing of American decorated paper arts beginning in the 1960s and extending to the 2000s, with an ongoing legacy today. As knowledge and skills were shared across a grass-roots community in the 1960s, decorated paper became increasingly popular, with centers for the study of the book and paper arts emerging across the United States, and artists developing new, innovative styles of paper. The book begins with an introductory essay outlining the history of decorated paper arts in America up to the 1960s, followed by a chronological narrative, which surveys the development of the field and introduces the artists working from the 1960s to the 2000s, and an illustrated reference section with essential biographical and professional information for each artist. Designed to be an immersive experience, Pattern and Flow conveys the vivid visual world of American decorated paper, celebrating the variety and variations that are key features of the art. Stunning illustrations show designs with intricate, tessellated patterns and others that flow with forms and waves that seem liquid; some explore subtle, muted tones, while others are explosive in their use of brilliant colors. Distributed for the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Grolier Club, New York (January 17-April 8, 2023)

This is a ground-breaking study of one of America's leading designers of nineteenth-century publishers' highly decorated bookbindings.This fully illustrated volume documents the life and work of Alice C. Morse. Included in this book is a biography of Morse by Grolier Club member Mindell Dubansky and two essays on her work and influence by scholars in the field of nineteenth-century decorative arts, followed by a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated survey of all the known works by the designer drawn from the personal collection of Mindell Dubansky and from the resources of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Alice C. Morse (1863-1961) was a prolific and versatile designer during the heyday of the American Decorative Arts Movement. Though her fame has waned since the early twentieth century, her work will be familiar to admirers of artist-designed publishers' bindings of the period 1890-1910. She came to prominence during the late 1880s, when a small group of exceptional American publishers began to commission artist-designers such as Morse, and her contemporaries Sarah Wyman Whitman and Margaret Armstrong, to design the covers of case bindings. The Grolier Club exhibition marked the first time since 1923 that Morse's work was displayed to the public; and this present volume is the first to collect all of Morse's book design work, as well as literary posters and other ephemeral materials relating to her work.