VOLUNTEER WITH CBBAG

Volunteer Recognition

Lifetime Achievement Award

CBBAG is pleased to announce that Martha Cole, a past CBBAG board member, has been awarded the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes outstanding and consistent contributions to CBBAG and the book arts community.

Martha considers herself a book artist rather than a bookbinder, describing her training as a “random access” education. Her formal studies in bookbinding began in the early 1990s through a series of workshops, including the summer courses at Red Deer College in Alberta and the CBBAG core curriculum bookbinding programme in Toronto, where she studied with Betsy Palmer Eldridge and received her CBBAG Certificate of Completion in 2000. She further developed her practice through classes with Monique Lallier, Timothy Ely, Joe Landry, and others, studying in centres such as Telluride, Los Angeles, and Portland.

Martha’s career in the book arts grew naturally from her long-established practice as a fabric artist. Incorporating words and symbols in her fabric works led naturally to an exploration of calligraphy and eventually to books. About 30 years ago she simply “fell in love” with the book arts and has worked in both fabric and book related mediums ever since. Each has deeply enriched and informed the other. Most of Martha’s books are one-of-a-kind, with some produced in limited editions. All incorporate her signature wheat paste papers and cloths. She produced an edition of 400 books for the Saskatchewan Centennial in 2005 in which she honored the disappearance of the iconic Saskatchewan elevators which were rapidly disappearing on the prairies.

The relationship between image and text lies at the heart of Martha’s books. Martha believes “the book has an unlimited potential to explore imagery/text both as an overall visual experience as well as a linear thread running through the whole book. There is an element of time in a book and the concealing/revealing aspect of the turning of the pages adds an intimate interactive engagement with the reader that is quite different from the usual “art on the wall.” The subject content for the books remains the same as for the fabric pieces – an ongoing exploration of “our place” in the greater scheme of things.”

Martha’s books have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, including Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild exhibitions such as Art of the Book and Millennium in a Box, and are held in numerous private and public collections. She presented twice at the Guild of Bookworkers (GBW) Standards of Excellence, including Foundations on Color Theory and Practical Tips on Coloring Paper and Cloth in 2021 and Contemporary Applications of Wheat Paste on Cloth in 2008,

Martha is widely known for her generosity as an educator, having taught extensively and led many popular “Painted Book” workshops.

Volunteers are essential to the operation of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild as it is a volunteer-run arts organization.

There are several ways are to volunteer:

- with a local chapter
- as a chapter leader
- on a national committee e.g. education, magazine, social media
- on the board of directors

CBBAG volunteers have discovered many benefits:

- friendships
- supporting a growing community
- shared passion for book arts
- contributing art-adjacent or technical skills
- leadership development