The Northwoods Set Book Project: a creative collaboration

University of Alaska Museum of the North
Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery

On November 22, 2024, The University of Alaska Museum of the North opened a special showing of NBG’s Northwoods Set Book Project in the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery. Included in the display are almost all of the 26 books from the original Set Book Collection. Many NBG Set Book artists and members of the community attended the grand opening to view the exhibit and listen to Set Book poet Christopher Lee Miles’ stunning analysis of “making art“.

The Northwoods Set Book Project involved 16 NBG book artists who responded to one or more of the four books of poetry published by UA Press in the Alaska Literary Series. Artists created newly bound books of the poetry applying their own unique interpretation of the books’ subject matter, their aesthetic choices, and their bookmaking skills to the bindings’ structures and designs.

This special project was first exhibited in the Books As Art 3 exhibition in the Bear Gallery in 2021. View author Christopher Lee Miles present about his writing and the set book artists describing their work in this Facebook Live recording (Facebook login required for access). Also available online is a slide show of Set Book still images created by Debi Bodett.

NBG is honored and excited to again share the Northwoods Set Book Project with the Fairbanks community.

Read more about the history of the Set Book Project in the catalog’s Introduction here.