The Movable Book Society (MBS) is a nonprofit organization which provides a forum for artists, book sellers, book producers, collectors, curators, and others to share enthusiasm and exchange information about pop-up and movable books. The Society has nearly 450 members worldwide.

History

In 1993,

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

librarian Ann R. Montanaro published ''Pop-up and Movable Books: A Bibliography''. The volume of correspondences from collectors who purchased the book convinced Montanaro that there was abundant interest in movable books to form an organization of collectors, and thus she founded The Movable Book Society later that year. MBS hosts opportunities for members to meet in person and publishes a quarterly newsletter.

Publications

''Movable Stationery'': Movable Stationery is a quarterly publication featuring articles about movable and pop-up book history and collecting, surveys and reviews of new titles, information about exhibits, workshops and profiles of collectors and paper engineers. Digitized back issues (1993 – 2013) are available from the Smithsonian Libraries as well as the Internet Archive. ''Brooklyn Pops Up'': In 2000, the MBS and the Brooklyn Public Library created an exhibit called “Brooklyn Pops Up! The History and Art of the Movable Book” and published ''Brooklyn Pops Up'', a pop-up book featuring eight Brooklyn landmarks designed by paper engineers such as David A. Carter, Carla Dijs,

Bruce Foster Bruce Foster is an American paper engineer and graphic designer who specializes in pop-up book A pop-up book is any book with three-dimensional space, three-dimensional pages, often with elements that ''pop up'' as a page is turned. The term ...

, Kees Moerbeek, Robert Sabuda, Ken Wilson-Max and others. Maurice Sendak did the cover art which was made movable by Matthew Reinhart. Brooklyn Pops Up is in its 5th printing. ''The Movable Book Society: A Celebration of Pop-up and Movable Books'': Published in 2004, the commemorative, limited edition book explores 700 years of movable book history and contains 11 full-color pop-ups and movables, including reproductions from historical paper engineers such as Geraldine Clyne,

Dean & Son Dean & Son was a 19th-century London publishing firm, best known for making and mass-producing moveable children's books and toy books, established around 1800. Thomas Dean founded the firm, probably in the late 1790s, bringing to it innovative l ...

, S. Louis Giraud,

Vojtěch Kubašta Vojtěch Kubašta (1914, in Vienna – 1992) was a Czech architect and artist. He created pop-up books. Vojtěch Robert Vladimír Kubašta was born in Vienna. His family moved to Prague when he was four years old and he lived there his entire li ...

, Harold B. Lentz,

Lothar Meggendorfer Lothar Meggendorfer (6 November 1847 in Munich – 7 July 1925 in Munich) was a German illustrator and early cartoonist known for his pop-up books. He was first published in 1862 in the '' Fliegende Blätter'', an illustrated comic weekly, and fr ...

, Ernest Nister,

Matthew Paris Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris (; 1200 – 1259), was an English people, English Benedictine monk, English historians in the Middle Ages, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts, and cartographer who was based at St A ...

, Ib Penick,

Robert Sayer Robert Sayer (1725–1794) was a leading publisher and seller of prints, maps and maritime charts in Georgian Britain. He was based near the Golden Buck on 53 Fleet Street in London. Printing Business Sayer's brother James married the widowed Ma ...

, and

Julian Wehr Julian Wehr (1898–1970) was known as the "American Master of Animated Books". Around 9 million copies of Wehr's books were sold in the United States and Great Britain, and were translated and sold in France, Germany, and Spain during the 1940 ...

. ''A to Z: Marvels in Paper Engineering'': In 2018, the Movable Book Society published a special collection of 26 individual pop-up cards to commemorate its 25th anniversary. Each card represented a unique letter from the English alphabet and was designed by paper engineers from the U.S. and abroad. ''The Movable Stationery Index: Navigating the Movable Book Society Newsletters 1993-2020'': An official guide to 111 past issues. The organization's newsletters chronicled newly published pop-up books, profiled paper engineers and collectors, described technicalities of toy book innovations and showcased book exhibitions. The index includes five sections to search topics: by a person's name, by publisher, by pop-up or movable book title, by event or other topics.

Conferences

Every two years, since 1996, the Movable Book Society meets in person for a multi-day conference. Past events have been held in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Past speakers have included various paper engineers and book artists, such as Sally Blakemore,

Julie Chen (book artist) Julie may refer to: * Julie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name Film and television * ''Julie'' (1956 film), an American film noir starring Doris Day * ''Julie'' (1975 film), a Hindi film by K. S. Sethumadhava ...

Chuck Fischer Chuck Fischer is an American muralist, designer, and author of pop-up books. He was featured in an exhibit in the National Museum of American History entitled ''Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn'' along with paper engineer Bruce Foster. His ...

, Theo Gielen, Colette Fu,

Edward H. Hutchins Edward "Ed" Hutchins is known as "one of the most inventive book artists" and proprietor of Editions, a small press publisher of artists' book multiples, since 1989. Biography In the 1980s, Hutchins started taking classes at The Center for Book ...

, Paul Johnson.

Awards and grants

The Movable Book Society presents awards at its biennial conferences: Meggendorfer Prize for the Best Paper Engineering – Trade Publications: Named in honor of

(1847-1925), a legendary 19th century illustrator and movable books paper engineer. This award is given for the most outstanding commercially published pop-up or movable book issues in the two proceedings years. Meggendorfer Prize for Artist Books: This prize honors the best pop-up and movable artist book created in the past three years. Emerging Paper Engineer Prize: This honor recognizes excellence in paper engineering among undergraduate and/or graduate students. MBS Lifetime Achievement Award: This honor recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of movable books.

Exhibitions

The Movable Book Society has sponsored various exhibitions over the years: • ''Stand & Deliver: Engineering Sculpture Into a Book Format'', 2004, curated by Edward Hutchins. The exhibit, co-sponsored with the Brookfield Craft Center, was held at various locations including San Diego Mesa College, Wimberly Library at Florida Atlantic University, the Denver Public Library and Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. A catalog and interactive CD were published. • ''Pop-Up Books from the Collection of the Movable Book Society'', 2001, Great Hall of the Westport Library, Westport, CT • ''Brooklyn Pops Up! The History and Art of the Movable Book'', 2000, Brooklyn Public Library. The exhibition began at the Central Library, before touring 24 neighborhood branches. "The Brooklyn Public Library has spent more than $70,000 in state grants to organize ''Brooklyn Pops Up'' an elaborate exhibition featuring more than 100 pop-ups or ''movable books''... he exhibit catalognearly sold out its first printing of more than 16,500."

References

External links

* {{Books 501(c)(3) organizations American bibliophiles Artists' books Book arts Book clubs Books by type Children's books Children's literature organizations Organizations established in 1993 Paper art Pop-up book artists Pop-up book