The 3rd year Print Production class was treated to a presentation of the McCord Museum’s extensive Notman archive. Quite interesting to see how prolific Notman was, and that he produced composites and 3D images. In the 1850s!

Our main reason to visit the McCord was to see Robert Walker’s Griffintown exhibit. The McCord is focusing on different Montreal neighborhoods and the urban transformations they are undergoing.

None more apparent than Griffintown, where Robert Walker’s striking photographic style and his bold use of colour and compositions, juxtapose the old neighborhood with the inflated dreams of the new condo developments.

Highlight of the visit was meeting Robert who very generously guided us through the exhibit and shared his vision with the students. He spoke about working on this project and other aspects of his career.

Robert Walker Robert Walker’s Griffintown

Special thanks to Mr. Walker!

Pierre Arsenault

For this handmade book assignment in the Digital Lab 6 course, I show students different techniques such as: sewing a book using the Smyth method, Japanese stab binding, adding a hard or soft cover to a sewn book block, and dry mounting. All the printing is done here at Dawson College by students using the double sided Canon printer (which prints matt) or the single sided Epson printers.

Examples of different binding used to create the books.
- Japanese stab binding with a soft cover
- Smyth binding with a hard cover and a ribbon (and nice textured end papers)
- Japanese stab binding with a soft cover. Pages were folded in half but were printed double sided so there are hidden images inside the folded pages.
- Smyth binding with a soft cover. A box with embroidery and covered in binding cloth. All images inside the box were dry mounted to individual matt boards.

Kate Hutchinson