Priscillia Leal Torres, Director of éditions Leal Torres in France will present a video of her latest artist book publication project. Inge Bruggeman, Director of The CODEX Foundation will give a brief introduction in English about the CODEX X International Biennial Book Art Fair & Symposium and introduce Priscillia Leal Torres who will give her presentation in French with the video featuring English subtitles, and the discussion afterwards will be bilingual.

The éditions Leal Torres creates limited edition books which are connected to the livre d’artiste tradition developed in France during the late 19th and 20th centuries, however Priscillia Leal Torres takes her productions in new contemporary directions, often collaborating with the Atelier du Livre d’art et de l’Estampe de l’Imprimerie Nationale. 

Location:
San Francisco Alliance Française
1345 Bush Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

Time:
5:30 pm Reception
6:00 pm Event

The CODEX Foundation will introduce book artists from Japan who will be exhibiting at CODEX X: International Biennial Book Art Fair & Symposium. These artists will give a brief presentation followed by an interactive experience with the artists and their works.

Location:
Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Time:
5:30 pm (tentative time)

Collecting with Integrity and Intention: A Seminar for Library Professionals

Full-day Seminar with Ruth Rogers at The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

Location:
UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
Thursday, February 5, 2026

Time:
10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Cost:
$300 Seminar Only
$425 Seminar plus Multi-Day pass to the Book Art Fair & Symposium ($300 value)

Collecting with Integrity and Intention: A Seminar for Library Professionals

Ruth R. Rogers

How does a librarian develop the critical insights needed to build a collection of contemporary artists’ books? What kind of collaborations between students and faculty can be explored through engagement with them, and how do we refine our choices? This one-day intensive seminar will cover creative approaches to harness the visual and communicative power of artists’ books, by integrating them into an institution’s broader curricular objectives.

The seminar will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions. Morning will be devoted to sharing strategies for identifying artists’ books that fit into a cross-disciplinary educational mission and how they connect to existing historical collections. Sample lecture topics and lists of suggested books will be provided. 

The afternoon session will be devoted to guided hands-on analysis of pre-selected books based on the morning’s themes, beginning with work in small groups, and concluding with lively discussion and debate. 

The goal of the seminar is to provide attendees with the tools and framework needed for acquiring artists’ books that will have a lasting impact in their collections. By emphasizing content, production values, communicative power, and course collaborations, attendees will be better equipped with strategies for expanding their own institutional collections. 

CODEX X Kick-Off Party!

San Francisco Center for the Book is excited to host CODEX X attendees, exhibitors, and participants at their biannual kickoff party!

This signature event marks the beginning of the fair and provides an exclusive opportunity to preview the new exhibition Who Is America at 250?: Artists’ Books in the Age of Democracy. Join us at SFCB to connect with colleagues, enjoy some light bites, celebrate the vibrant book arts community, and inaugurate the tenth edition of CODEX. Attendance is free, but RSVPs are appreciated.

Location:
San Francisco Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Time:
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

MUST have a CODEX Badge or special invitation to attend

Light snacks and refreshments served. Cocktails available for purchase.

Location:
Oakland Marriott City Center
Skyline Ballroom – 21st Floor

Time:
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (Immediately after the Book Art Fair closes)

Suntup Editions Exhibit
More information coming soon

Location:
American Bookbinders Museum
355 Clementina St
San Francisco, CA 94103

Time:
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
8:00 pm Talk by Paul Suntup

BOOKNESS Exhibition at Kala Art Institute
Curated by Inge Bruggeman, Sonya Casatillo, Mayumi Hamanaka, & Ellen Lake

The book is a cultural artifact that has taken many shapes and forms across the globe and over time. From papyrus scroll and medieval parchment manuscript, to palm-leaf bindings, accordions, slat books, and other Asian-style stab bindings. The book is in constant evolution with the culture it is witness to, and is in fact, not dead, but continuing its ongoing metamorphosis as an object that is a reflection of the world around it. For decades, if not centuries, artists’ books have played a critical role in most artistic movements and artistic practices throughout art history, but always seemingly on the margins. The space of the book has long been co-opted by artists, exploring the potential of the medium as a dynamic crossroads between the literary and the visual arts. The future of the book is now the art of the book. 

This exhibition explores the edges of the book as both a cultural artifact and an expressive artistic medium in its own right. It includes artists’ books exploring the space of the book in complex ways, but it also looks at work by artists with bookish tendencies who focus on aspects of the book as cultural icon and physical artifact.

Location:
Kala Art Institute
2990 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA

Time:
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

MUST have purchased a ticket in order to attend

Location:
Oakland Marriott City Center – Ballroom

Time:
6:00 pm – 10:30 pm

CODEX Open House and Real Lead Saloon Exhibition

Come decompress with us after the fair with drinks and snacks!

Visit our beautiful headquarters at The CODEX Foundation Logan Book Arts Center. We will be exhibiting the work of our Saturday Salon: community members who come together under the guidance of co-founder, Peter Koch, to keep the art of printing from metal type alive and well. 

Location:
The CODEX Foundation
Logan Book Arts Center
1331 Seventh Street, Units C&D
Berkeley, CA 94710

Time:
11:00 am – 2:00 pm

Gallery Walk + Conversation: Who Is America at 250?
Join SFCB for a walk-through of our powerful exhibition on democracy and artists’ books. Exhibition curators and exhibiting artists will be in discussion about art, activism, and the evolving idea of America as we approach the nation’s 250th anniversary, while viewing works from the exhibition

Location:
San Francisco Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Time:
Doors at 6 pm, gallery talk begins promptly at 6:30 pm

Creative Processes and Decorative Techniques for Design Binding

Creative design for bookbinding is often seen as a challenging part of the binding process – not only generating a visual response to the text but also, finding the right techniques and materials to translate that visual response into a binding. This course will introduce a range of activities to help you to explore your own unique way of responding to a text and engaging with the content to develop your confidence in this area of design binding. During the first part of the course, Sue will take you through a range of guided exercises. She will support you through tasks aimed at exploring a text and developing ways of translating these responses into a visual design. We will use a range of different texts, culminating in a short story, which you will use to create a small portfolio of visual responses. Sue will include a presentation with examples from her own practice to introduce the concept of design for binding and, in between the exercises, there will be lots of discussion and workshop time in which you will have the opportunity to explore everyone’s ideas and responses. During the second half of this workshop, Kate will introduce you, via demonstration and images of past work, to a variety of decorative techniques suitable for bookbinding: leather dyeing – craquele, ombre, paste resist; printing – reverse offset printing, monoprinting; inlays and onlays – backpared onlays, sunken onlays, cushioned onlays, inlaying other materials; gilding leather with gold leaf; impressing leather; blind tooling, foil tooling, tooling with gold leaf. We will then explore how to translate your designs into leather ‘covers’ using these techniques. By the end of the four days, you will have a small portfolio of written/visual responses to the text and a plaquette of your design using some of the techniques demonstrated, plus, a whole lot of knowledge and inspiration to help you explore further.

Prerequisites: Basic Leather Paring

Tools/Materials: Please bring your paring knives and a paring machine such as a Scharf-Fix or Brockman if you have one.

Seats: Space limited to 8 students

Cost: $1150 Non-members & $950 Members plus $120 materials fee

Scholarships: To apply for a scholarship that would cover half the tuition of this workshop, please fill out this Scholarship Form by December 1st. You would still be responsible for paying half the tuition as well as the full materials fee.

Directions, Transportation and Parking: The CODEX Foundation Flex Space is a 30 minute walk from North Berkeley BART, or an 8 minute walk from the #72 San Pablo Avenue bus lines. If you need to drive, carpooling with other students is encouraged. There is street parking available.

Location:
The CODEX Foundation
Logan Book Arts Center
1331 7th Street, Unit D
Berkeley, CA 94710

Time:
9 am – 5 pm with a break for lunch