Ben Buonaiuto & Sage Billig

The children of artists, we both grew up at art shows, being exposed to many different ways of creating with one’s hands. When we met in 1999 (at a show, of course) Sage Billig was a Jeweler and Ben Buonaiuto was working with sculpture and photography. Along the way we’ve had the chance to work in textiles, metal, clay, drawing, and many other media. When we discovered the art of book binding, we found a way to work together, and to use many of the techniques we’d acquired over the years, with an almost endless opportunity to learn more.

The functional form of a book appeals to us, because it brings art into everyday life. In this spirit we use a combination of traditional materials and found objects, discarded bits of everyday life, made beautiful by age and wear and given a chance to been seen in a new way. Each book is created by hand, by the two of us, starting with sheets of paper and board, shelves of found objects, our own photography, silk binding cords, copper rivets and hand tools.

We make books that are intended to be used, binding them carefully with high quality materials, and filling them with pages of archival cotton paper. These books are part of an ongoing creative process, one that we hope you’ll join by writing, drawing, mounting photos and other artifacts of your life, or just by making grocery lists and telephone doodles in them.