Landscape Accordion Books

Landscape Accordion Books

Daniel Mayer, workshop instructor

In this introductory workshop, we will be using recycled USGS topographic maps for a basic accordion structure to create your own handmade books. We will explore simple techniques, ideas, and options inspired by the landscape around you – mountains, streams, flora and fauna.

Optional: Please bring a favorite quote, your own writing – journaling, song lyrics, or poem that inspires your personal direction. This is an introductory workshop – all experience levels are welcome!

Details:

When: Saturday, September 27th, 2025

Time: 10am to 2pm

Where: Natural History Institute, 126 N. Marina St., Prescott, AZ

Cost: $40 per person

10% for Nature Guardian Members

FREE for Nature Champion Members

Daniel Mayer is an Arizona artist/educator who investigates the intersection of language and art resulting in artist’s books, experimental printmaking, and gateway public art. Mayer’s commissioned transportation public art projects integrate the natural world into the built environment. Mayer’s award-winning PHX Sky Train’s architectural glass murals incorporate Arizona nature prints collected from different elevations; the terrazzo platform design has multi-colored blue aggregates representing the passage of time; rivers of metal letters provide wayfinding; and the freeway overpass design at I-17 and Happy Valley Rd. merges land and sky into a uniform pattern at the Sonoran Foothills.

Mayer exhibits national and internationally and has work in numerous private and public rare book collections such as the UC-Berkeley Environmental Library, Getty, Wellesley, Yale, Klingspor Stadt Museum, Bibliotheek-Hague, and others. Artist residencies have informed Mayer’s work at the Ucross Foundation, PLAYA Arts and Science Residency, and the Glasgow Print Workshop. Mayer established his Tempe studio in 1983 for generating new work.

Daniel Mayer is the Director of the Pyracantha Press, ASU School of Art, for interdisciplinary creative research in artist’s books and letterpress printmaking. Collaborative projects include Eco Songs, a song-cycle based on earth and ecology, and Individualocracy, a study on urban sprawl. Since 1986, Mayer has managed an active historical movable type collection for creative research, outreach, and education.

Host or Publisher Natural History Institute