During late May and early June this year, University of Iowa Center for the Book MFA candidates Madison Bennet, Jamie Capps, Tegan Daly, and Chayna Truex travelled with UICB Paper Making Specialist and Instructor Nicholas Cladis to the village of Echizen in Japan. Before joining the faculty at UI, Cladis spent many years living and working in Echizen, a traditional Japanese paper making village. And returning to Echizen with a group of students serves as his inaugural research project at the university. Together, the group worked to make paper in traditional paper mills; explored the local terrain; learned history, folklore, poetry, and language; and worked with a nonprofit organization for contemporary paper art.  

Through the fifth of November, please find their beautiful work and mementos of their journey in the K.K. Merker Gallery in North Hall. And please join us for a talk on their work and experience to be given on the fourth.