Alumni Gallery: e bond '96

In the Alumni Gallery September 19 – November 7, 2026. Join us for a reception celebrating the exhibition on Friday, October 9 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

e bond '96 presents Language Studies, an exhibition of fabric collections and letterpress prints centered on typography and the written word. Drawing on two bodies of work, COUNTER and PUNC*T, the exhibition looks closely at letterforms and punctuation marks, elements of language we usually look through rather than at.

The COUNTER fabric collection examines the space surrounding and within letterforms, whether open or closed, narrow or wide. In typography, a counter refers to the area of a letter entirely or partially enclosed by a letterform or symbol, such as the enclosed space within a capital "O" or the partial opening at the top of a lowercase "e." Rather than treating this space as empty or incidental, the collection considers it a formal element in its own right. COUNTER is part of an ongoing series of fabric studies by bond that explore language, typography, letterforms and the written word, developed from a series of letterpress monotypes made during a two-week residency at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in 2024.

PUNC*T is the sublimely disorderly companion to its predecessor. Made during the same 2024 residency as COUNTER, the collection explores punctuation, the marks that move language forward. Quotation marks, question marks and exclamation points appear throughout, printed from the museum's wood type collection to reflect the range of ways we communicate on the page. These marks shape meaning and tone, carrying drama, expression, emotion and intention.

About the Artist

e bond is a designer, artist, writer, bookbinder and educator. Currently, she teaches art workshops and creates fabric collections by day, makes handmade books by night, hangs out with trees on weekends and writes something close to poems in the spaces between. Under the studio name roughdrAftbooks, she makes one-of-a-kind artists’ books, printed pieces and abstract drawings that merge and blur the boundaries of art, craft, surface design and poetry.

e holds a BFA in Graphic Design and Art History from Moore College of Art & Design and an MFA in Creative Writing and Book Art from Mills College. She has spent years as a professor of Graphic Design and Book Art in various college and university art departments, and her work is held in library collections across the US. e’s work has been published in Pressing Matters Magazine, Uppercase Magazine, Berkeley Poetry Review, 500 Handmade Books, as well as numerous books (about books). Most recently, her work has moved into the wonderful world of surface design where she designs colorful, abstract fabric collections in collaboration with Free Spirit Fabrics. You can learn more at ebondwork.com or on Instagram as @eisroughdraft.

Image courtesy of the artist.