It’s been a long, cold winter, but spring is finally here. We’ve been busy cooking up new ideas and new learning opportunities for the ABH community. We’re excited to welcome you back to 4207 W Irving Park Rd.

Our 2026 calendar is filling up. Keep an eye out for more information and links to register for the workshops, classes, and events listed below. We’ll also be announcing additional classes in the coming weeks.

Have you ever wanted to know how a hardcover book is constructed? Are you looking for the perfect sketchbook filled with your favorite paper? The Introduction to Bookbinding course will introduce students to bookbinding tools, materials, and terminology.

We are excited to announce that construction has begun on our roof, and will soon begin on our facade. If all goes well, work will be completed in mid-November. Because of this, ABH will be closed until early December. We will send an email out to everyone once work has been completed. Until then, check out our upcoming workshop, Paper Masks with Erin Cramer, which has been rescheduled for December 6th and 7th, 2025.

A Macabre Merriment Honoring the Edward Gorey’s Centennial and to benefit the building renovation of Artists Book House

Artists Book House (ABH), the literary and book arts nonprofit, will host a new feature on its website. ABH will be the new home of Goreyesque, an online literary journal featuring stories, poems, and artwork inspired by Edward Gorey. The journal, founded by ABH co-founder Ken Gerleve and Board member Todd Summar, is moving to ABH as part of a series of late 2025 celebrations and fundraising events honoring the work of Edward Gorey.

Artists Book House founder and former Board President, Audrey Niffenegger, will be exhibiting new work at Zolla Lieberman gallery from September 5 - October 11, 2025 with an opening reception on Friday, September 5th from 4 to 7pm.

Artists Book House Founder Audrey Niffenegger and Board President Ken Gerleve were recently featured in the Chicago Sun-Times!

Thank you to everyone who came to the March 29th poster sale and book signing with Amos Kennedy! It was a delight getting to host Amos and his work, and we are so excited that our first book sales and signing in our new building went so successfully.

We have also just been notified that we will receive a grant of $5,400 from the organization Pitch Your Peers Chicago.

We are pleased to announce that Artists Book House has been selected to receive a Community Development Grant from the City of Chicago in the amount of $249,032.03 for the renovation of the roof, facade, and back wall of our building.

Artists Book House Founder Audrey Niffenegger was invited on WGN Spotlight Chicago to talk all things book arts.

Artists Book House was recently featured in an article on Redfin on the Chicago Art Scene - read the entire article here.

Everyone has a tree story. Do you remember running to a tree for safe base in a childhood game of tag? Plucking ruby-red apples on a crisp fall day? A treehouse that felt larger than life, where secrets were whispered, and dreams took shape? Many of us recall climbing high into the branches, feeling the rough bark beneath our hands, the gentle sway. Trees stand as silent witnesses to our lives, marking the seasons of change and growth.

Many of us here at ABH draw great inspiration from the weird, wonderful work of Edward Gorey, born here in Chicago on Feb. 22, 1925. 

Edward Gorey was a prolific writer, illustrator, set designer, and playwright, who is most known for the animated opening titles to the PBS Mystery! series, and creating dozens of small illustrated picture books – many decidedly not for children – including the Gashlycrumb Tinies.

I sometimes wish that Artists Book House was small and cuddly, with silky warm fur, twitching whiskers, and beseeching eyes, because if ABH was a cute little mammal we probably would have found a nice home for it much sooner. Since ABH happens to be a book and paper center, it took us a while to find a suitable location. After a couple false starts, we eventually Goldilocksed our way to something that is just right: 4207 West Irving Park Road, in Chicago. 

I am delighted to report that Artists Book House has a new home: 4207 West Irving Park Road, in Chicago. This is a single-story, double storefront in the charming Old Irving Park neighborhood. It is near the Irving Park stops on the Blue Line and the Union Pacific Northwest Metra line. It’s just west of 90/94. It should be easy to visit us! 

Welcome to our new website. Due to platform and support changes with our website provider, Squarespace, the need to create a new website that takes advantage of their new features and ongoing development has become a necessity. We are working diligently to migrate all of the content from our old website to our new online home, so some sections will not be immediately available. We hope to complete the migration by Monday, August 26th. If you have questions in the meantime, please email us at info@artistsbookhouse.org.

Take a little walk to the edge of town, and go across the tracks to where the Schnappviecher looms like a… well, like a Schnappviecher, and you’ll find cartoonist Marie Enger binding that prickling shiver up the back of your neck into the shape of ink on paper.

Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, ABH’s first Executive Director, will be shifting roles at the end of March, leaving her staff position to take a seat on ABH's Advisory Board. We are grateful for Deborah’s many innovations, for helping ABH to become more professional and for connecting us with so many wonderful opportunities and friends.