THE WORLD OF PAPER

Designed to be both informative and entertaining, this educational exhibition of art and artifacts from the Museum's collection offers a global perspective of papermaking. The exhibit showcases various cultural traditions, achievements and technical innovations in papermaking from countries throughout the world.

THE WORLD OF PAPER illustrates the history of papermaking from its invention in China more than 2,200 years ago through the art and technology of today. The exhibition explores cultural traditions, achievements, and technical innovations in papermaking from countries throughout the world, with more than 350 individual objects: art and artifacts from the Dard Hunter Collection as well as historic photographs and other material from the Museum.

THE WORLD OF PAPER tells the fascinating story behind that most ordinary (and most useful) of everyday objects: a sheet of paper.

The many highlights of this educational exhibition begin with the pre-papers -- rare tapa cloths from the South Pacific, Egyptian papyrus, and historic parchment legal documents from Great Britain. There is also a beautiful wooden Japanese papermaking vat, and many antique papermaking tools - molds, deckles, and brushes from Asia and Europe. The exhibit encompasses an array of decorative papers including French marbled papers, Chinese tea chest papers, American paste papers, Japanese lace papers and wallpaper designed by William Morris. There are a number of finely crafted limited-edition books, the most unusual being a sacred Tibetan book with gold calligraphy on blue-black tingshog paper. There are many paper molds, brushes, and early brass technical testing tools. The exhibit also includes paper clothing from the 1960s - a Pop Art dress made of paper. THE WORLD OF PAPER also includes a dazzling backlit display case of watermarks, featuring exquisite watermark portraiture, artistic Japanese watermarks, extraordinary Chinese watermarks, and inventive watermark designs used by American and European businesses.

Before paper, people wrote and drew on a wide variety of surfaces to record their laws, religious beliefs and accomplishments. They used clay tablets, pounded bark, palm leaves, animal hides, and textiles like silk cloth. For written communication, they wanted materials that were locally available, inexpensive and simple to prepare -- and as lightweight as possible for easy transport and storage.

Papyrus is the most well known pre-paper. Papyrus grew in abundance along the banks of the lower Nile River in Egypt. Ancient Egyptians used the reed to make boats, rope, mats, and wrapping for food as well as writing material. They even wore sandals made from papyrus. Lightweight papyrus was a vast improvement over stone and clay tablets for record-keeping. By 2000 BC, Egyptian scribes used papyrus for the most legal and official documents.

To make a sheet of papyrus for writing, the smooth stalks of the reed are harvested and peeled. The pith -- the plant's soft, sponge-like center -- is sliced and pounded into strips. The pith strips are placed edge to edge in one direction to form a sheet. A second layer of strips is laid perpendicular across the first. Then the two sheets are pounded together and flattened. The laminated sheet is then polished smooth. Early Egyptians used stones, bones and shells for finishing the papyrus surface.

Tapa cloth, also known as bark-cloth, was a popular forerunner to paper. Most tapa cloth is made from the paper mulberry tree, but tapa cloths made from the bark of breadfruit and fig are also common in the South Pacific, Australia, South America, and Africa.

To make tapa cloth, the inner bark is stripped from trees. The bark is soaked in water to soften. Pounding the softened bark meshes the fibers together and reduces the bark sheet's thickness. Traditionally, skilled female artisans prepared tapa cloth by beating bark sheets on flat logs. Their tools, known as tapa beaters, were usually made from a dense wood. Sections of beaten bark are glued together with vegetable adhesives to produce huge sheets of tapa. The sheets are often decorated with various stenciling and painting techniques.

Parchment and vellum were used for writing surfaces in Europe. The skins from sheep (parchment), cows (vellum) and goats are soaked in water and lime for three to ten days. This loosens the hair from the skin. Any remaining hair and flesh are scraped away, and the skin is rinsed in fresh water to remove the lime. The skin is stretched on a frame where special knives are used to scrape the skin to right thickness. The frames' skewers are tightened to flatten the skin as it dries. Finally, the parchment is cut into the sizes needed for the documents or manuscripts.

The first paper was made in 200 BC in China. Chinese papermakers used old fishing nets, bamboo and hemp for fiber. They harvested plants in the fall. First, the plants were dried and then placed with layers of lime in large, stone-lined pits. The pits were filled with water, and the fibers were left to soak for about three months. After soaking, the fibers were rinsed and then beaten until they were soft and pulpy. The papermakers used large wooden mallets, sticks or rocks to beat the fibers.

Early Chinese paper molds were made of coarse fabric stretched across rectangular bamboo frames. The papermaker would place the mold on top of water in a vat -- or in the earliest papermaking, a puddle, stream or pond. They poured pulp across the mold's woven surface. Excess pulp and water dripped through the mold into the water. The molds were placed to dry in the sun. When the paper sheets were dry, they were peeled off the molds and stacked in piles, ready to be used or sold.

Washi means Japanese paper. Papermaking came to Japan with Buddhism, c. 600 A.D. The Japanese embraced the art of papermaking by refining the process, developing new techniques, improving tools, and finding local fiber sources. Traditional Japanese handmade paper is considered by many the finest in the world for its strength, beauty, variety and durability.

Traditionally, Japanese farmers made paper during the cold winter months. The entire village participated in its production - gathering the plants, processing the fibers, and then forming, pressing and drying the sheets. Each village and district developed special types of papers, and their papermaking techniques were closely guarded secrets.

The plants for Japanese papermaking are harvested in the late fall. Saplings are cut, trimmed, and bundled. The bundles are cooked in huge kettles for hours. After steaming, the bark is removed from each stick. To make white paper, only the white layer of the bark is used, so the outer layers are scraped away with a knife. The white bark fibers are then cooked with wood ashes or chemicals. Then the fibers are rinsed in cold water. Dark knots and other imperfections are removed. The clean fibers are rolled into melon-sized balls and placed on a board or stone where the papermakers hammer the moist fibers with wooden beaters to separate the strands for papermaking.

Nagashizuki, the unique Japanese technique of forming paper sheets, was developed in the late 8th century. First, the vat is filled with cold water. Handfuls of pulp are added and stirred with a comb-like agitator. The hinged mold is dipped into the vat, and the pulp solution is rolled across its flexible bamboo screen, flowing back and forth, layering the fibers before the excess water is thrown off into the vat. Next, the screen with the wet sheet is taken from the vat and placed paper side down couching stand. The paper post is lightly weighted and allowed to dry overnight before it is slowly pressed to remove moisture from the sheets. The pressed sheets are removed one by one from the post and brushed onto wooden boards to dry naturally or placed on steam-heated metal sheets to dry more quickly.

Papermaking traveled to Europe from the Middle East as the Moslem Empire spread to Spain and Italy. The first Italian paper mill, Fabriano, was established in 1295. Internationally acclaimed for the artistry of its watermarks, Fabriano still makes beautiful cotton-rag papers. It was almost 400 years before papermaking crossed the Atlantic and the American papermaking industry began. William Bradford, a printer, brought papermaker William Rittenhouse to the Pennsylvania colony where he established the first American paper mill in 1690. The Rittenhouse mill lasted more 200 years and was always run by the Rittenhouse family and their descendants.

Unlike Asian papermakers who grew and harvested plants for paper fiber, Europeans and Americans made most of their paper by recycling old clothing. The rags were sorted into piles of cotton and linen, and the buttons and fasteners were removed. The rags were cut into long strips, washed and rolled into balls with lime to break down the fibers. After three months the rags were once washed again to remove the lime before being beaten into pulp by large wooden hammers powered by the paper mill's waterwheels. The pulp was then mixed with water in a vat.

European paper molds had rigid screens, made of brass and copper wire, and removable wooden frames known as deckles. The papermaker dipped the mold into a vat filled with approximately 10% pulp and 90% water. Then the wet sheet was "couched" or released from the mold onto a wool blanket or felt. Large presses squeezed the water from the stack of wet paper and "couching sheets." The paper would then be taken up to the second floor drying loft and hung from the ceiling either on wooden rafters or ropes made from cow hide.

In the early 1700s papermakers began to run out of cotton and linen rags to make paper. More people could read and write, and the demand for paper became greater.

Scientists began searching for another, more abundant fiber. Experiments were made on a number of fibers ranging from wasp nests to cabbage stalks to straw to asbestos. The most successful alternate fiber was wood.

Papermills were also looking for faster and less expensive methods for making the paper. In 1698 Nicholas Louis Robert in France developed the first paper machine. By 1830 The Fourdrinier brothers and their project engineer Bryan Donkin modified Robert's automated vat into a Fourdrinier machine, the basic design and core technology still used in paper mills today.

The modern paper machine has five sections; all based on hand papermaking techniques. Pulp and water are mixed in the headbox. The forming board replaces the papermold. The forming board shakes the fibers to bind them together into a sheet and begin draining the water. Large rollers remove more water by squeezing the forming sheet. The paper sheet is dried by weaving in and out of large revolving cylinders, which are filled with hot steam. When the paper is dried it is would into large rolls and ready to be processed into paper products.

The space paper experiment began in 1983 when Dan Hebert, a student at Appleton High School in Appleton, Wisconsin, questioned the effects of microgravity on the formation of paper. His experiment was sponsored by James River Corporation and performed by NASA Mission Specialist Steve Hawley on the January 1986 flight of the space shuttle Columbia. James River Analytical Specialist Terry Lafferty performed the same experiment on earth.

When the sheets of paper were examined, it was concluded that papers made in the absence of gravitational forces were superior to the earth-formed papers.

The Beauty of Paper. Papermaking is an art unto itself, not just a substrate for art. The next photographs illustrate the a selection of the art featured in the exhibition from around the world made on or with handmade paper.

A watermark is a change in the thickness of the paper that can be seen when you hold the paper up to the light. The different tones are made by a design on the mold. Wire watermarks are just that, marks made up completely of lines. These lines can form letters, numbers, portraits, or designs. These watermarks look like something out of a very simple coloring book. Light and shade watermarks have tones made by relief sculptures on the mold. These tones give the mark depth and look more like works of art.

THE WORLD OF PAPER displays the work of several of the world's most prominent paper artists. The major featured artists are Kyoko Ibe of Kyoto, Japan and Joan Giordano of New York City. Ibe brings two large installations to the exhibit: "Akai Ito" and "Habataku". Giordano presents several works, including "Secret of the Scroll" and "Time and the River". Other paper artists with works in the exhibit include Lynn Sures, Beverly Sky, Lore Burger, Winnie Radolan, Marjorie Tomchuk, Dianne Reeves, Dard Hunter, Steve Miller, Cathleen Baker, Golda Lewis, Sarah Morgan Wingfield, Inge Bruggleman, Peggy Skycroft, Kate Martinson, Susan Kristoferson, Dorothy Field, Peter Sowiski, Mona Waterhouse, and Chilean artist Marianna Kaplun.

THE WORLD OF PAPER has previously been on display at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile; Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia; and University Museum at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

The exhibit is on display at:

Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Central Library
One Library Square
40 East Saint Clair Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

from October 2, 2009 through January 10, 2010.

Click here for more information on how your museum can host this exhibit.

For more information call Cindy Bowden at 404-894-7840 or send an email.

Click here for more information on upcoming exhibits at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum.