Hewnoaks Artist Residency >
Structure & Ideas: Spicing Up Your Book Arts Vocabulary with Rebecca Goodale
Dates: August 17 - 21, 2026 • Registration: $1,100 - $1,300 • Where: Hewnoaks (Lovell, ME)
This workshop is ideal for anyone interested in artist’s books and their potential for sharing ideas, stories, and imagery in creative ways. No prior experience is required, and artists at all levels are welcome, from beginners to professionals.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have created several book models and at least one more developed artist’s book or prototype. You’ll also leave with a stronger understanding of how to turn ideas into book form and how structure can guide your creative process.
Three meals a day are provided: a DIY breakfast and lunch, followed by a shared group dinner in the evening. The workshop is designed to balance guided instruction with plenty of independent time to further your own imagination and technical skills.
Workshop Highlights:
- Daily two-hour morning sessions
- Structural bookmaking techniques
- Time for solo studio time, rest, and reflection
- Swimming, hiking, quiet natural landscape
- Shared dinners + community time
- Cozy rustic cabins
- All meals (breakfast, lunch, shared dinner)
Each morning, Rebecca will lead a two-hour session focused on a new structural technique and how it can support a concept. You’ll learn how the physical form of a book can shape the way ideas are shared. After each two-hour session, you will have time to work through models, create drawings or collages, and begin developing your own artist’s books using the techniques Rebecca shares and your own imagination!
Outside of Rebecca’s daily two-hour sessions, the remainder of each day is yours: you may enjoy studio time, relax, or explore the property and its beautiful, natural surroundings. Each evening, the group will gather to share their work in progress, talk through ideas, and offer feedback and encouragement.
Meet Your Workshop Leader:
Rebecca Goodale
For the past 25 years, Rebecca Goodale has been creating a series of artist’s books about Maine’s rare plants and animals. Recently, she has been revisiting her training as a textile designer by employing printmaking techniques to create large-scale repeatable patterns.
Rebecca taught Book Arts and Design at the University of Southern Maine for 4 decades, where she was also the founding Program Director for the USM Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts. She has also taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Shakerag, Monson Arts, and Bowdoin College, and hundreds of workshops here and there over her long career. In 2015, she was awarded the title of Master Craft Artist by the Maine Crafts Association.
Her work is in many collections, including Hawai’i State Art Museum, Bowdoin College Library, Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE, Herron Art Library, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Boston Athenaeum, Yale University, and the Library of Congress. www.rebeccagoodale.com
Daily Focus (click tabs to expand):
Getting oriented, setting intentions, and beginning to explore ideas through simple bookbinding techniques. An introduction to the workshop, materials, and basic tools, with time to settle in, sketch ideas, and begin experimenting in the studio.
How can folding, opening, and hiding information affect meaning? What happens when a book asks the reader to slow down, peek inside, or reveal something unexpected? Even a simple structure can invite discovery, and allow space for sequencing and surprise.
How can multiple book structures work together to support one idea? What role does a cover play in setting expectations, protecting content, or shaping how a book is handled? You will be working with more complex structures that combine multiple bookbinding techniques. Day 2 focuses on how covers and layered bindings can support and strengthen a central concept.
How do interlocking pages connect and depend on each other when the pages are moved? What kinds of stories or ideas are best expressed through connection, layering, or physical tension? Interlocking forms are often used to express relationships, movement, and interaction. The challenge will be finding the match between concept, content, and form.
Materials & Supplies:
Participants will need the following tools and supplies (you may already have most items on hand!):
- Pens & pencils
- Cutting mat (any size) & X-acto knife
- Ruler
- Bone folder (if you have one)
- Small bottle of white Elmer’s glue (the kind with orange tip works well)
- Scissors for paper
Optional items:
- We’ll be making small books for notes and idea development; however, you may bring a personal sketchbook if you’d like.
- Any image-making materials you enjoy working with (watercolor, colored pencils, pens, brush and ink, collage, etc.), as well as any favorite papers you’d like to experiment with.
If you have any questions about materials or need help sourcing anything, please reach out!
Price, Cabin & Bed Options:
Hewnoaks offers three accommodation and pricing options for this workshop:
- Private cabin with a queen or full-sized bedroom - $1300
- Private room in shared cabin with a queen-sized bed - $1200
- Private room in a shared cabin with a full or twin-sized bed - $1100
Fees include:
- Retreat leadership with Rebecca as described above, and most supplies (you will need to bring some tools)
- Accommodations in Hewnoaks' lakeside, rustic cabins
- On-site Hewnoaks staff support
- Prepared, communal dinners made by Hewnoaks Residency Manager
- DIY breakfast + lunch, coffee, tea, snacks, wine, desserts, & smores
- Sunsets on the dock, morning dips, mosquitos, fireside couch conversation & starry nights
Fees do not include:
- Daily housekeeping
- Sheets & towels (quilts + pillows provided)
How to Register:
To apply to register, click the button below and complete the online application form. We review registrations on a rolling basis; while not competitive, we aim to ensure a good match for all participants. You can expect a response within 10 business days. Accepted applicants confirm their spot by paying the workshop fee, 25% of which is a non-refundable deposit.
The registration deadline is June 17, 2026. If the retreat fills early, a waitlist of up to 10 people will be established.
