The Beginning

The seeds of Beyond Words were sown over eighteen years ago when George Fry was director of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.

Two design teachers, Jane Guertz and Jenny Carton, invited Nancy Leavitt, a master calligrapher and book maker from Maine, to conduct a design project workshop. While captivated by the sheer beauty of Leavitt’s work, George became intrigued with the artistic possibilities when she suggested Lewis Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky as a book making idea to her students. He created a Jabberwocky book himself, in a simple accordion format, and some time later submitted it to a paper works exhibition presented by Linda Brine at Gallery Radical Edge.

Professional commitments meant that the book stayed in Linda’s possession and, when she returned it to George several years later, he vividly recalled how enjoyable the creation had been. He was fascinated by how the structure of a book can become integral to the actual story and was inspired to do a second book, this time about archangels.

He showed his third book, Who is the Green Man, to Kathy and Sue Hooper who wanted to workshop the concept of book art. From this point, Beyond Words took on a life of its own.