Gustavo Grandal Montero (GGM): Tell us a little about your backgrounds and particularly where your interest in book arts, artists' books and contemporary art comes from?

Simon Goode: I suppose we have quite different backgrounds. The studio comes about from my experience in education at London College of Communication (LCC), which was in book arts: BA (Hons) Book Arts and Crafts, it was called at the time. I graduated in 2006. It was a course that had a bit of everything: book arts, typography, design, printmaking, craft and historical bookbinding, artists' books – that was where my interest started.

GGM: Did you have any previous experience of bookmaking?

Simon Goode: I'd done a lot of printmaking during my Foundation year. I had a couple of tutors who were very engaged and interested in small press publications.

Monica Sajeva (MS): Where did you do your Foundation?

Simon Goode: Walsall, in the West Midlands. They encouraged me to look at artists' books, people like Ian Hamilton Finlay, the type of publications that you get at the Small Publishers Fair, and they were making work that was a bit like that as well, that was what I was exposed to at 18–19. How about you?

Ira Yonemura: How about me? I just kind of married into it really… I'm a visual artist, I have a fine arts background. I went to art school in Chicago where I studied painting and drawing and fell into a community of artists and musicians who were interested in publishing as an extension of their practices. That's where I began collaborating with friends and contributing work to friends' publishing projects.

GGM: Chicago has got a very strong tradition in artists' books and book arts.

Ira Yonemura: Yeah, I think the whole Chicago Imagists / Hairy Who tradition was very strong. Many of the original members of the group were still teaching at School of the Art Institute of Chicago at the time, and I think definitely left a mark on the way I think about art making and collaboration. I was also surrounded by a strong independent publishing and zine culture that existed parallel to the music scene and the queer community in Chicago. Some friends began No Coast in 2008, originally an artist co-operative and recently a publisher of artist editions. I've worked with them on a book and an edition of prints.

GGM: Do you consider the LCBA as an artist-run space in the traditional way, or that comes from that ethos?

Fig. 1.

Ira Yonemura; reproduced courtesy of London Centre for Book Arts

Simon Goode: Well, we're both artists… but I think it's more of an ethos than the day-to-day running of the studio. We had a member, who's been with us almost since day one, who recently joked that the studio is run like a benevolent dictatorship. I wouldn't entirely disagree with that. Our biggest hope, and what we're always working towards, is to create something that's sustainable and that's going to last.

GGM: It's also interesting to see where you are [Fish Island], in the midst of all that traditional small-scale industries and crafts that have been nearly wiped out.

Simon Goode: This building and the one opposite are run by SPACE Studios, the area has got a fairly long history in terms of providing affordable workspace for artists.

Ira Yonemura: But as you'd expect, it's rapidly changing. SPACE manages the buildings but don't own them, so we're still at the mercy of the landlords. Last year we had a drastic rent increase and I'm not sure if we'll be able to take another hit like that. There are big development projects in the works all around, and we hope that artists and small businesses won't be pushed out. The biggest project is in the Olympic Park, just across the canal from us – what's called the “Cultural Corridor”.

Simon Goode: London College of Fashion, Smithsonian, V&A and UCL are going to be planted there.

Ira Yonemura: It's a shame, we were talking about it yesterday. A lot of the collaborations that we've done with other artists have been with those who have studios in the area. Artists who probably wouldn't have otherwise sought us out. I don't know, I worry about what's going to happen to this community. Some of these artists have been here decades.

Simon Goode: I think a lot of the new-build flats they do have some sort of provision for artist studios (“creative workspace”) but they have maybe one or two in them, it's not like here where you have got… I think fifty-odd in this building and then another fifty over the road, so it's not the same, it's not a community if you've just got two artists in the ground floor of a block of flats.

MS: You both mentioned that you are artists, how do you balance running a place like this with your own work?

Simon Goode: I've been able to make work, and with the facilities we have at the studio it's really fantastic – everything is to hand. But it's been a challenge striking the correct balance between running the studio and my own work. I've also learnt so much from helping other people and through teaching.

Fig. 2.

Tools and equipment wall; reproduced courtesy of London Centre for Book Arts

Ira Yonemura: It's been such a new experience running a place like this. The past two years has definitely been a learning experience, and part of the learning we're doing now is to figure out how to balance the work we do for the studio and the work that we need to do as individual artists.

Simon Goode: I guess it's basically time management. We have to be sure to take a break!

Ira Yonemura: We do manage to do it here and there, but I think as an artist you need something more regular… we are getting there.

GGM: Can we move on from your background to the background of the centre and the strong influence and reference to the North American centres for book arts like the ones in Chicago or New York. What can you tell us about that?

Simon Goode: The idea for the studio came about from conversations I had with Sarah Bodman about five years ago. She had recently done a trip to the centre in Minnesota [Minnesota Center for Book Arts] and she recommended that I go and visit, so I took time off my full-time work to take a big tour of the US.

GGM: Did you document the trip or write about it?

Simon Goode: Yeah I did, I think you can still find it at http://simongoes.tumblr.com/ The trip helped me decide that I was going to start the studio as an open-access space, as up until that point, I was unsure: I had originally planned to start my own studio and work on my own practice. It was definitely a result of going on that research trip which really decided it for me, because there wasn't anything in the UK similar to what I'd seen in the US.

GGM: It was an idea you had already had in your mind and seeing those places you realized that it could work…

Simon Goode: The values of open-access work spaces do have a lot of currency, particularly in this day and age when it is so expensive for an artist to be able to rent a bricks and mortar studio. Coming from the course at LCC, it was surprising to see that there wasn't really anywhere that a graduate of the course, or those with similar interests, could go to work, to have access to those sorts of practices, the community, all of that sort of thing. So it made a lot of sense.

MS: Still on that theme of the American model, when some of these places first started they were responding to book arts and artists' books not being be part of the art canon, not being taken seriously. Your mission statement – that it's primarily about open access, education, being a resource centre – have you accommodated what book arts and artists' books are today?

Ira Yonemura: We don't have an agenda per se. We just try to support people making work that kind of fits under the umbrella of book arts. We make a distinction between the membership and education programme and everything else that we do. Membership and the education programme pays the rent. It keeps the studio going and supports everything else that we do, including the collaborative work that we do with other artists. I think it allows the creative side of the studio to be a little more chaotic, it allows us to do things on a whim. By letting people get on with their work, we let the process define what book arts and artists' books are. It probably sounds terrible coming from a person running a centre for book arts, but I don't think I'm that interested in that conversation of what book arts is or isn't.

Simon Goode: Process is important but it doesn't mean everything needs to be done in-house either. When we produced our first collaborative book as LCBA, we didn't print or bind it here. We managed the printing and binding that was done somewhere else and did some finishing in the studio. It's not necessarily just having the resources in house, it's knowing where to get things resourced as well. A lot of artists approach us saying “I've got an idea for a book and I don't know how to get it printed, what do I do?” and know we can help with that, as that's what we specialize in. So if we can't print it in-house we at least know where you should go to get it done, or maybe if you get it printed elsewhere you bring it into here to bind or finish.

GGM: You don't make paper?

Simon Goode: Not anymore, but we did.

Ira Yonemura: Yeah, we used to have a paper beater right where we're sitting.

MS: So that facility didn't work out?

Ira Yonemura: We passed on the paper beater to a papermaker that we know. She runs a papermaking studio and we hope to be able to run off-site workshops at her studio in the future.

Simon Goode: You really need a floor with drainage and tiles. Papermaking was unsuitable for our space. We acquired the paper beater at the same time as a number of other pieces of equipment. We learned that actually, while we can't do everything here, we've got this network that keeps growing and we can send people elsewhere.

MS: You are talking about networks, do you think it's something new or are you joining into what's already there?

Ira Yonemura: I think, especially with limited resources, all you can do is create networks. I think it's part of the artist-run studio ethos, but broader. You share your resources and work together and hopefully you make something that's greater than what you could have done on your own.

Simon Goode: A few visitors have mentioned this, and I think it's true that the more people who are teaching and practising the craft, the better. There are fewer and fewer colleges that have resources for it and so – I mean I hate to talk about endangered crafts aspect of it all, but it is a little bit like that.

Ira Yonemura: Yeah, but you realize it's not the interest or the demand that's endangered, it just the access and the infrastructure. Since we opened, it seems to me the interest and demand has just kept growing.

Simon Goode: I think demand for jobbing bookbinding in huge runs has probably decreased but the desire for people to learn how to do it themselves hasn't.

MS: That's very heartening to hear.

Simon Goode: We officially opened in February 2013; we'd actually moved into the space in October 2012. We had a three month period where we weren't paying rent because the space, though it looks good now, was a bit worse for wear. It needed new lights, electricity fittings, etc. It was just being used as a storage facility for the handyman who was looking after the studios. We moved in in the October and then opened, it coincided with the article we had in the Guardian [“New chapter opens with Britain's first centre for book arts”, 1 Jan. 2013]

GGM: There was a lot of interest, everybody was talking about you and the place.

Ira Yonemura: It was a very unique setup in the UK, surely you're going to get some interest.

GGM: Did you get people coming to courses and artists using the studio straight away?

Simon Goode: Yes, but when we started I didn't really know how it was going to pan out, it was a bit of a gamble. We didn't go for funding to start it, we sort of saved up over time and moved in. A lot of the equipment had been in storage for a number of years, we realized once we got the space that it didn't necessarily fit with what we wanted to do and so we did sell a few pieces that helped raise funds. So we moved in October, started in mid-January and we had the launch in February. That launch, that open day was really busy wasn't it?

Ira Yonemura: The first year is a big blur to me…

GGM: You have, not just a social media presence, but know how to put the message out there and how to reach audiences.

Ira Yonemura: That's in part to do with our limited resources. The one thing we have which doesn't really cost us anything is social media. I think it also goes back to building networks and building community. The more you get yourself out there the more opportunities you open yourself up to.

GGM: You had a very slick logo from the beginning and a very good name…

Simon Goode: We were just talking about this. I guess it does what is says on the tin. It made sense at the time, to build on the work that the North American centres had done, but also to turn it into our own thing. I think it allows us to have a bit of flexibility. We can remain different things to different people.

GGM: That's a very pragmatic position, you are very pragmatic idealists!

Ira Yonemura: I think we are. We're pretty proud to be pragmatic. Being pragmatic doesn't mean we're not committed to ideas or that we aren't political. We're both very much so. With every little decision that we make at the studio we're conscious of how it's going to strengthen or distract from our mission. Since it's just the two of us, no outside funding and no-one to answer to, we can just kind of do as we please, but there is lots of responsibility and care that goes along with that freedom.

GGM: Ok, let's talk about money now. I found it extraordinary that you didn't receive any money when you first set up, and you still don't receive any money from any public body. I don't know if it's wonderful or if it's terrible…

Ira Yonemura: I think it's definitely something we're going to think about in the future but it's been a really interesting experience for us in the past two and a half years trying to do it on our own.

GGM: Is that out of choice, then?

Simon Goode: Yeah, I think there was a point where we had to choose one or the other. Between the two of us, we couldn't run the studio as we imagined it and also spend the time figuring out and carrying out fundraising strategies.

Ira Yonemura: I think it can be quite radical to try and create a model like ours that's sustainable without any public funding. As much as I really support funding for the arts and believe it's an important part of any modern society, I don't know how much we should or can rely on it, especially as it kind of depends on whoever happens to be in power…

Simon Goode: You don't want to be left with a funding gap… We're happy with how our model has worked so far, but I imagine outside funding will be a part of how we carry out special projects in the future.

Simon Goode: Serving the community and growing the audience for book arts is the core of what we do. Along with a regular programme of workshops that we run at the studio, we've done a number of off-site workshops. We've run off-site workshops at schools, universities, galleries, and bookshops. We did a series of workshops at the Whitechapel Gallery last year as part of the London Art Book Fair. In 2013 we took part in ELMO, or the East London Mobile Workshop, running workshops around the four Olympic boroughs in a big bus. It's nice to get out, and we met some great artists who we've built working relationships with since.

Fig. 3.

Simon Goode and students; reproduced courtesy of London Centre for Book Arts

Ira Yonemura: It's a great way to reach different audiences. We don't get a lot of foot traffic on Fish Island so we have to find people other ways.

Simon Goode: We're planning on making our shop a little bigger and more of a point of entry for people to walk in from the street. The shop area will also include a reading area and our reference library, which we are planning on growing as well.

Ira Yonemura: We're also welcoming Publication Studio London to LCBA. PS London is a project our friend Louisa Bailey has recently launched. It's part of a network of small print-on-demand studios that began in Portland, Oregon. The studios commission new work and then share the content between the studios. There are several studios all over the US, Canada and Europe and Louisa's will be the first in the UK.

MS: You announced recently that you are now hosting and supporting the PABD public library archive (from Publish and be damned). Does it indicate a new set of aspirations for the LCBA?

Simon Goode: We got in touch with Louise O'Hare of Three Letter Words (TLW) early on to see if we could help out with her London Bookshop Map project. Once we found out about TLW and the PABD archive, we were eager to help with that too, and we suggested that she keep the archive at LCBA. They needed a place to store and access the collection, and we had the space. Since then, TLW have been working to digitize the archive and to create the PABD Public Library.

GGM: You sell books in the shop and online, do you sell many?

Ira Yonemura: We seem to be selling more and more as people find out about us. Rather than just a shop, I tend to think of it as another opportunity for us to grow our network and to support other artists and publishers.

Simon Goode: We also stock a selection of reference books aimed at those who come to the studio for workshops: titles that we recommend.

GGM: I suppose that'll be the idea also behind the reading area, so that you can have something where you can refer people to?

Simon Goode: Yeah. One thing that we haven't really done so far is built up a collection of artists' books, which we would very much like to do.

Ira Yonemura: We have a small selection, but it's quite limited. We'll usually pick up a book when we go to a book launch and we make a point of buying books at book fairs, but it's nothing formalized.

MS: You were saying that in five years time you might have to move, or reassess, move to somewhere bigger, maybe it will enable you to have a library and archive.

Simon Goode: That's something we both daydream about.

GGM: Can we talk a little bit about open-access facility, the equipment that you have, what you can do here?

Simon Goode: The studio offers facilities for letterpress and relief printing. We have equipment for hand bookbinding and general print finishing, guillotines, board chopper, nipping presses for books, foil blocking presses, plus other techniques and finishes such as coil, wire and perfect binding. We also have a Risograph machine and laser printer.

Ira Yonemura: It's kind of a running joke, Simon keeps acquiring things that I have to find space for …

Simon Goode: At the moment we've got five letterpress proofing presses. Proofing presses are great, because they are fairly easy to use and you can achieve a good, professional result. They are very flexible in terms of size and what you can print onto.

Ira Yonemura: People usually think of type when they think of letterpress, but you can print from linocuts, woodcuts, and any reliefs on these presses.

Simon Goode: We've a fairly modest collection of type, all came from printers, a lot of jobbing type from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s: pretty standard typefaces including Gill Sans, Times, that sort of thing. We've got a bit of wood letter, a selection of cuts and image blocks. Enough to work with.

Letterpress is good because the results are quite immediate, so if you are teaching people how to print letterpress you are teaching them how printing works. By understanding how that process works, as an artist you do have a bit of flexibility around how you can achieve different results. You can combine it with different processes.

GGM: Can you design types?

Simon Goode: It's not something we've done, but technically yes. With the accessiblity of lasercutting equipment, It would be a fairly easy process once you have the design. A friend of ours who has a studio on the other side of the park laser cuts his own.

MS: So what you offer is quite comprehensive?

Ira Yonemura: Our letterpress facility and the bindery is very comprehensive. I can't think of anything we're missing. I think we've got everything you would need to letterpress print, bind and finish a book.

MS: Do you hold many events and exhibitions?

Ira Yonemura: We have, soon after after we opened. We did a launch for Art & Leisure and Art & Leisure and had an exhibition of work relating to the book.

Fig. 4.

Art and Leisure exhibition; reproduced courtesy of London Centre for Book Arts

Simon Goode: It all feeds into the reason why we are expanding the space at the front of the studio, as we've realized that actually this space isn't ideal for exhibiting work and so we want to have an area where we can have the flexibility to put on an exhibition or showcase.

Ira Yonemura: It was interesting working with Dante on the exhibition because he made the exhibition site specific. We had work all over the studio: some high up on the walls or behind the presses. We also hosted an exhibition of prints by Alexander Valentine during the LABF 2015. We'd like to put on more exhibitions. Hopefully we'll do it again soon.

GGM: What about publishing? Have you got any projects?

Ira Yonemura: I think that might be quite a jump from what we are doing now. We're happy collaborating with artists and helping them produce book projects. Recently, we helped produce an edition of twelve books for Caragh Thuring, a painter, for her show at the Chisenhale Gallery. We like working in that sort of scale.

GGM: Talks?

Simon Goode: No, but I would really like to. It's like phase two: after two and half years, we've found our feet and we've realized what works and what doesn't, that there is a lot of scope for us to do new things such as artists' residencies, LCBA-hosted visits, and public talks and events. We're excited about the possibilities.

GGM: It's really interesting to see your evolution because you have been quite, it seems to me, purposely cautious about positioning yourselves, not going too far into artists' publications and presenting yourselves much more as facilities centre, a community resource, but if you start developing talks, a reading room, residencies… that will change to an extent.

Ira Yonemura: Yeah, but I think it will probably be run similarly to everything else that we do. Working together with others, seeing where that leads us.

Simon Goode: And I'm sure it will be guided by our different interests and backgrounds. We'll just have to see how it develops…

GGM: You're still trying to avoid being pigeonholed!

Simon Goode: We want to be open to everyone.

MS: Neutral.

Ira Yonemura: We really put an effort into being neutral, I think. It's tricky work to be as inclusive as you can.