The Art and Art Therapy of Papermaking

Book excerpt: The Art and Art Therapy of Papermaking: Material, Methods, and Applications provides a comprehensive collection about the contemporary practices, media, and value of hand papermaking as social engagement, art therapy, and personal voice. Divided into three sections that highlight each of these areas, contributors explore topics such as advocacy, work with survivors, community outreach, medical challenges, and how papermaking can empower creative expression, stories of change, recovery, and reclamation to address trauma, grief and loss, social action, as well as life experiences. Previous books have covered hand papermaking or art therapy media as stand-alone subjects; this text is the first of its kind that unites and describes the convergence of papermaking in all these forms. Art therapists, art educators, and artists will find this book essential to their education about how papermaking can be a powerful process to make meaning for the self, groups, and community.