About the Artist
Annapolis, Maryland
Ben Bartgis is a conservation technician and independent artist specializing in reproduction stationery products and bandboxes, based in Annapolis, Maryland. They became interested in historic box making materials and techniques while building custom housings for museum artifacts. Outside of their full-time federal career in conservation, Ben has pursued their study of early American book and paper history through courses at Rare Book School and was a scholar at the 2022 “Revolution in Books” Summer Institute at Florida Atlantic University. Ben’s bandboxes have appeared at historic sites such as the Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Social Media: @BenjaminBadgers
Artist Statement
Boxes have been a presence in my conservation career from my first years as a book conservation intern making slipcases and portfolios to my time as a conservation specialist operating a CNC machine to mass produce archival boxes. I find both bookbindings and boxes curious halfway things: sometimes primarily regarded for their ability to store or protect something else, discarded when they wear out; sometimes valued artifacts in and of themselves. I was drawn to researching and reproducing bandboxes because they are made of the same materials as rare books—thread, paper, board, and glue—but as containers, they are collected, curated, and studied completely differently. As the boxmaker for this project whose board forms will be covered up with exquisite papers, my craft as an artisan mirrors my work in conservation: foundational, collaborative, and sometimes hidden in plain sight.