Together, BIMA and BARN are partnering to bring audiences and makers closer to contemporary book arts through both public dialogue (at BIMA) and hands-on creative exploration (at BARN).

Leading up to this talk, Banks will have led a five-day master workshop at BARN— “Speak Your Piece: Artist’s Books with Meaning” (April 27–May 1, 2026)—guiding participants in transforming personal stories into sculptural books through bookbinding, printmaking, material exploration, and narrative development.

Aimee Lee is an artist who makes, paper, writes, and advocates for Korean papermaking practices as an Ohio Arts Council Heritage Fellow and Midwest Culture Bearer Awardee. Her initial Fulbright research led her to establish the first hanji studio in North America, write an award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled (The Legacy Press, 2012), and create an active studio practice that includes jiseung, joomchi, paper textile, botanical paper, natural dyeing, and hanji techniques.

Her artwork is collected internationally in public and private collections that include the Smithsonian, Metropolitan Museum of Art Watson Library, Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles Public Library, Bodleian Library, and Rijksmuseum Cuypers Library. In recognition of her contributions to Korean art, she has exhibited at the Korean Cultural Centers of the D.C. Korean Embassy, New York Korean Consulate, and Abu Dhabi Korean Embassy. Her Fulbright Senior Scholar research focused on bamboo screens for hanji-making in Korea. Based east of Cleveland, she travels the world to teach, exhibit, and serve as a resident artist. She is devoted to increasing capacity for papermaking worldwide, especially for hanji and East Asian methods, and to raising awareness of toolmaking in the field with her second book, As Good as Our Tools (The Legacy Press, 2025).

Learn more about Lee here.