Books…are the oldest media in human civilization. Let us assume that the origin of books as media dates back to the invention of Gutenberg’s printer and movable type in the mid-fifteenth century. Although there had been already Bible books in Church before, written and copied by monks, those bibles were not entirely for the general public, and the access to them was restricted to a few number of people such as clergy who were member of Church, and were lucky enough to attain the literacy education. Hence, we humankind have over five hundred years of history with books, whereas the next media radio broadcasting emerged roughly about one hundred years ago.

This evolution of the mass production of printed media enriched our society in many ways. Less than a hundred years after Gutenberg’s invention, Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, being copied by print and then distributed, which led to the Protestant Reformation. In 1776, Thomas Paine—who emigrated from England to America in 1774—wrote Common Sense, the most widely read pamphlet of the American Revolution. In short, books are so influential that they develop our ability to discourse what is the best for our society, collect our aggregate decision, and give us courage to act on it.

Then, the emergence of the Internet cause the vast amount of information to relentlessly flow into our digital devices, and ubiquitously entertain us whenever we demand it. It is worth noting that our association is not anti-digital media. However, we need to admit we spend more time for consuming information on digital devices than on paper or in person. Over the past few decades, information has switched its dominant role from education and report to entertainment.

Consequently, companies in the book binding and publishing industries are diminishing. Some of them have already closed their businesses. Even the companies that are still in business are forced to cut their budgets that they can spend for the publication of one book. Ironically, as the technology advances, the quality of books declines, because publishers can afford less time and money.

Book Arts and Crafts Association is an organization with two goals: the cultivation of the fertile foundation of book-craft industry in which people who love books can meet and make a new connection, and the education for the next generation of people who will inherit, preserve and further foster the culture and social value of books.