Willa Anderson BB ’26

“It became clear this was the next career step for me”

Willa Anderson, age 32 | Providence, Rhode Island
Bookbinding ’26

What did you do before coming to NBSS?

I went to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and earned a bachelor’s in printmaking. I went on to earn a Master of Library and Information Science from Simmons University and worked as a circulating and special collections cataloger for a few years in Rhode Island.

When/how did you discover for discipline/field?

While at RISD, I took a bookbinding course  that covered case bindings and boxes. It was a basic introduction to some of the processes, but I fell in love with the format as a way to have people engage with my art.

We also took a lot of visits to RISD’s Fleet Library Special Collections and the John Hay Library at Brown University. Seeing the types of materials there was incredibly eye-opening. I was fascinated by the rare books and manuscripts, but didn’t know a lot about them structurally.

Why did you choose to invest in training for a new career?

When I was at Simmons, I took a collections maintenance course that was hosted at NBSS. It covered some basic conservation treatments, including paper mending, a cloth reback, and enclosures. That was when I knew that I wanted to come to the School.

Even though conservation involves a lot of very technical processes, there are also creative decisions, problem solving, and testing involved. 

As I learned more about the Bookbinding (BB) program and realized it combined all of my areas of interest, it became clear this was the next career step for me.

What are some ways you have felt supported during your time at School?

I got so lucky with my cohort of fellow bookbinders—everybody is incredibly creative and talented. As a group, we make an effort to be there for each other, and every person in that benchroom made my experience that much better, more so than any one of them knows. They are all so caring and helpful, both in and out of the bindery. 

The bookbinding faculty—Jeff Altepeter BB ’99 (Department Head), Martha Kearsley BB ’95 (Instructor), and India Patel BB ’24 (Teaching Assistant)—have been wonderful resources. They are all so willing and able to answer questions and help us navigate this career, above and beyond what I could have ever expected.

And there are so many staff at the School I could list. Kristen Odle, Retail & Exhibit Manager, does amazing work with all the exhibitions, giving us a platform to show our work in a really beautiful way. It’s such a validating feeling seeing your project on display and getting to share it with people. Esther Tutella-Chen, Director of Student Support & Career Services, does some amazing things, putting together events and really looking out for all of the students and making sure that we have what we need.

How has your life changed because you chose to go to NBSS?

I’m on a very new career path now. It can be really hard to get your foot in the door with this type of work, and NBSS allowed me to meet so many people in the field. Getting involved in the Guild of Book Workers has been huge. I have met so many other professionals working in the field who have become friends and mentors through this process. Everyone is so curious and excited to see what NBSS  students are doing. It’s been a wonderful experience.

What’s next for you?

In September, I will be starting at the Boston Athenaeum as the conservation fellow. It still feels surreal. During School, we were able to take a couple of tours there, which were incredible. We got to visit the lab to see what this year’s fellow has been doing. In my role, I’ll be working with special collections material and all the amazing conservators there. It’s an incredible opportunity at an amazing institution.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve made during your time at NBSS?

This year, we used Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut for our set book, and it was my favorite project. There is such good imagery in that text, and it was really fun to pull together designs for it. It is such a monumental task. I did a lot of work with gouges and line tools to create a more organic drawing with gold tooling. Mapping that out and figuring out which tools fit where was one of my favorite processes.

What’s one of your favorite places in or around Boston?

The Brattle Book Shop. It’s a wonderful place, and they’re so kind to NBSS students. They know us, because we are always there looking for a future project.