Grantees
Gabby Cooksey
County: Pierce County
Website: http://www.boundbycooksey.com
Awards
Fellowship Awards 2026
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About
Gabby Cooksey is the owner of Bound by Cooksey, a bindery in South Tacoma where she creates design bindings (leather bindings) and artist books. She was fortunate to have started the path to full-time bookbinder at 19 when she went vocational school at The American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride, Colorado and North Bennet Street School in Boston, MA graduating with a diploma. Gabby then got an apprenticeship in Washington to study bookbinding and letterpress printing in 2014, where she ended up staying and laying down roots. In 2023, Gabby got to present to the Library of Congress about what bookbinders do. That same year, she also presented at the annual Guild of Bookworkers conference on how to tattoo on leather. Her work can be found in collections like the Smithsonian, Cynthia Sears Book Arts collection on Bainbridge Island, and Harvard University.
Artist External Links
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boundbycooksey
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@boundbycooksey1891
Featured Works
Gabby Cooksey, Helen Fragments printed by Editions Koch, Bound in gray goatskin with pink tattooing and brass eyes. 11.3" x 5.9" x 1.3", 2024
Gabby Cooksey, Chronicles of a Coleopterists Strikingly Curious Swarm by Gabby Cooksey, Suede-tex paper, acrylic, methyl cellulose, aluminum, alcohol ink, letterpress printed at Springtide Press. 13.3" x 10" x 1.25", 2018
Gabby Cooksey, Pangolin Pandemic by Gabby Cooksey, Arches Text Wove washed in an acrylic/methyl-cellulose mixture, paper, wallpaper, cloth, bookboard, letterpress printed at Springtide Press. 7.8″ x 11.6″ x 1.2″, 2021
Gabby Cooksey, The Victim of Magical Delusion by P.Will Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, yellow and blue goat leather, brass, epoxy, black tattoo ink. 4.4"x 6.7" x 1", 2023
Gabby Cooksey, A First-Class Fool, Mark Twain and Humor Featuring the Collection of Susan Jaffe Tane, Red goat skin, black and blue tattoo ink, brass, brass escutcheon pins. 8.8” x 10.9” x 1.8”, 2025
Other Links
Night Circus: Exhibition, the National Organization for All the Book Arts
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Image: Peggy Piacenza, 2024 Fellowship Recipient