Mel Antuna Hewitt

Mel Antuna Hewitt is a German Mexican-American book artist based in Spokane, WA. She is a Fine Binding Diploma student at the American Academy of Bookbinding where she learns from world renowned master bookbinders. She co-founded Inland Northwest Book Arts Society, bringing together individuals anywhere on the spectrum of book arts to learn and share the craft with one another. Mel has served as a board member of Spokane Print & Publishing Center where she also spearheaded the creation of a bookbinding studio and curriculum, the only ones available in Spokane. Mel is a recipient of a Spokane Arts Grant Award for her artist book “Grown Up’s First Alphabet” in 2021 and the Fine Binding Scholarship 2024 from the American Academy of Bookbinding. Her work ranges from printmaking to sculptural artist books to finely bound leather tomes. It is her mission to explore the narrative of the book: as an art piece and as a means of holding and conveying knowledge. ​In Mel’s books she attempts to force a new view on what a book is, specifically by changing how the viewer interacts with it. It becomes an experience; one that she hopes furthers the definition of what a book is.